The level of vitriol directed at cyclists by such people as those allowed to air their ignorant and contemptible views on the Worcester News Forum is astonishing. I suspect it is some years since many of them actually read the Highway Code (if they ever did) and even longer since they actually cycled on the Highway and experienced life as a cyclist.

Here we have a report about cyclists who have been injured and no suggestion that they have caused any inconvenience or difficulty to anyone else (no scared horses, no frightened pedestrian's etc), yet some of these people still think it's fair game to have a go at cyclists and even wish those injured ill will.

The Highway code permits cycling 2 abreast (Rule 66) despite what some of the WN readers might think. Road racing on the highway is also perfectly legal provided all due processes have been followed. Just because someone may have been slightly inconvenienced by a cyclist at some point, that seems to give them carte blanche to treat cyclists as pariah's - one can imagine the thought processes of one of these people, who on the whole seem to be fairly dim "who else should be banned from the roads, tractors, lorries, disabled driver vehicles, elderly drivers, anyone who drives a blue car, anyone who doesn't read Worcester News and have a go at cyclists at every opportunity, in fact everyone else apart from ME!!".

One aspect of driving which seems to be increasingly common (in my experience, perhaps as much as 1 in 4 drivers) is overtaking cyclists too close, giving minimal room - people commonly seems to forget that Rule 163 of the highway code says "give motorcyclists, cyclists and horse riders at least as much room as you  would when overtaking a car (see Rules 211-215)".

RANT OVER