Road Rage - Why do Motorists Hate Cyclists?

Just seen this article on BoingBoing about cyclist hate: https://boingboing.net/2021/03/17/the-strange-psychological-phenomenon-that-explains-why-people-hate-cyclists.html

Here's a section from it:

Quote:

Fundamental attribution error obviously extends far beyond cycling. That was just my first introduction to the (regrettably unmemorable) phrase. But I think cycling is a good microcosm for the utter absurdity of this unfortunate phenomenon — a way to stress the importance of pushing back against our petty instincts towards this error. Bicycles are largely harmless; in fact, the very same people who complain about That One Asshole On a Bike Who Blew Through A Stop Sign very probably own bicycles themselves! But that doesn't stop them from making assumptions.

You can extend that same thing to almost any form of bias. Consider a white person who says terrible things about Black people while insisting they have Black friends and are not racist. In the cars-vs-bicycles metaphor, they see white people as the cars — the normalized, accepted, default situation. When they see another white person do something shitty, it's just kind of accepted. But when a Black person does a similar thing, their brain over-emphasizes it, extrapolating the anecdote into a grand representation of all Black people. That's fundamental attribution error.

From the '50's https://youtu.be/kFHT1lw3vSI

The reason is simple. Most motorists hate being cut up by other drivers. If they leave a gap someone will move into it and get to the next blockage before them. If they have to wait for a cyclist they leave a gap. To them not leaving a gap is the most important thing. They are willing to burn more fuel, increase tyre and brake wear and put others at risk to achieve it. In reality their journey may be extended by minutes but more usually it's seconds. They can't see this. It's not just cyclists who experience road rage, considerate patient drivers experience it too because they let other drivers in. The difference between them and cyclists is the outcome of any confrontation with a vulnerable road user is potentially a lot more serious.

i figured this out years back. 

The roads are too busy with too many cars being used. Cars are used to move around as bus services and cycling is too slow/ dangerous/ expensive or impractical for most people. 

Cars take up too much space and cannot out manouvere each other. Once you get past a certain number of cars on a road, they slow eachother to a stop. You cant overtake a line of cars in front of you whilst also being in a car, so you just have to sit there, not moving, or barely moving above walking pace. When you passed your test there were less cars around and you could get up to a decent speed most of the time. As time goes on, your speed becomes lower and lower. Driving becomes slower every year. Everyone gets frustrated with traffic.

Come in the common bicycle.  Extremely effecient vehicle, can get past any traffic jam imaginable. 

Car driver, already over stressed by traffic, comes up behind bicycle, car they now own is too big to fit past bicycle, especially with the extra cars coming the other direction. They must now wait and try to overtake quickly/ dangerously, or let their aggression out. The cyclist hasnt got any protection like a car in front does, you can actually see the person causing you to slow. Easy target.

Never mind that if you even do overtake the cyclist, theyre likely to overtake you back again seconds or minutes later, due to the average speed differences. In that case, yes the cyclist slows the car driver down, but actually, its the cars coming the other way AND the same way that slow the driver to a stop altogether. Slowing to a stop altogether delays the journey, not time spent behind a cyclist who has a higher average speed.[ many drivers cant comtemplate this].

Come the agression. Government thinks cycle lanes should be implemented to get more people to cycle, away from the angry car drivers. Gives councils money, who then spend it doing a shit job of simply painting pictures of bikes on pavements. 

Some people use these for a slower more local commute, but most adult cyclists dont, because theyre not maintained, dont go the right way, mix you with slow pedestrians etc. Unusuable.

Now you've got idiot angry motorists sharing the road with cyclists, who refuse to use the cycle lane[ a pavement is not a cycle lane, but in their mind it is].

Come the BEEP! and close passes, rage etc.

Get in the cycle lane! you havent paid any tax to be on the same road as me! ive paid all this money to use the road and youre slowing me down! you cant even afford a car! why else would you be on a bicycle unless youre poor?

Then because of the agression, we got sick and tired of it, so we bought cameras. 

We started showing the bad drivers we will make them famous. Cycle gaz and traffic droid really helped this, especially going to tv.

Drivers became ever more angry with traffic levels, especially in london. Never mind that a lot of the traffic was single occupants in 5 person passenger vehicles, or internet delivery vans, the slow vehicle is the cyclist. The angry driver cant contemplate the difference between following a 20 mph bicycle and sitting behind a line of stationary cats at 0mph. They dont ever need to try to work out to get past the cars slowing them down, but the bicycle? they simply NEED to be in front of it.

Ride two abreast to make it easier for cars to overtake?

BEEEP! SINGLE FILE!

[MASSIVE hypocrisy considering cyclists and bikers get inconvenienced daily by long lines of two and three abreast CARS slowing them down].

Bit like when i got told by hg09foj to use the cycle lane, when i was doing 30 mph in a 40. She didnt see the traffic queue ahead of us that would slow her to a stop, she simply saw me riding where she felt i shouldnt be. 

I saw her driving a 5 person passenger vehicle where she was a single ocupant, causing congestion, so i told her to stop causing it.

You cant tell someone going 30 mph to be somewhere else where you yourself are driving at ZERO mph on the same road and expect to be let off.

Theres a video of the bbc outside royal bmth hospital back when they worked on the spur road. It shows how drivers were getting STUCK in the hospital car park, because castle lane was full up with cars, who were avoiding the road works over a mile away. 

One man who commented said he just wanted to get home and it was very frustrating he was sitting in a jam.

The irony there, was you could see bicycle commuters exiting the car park instantly without a problem.

Youll never get drivers to stop hating what they want to hate. You can educate them and prosecute, but dumb people will remain that way. A cyclist will be in their mind as IN THE WAY, every time they drive. Youll never convince them otherwise or even get it through to them that they are actually the slower vehicle, point to point. 

I actually think people who hate cyclists are thicker than people who cycle, or who dont mind cyclists and drive. People who beep agressively at cyclists are retarded. Funnier to picture them just sitting in the chair without a car around it, with dummy in mouth, hitting a horn button. Basically the same as what theyre doing, cos most of them are clueless as to what even powering that chair along for them. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mRM-STYuQ2k

I think much of it also manifests itself as drivists buy into the "Freedom" that the car adverts portray and with the volume of cars and the subsequent congestion,partly due to road design over many decades, when they see a cyclist happily travelling through the traffic....the "hate"...or jealousy that the cyclist is in front of them in their vehicle of status and on what they consider to be their section of road..... 

Out of interest do a lot of folks here drive? I love cycling but I also enjoy driving when the roads are quiet. 
 

Bullying, AKA "because I can" is the no 1 reason why it manefests itself.  It comes down to who will win a fisticuffs, which is why being in a peloton of 6 or so riders is a good idea. 
The "road tax" argument and anything else like it is straight out of the animal kingdom, like a cat arching its back at a dog and hissing, make yourself seem bigger than your foe.  
The comments Cycling Mikey gets often point it all up - a combination of my school playground  and an old episode of The Sweeney (roughly the same sort of era), with their grasses and snitches. 
 

Hate is a product of fear. Fear is born of the unknown. Cyclists are the unknown.