Be Excellent To Each Other

Yeah, that's pretty much how things are done now - an ill judged comment/hyperbole online and you have the faux-outrage Guardian brigade swarming around you in hoardes, demanding an end to your entire career and livelihood. Even an apology wasn't enough for this crowd, apparently - they're baying for the blood of some young lass intern.

I agree with the spirit of this but, at the same time, how often does this kind of thing need to happen before people realise that making public death threats or whatever via social media is likely to go badly for them?

Unfortunately, my commute now goes through the 2012 road route, which means I'm subjected to large amounts of utter twat inconsiderate cyclists.

You're sat encased in a tonne of metal, try having a bit of respect for other road users who aren't.

Yep, I don't think for a minute she was actually likely to try and run people down, but anything that appears to be a threat like that is always going to cause problems.

Struggling to know why the employer felt they needed to get involved. She tweeted from what is presumably a personal account, so all the employer jumping in has done is cause people to start calling for her to be fired.

What usually happens is that braying twats on the Internet dig up everything they can about the offender's personal and professional life and then start haranguing those involved, so to try and head off a shitstorm the employers usually post an apologetic message and then fire the individual.

Actually quite refreshing in this case that she wasn't immediately fired for it, which seems to be what normally happens - and I've often wondered whether that would fall foul of unfair dismissal rules (?)

Odd that these sorts of comments cause this kind of reaction when talking about groups like cyclists, yet if someone said "I hate Travelodge reception staff, they're all such cunts. I'm going to murder every single one of them and feed their bodies through the key slots on the check out desks" people wouldn't bat an eyelid

Probably because cyclists are killed every day on Britain's roads, and Travelodge staff aren't killed in their own hotels that often.

plus I guess there are more cyclists than travel lodge staff over all to get all riled up

I find in my daily life that a certain amount of cyclists and motorists (and pedestrians) are selfish and inconsiderate.

So , why can't we all just get along?

This is why, from August 26th, I'll no longer have an opinion about anything.

(Seriously though, it got pointed out to me in my final interview that it will suddenly become a very good idea to be somewhat careful about what I post online).

It should always be a very good idea to be somewhat careful about what you post online.

When a) The person in question has just moved to the front of a long queue of people and then proceeds to block the way up a narrow path with no passing ability while going at less than 10 mph, then yes, I'm going to think they're a twat. (particularly as this can then cause more fun at the level crossing as traffic hasn't been able to pass through.
b) When they dont use the (supposedly suitable for olympics bike races) cycle lane and proceed to block a busy A road, then similarly, I'm going to think they're an inconsiderate twat.

Driver's need to relax for the most part. So you don't get where you wanted to 10-15 seconds slower than you wanted to? Who gives a flying fuck. Just sit there and wait.

You could say exactly the same thing to a lot of cyclists, whether it is jumping lights, taking to pavements or the ridiculous fat-asred lycra goons clogging up roads out in the country riding in their shitty pelotons and pretending they're in the Tour De Fucking France.

The problem isn't with motorists or with cyclists it's with cunts in cars and cunts on bikes.

True but just like Myp has already said the cunts in cars are more likely to cause serious injury to cyclists by aggresive and inconsiderate driving than a cyclist will ever cause to a motorist.

"Oh I've scratched your car."

"Oh I've accidentally quadraspazzed you."

Except it's not 10-15 seconds.
Last thursday I was stuck behind some twunt in sky lycra for 2.5 miles. Going at about 10-15mph on 40/unrestricted road. That's _not_ a small delay. Its also clear from that distance that I didn't try and force things in so doing risk injuring said twat, thanks.

I know what it's like to ride a bike - you can tell when someones been following you for a while, and it's perfectly possible for you to get out of the way. I do, so do many others. But there are some who don't, and they're, as previous, inconsiderate twats.

Indeed. My personal favorite is where you have two lycra-shod twats (with fat arses - time to step up the speed a bit, huh?) riding abreast at 8-10mph, on a relatively narrow country lane, refusing to go back to single file and let the long line of waiting cars safely pass. They don't even move when you blast them with your horn at point blank range; in fact this often illicits a hostile response from them and they still refuse to move. What is the point, or justification for stuff like this? If I rode like that as a kid and my old man got wind of it, I wouldn't have been able to sit down for a week and my bike would have its wheels removed as a punishment for at least that long. I'm an occasional cyclist myself but I wouldn't dream of making such an idiotic nuisance of myself to other road users, not least because I am aware of my vulnerability sat atop a thin metal frame on wheels. I mean FFS, it's common sense. (Nor do I ride on pavements and haven't done so since I was about six, and, y'know, I obey and observe basic traffic signals and road sense).

