Support road.cc

Like this site? Help us to make it better.

“People need to see justice being done”: CyclingMikey says camera cyclists suffer online abuse because some motorists “feel they have the right to drive how they want”

The activist admits that online harassment previously put “a lot of strain” on him, as a fellow camera cyclist deleted his social media accounts following a targeted campaign last week

In the wake of a targeted online harassment campaign against a cyclist who reported 12 phone-using drivers in one day, forcing the rider to delete their YouTube and Twitter accounts, fellow two-wheeled activist Mike van Erp says that some motorists resort to abusing camera cyclists and road safety campaigners on social media because they “feel that they have the right to drive how they want”.

The prominent camera cyclist, better known by his online alias CyclingMikey, also admitted to road.cc that the online harassment he received during the early stages of his road safety campaign impacted him mentally, and that he would treat each comment “seriously”. However, he now says that “there has been such a torrent of abuse and lies about me that I just let most of it wash off me”.

> Victory claimed for harassment campaign by “mob of decent people” as helmet cam cyclist deletes Youtube and Twitter accounts

Van Erp’s comments come just days after Deacon Thurston, an Edinburgh-based cyclist who regularly posted videos of law-breaking drivers to social media, was hounded off Twitter after a co-ordinated attack by users unhappy at the rider for reporting motorists illegally using their phones behind the wheel.

Last Wednesday we reported that Thurston had tweeted that, in the space of an hour, he had filmed 12 motorists using their phones while driving. One of those distracted drivers, the cyclist added, had even previously been spotted using their phone at the exact location where his latest footage had been captured.

However, Thurston neglected to submit the footage to Police Scotland due to the time it would have taken to submit the dozen separate videos, with the force having scrapped plans last year to launch a dedicated portal that would have made it easier for people to upload footage of law-breaking drivers.

> Cyclist catches 12 drivers using phones behind the wheel in an hour

Despite the phone-using drivers escaping any sort of punishment, Thurston’s tweet provoked an unsavoury pile-on, with dozens of Twitter users aiming a range of extreme insults at the cyclist, along with multiple threats of violence.

After the sustained and threatening campaign of abuse forced Thurston to delete his account – an outcome described by one of the abusers as “a victory for decent people” – the attackers then turned their attentions to another high-profile camera cyclist, CyclingMikey.

Referencing the locations of Edinburgh’s two biggest football clubs, Hearts and Hibernian, one Twitter user wrote: “Gorgie and Lochend combined to take down Deacon Thurston – it’s time for the London football brethren to unite and take down CyclingMikey. C’mon all Arsenal/Spurs/etc fans, you know what to do.”

That particular campaign against Van Erp – who reports hundreds of distracted and law-breaking drivers a year – has so far resulted in yet another wave of violent threats, as well as horrible and unsubstantiated attempts at defamation based on clearly faked screenshots.

> "Tired of road crime": CyclingMikey on episode 16 of the road.cc Podcast

However, speaking to road.cc, Van Erp – the subject of almost constant vitriol on Twitter – says that his approach to social media, as well as the trolls, has changed over the years, and that he no longer pays much attention to the “torrent of abuse and lies” aimed in his direction.

“In the beginning of my camera work, almost 17 years ago, I took a lot of strain at the abuse thrown my way,” Mikey told us today.

“I'd answer each comment seriously. Nowadays, there has been such a torrent of abuse and lies about me that I just let most of it wash off me.”

But why is the abuse aimed at camera cyclists on Twitter so vitriolic? Van Erp reckons it’s down to “two main causes”.

“In the UK cyclists are considered by society to be ‘cockroaches of the road’, unworthy scum who freeload on the public highway and are terrible lawbreakers,” he says. “For such a person to challenge a driver for lawbreaking is a massive affront to the social order, and people don’t like this.

“Many of those throwing abuse also feel that they have the right to drive how they want, and that nobody can tell them what to do. They see the prosecutions, and they are afraid of the consequences, and they are angry that someone dares to do this to them.”

He continues: “I take the abuse as a tool – every angry person out there is showing us all, in the words of the inimitable [close pass policing pioneer] Mark Hodson, that there's no reaction without traction. He means that these drivers are upset because they realise that members of the public with cameras are going to force them to change their ways.”

While Mike says that his ability to cope with online harassment has improved over the years, he also admits that the way he uses and handles social media – including interacting with his attackers – has changed too.

“Rather than try to change the minds of those being unpleasant and trolling, I simply try to make them aware of just how many people are filming and reporting bad driving, and of the consequences that result from it in court,” he says.

“After that I tend to block as there’s no point in wasting time on someone like that once they’ve felt some of the worry of the chances of being caught.

“That worry is, in criminology, the thing that stops people offending. It’s the perception and fear of a realistic chance of being caught, not the size of the punishment, that stops much offending. Before now there was so little traffic policing thanks to successive government police cuts that there was little worry about getting caught.

