“The constant low-level bullying is starting to take its toll” – road.cc readers open up on the stress of riding on Britain’s roads, with one giving it up for good

Don't know why I'm bothering reply on this topic, as nothing will ever change!??...

a British rider one day winning the TDF and bringing the profile of cycling into households - NO

Olympic success will highlight cyclists to the general public, leading to more respect for cyclists - NO

cycling becoming the most popular it's been in over 50 years, with more and more people participating and so more car driver become cyclists - NO

Nothings ever going to change. I see how the 'other side' think with being a petrolhead as well as a gear head. You just need to browse a few car forums to see the hate and contempt the 'average' driver has for cyclists every time Cyclists are mentioned.

The only way things will change IMO is if pretty much all cyclists were to carry cameras and every dangerous manoeuvre, or hostile pass, or Hate speech was know to be punished for the driver, and it made all these acts to risky to do.

or we wait for driverless cars.

One only has to read the hateful (and ignorant) comments left by many motorists on any Facebook post that mentions cycling.  It might be a minority of drivers, but there are clearly a LOT of them - ignorant, rude and aggressive, and that behaviour all too often spills out onto the roads (presumably because they think the "likes" and  supportive replies they get on FB means their views are somehow correct).

I blame the fact that (1) so few people ride bicycles (allowing them to treat cyclists as outliers, and therefore okay to be picked on/bullied), and (2) the ignorant and inflammatory tosh spouted by some celebrities (such as twats like Clarkson and "Mr Loophole"), as again the aggressive drivers think that their attitudes are correct.

The only solution I can come up with is to make EVERY learner driver spend some time out on the roads on a bicycle before they are given a licence to drive a one-tonne potentially lethal piece of machinery.

Because drivers in the Netherlands (where pretty much everyone rides a bike before they learn to drive) don't show anything like this level of ignorance, prejudice or aggression.

(Can you tell who was treated to a "punishment pass" at speed this morning, for having the temerity to ride two-abreast on a main road at 8am when the opposite side of the carriageway was both completely clear and straight for almost a mile?)

I use a light on an ourigger to keep vehicles away. It works very well. Low level bullying is exactly why it works. I don't  get any.

As you ride you worry about every vehicle coming up behind. 95% are fine but worry about every one. That creates this constant low level worry.

The outrigger just keeps then all away. No one comes too close and I get to enjoy the ride. Over the last  two years I have had 2 people who stopped to suggest I am a w*****r who doesn't pay road tax. But in a Mastermind winning style no close passes. 

The 'incident' from today's ride (there is usually at least one) is as low-level as it gets. I can't really complain to be honest, it was a pretty good pass on a straight country road, but they wound the window down to shout something incomprehesible as they went by. Caught them up at the junction where they performed a bit of an odd right turn and shouted something else incomprehesible. I have no idea why, other than the fact I was not riding in the gutter?! To be fair, had no other issues over an hour and a halfs pootle, with plenty of careful and considerate drivers.

It's terrible that we feel so under threat, but I am forced to agree.

I've been riding almost exclusively off road, with only one "roadie" adventure over the last few weeks.

Having been a keen cyclist for years, I just cant take the aggression any more. I've been considering selling my pride and joy and that last road ride has swung it .. it's just too dangerous, it isn't fun anymore, there are just too many nutters out there armed with a BMW 4x4 and not afraid to use it in some pathetic display of dominance.

I will be sticking to bridle paths and other opportunities to cycle and staying away from roads as far as possible ...

It shouldn't be like this...

"The constant low-level bullying is starting to take its toll". It's always been dreadful: The negativity. The point scoring. The lone psychopaths.. I had to give up the up the Road.CC replies section for a couple of years... 