To my mind, these twats deserve their reputation as an absolute irritation and menace. You can't tar all cyclists with this brush, but this militant, boorish, sky-lycra wearing twat element seems to be getting larger by proportion every week that passes.

I regularly piss off motorists behind me because I will NOT overtake a cyclist unless I can give at least three-quarters of a car's width room.

In Shrewsbury town centre most of the streets are narrow enough that if you get stuck behind a cyclist you're stuffed, but I don't care - adds seconds to the journey.

Some of the overtakes I've seen... it's amazing that more people aren't hurt.

The highway code says you're meant to give the same amount of room to overtaking cyclists as you would a car.

https://www.gov.uk/using-the-road-159-t ... 162-to-169

163.

I never ever get cross about cyclists' actions on the road, because (their) life is too short.

I don't give cars as much room as I do cyclists - on a two lane single carriageway it's not even possible (usually, at least round here) to give three-quarters of a car width when overtaking cars, as you'd be in the hedge if you do.

Cars aren't massively prone to wobbly changes of direction though, as many cyclists around here seem to be. Case in point was an elderly woman cycling that I passed this morning, I was about to pass when she suddenly wobbled out right in front of the car with no warning.

Fair point Myp, and for the record I always give cyclists loads of room, irrespective of whether or not they've been dicks, rude, stupid or whatever. Life's too short, and I'm a motorcyclist of 30 years' standing so know better than most about inconsiderate car drivers.

But FFS, if you're going to quote the Highway Code, this has plenty to say about jumping red lights, riding on pavements full of pedestrians, undertaking wagons on their blind left sides and all the other idiotic, stupid things that cyclists, of relatively late, seem to think is their 'right' to do.

If, as a pedestrian, I drop a fag butt or chewing gum, I can get fined £100 on the spot, even though this is hardly going to cause traffic jams, possible accidents or even kill someone. If I do something stupid on my motorbike or car, like jump a red light, I'm in much worse trouble. So, how come cyclists are able to do stuff like this with impunity? It's bollocks - they should face on the spot fines if over 18, or a stern caution in the case of a kid or teenager. This shit needs to stop.

If you assume that the HR department will see everything you post, and act accordingly you generally won't go too far wrong.

We had someone here post something along the lines of "Stuck on a fucking customer site because my stupid arse of a boss won't let me go home early" and he was most offended when someone screenshotted it and dropped him in it.

Some cyclists are dicks, some are fine. I see a fuckload more terrible and dangerous drivers than I do cyclists. And a lot more deaths due to dangerous driving than dangerous cycling!

There was one of those on my commute.
She was meandering around the pavement on the opposite side and then veered across, trying to turn right onto my side of the road. When she realised there was traffic she wobbled to a halt and nearly fell off the bike, stood sideways across the lane with cars either side of her.

Poor bradley

I know mate, but really, did anyone honestly think this was an actual serious threat, as opposed to rather ill-judged hyperbole and/or a bad taste joke?

I've heard people say stuff like this many times, read it many times on the internet, had loads of rows and heated arguments etc. This was via the personal twitter account of this individual as Cras has noted, not some corporate website.

Plenty of people piss me off online (as I, no doubt, do them as well), but y'know, it's never crossed my mind to cyber-stalk the names of my protagonists' *employers* and then try to ruin their entire career/livelihood/life because they've said something that offends me. We're talking about some young lass who's just starting out here, and young people say impetuous, ill-advised things sometimes but don't deserve to be destroyed overnight for it, by some nasty, baying, vindictive and grievance-hungry McCarthyite rent-a-crowd.

Hmmm. In preparation for getting my flat back in the coming weeks I just went into the bank to change my address with them. It's good that it was a lot more convenient than the bullshit I was expecting, but I'm not entirely convinced it should be as easy as simply handing the guy my bank card and telling him the new address. There were literally zero security checks apart from me giving him the physical card, which I could easily have stolen minutes beforehand.

Ahhh remember Fairplay? That *actually* happened. Mental.

Oh yes mate, indeed I do, though I doubt I know the full story.
Stu was broadly correct too; that man has more guts than just about anyone I know (as has Alex).

A dark day for Oxford. The £2 bookshop has raised its prices by 50%. Boo.