“This is also why I put my stuff on YouTube. People need to see justice being done. Seeing that drivers are being caught and punished for these dangerous behaviours is a big part of changing driver behaviour.”

And this is where Van Erp believes the positive effects of social media, amid the swirling torrent of anger and abuse, come into play – by acting as an easily accessible and wide-ranging deterrent for potentially dangerous drivers.

“I can change only a few drivers’ behaviour myself as I have limited spare time,” he notes. “I try to use social media to change the behaviour of thousands more by showing what happens to people when they are caught and prosecuted, and what they were doing to be caught, and how easily they were caught.”

Ryan joined road.cc in December 2021 and since then has kept the site’s readers and listeners informed and enthralled (well at least occasionally) on news, the live blog, and the road.cc Podcast. After boarding a wrong bus at the world championships and ruining a good pair of jeans at the cyclocross, he now serves as road.cc’s senior news writer. Before his foray into cycling journalism, he wallowed in the equally pitiless world of academia, where he wrote a book about Victorian politics and droned on about cycling and bikes to classes of bored students (while taking every chance he could get to talk about cycling in print or on the radio). He can be found riding his bike very slowly around the narrow, scenic country lanes of Co. Down.

Add new comment

18 comments

Avatar
Daveyraveygravey | 1 year ago
4 likes

I haven't visited the tweet about this, I suspect it would make me very angry at these people and I would not be able to avoid taking issue with them.

The "mob of decent people" got me though, since when has any mob been decent?

Avatar
hawkinspeter replied to Daveyraveygravey | 1 year ago
5 likes
Daveyraveygravey wrote:

I haven't visited the tweet about this, I suspect it would make me very angry at these people and I would not be able to avoid taking issue with them.

The "mob of decent people" got me though, since when has any mob been decent?

"Mob of decent, hard-working, otherwise law abiding motorists"

Avatar
IanMSpencer replied to Daveyraveygravey | 1 year ago
3 likes

See Disney's Beauty and the Beast. All you need is a leader prepared to lie and cheat. There seem to be plenty of volunteers for the role.

Avatar
Stevearafprice | 1 year ago
5 likes

Don't allow comments and maybe use fake profile details. Immediately chuck trolls off your groups and pages .. Become part of a wider group, and laugh at the trolls, or don't bother engaging, they are usually lazy slobs with nothing to contribute to society.

Report stuff to the cops, post anon stuff online. Mix it up, bike footage,  dash cam, pedestrian filming of driver parking on crossings etc.... the latter is good because we are all pedestrians in danger from idiots... I only do the latter sneakily due to threats of violence though, I am a crap runner.

A river of anti bad driving posts is impossible to stop with a few lame threats, just do it.

I think there are a lot of drivers racking up points, locally there seem to be more Mercs etc driving within the limits, due I suspect to some new ave speed cameras , some will have also been nabbed on dash cams....

Avatar
Mungecrundle | 1 year ago
7 likes

Surely nobody who uses social media for pretty much any purpose, let alone to pursue a social injustice that they are passionate about, is under any illusion that it isn't a troll infested craphole of wilful ignorance and bile.

I'm not saying that it is wrong or stupid to post on social media and I am aware of the potential for the victim blaming card to be pulled out. I am right behind Cycling Mikey and applaud him for making a stand especially given his very personal motivation of losing his Father to a motorist. However, it is a choice to make those posts. Be prepared for some backlash is all I'm saying.

Avatar
JustTryingToGet... | 1 year ago
21 likes

CyclingMikey making the roads safer for everyone.

Wouldn't it be lovely if motorists could drive legally out of a sense of duty. But no. So the fear of prosecution* will have to do the job instead, along with getting your law breaking mug plastered on social media.

Drive legally, it's really not that hard to do.

*not Lancs, obviously.

Avatar
wtjs replied to JustTryingToGetFromAtoB | 1 year ago
7 likes

*not Lancs, obviously
Lord be praised! Perhaps the message is getting through

Avatar
ShutTheFrontDawes | 1 year ago
26 likes

These people (Deacon, Mikey, etc) are not just recording law-breaking motorists and submitting footage to the police in the hope that action will be taken; by submitting the footage to social media, they become activists. They raise the issue with a much wider audience which brings the potential of change on a larger scale.

The sad truth is that many activists are despised at the time. Rosa Parks and Roy Hackett, for example, who fought against racial segregation in the US and UK respectively. But they are still capable of bringing about immense change.

I applaud the hard work that activists like Mikey and Deacon have done and hopefully continue to do.

Avatar
grOg replied to ShutTheFrontDawes | 1 year ago
1 like

Van Erp is more than an activist though; I have no issue with him filming, reporting and posting online, but he also engages in vigilante behaviour, such as stepping out into the roadway to stop and confront motorists, which I disagree with; such action is illegal in my country, although it appears the English police tolerate it; I film and report motorist misbehaviour from my cycle commutes, although I couldn't be bothered with the online shaming activism..