Didn't think my post would generate such a debate; it just hit home that when my mate said he'd got fed up with British roads I thought, me too as well, although I'm still out there.  Always think back to 20-30 years ago when I was never bothered by traffic and only wore a helmet for commuting; have the roads/drivers got worse or have I been normalised by NMOTD videos?  I run cameras, only for commuting or riding solo, so the bastard who knocks me off gets caught.  When I first saw e-Scooters I thought, WTF, now I love the little bastards; perfect disruptive technology and you can see the motorists are rattled as Gen Z (and below) embrace them and use them to get around.  Same with LTNs.  No government or official will ever say that they are anti-motorist but I wonder whether the secret agenda is that they really want to get in motorists faces using things like e-Scooters and LTNs under the banner of improving air quality for example.  Here's hoping for better equity on the roads, but it'll take time.

thats the whole reason i wrote to my local paper with go pro footage, showing how awful and stupid the ''cycle lanes'' in bournemouth are. Usual idiotic responses to it.  The worst one was cycling beside a shared path, at 30 mph, a angry man close passes me, blocked me in at a red traffic light, then got out and got into a fight with me because i wasnt using the ''cycle lane''. At 30 mph. Let that sink in. Shared with pedestrians walking. But I wasnt using it. Also had a cop car come alongside me, with the policeman pointing left and telling me to use it. Morons, morons everywhere. Utterly stupid, but thats why every rider needs a good camera. Bloody shame, but it wont get any better in the UK. Unless they do the cycle routes properly, we will continue to get this conflict from the arrogant ones. To get away from it? I left the shit hole of bournemouth and escaped to the countryside. No cycle lanes out here to get shouted at about. Lovely people who give you space. I just went for a 12 mile hoon in the forest and had two people i waved past me, plus some donkeys and deer  i shared the road with. Best way to avoid it- leave the city. 

Since I haven't been quoted, I'll repeat my comment on that forum again here:

I think this is all too pessimistic. The statistics are very clear: cycling is less hazardous per hour than walking (marginally), and we'd all walk without a second thought. More importantly, the dangers of NOT cycling - inactivity, obesity, heart disease, cancer, dementia - are much higher than the 'danger' of cycling. David Rojas-Rueda's study* estimated benefits as 77 times higher than the risks; others have since found similar results. We have an syndemic of inactivity in Britain!

I cycle on roads and have done since the 1960s. I see a few close passes, but what really strikes me is how careful and courteous most drivers are, holding back until a suitable place to overtake, often quietly without me even noticing they're behind. In return I let drivers turn in front, sometimes pull over and let them past if there's a safe place to do so, and always give them a wave when they pass wide. Yes there are idiots, but they're a minority.

My hunch is the relentless pressure of YouTube 'close pass' videos with their aggro and hype is building up a false picture of the reality of cycling on the road. Having a camera I expect makes some of the authors feel the need to post footage just to keep their viewing numbers up, when many of the passes are normal and unremarkable.

I'm probably doomed now I've said this, but really, in the UK the benefits outweigh the risks by a huge factor, and we have so many quiet lanes all over the country, it's not hard to find a nice route leading to where you want to go, and the gradual increase of segregated lanes and quiet back routes in cities helps keep cycling hugely pleasurable.

*https://www.bmj.com/content/343/bmj.d4521.short

Mixed feelings about this ... it's an article that makes me fearful about cycling on roads. I know it can be (and often is) dangerous but I still do it; for me the health benefits outweigh these risks at the moment. 99% of other road users are fine and it feels like (in London) things are better than they were a few years ago - maybe despite all the vocal campaigners people have actually begun to get used to bike lanes and people on bikes. 

The us vs them feeling is difficult to shake off especially when an absent-minded driver can potentially cause so much damage. And I agree with other comments that something like this and the NMOTD column can be counter-productive. Maybe we, as people on bikes, should take the lead and ride with a smile, be kind, take an extra ten seconds to prevent confrontations, instead. I know that when I smilingly tell a driver they should stop looking at their phone it's usually more successful than berating them. Life's about compromise after all isn't it. 

I often drive my daughter's Mini with L plates on (I know I should not...) and I often suffer the same MGIF and general idiocy as I do when on the bike.  The difference in attitude of others when I am in our German SUV (I know I should not, but my wife likes it!) is startling. 

