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news
Chris Hoy in the post-Olympic parade in Glasgow (CC licensed image by William Newman:Flickr)Chris Hoy hits out at “stupid” cyclists
Multiple Olympic gold medal winner Chris Hoy has emerged as one of Britain’s most vocal advocates for cycling. But he believes that some cyclists are doing the cause no good by their behaviour on the roads.
“When I’m out on a bike and I see someone doing something stupid I will absolutely have a word with them at the next set of lights,” he told the Telegraph’s Theo Merz in an interview.
Hoy gave a recent example, of a rider he’d chastised while in his home town of Edinburgh a couple of weeks ago.
He said: “There was a guy who was riding like an idiot, jumping lights, cutting up the pavement, and I just said: ‘You’re not helping matters here. If you want respect you have to earn it.’”
The response was stunned silence, perhaps at being told off by Scotland’s most famous cyclist, perhaps in amazement that someone had nothing better to do than police the behaviour of other cyclists.
Since retiring in 2013, Hoy has been developing his own bike brand with Evans Cycles, promoting family cycling, confusing football fans on Twitter who think he's a referee, and recently announced plans to get into car racing.
But he says cycling still matters to him and that’s why he gets annoyed with behaviour that, as he sees it, affects the perception of cyclists. He still wants to see more people on bikes.
“There are so many benefits to cycling,” he said. “It eases congestion, there are social benefits if you do it with someone else and of course there are the health benefits. It improves your cardiovascular system and you lose body fat.
“It’s particularly good if you haven’t exercised for a number of years. If you’re trying to run for the first time it puts strain on your joints, or people can have injuries that prevent them from doing that. But cycling is low impact, it’s easy for anyone at any level and it doesn’t have to be expensive.”
Hoy says he still gets out on the bike too.
“I still go cycling at least four times a week though,” he said. “Sometimes it’s to test models for my range and sometimes it’s purely for my own well-being. If I’m preaching about the benefits of exercise I can’t let myself go – and I wouldn’t want to.”
And of course, if he doesn’t ride, he doesn’t get to tell off those naughty red-light-jumpers.
John has been writing about bikes and cycling for over 30 years since discovering that people were mug enough to pay him for it rather than expecting him to do an honest day's work.
He was heavily involved in the mountain bike boom of the late 1980s as a racer, team manager and race promoter, and that led to writing for Mountain Biking UK magazine shortly after its inception. He got the gig by phoning up the editor and telling him the magazine was rubbish and he could do better. Rather than telling him to get lost, MBUK editor Tym Manley called John’s bluff and the rest is history.
Since then he has worked on MTB Pro magazine and was editor of Maximum Mountain Bike and Australian Mountain Bike magazines, before switching to the web in 2000 to work for CyclingNews.com. Along with road.cc founder Tony Farrelly, John was on the launch team for BikeRadar.com and subsequently became editor in chief of Future Publishing’s group of cycling magazines and websites, including Cycling Plus, MBUK, What Mountain Bike and Procycling.
John has also written for Cyclist magazine, edited the BikeMagic website and was founding editor of TotalWomensCycling.com before handing over to someone far more representative of the site's main audience.
He joined road.cc in 2013. He lives in Cambridge where the lack of hills is more than made up for by the headwinds.
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134 comments
Might be quicker to document what you can discuss
I genuinely can't work out on which side of the argument you lie
Thank you for the article. That was a strong piece of writing.
As someone has said, there can definitely be an element of Stockholm Syndrome about the whole relationship.
Given the one-way anonymity, power-imbalance, and supposed authority with which a car is driven ("road tax", sticking within social boundaries etc.), I think there's also a strong element of the Milgram Effect (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milgram_experiment) to the whole thing as well. From a motorists perspective, cyclists are small, weak, in a separate, dislocated environment, and breaking social norms, and breaking the law (e.g. in not paying "road tax" [despite it not existing], and in 'always' running red lights [despite it being statistically much less frequent than obeying them]).
The one-way anonymity, separate environment, power-imbalance, and 'conformity to a supposed authority' are the four elements that fundamentally define the Milgram Experiment, and I think they're all present in the Motorist/Cyclist relationship and typical environment; the weakest link being the 'authority' one, but that may explain why people are so keen to make claims about "road tax" and red light lumping, despite them being realistically minor or non-existant issues.
I've yet to see someone write a really solid piece of literature or study about the Milgram effect in the Motorist/Cyclist relationship. In fact, I've yet to see anyone write anything about it at all, which seems a waste, as I can't help but feel it's a highly significant factor in why a large number of seemingly ordinary people around the world seem to have no qualms about posting their desire to murder other humans beings over social networks, simply because those human beings are using a different form of transport. The crux of the Milgram Effect is that is severs relationship and responsibility between ordinary people with different levels of inherent power and vulnerability. This is exactly seems to be happening out on the roads every single day.
Come on man, read the article. He told someone off for jumping lights and riding on the pavement. I agree with him. I live in Edinburgh and generally, motorists are pretty accommodating to cyclists (as they should be). However, when you get twits treating the streets like a race track or playground it irritates people - and I personally don't wish to share the road with an irritated driver.
Is not, doh
Hmm...
If you obey the law then obviously I wasn't talking about you. Yet you reply...interesting...
Well I don't know where you live or how you were dragged up. Your language indicates a less than ideal attitude.
I was brought up to respect people as a matter of course. They might lose respect by their actions but that was up to them.
Chris Hoy seems to have not thought about the implications of his remarks and im sure he respects most people without them having to pass some test. You though have had a chancet to consider my point.
So your settled position is that cyclists are to be generally regarded bad until they earn respect.
All i said was that we should respect all road users as a matter of course. Until an individual proves other wise.
