# Handy Hints To Save Anti-Cycling Keyboard Warriors From Wearing Their Fingers Out...



## LeetleGreyCells (18 May 2019)

I came across the text below on The Book of Faces which the post author had borrowed from another site (source not named) - Handy Hints to save Anti Cycling Keyboard Warriors from wearing their fingers out... 

I thought it rather well written. 

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Are you about to comment on this post suggesting cyclists shouldn't be allowed on the road? If so, read this handy hints guide first. It’ll save you tiring your fingers frantically bashing the keyboard in some kind of fact-devoid, blind rage. 

1. If your argument is centred around car drivers having a license and cyclists n us , realise that the vast majority of cyclists are also car drivers. Being a cyclist does not suddenly preclude you from owning or driving a car. Ergo, most cyclists also have a license to be on the road. 

2. If you argument is about car drivers paying road tax to allow them to use the road, realise that “road tax” does not exist. You pay Vehicle Excise Duty (VED). This is based on engine power and emissions. Cyclists have neither engine power nor emissions, so even if they were to be taxed, it would be in the lowest rate tax band. Yes, £0. And since it would cost money to administer this, that cost would be added to your tax bill. That’s right, the road upkeep is paid for by your council tax. And cyclists, since they too live in houses, also pay council tax. 
At this juncture you may also wish to circle back to point 1 - most cyclists are also car drivers, so even if you don’t believe that VED is for emissions, then you still have to accept that cyclists who own cars also pay VED, or “road tax” as you seem to be intent on calling it. 

3. If you wish to argue that cyclists should be insured because “who’s going to pay when they bump into my car and cause damage?” then you should know that being a member of British Cycling (£35/year) brings with it up to £10million of third party liability insurance. Additionally, since we’ve already established that cyclists live in houses (apartments, flats etc) they most likely have home contents insurance too. If they do, there is a chance that it includes some cycle cover that may extend to third party liability. If a cyclist bashes in to your car, that would be a good start point. If they have a valuable bike, then they probably have specialist insurance too and that very likely includes third-party liability. 

4. If you think it’s wrong for cyclists to ride two abreast, please reacquaint yourself with the highway code. Specifically rule 66 (handily copied here: “never ride more than two abreast, and ride in single file on narrow or busy roads and when riding round bends”) so two abreast is acceptable on normal roads. Rule 67 is also a good one “look well ahead for obstructions in the road, such as drains, pot-holes and parked vehicles so that you do not have to swerve suddenly to avoid them. Leave plenty of room when passing parked vehicles and watch out for doors being opened or pedestrians stepping into your path.” This is additionally pointed out in the official TFL advice to cyclists “Stay central on narrow roads. Try to ride away from the gutter. If the road is too narrow for vehicles to pass you safely, it might be safer to ride towards the middle of the lane to prevent dangerous overtaking by other vehicles”.

5. If your argument is about cyclists riding badly - well, yes you’re right, some do. They give the rest of us a bad name. Just like not all drivers are bad, just some of them. Unfortunately, a bad cyclist might slightly damage a car or get themselves killed. A bad car driver will kill other people, specifically vulnerable road users, like cyclists. The crux of this is simple - drivers, motorcyclists and cyclists all have a right to use the road safely. Those that do not adhere to the rules and those that drive or ride unsafely should be brought to task.
& Yes, some Cyclists do ‘run red lights’; as do many drivers! I’m sure you wouldn’t want to be included in the same grouping as them; so, please, don’t tar us all with the same brush!


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## screenman (18 May 2019)

Good post, although the average cycle hater will read, blah! blah! Blah! etc.


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## Slick (18 May 2019)

screenman said:


> Good post, although the average cycle hater will read, blah! blah! Blah! etc.


It's certainly more polite than I would have put it. It is a good post though.


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## Pat "5mph" (18 May 2019)

Ach, the latest anti cyclist rants on FB are from drivers that think we don't need room when they overtake us, because when filtering we go near their cars


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## youngoldbloke (19 May 2019)

between the yellow line and the


Pat "5mph" said:


> Ach, the latest anti cyclist rants on FB are from drivers that think we don't need room when they overtake us, because when filtering we go near their cars


- they should be lined up on a railway station platform edge beyond the yellow line and made to wait for the next HST to go through - then they might understand ….


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## winjim (19 May 2019)

The cyclists you complain are 'whizzing past' you at junctions are probably going exactly the same speed as the ones you earlier complained were 'holding you up'.


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## RichK (30 May 2019)

winjim said:


> The cyclists you complain are 'whizzing past' you at junctions are probably going exactly the same speed as the ones you earlier complained were 'holding you up'.



