Driver behaviour towards cyclists: video

Published by Matt Polaine | Filed under Cycling infrastructure

Whenever discussion over cycling on the UK highways comes up, there are those in motor vehicles who rant on about cyclists who ‘jump red lights, terrorise pedestrians, are law-breakers, cycle wherever they like’ and so on. It is as though motorists do nothing wrong and cyclists are urban vermin.

Over-looking the thousands of deaths and tens of thousands of serious injuries that drivers - not motor vehicles - inflict on society each year in the UK, it would seem that motorists are totally clueless to what goes on around them.

Much of this is down to having very poor visibility, unable to hear much, and being inside a protective tank. After all, would a driver cut up an armoured military vehicle? Probably not, but a cyclist? What cyclist?

In my ‘conversations’ with drivers on this subject, there is no way - no way - they have any concept of the daily arrogance that driving a motor vehicle conjurs up (yes I drive too). Put a pleasant person inside a car and they are instantly rude, thoughtless, blind and deaf to cyclists, with very few exceptions. It has been impossible to impart what it is like to be on the receiving end of these entrenched behaviours, and how transport policy and police just don’t give a damn, unless one experiences all this over time.

Until now. Thanks to a fantastic piece of video footage - ‘Angles Mort’ - that has captured the life of a Parisian cyclist, and how French Highway Legislation repeatedly fails to be implemented, observed or enforced.

Angles Morts was introduced to me by a good friend and fellow blogging cyclist David Hembrow. His comments are very worthwhile reading, as he lives in Assen, Netherlands. He points out that it would be impossible to make such a video there - inter-modal conflict is almost non-existent. Proof that it can be done, and it is feeble politics and apathetic local authorities, along with poor cultural qualities that leave us with this selfish behaviour from the majority of drivers, intentional or just thoughtless.

Watch the video