Basic humanity really. Respect people as a matter of course. Let them un earn itt if they must.
And I'm not in the least bit ashamed of that.
Good manners cost nothing.
haha, its a conundrum isn't it !
I agree with Hoy on this but rather than face the wrath of others i'll say no more
Was that to me? If so: No, it wasn't obvious, at all. Look at your use of "we" and "some of us". You quite clearly say that we, the set of "us" (which I assume to be "people who ride bikes") cannot complain because of the actions of a subset of ("some of") us. You're ascribing collective responsibility.
You're very good at patronising people, oozaveared. Is it a natural proclivity or do you have to practice?
Hoy said "“When I’m out on a bike and I see someone doing something stupid I will absolutely have a word with them at the next set of lights."
I cannot see any problem with that. He does not say that he goes out of his way to chase people down. He just has a word. Where's the problem?
His view seems to be that a few idiots harm the reputation of the rest of the cycling population and he's not prepared to stand idly by.
I take a pop at cyclists who break the law, note how their actions are counterproductive, and how, like it or lump it, their actions besmirch us all, and yet you jump to their defense?
Hugely defensive. Suspiciously defensive even. But, as I said, if you're not one of these eejits making life that little bit harder for us then the comment wasn't aimed at you.
Keep to the left
Eh? Point me to the bit where I've supposedly defended illegal or irresponsible cycling.
Read what I've written again. You've missed my point by a country mile, and then some.
Nothing spoils a ride like a punch in the face. I guess that's why a lot of people avoid confrontation.
And some don't even realise they are in the thick-as-shite grouping, isn't that ironic?
Why is that nobody says that they have to control the behaviour of other pedestrians otherwise they and all the rest of us will deserve to be run over when we cross the road?
An Exercise in Logic:
I see a lot of motorists breaking the law. Sir Chris Hoy is a motorist. therefore he has lost my respect, and I am entitled to kill or hurt any motorists (including him) I happen to feel like.
'If you want respect, you have to earn it' - Yes, that means you.
So:
If Sir Chris as a motorist sees someone driving a car in excess of the speed limit (which is not very difficult), will he drive up to them, stop them, and explain that thinks they are giving drivers a bad name?
And if not, why not? Bearing in mind that this type of law breaking endangers other road users at least as much as a cycling red light jumper, he should.
Wont work if they don't stop for the next set either!
Will if you're Chris Hoy!
This thread has been remarkably informative and useful to me; from reading many of the comments on here recently I've had a growing feeling over the past few weeks - this article and many of the comments left have provided confirmation of this feeling and what I will do from here on, and to use a rather inelegant Americanism, I'll let you do the math.
I will say this though - I'm not entirely sure it is appropriate for the writer of the report here to give his own opinion in the comments section, especially using the language he chose to use, but hey, it's his website. Whether he thinks it's a welcoming and inclusive one that encourages visitors to remain or not is a decision he can make.
This is all very tiresome. I think that the majority of people will acknowledge that when drivers see poor cycling, RLJ'ing etc it causes them to get annoyed and attribute that kind of thing to 'all' cyclists. As borne out by all the comments people get about RLJ etc. My sisters, girlfriend etc have lal made those comments to me at times. As for earning respect, it is clear that he wasn't expecting a byunch of keyboard warriors to take apart every word of his interview like has been, yes he could and should have phrased it better. But i think its pretty clear what he meant, i.e. don't ride like a dick because it makes people assume all cyclysts are dicks. Which is actually a position i agree with. That he was lazy and used a cliched comment probably very familar to most of use was unfortunate, but afterall, he is an athlete and they are rather well known for speaking in cliches.
No one is suggesting that. The same rules of the road apply to everyone.
No. Nothing gives another road user an "excuse" to demonstrate bad behaviour or put someone else at risk. It's as simple as that.
So the problem is with the lazy-minded motorists (not all motorists) that generalise in this way, not with "cyclists" collectively.
I'm a bit disappointed with this story, but I accept that Hoy has been spun by the Telegraph, as most of what he said was positive about cycling, and nothing to do with the headline. However, we need to challenge at every opportunity the suggestion that cyclists have some sort of collective responsibility for the death and injury that is caused by bad drivers and that cyclists collectively need to "put their house in order". That's just an excuse to maintain the status quo on the roads.
You are bang on but sadly ppl do generalise. Some cyclists do the same
I was in the pub last night - saw some bloke I didn't know who had just exceeded 5 units of alcohol, so I thought I'd intervene. I went up to him and said "careful mate - you're endangering yourself and even worse, you'll give us drinkers a bad name"
Then everyone put down their pints and gave me a round of applause
If the individual you spoke to had been leering at other people, spilling his drink over them and followed up by being sick over the bar, you probably would have got a round of applause for pulling him up for his twattish behaviour. And you'd have had plenty of help to throw him out of the pub!
Twattish behaviour in any context needs pulling up, especially where it inconveniences or endangers other people (or even the twat himself). Well done Chris.
Chapeau Chris.
Folks, if you don't believe in this then how about doing it to be a decent human being.
Civilisation is built on individuals doing their best to get along with one another.
'Course, Sir Chris knows fuck all about proper cycling - there ain't no cars on them velodromes are there?
Very disappointing comment from someone with such a high profile.
The fallacy of this attitude is very eloquently described in blog referenced above.
There was also an Australian video posted here a while back that noticed the psychological tendency to attribute behaviour within groups that you are part of to individuals, whereas for a group that you're not part they are attributed to the group as a whole.
In other words, for your average citizen who is a regular driver but not a regular cyclist, bad driving gets attributed to individuals, whereas bad cycling gets attributed to all cyclists.
The only fix is to get more people on bikes
Actually, having that blog post engraved onto every steering wheel in the country might go some way to solving it, but that's fantasy.
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