That's Schroedinger's (sp?) cyclist - going too slow and too fast at the same time.


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## glasgowcyclist (30 May 2019)

LeetleGreyCells said:


> They give the rest of us a bad name.



Can't give it a like while that phrase is included. Sorry!
I'll take responsibility for my own misdeeds, not anyone else's.


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## cyberknight (30 May 2019)

unfortunately the vast majority dont give a flip about your reasoning .


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## Lonestar (12 Jun 2019)

youngoldbloke said:


> between the yellow line and the
> - they should be lined up on a railway station platform edge beyond the yellow line and made to wait for the next HST to go through - then they might understand ….



Jesus wept.Do you think before you type.?

There are many stupid people who stand on the edge of platforms when they don't have to but do anyway.( I mean overground) Not a thing I would do so long as I can avoid and I would avoid at all costs.It's not not a game.

I've had my fair share of close passes but I would never want this to "teach them a lesson".Oh yeah your idea of a "punishment pass".

No wonder I rarely post on here anymore.Jeez.


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## Shut Up Legs (12 Jun 2019)

My responses:

to (1): some of us choose never to drive, so the uncredited source is basically implying we don't deserve to use the roads.
to (5): no, they don't give the rest of us a bad name. I have no responsibility for what others do on the roads, regardless of whether their mode of transport happens to be the same as mine. This "shared responsibility" concept is just another symptom of outgroup homogeneity effect (with collective blame allocated to the outgroup for any action by one of its members), and is wrong.
One more comment: it's bad form to copy what looks like almost an entire article, and if you do copy part of it, you should cite the source. Someone spent some time and effort to write that, so what you should have done instead was just to link to their article, so they can claim credit for it. Although none of the concepts in that article are original, they've been doing the rounds of the internet for many years.


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## youngoldbloke (12 Jun 2019)

Lonestar said:


> Jesus wept.Do you think before you type.?
> 
> There are many stupid people who stand on the edge of platforms when they don't have to but do anyway.( I mean overground) Not a thing I would do so long as I can avoid and I would avoid at all costs.It's not not a game.
> 
> ...


Don't worry, I doubt it will become part of the driver's awareness course any time soon.


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## dodgy (12 Jun 2019)

Stopped reading after encountering several typos in the first few sentences.


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## speedy gonzalez (30 Jul 2021)

Would like to have a cyclist friendly roadworks/cyclepath alerts webpage. We have a traffic/accidents alerts Facebook group for all forms of transport where I live but each time a cyclist queries or mentions something they get piled on the people who just use cars and don't use any method of transporting themselves such as walking or cycling.


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## DaveReading (30 Jul 2021)

Shut Up Legs said:


> no, they don't give the rest of us a bad name. I have no responsibility for what others do on the roads



It's quite possible for other cyclists to give us a bad name even though we don't have any responsibility for their actions.


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## Ming the Merciless (30 Jul 2021)




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## Ming the Merciless (20 Aug 2021)




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## SirDickieBird (23 Aug 2021)

Well-written, yes and useful for the keyboard warriors (possibly) but hard to get it all across to the driver who's weaving around and up to your group tail, revving and trying to overtake with oncoming traffic repeatedly, shouting "Ride single file - it's the law" at you...


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## presta (23 Aug 2021)

LeetleGreyCells said:


> “road tax” does not exist. You pay Vehicle Excise Duty (VED)


This argument irritates me intensely. It just makes cyclists a laughing stock in the eyes of motorists. They _don't care_ what the tax is called, what they care about is that they pay it and we don't.

Whenever I get the "You don't pay road tax" I point out that it's non-motorists who are subsidising motorists, not the other way around, and hit them with this:


Unlike "No such thing as road tax", it works first time every time, and shuts them up immediately.

State of play of internalisation in the European transport sector - Publications Office of the EU (europa.eu)


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## ianrauk (23 Aug 2021)

presta said:


> This argument irritates me intensely. It just makes cyclists a laughing stock in the eyes of motorists. They _don't care_ what the tax is called, what they care about is that they pay it and we don't.



My usual reply to this is that I pay the same amount of 'road tax' for my bike as I would an electric car. That usually stumps them.


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## youngoldbloke (23 Aug 2021)

Not 'road tax' but VED - there is a very important difference in that the first implies a tax paid for the use of the roads, and the second is a tax on the vehicle. It is worth trying to educate those who don't understand this. Of course many, if not most, cyclists will have paid VED anyway, and we all pay for the roads through local and general taxation. If drivers don't understand this they have chosen not to.


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## glasgowcyclist (23 Aug 2021)

I no longer get drawn into VED/road tax arguments. They wouldn't give a fark about us even if we paid more than they did.


