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news
London:cyclist in traffic (copyright Simon MacMichael).jpgReview: Channel 5's Cyclists: Scourge Of The Streets?
Cyclists are “lawless,” “aggressive,” and “like a plague of” – wait, what? – “lotuses coming down the road … herds of them.” Those were phrases fired during the opening salvo of last night’s Channel 5 documentary Cyclists: Scourge Of The Streets? which was so one-sided it makes you wonder why they bothered with the question mark.
Besides being treated to the wit and wisdom of three of ‘London’s finest’ – that’s black cab drivers to you and I, who are apparently among the “many drivers in the capital” for whom “cyclists have become public enemy number one” – we were also told how the “adrenaline junkies infiltrating Box Hill” were destroying the “pastoral dream” of Surrey – including, apparently, by defecating in people’s front gardens.
The opinions masquerading as facts that were allowed to go unchallenged were too many to count. One taxi driver insisted that “they’re not obeying the law like every other road user” – despite a recent study finding that cyclists are less likely to break the law than drivers.
Various rules from the Highway Code were cited as a means, we imagine, of highlighting just which laws cyclists break – but when the programme briefly looked at West Midlands Police’s award winning operation close pass, there was no specific mention of rule 163, which sets out the space drivers must give cyclists when overtaking.
We had Nick ‘Mr Loophole’ Freeman – you know, the lawyer who gets celebrities off driving related charges, often due to a technicality – saying “a lot of cyclists behave in a very poor way,” with no apparent sense of irony as he performed a piece to camera while driving his convertible sports car in an urban area.
Former Surrey resident – the sheer number of cyclists forced him to move out of the county, and we’re guessing not to the Netherlands – Ian Huggins proudly pointed out that his petition against the area being turned into “an open air velodrome” had garnered more than 3,500 signatures; no mention that a counter-petition to Surrey County Council, instigated by a road.cc reader, no less, got even more.
Much was made of people cycling on the pavement – including a segment showing an apoplectic cabbie taking a cyclist to task for daring to gently move his bike to where he could park it – but no mention made of Home Office guidance, supported by senior police officers, for fines only to be issued where others were endangered by the rider’s actions.
Missing were the voices of reason such as Chris Boardman or Will Norman that one might expect to find in a programme seeking to strike balance rather than sensationalise an issue – we’re not sure if they or other campaigners were approached, but we’d be unsurprised if they were.
Instead, we got a lengthy focus on Dave Sherry, described as “Britain’s most hated cyclist,” who has made it his mission to get as many motorists as possible brought to account for breaking the law.
Sherry appeared in a segment of the programme that narrator Craig Kelly prefaced with the words, “But before all cyclists are burnt at the stake” – seriously, he actually said that – “there’s another side to this story.”
We were told Sherry was a member of “a whole army of self-appointed avengers” who use action cameras to catch drivers breaking the law. He’s by no means the only cyclist to record his rides, as our Near Miss of the Day feature attests, but he is almost certainly the most extreme example in terms of his determination to seek out and confront transgressors and instigate action against them.
And again, balance went out of the window; whereas the notion of cyclists breaking the law went unchallenged, motorists doing it was almost normalised, Sherry presented as some kind of self-appointed quasi police officer stopping motorists from going about their business.
The programme’s saving grace was the all too brief appearance of PC Mark Hodson of West Midlands Police, who – in a sharp observation of just how invisible cyclists can be on the roads – pointed out that even when riding a bike in uniform, with a hi-viz jacket with the word ‘Police’ on his back, many motorists didn’t see him.
Hodson’s appearance in fact jarred with the tone of the rest of the documentary; here was someone with an expert knowledge of road traffic law and who, through his work on West Midlands Police’s roads policing unit sees daily the harm that motorists can inflict, and the effect it has on victims and their families.
Pointing out that motorists are involved in “99 per cent of all fatal collisions,” he added that “cyclists don’t cause us the problems drivers do.”
A programme looking at law-abiding people on bikes, just trying to get from A to B safely whether for sport, fitness, leisure, commuting or going about their daily business would reflect the reality of Britain’s roads, rather than trying to depict a “war” that does not exist – but we doubt you’d get a commissioning editor to greenlight it.
Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.
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54 comments
Gutter TV, that's all it was, and very typical of Channel 5.