I'm not sure where else to dump this so: Thomas Was Alone's recent release for Android brought to my attention the fact that there was an expansion released for it called 'Benjamin's Flight' which includes, "a new script, voice over work and two new soundtrack compositions" and is a prequel of sorts to Thomas Was Alone. It's free as part of the original game if you've got the PC version and it's available for the PS3/Vita but I can't see whether it costs extra or not.

Is it safe to assume everyone in the world except me knew about this though?

Nope.

I can't help but think that was a poor choice of name.

They probably had to raise the prices to cover the cost of the impending name change.

Heh. They had the foresight not to call themselves that, but it's how everyone referred to it. But the '£3 or 2 for a fiver bookshop' is neither as satisfying to say or as convienant a way to dispose of loose change.

Does everyone here know of / listen to Cabin Pressure? It's a Radio 4 sitcom which is probably my favourite thing on the entire station.

It's one of those things I have heard bits of and laughed but I actually made the effort to listen to the first two series recently and it's really *really* good. Unfortunately it's not available on demand or anything so you'll have to Yarr or iTunes it but I would definitely recommend it.

Makes many a tedious car journey infinitely more bearable. Roger Allam can make the most innocent line incredibly funny and Benedict Cumberbatch speaks in some kind of high pitched voice which makes you completely forget it's him most of the time. Stephanie Cole plays to type somewhat but carries it off with aplomb and Jon Finnemore trying to learn the phonetic alphabet almost had me in tears last night while stuck on the M56.

If you like being amused then this is the kind of thing you will like.

I can never bring myself to listen to the sitcoms on the radio when I'm looking through the iPlayer for stuff to listen to (which is often) as I always assume they'll be a bit crap in that medium for some reason. I generally stick to satire, panel shows and stand-up stuff like The Now Show, The News Quiz, Listen Against and Mark Steel's shows. Excellently they've recently sometimes put up stuff from A Bit Of Fry & Laurie or That Mitchell and Webb Sound which are both brilliant. I do sometimes struggle for stuff to listen to though so I'll keep Cabin Pressure in mind.

Something seems to be fucked at the moment actually because the iPlayer website will initially offer only about nine radio comedy shows then, if you fuck about a bit with the categories, suddenly pages more stuff will appear but will just be whole seasons of old stuff (e.g. episodes of Chain Reaction stretching back to 2007).

The Now Show is possibly the worst thing on Radio 4. I'd rather listen to Thought for the Day.

The News Quiz, however, is awesome. As is the Mark Steel thing.

I've heard a couple of Cabin Pressure while decorating my house, and though it was great, but again never got round to tracking it all down. Will do so now.

I haven't heard it but I think I'd like to. Good work Trousers.

Cabin pressure is ace

What would you like them to do, get out of your way, rather than you being courtious?

MsKov say folks should ride once a month, it would make them better car drivers.

Yes.. As I said before, that's what I do when on a bike - if I'm aware I'm holding up traffic, I find ways to let them past. Because that's how to not be an arsehole. And I struggle to see how I'm being discourteous by waiting for a safe chance to pass, not sitting on their wheels, not revving engines or using my horn (although others were, unsurprisingly) even if it takes, as before, about 2.5 miles. I do, however, reserve the right to think that they are being giant arseholes and say as much.

For reference - https://www.google.co.uk/maps/dir/51.24 ... m0!1m0!3e0

Got caught at the level crossing at the southern part, Cyclist goes and sits at the front and then blocks the road for the entire route I've laid out there - which is all uphill so not quick for a cyclist. What should've taken about 8 minutes took over half an hour. If it were me I'd have been fucking mortified. And this is sadly not atypical behaviour.

I don't exactly find it unsurprising that such behaviour causes accidents. If you're the weakest person on the road it's perhaps not a good idea to deliberately piss people off. Because, you know, some drivers have similar attitudes to you, and some of them get very angry in cars.

For reference 2)https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@51.280867,-0.32667,3a,90y,150.34h,64.16t/data=!3m4!1e1!3m2!1sz5Y32gzpTeFmS-eqW2n9vA!2e0

See that cycle lane over on the left, with the huge safe zone between cars and bikes. Sadly Cyclists don't.

the cycle lanes round here would kill your bike, full of glass and gravel, pot holls, not work the injury or puncture.

Dave, you'd get just as annoyed with a tractor driving slowly up that hill as well, but it still has just as much right to be on the road as you (or a cyclist). Cyclists aren't going to stop to let traffic through on an uphill section - it's knackering to keep stopping and starting all the time on a climb! And as Kov and others have said, cycle paths are in such poor condition in this country it's more of a risk to use them, as all the debris swept off the centre of the roads ends up there.