Their lights are too bright, they don’t have lights; they ride on the line, they ride on the road; they ride too fast on footpaths, they ride too slow in traffic; they don’t wear helmets, they do wear lycra.

This week we looked at road rage against cyclists and received hundreds of texts:

Cyclist bring the hatred upon themselves they are the scum of society.

Cyclists are f**king dangerous, a road hazard. And there the one that’s gonna come off second best. Regards, the general motorist.

I hit a cyclist once, just by opening my car door when parked. Was a total accident, but he was in my blind spot. He flew straight into my door.

Road toads. If I have to pay to use the road then so should they.

Start paying for using the road or keep copping abuse and 2inch flybys.

That last one wasn’t a text, it’s actually a 2012 Facebook comment by a man who was found guilty this week of manslaughter. In 2013, Ben Smith was on a motorbike and sped past a 62-year-old man cycling with friends on a highway north of Sydney. The man came off his bicycle and suffered fatal head injuries. Someone who witnessed the event confronted Smith in a cafe afterward. Smith told him, “The c**t f**king deserved it”.

That’s an extreme example, but hatred towards cyclists is common enough. There’s even an anti-cyclist Facebook page in Brisbane, where members post threats against the “road toads”, “peddling terrorists”, “pedalphiles”, and “lycra-wearing latte set”.

Source
Triple J Hack