The problem is drivers will watch this and harbour even more hatred against us.
Gutter TV, that's all it was, and very typical of Channel 5.
The problem is drivers will watch this and harbour even more hatred against us.
Gutter TV, that's all it was, and very typical of Channel 5.
The problem is drivers will watch this and harbour even more hatred against us.
@Aberdeencyclist - Since when did I become responsible for every other cyclist on the road?
If I am, does that also apply to the car that I drive, and if so just the model, the whole brand or every motor on the road?
"Much was made of people cycling on the pavement – including a segment showing an apoplectic cabbie taking a cyclist to task for daring to gently move his bike to where he could park it"
I might be thinking of a different segment, but I don't recall him being "apoplectic" at all. He was, at most, incredulous, but I think mainly a bit uncomfortable about (presumably at the producers' behest) having to confront cyclists on foot rather than from behind the wheel of his cab.
Would this guidance be "discretion should be exercised “where a cyclist is using the pavement alongside a dangerous section of road out of fear of the traffic""? If so that wasn't the case here - the cyclist just wanted to avoid being held up by other traffic.
Discretion works both ways. The Police can equally ignore cyclists' complaints against motorists. I'm all for zero tolerance.
It 's hardly a symetrical relationship 1600 kg v 100 kg, 50kmh v 20kmh
I'm sure Police use discretion with drivers when they are stopped and given advice rather than a ticket.
Bad TV no question. What this left me with was a message that a lack of enforcement is a big reason why there are frustrations amongst road users. The exasperated pedestrian watching a cyclist on the pavement slowly ride past him and two policemen with not an eyebrow raised from the cops. And then the woman who actually got stopped by the Police and couldn't see what all the fuss was about - she'd just done a close pass with a kid in the back without a car seat and wanted to be on the 'phone whilst the Police were talking to her. An attitude of "why are you stopping for me for this stuff? , everybody does it". Well yes they do get away with it - and it's a problem.
But that fits with the Home Office advice that says police should not be penalising cyclists who ride courteously on the pavement without causing any danger or inconvenience to other users. The problem is not just a lack of enforcement it is a lack of understanding of what is and should be enforceable.
Bloody cyclists, jumping red lights, not paying road tax or insurance, shitting in my garden, riding on the pavements, clogging up my roads with their Lycra and bright coloured socks. Grrrrr, I’m outraged. I’m just adding balance to this thread.
Actually not as biased as I thought, what with a smattering of cyclists being mown down, headcam film of daft motorists and the calm balanced policeman giving a reasonable bit of balance . As a cyclist of over 40 yrs and company car driver , I've been torn between enjoying the rise of cycling for leisure and for commuting, and watching the rise of cyclists ignoring laws and aggressively excercising filtering ( technically legal, but not so when done carelessly / dangerously ) . The victimhood response is one cycling cannot afford , we need to get our irresponsible cycling element to reform - and be loud and pro active about it - while we simultaneously try to educate motorists - far too many of whom seem to think that learning the Highway Code is just for passing the test. Anyway, sun is out, so today it's the MtB.
I drive and cycle at various times of the week, and no one is out there calling for me to help reform the irresponsible driving element that breaks the limit, speeds up when the lights go yellow, drives while using a handheld phone or squeezes past me at 50mph when there is traffic coming the other way.
I am not responsible for how someone else rides their bike, just as I am not responsible for how someone else drives their car.
Requiring drivers to renew their licence every ten years, including a theory/highway code test would be a start ... and updating the law to clarify that bikes and cars are not the same and should not be treated as if they are somehow equivalent would also help.
The programme was on Channel 5, which is the Daily Mail of the TV world - we couldn't have expected anything more or anything less. Channel 5 is programmed by idiots for idiots.
Mrs Mungecrundle is somewhat anti cyclist, though I suspect it's more anti Mr Mungecrundle. Well, let's just say we had a difference of opinion over the programme. I suggested that I could easily make a short documentary entitled "Women drivers, scourge of the streets?" Get input from some loud mouth misogynists, spend a few minutes on Youtube sourcing real footage of lady motorists trying to park, reverse or otherwise drive whilst applying their lippy. Maybe get a counter segment of Sabine Schmidt owning the Nurbergring for balance. It wouldn't be fair, would pander to stereotypes and would upset a lot of women for no good reason. Anyway she got in a huff and went to bed.