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## Drago (23 Aug 2021)

presta said:


> This argument irritates me intensely. It just makes cyclists a laughing stock in the eyes of motorists. They _don't care_ what the tax is called, what they care about is that they pay it and we don't.
> 
> Whenever I get the "You don't pay road tax" I point out that it's non-motorists who are subsidising motorists, not the other way around, and hit them with this:
> View attachment 605692
> ...


One of my hobbies is commenting on Daily Mail stories in order to wind up the Mailista. I usually manage a negative score of -several hundred a week.

Anyway, whenever the old "Road Tax" moan turns up I always post pretending that I have a Nissan Leaf, claiming that I pay no road tax AND no fuel duty, and ask if that means I should nit be on the road? That usually earns me a few hundred dislikes.


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## raleighnut (23 Aug 2021)

Roads existed for hundreds of years before cars were invented


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## Drago (23 Aug 2021)

And theyll still exist when personal car use has become near extinct.


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## kayakerles (23 Aug 2021)

Lonestar said:


> Jesus wept.Do you think before you type.?
> 
> …I've had my fair share of close passes but I would never want this to "teach them a lesson".Oh yeah your idea of a "punishment pass".
> 
> No wonder I rarely post on here anymore.Jeez.


Come on now, Lonestar… I'm sure, that neither @YoungOldBloke or any other cyclist would _really_ want to put someone up to the described scenario, but it _does_ create quite a mental image to ponder. Having grown up in NYC, as a foolish youth I had on more than one occasion stood way too close to the edge of the Subway track, and it really was quite a RUSH to feel the train blow by, practically sucking me off the platform to take me with it. (Now as an old fart in the Washington, DC area, I’m much wiser about doing that and know to stand WAY back to not give the push-people-on-platforms-onto-the-tracks types any opportunities.)

On my bike, as I am sure MOST of us have if we’ve ridden our bikes more than 10 times, I have experienced automobiles passing me so close that I have felt the draft from their forward motion. I also bumped side to side between a taxi and a city bus pulling away from a curb in NYC, but that’s a story for another day.

I only wonder what Jesus crying has to do with this? 🤔


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## kayakerles (24 Aug 2021)

LeetleGreyCells said:


> …Handy Hints to save Anti Cycling Keyboard Warriors from wearing their fingers out...


As many have already commented, @LGC, I thought it was a good post too, but _if_ _I were the author_, I would not have called it the above and started it off with… “If so, read this handy hints guide first. It’ll save you tiring your fingers frantically bashing the keyboard in some kind of *fact-devoid*, blind rage.” Somewhat condescending, wouldn't you say? 
If only humans could more-effectively get others to see two sides of a coin. 🤷🏻‍♂️


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## rogerzilla (24 Aug 2021)

VED is hypothecated again, although it only pays for motorways and the like, as I understand it.


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## Profpointy (24 Aug 2021)

RichK said:


> That's Schroedinger's (sp?) cyclist - going too slow and too fast at the same time.


 
Quite: scattering pedestrians riding like a bat out of hell on the pavement whilst riding in the middle of the road holding up traffic.

It's a bit like Shrodinger's immigrant who's idling about sponging off social security whist simultaneously stealing our jobs


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## Profpointy (24 Aug 2021)

youngoldbloke said:


> Not 'road tax' but VED - there is a very important difference in that the first implies a tax paid for the use of the roads, and the second is a tax on the vehicle. It is worth trying to educate those who don't understand this. Of course many, if not most, cyclists will have paid VED anyway, and we all pay for the roads through local and general taxation. If drivers don't understand this they have chosen not to.



Not really: it's a tax you pay for certain types of vehicle to be allowed to use the road, QEFD it's a road tax. 

A better argument is to ask how much extra tax I should pay for leaving my car at home and cycling instead?


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## Alex321 (24 Aug 2021)

Shut Up Legs said:


> My responses:
> 
> to (5): no, they don't give the rest of us a bad name. I have no responsibility for what others do on the roads, regardless of whether their mode of transport happens to be the same as mine. This "shared responsibility" concept is just another symptom of outgroup homogeneity effect (with collective blame allocated to the outgroup for any action by one of its members), and is wrong.



You clearly have no understanding of the concept involved here. It is nothing to do wit any idea of "shared responsibility", and there is NOTHING you can do about it. 

Agreed, you have no responsibility for what others do on the roads, and nobody is suggesting you might. But those seen as doing wrong DO give the rest of us a bad name, because they are the ones who are noticed more. Nobody notices most of us,. Riding responsibly and legally. They notice the ones who jump lights, ride on pavements, etc.


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