Bike Haters

One depressing thing about writing this is just how often it would be possible to flag up some event that seems to highlight that people are not all that keen on cyclists on the roads.

Even an insurance company mailout which quotes the CTC seems to read a little like it supports motorists (which I guess is who they are trying to sell insurance to) and the comments that follow are an outpouring of anti-bike sentiment as bad as any you might find on the Daily Mail website.

But even if cyclists don’t ride on the roads where they are under attack from cars right left and centre – some of them with an actual aim of making sure you don’t want to go back onto the roads – then you’re not guaranteed to be away from people wanting to stop you riding. In Blackburn, as in other places, a marked mountain bike trail has been vandalised in a way that suggests a systematic targeting of cycling infrastructure. All of this makes it uncomfortable to be someone who likes nothing more sinister than just riding a bike outside, whether for fun, or to get around.

Mind you, none of it really comes close to the worrying attitude in some areas of America, where it seems knocking a surgeon off a bike causing injuries that could seriously stop his career, is ok as long as you earn so much money you can’t be found guilty.

A