Avatar
Yorkshie Whippet replied to grOg | 1 year ago
0 likes

UK Police probably don't tolerate stepping out. There are not enough of them on the streets to be around. That's why anything with a camera is hated so much. 

Avatar
Rendel Harris replied to Yorkshie Whippet | 1 year ago
8 likes
Yorkshie Whippet wrote:

UK Police probably don't tolerate stepping out. There are not enough of them on the streets to be around. That's why anything with a camera is hated so much. 

According to CM himself the police have never told him to stop doing what he does in terms of stepping out and the fact that they prosecute the people he stops from breaking the law and haven't stopped him doing it (which would be easy enough, everyone knows where he hangs out) would seem to indicate they don't see it as a problem.

Avatar
Username replied to Rendel Harris | 1 year ago
8 likes

I know Mikey and I cycle every day around 'Gandalf Corner'.

He has a very good relationship with the Royal Parks police and is on first name terms with most of the officers. When he dials 999, as occassionaly he has to do with violent drivers, they back him up very quickly.

As far as I can see they totally support his work. You know they would be quick at getting him out of their park if they didn't.

Avatar
chrisonabike replied to grOg | 1 year ago
9 likes

Wait - so if you see someone already breaking the law you are not allowed to stop them? Or maybe even tell them it's wrong? Australia is a really different place I guess.

Thinking on the "walk out" thing here. What do you think is illegal here? In the UK the driver is *already breaking the law*. So there's no "provocation". Not 100% on what the legal *charge* for the driver would be but "careless driving" (without due care and attention) would probably do? CM is doing something legal when he meets the car and driver eg crossing the road (no "jaywalking" rules in the UK - this doesn't appear to be an exception like a motorway). At the point at which he stops the driver and doesn't move I guess you could argue he's technically blocking the highway (not sure on this - and think it might need someone in authority to tell him to move and he could be arrested if he didn't). Also if a cyclist or car comes the other way the offending driver would also be blocking the highway!

I think the filming / posting bit has already been covered.

Note that CM isn't stopping the driver leaving or forcing him to break any further laws (well - reversing down the road isn't ideal but again debatable).

Would I do this myself? No. Does it "create division"? Only between safe road users and people whose law-breaking puts others at serious risk. Or those with impulse-control issues, triggered by the thought of that happening.

I think I'm fine for those folks to hate me by association. They likely don't care about my wellbeing (or worse) anyway...

Avatar
grOg replied to chrisonabike | 1 year ago
0 likes

If you see someone breaking the law, let's say shoplifting, do you confront the person? or do you find a shop employee and tell them? I would film and even confront someone that I incidentally observed obviously stealing a locked bicycle, but someone that ONLY confronts motorists breaking road laws and goes out of his way to do so is a vigilante. CM even revels in going to court to see those he catches getting their comeuppance.

The laws in place in Australian jurisdictions relate to road rage and confronting a motorist that causes road rage or could cause road rage is a criminal offence in and of itself; taking the law into ones own hands (doing something to put a situation right, instead of waiting for the police or the legal system to take action) may seem to be a good idea to you and CM but will get you into hot water in Australia.

Avatar
Rendel Harris replied to grOg | 1 year ago
2 likes
grOg wrote:

CM even revels in going to court to see those he catches getting their comeuppance.

That's a flat out lie, he makes no secret of the fact that he finds it a PITA to go to court but if you report a driver and they choose to challenge the sanction in court, or the offence is serious enough that it can't be dealt with by an FPN, the witness will always be summoned to give evidence. As far as I can see from his social media, far from "revelling" in saying "those he catches getting their comeuppance" he often gives his evidence and then leaves without staying to watch the rest of the trial.

Incidentally, why do you keep telling us about Australian law? Even if what you're saying is accurate, which seems doubtful, what relevance does it have to what happens in the UK? None whatsoever.

Avatar
ShutTheFrontDawes replied to grOg | 1 year ago
3 likes
grOg wrote:

If you see someone breaking the law, let's say shoplifting, do you confront the person? or do you find a shop employee and tell them? I would film and even confront someone that I incidentally observed obviously stealing a locked bicycle, but someone that ONLY confronts motorists breaking road laws and goes out of his way to do so is a vigilante. CM even revels in going to court to see those he catches getting their comeuppance.

The laws in place in Australian jurisdictions relate to road rage and confronting a motorist that causes road rage or could cause road rage is a criminal offence in and of itself; taking the law into ones own hands (doing something to put a situation right, instead of waiting for the police or the legal system to take action) may seem to be a good idea to you and CM but will get you into hot water in Australia.

Confronting a criminal may be illegal where you come from, but it's legal here in the UK. We can even perform an arrest.
https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1984/60/section/24A

Avatar
lonpfrb | 1 year ago
8 likes

#TravelKind

Nobody travelling can ever justify injuring another person.

Avatar
IanMSpencer replied to lonpfrb | 1 year ago
5 likes

They give it a good go though.

Latest Comments