How do you stop a disagreement between a driver and a cyclist from turning ugly? If you’re comedian Russell Brand you jump out of your own car and give the bike rider a big hug.
That’s how the sometimes-controversial TV personality reacted when he encountered a full and frank exchange of views developing between a van driver and bike rider in London’s Tottenham Court Road last week.
Just witnessed @rustyrockets stop road rage with a hug. pic.twitter.com/fFJNwBlb6n
— Joe Stas (@Joe_Stas) May 8, 2014
After the van almost collided with the rider a heated argument began to develop until Brand got out of his Mercedes to intervene.
Witness Joe Stas, who tweeted pictures of the incident, told the Evening Standard’s Alexandra Rucki: “I was working and could hear an argument taking place outside.
@AlexandraRucki pic.twitter.com/IEkB4nRZdK
— Joe Stas (@Joe_Stas) May 14, 2014
“By the time I got outside the argument between a cyclist and a van driver was getting heated, the traffic had stopped, then Russell gets out of his car and approached the guy on the bike and gives him a hug. The cyclist then smiled and laughed and cycled off.”
Brand subsequently retweeted Joe’s pic of the hug with the hashtag #allyouneedislove. Regular London cyclists might well want to add “and #space4cycling.”
18 thoughts on “Russell Brand’s answer to driver-cyclist aggro: a big hug!”
Only a hug from Kylie would
Only a hug from Kylie would work for me …. each to their own I suppose !
(No subject)
=D>
Nice.
Nice.
A punch in the face to the
A punch in the face to the van driver would have been equally welcome.
eurotrash wrote:A punch in
I have thought about your comment, and can, officially declare, what you say is utterly, completely wrong. Bagsy no return.
If that bat-faced,
If that bat-faced, self-obsessed ‘dandy’ stopped his car and interfered in my row to give me a hug I couldn’t guarantee my forehead wouldn’t come into contact with the bridge of his nose as we embraced.
darrenleroy wrote:If that
I think I would’ve decked him as well
Quote:”If that bat-faced,
Charming…..
He’s much more likeable these
He’s much more likeable these days, we could all learn something from this situation.
Miles253 wrote:He’s much more
Yeah, whatever!
This should become a major
This should become a major part of new London cycle safety and general driver and cyclist ‘share the road’ campaigns. We should plan for a London wide roll out of Russell Brands across all major junctions. They would act to remind drivers to be careful, for cyclists to watch out and be thoughtful, and for everyone to love everyone.
On that basis I think we should have launch a Kickstarter fund to get the money to work with the Wellcome Trust to start a large scale, accelerated cloning programme of Russell Brand; if anyone dares handle his DNA. Hands up if you can chip in a fiver.
brackley88 wrote:This should
I think there’s plenty of young women who have handled his DNA…
notfastenough
I think there’s plenty of young women who have handled his DNA…— brackley88
Ba-boom…wahey!
Love the idea, I’d like to
Love the idea, I’d like to see an angry white van man react to a good cuddle.
Though, as someone with a quite severe OCD in relation to “other peoples germs” – I’d rather maybe just give them a flower or something.
The lad on the bike is hardly
The lad on the bike is hardly a slightly built mountain goat roadie and he was in full on rowing mode when Brand decided to go over and chill things out.
He’s also been in some pretty suspect situations due to his former drug use. Well, you hardly pick up class ‘A’ drugs from the local WI bake sale now do you?
I think it’s fair to say that Brand has got some balls on him.
But some keyboard warriors reckon they’d leather him if he got involved?
Insert some sort of roll eyes type emoticon here if you so wish.
I’d tell him to mind is own
I’d tell him to mind is own business and push him away.
If the guy driving a car makes a deliberate or wanton move to injure me (and I am forgiving of those who make a genuine mistake, for me a row requires an escalation by the driver), and I’m giving him a piece of my mind, a hug is not likely to placate me.
Nor indeed should it.
The driver needs to understand that his vehicle can cause serious injury to other people on the road. Riders getting Fisty are just about the only way there is reciprocity of that.
Don’t get in the way or you might just getting indirectly “reciprossed”. You wouldn’t like that. Even if your name is Russell Brand.
So the answer to road rage is
So the answer to road rage is to have friendly celebs posted at every major junction, a male and female at each. It’ll also supplement their income, as long as they receive additional funding from somewhere.
whether you love or hate Mr
whether you love or hate Mr Brand, at least he did SOMETHING, rather than just sit in his Merc. tutting to himself. It seems to have worked too. The cyclist probably thought that if he didn’t calm down quick then Russel may give him another hug.