Drivers seem hard-wired to 'dominate' those they see as weaker/smaller, and 'respect' those they see as larger/stronger, and strangely relate this to the means of transport, rather than the user (ie generally all human!)

I fear that unless we can somehow unpick this behavioural trait, there is little prospect for change.

I have done the same as many of your readers I too have sold both bikes like many of your readers have said they sold it because they were sick and tired of getting pushed off the road by other drivers, I also sold mine because of a sick of the state of the roads every time I went out big potholes every 10 yards the excuse from all the councils they don't need to fix them because they're only 40 mm in depth which is no good, chat to either cyclists on motorcycles they are all tired of bumpy roads with potholes and if you do get damaged the absolute palaver to claim it is set up just to put you off claiming, the government's excuse is to just make sure the MOT is much harder the biggest risk to all is the state of the roads,  I just got fed up and just sold up, cycling was supposed to be about looking around the great countryside instead you're looking for the next pothole.

I think I'll probably still commute by bike  when work re-opens, but I don't bother with outdoor fun riding anymore. Mainly because it's not actually fun anymore. Just needlessly dangerous and saddening. I'll stick with Zwift for training instead.

The situation on the roads isn't going to get any better. The news media and high profile social media agitators exist to wind people up and create divisions. For some reason, "cyclists vs drivers" is a favourite, despite 98% of cyclists also driving.

It's like setting people who breathe against people who drink water.

One further point on my offroad riding choice. Obviously trails are hooked up with roads around here so I do the occasional tarmac transition. Either it's the 80cm bars or baggy clothes, or the mud or something else but I've never had anything approaching a close pass. I've even had drivers pull in to passing places on single track roads to let me through.

I drive and motorcycle as well as cycle. I have a dash cam in the car and in many years I have yet to record a single close incident or situation where I was put in any danger by another road user. Even on the motorcycle not so much as a moment of concern, though that is not used for commuting.

However, on the bicycle it can feel like a duck shoot with basic ineptitude at overtaking and occasional aggression seemingly coming out of nowhere. I carry cameras but don't go looking for trouble or creating situations. I have learned to not interact at all with drivers, let alone get involved in shouting or gesticulation. It seems that so much as looking at someone a bit funny is reasonable grounds to get yourself run over and we have seen previously how some Police forces appear to consider a bit of swearing after a life threatening moment to be of higher public concern than road safety.

I'm posting this link again - my crime? Slapping the side of a van that was about to run me into the gutter. This shouldn't have gone anywhere in a sane world yet you can see from some of the comments that some people feel the van driver was completely justified in his response.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cLF93a5w7ko

Likewise this. My crime here? Apparently just cycling on the road is enough.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nS1Rnwjzdl4

My last major discussion with a motorist was after a bus ran me off the road then tried telling me I shouldn't be on the pavement... I learned the lesson that day that you can't teach an idiot, least of all an angry/defensive idiot. That was probably about 3 years ago now and I haven't engaged in discussion since, I still let people know when they've done something wrong but I don't bother hanging around once I've said my bit and the level of zen this gives is so much better than having a shouting match then spending the rest of my morning winding myself up about it

Ride a bike on the roads? My kids and their friends are scared of WALKING to school because drivers pull onto the pavement outside their primary school without looking. The entitlement and selfishness are off the scale

Between this, NMOTD and the constant barrage of cyclist deaths, it's almost like road.cc wants to put people off cycling forever.
I've done about 4000km so far this year and I can count on one hand the number of bad encounters I've had with drivers. In fact, I think driving standards have improved a great deal with more people taking up cycling. I've even had encouragement from drivers when I've been panting up a big hill or zooming along as part of a group!
A lot of it depends on perception and the way you react to poor drivers. Cycling is a stoic activity; it constantly challenges and tests you with vertiginous climbs, ear-popping descents and, yes, some awful driving. But passing these tests without losing your cool is part and parcel of the experience, and ultimately what makes you feel magnificent after a ride. Maybe road.cc should take some time, like a week, to focus on the unmitigated joy of cycling rather than highlighting all the negative aspects.