Don't worry about it. My wife was saying cyclists are going too fast where we live...except this is still about 5-10mph below the 30mph speed limit so I'm not sure how that works. Drive 1400kg at 30mph= fine, ride 80kg at 20mph = OH THE HUMANITY!
She went crackers when I told her I hit 50mph down this long steep road but yet doesn't mind me riding a motorbike that can do 3 times that speed. Odd. Maybe something to do with insurance.
Don't forget the lack of road tax as well!
Made me laugh when box hill Ian was driving throug Esher at what could have been no more than 15 mph and was surprised to be overtaken by 2 cyclists. What did he think would happen ?
"there was no specific mention of rule 163, which sets out the space drivers must give cyclists when overtaking"
The policeman did show a board to camera with the 1.5m space clearly marked. But it wasn't mentioned explicitly.
I didn't think it was very balanced either, but I know a fair number of otherwise reasonable drivers who think like this to one degree or another (and don't like being told that the roads are for all, even if it's stopping them driving up some road as their usual pace). I'm hoping that when self-driving cars appear then driver aggression will vanish overnight, as computers tend not to have egos and the car as an extension of personal space and status will be redundant.
Aplogies in advance for any spelling/grammar mistaks, I'm still pissing myself laughing.
That was the highest quality shit I've ever seen on TV. Ranks up there with Keith Chegwin's Naked Jungle (Also Channel 5). I hope the presenter got well paid to spout all incendiary rubbish. Nick Freeman needs to be kicked in the bollocks for his trite nonsense.
I have a bit of sympathy for the miserable cabbies in London - it's a nightmare place to drive anything and I bet if they had been asked to comment on other cars/buses/motorbike/HGV's you'd have got a similar set of negative comments paricularly when they were being paid to be vitriolic.
The biggest laugh was the cuntry folk from Surrey. I've never heard of a cyclist defecating in anyone's front garden, well maybe Tom Dumoulin! I bet that bloke in the big red prick-up drives around a lot just to get himself even more worked up with his cronies down the local conservative club.
Fair to say i'll not be watching this on catch up, well maybe to watch the comedy of the bloke with his head stuck under the wheel arch of his car becoming some sort of youtube star. Priceless, the police told him to contact youtube to complain about the clip but he didn't want to call them 'cos they are based in California.
Anyway, must go and read all the comments in the Daily Mail congratulating channel 5 on this well thought out, balanced documentary!! Have now spent an hour and twenty minutes watching, reading and reading about this pile of steaming bullshit which I'll never get back.
'A plague of lotuses'? Wot? Are they all on Boardman–Barcelona replica bikes?
My understanding is the Laws covering "Hate Crime" are not restricted to Ethnicity, Religion or sexual preference.
Is describing all cyclists as Lawless, dangerous, as a plague of Locusts etc a breach of the hate law?
Perhaps Cycling UK or BC should start challenging this!
Sophie's Law (Sophie Lawrence, a goth tenager, kicked to death in a park in Bacup, Lancs ~2007 and her b/f seriously hurt by a gang that picked on them because of how they looked) her parents campaign saw an extension of what defines a hate cime beyond ethnicity, gender, sexuality etc. to persons identifiable by dress /activity as a perceived minority or outgroup.
Greater Manchester Police (my local crew) recognised this in 2012 and extended their reporting and definitions to cover hate and abuse against goths, punks etc.
I'm always surpised that there's been no great movement amongst the cycling *outgroup* to make use of definitions that fully encompass anyone by dint of being on a bike (or off the bike, dressed in lycra & crapping all over the gardens of Surrey of course
) who suffers, verbal, physical, online or sh!tehawk TV program abuse and seek proper protection and lawful redress against such abusers in the same way people with pale skin and lots of studdy clothers, or pink spiky hair & zips or long hair and a denim jcket covered in Black Sabbath patches can.
I believe the correct quote was "a plague of lotuses" . . we're all beautiful flowers at heart !
It was crap. If they produce a similar programme, slightly more factual, about the problems profligate motor vehicle use causes, I might forgive them, but that's about as likely as us getting a competent prime minister any time soon.
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