somebody appears to be a typical cyclist. equivalent sense of humour as a turnip.
Yes, well you see this is a silly thing to say. There is no such thing as a
typical cyclist, any more than there is a typical electrician, or a typical car driver, or a typical pedestrian. Cyclists are just people; they are doctors, nurses, mums, dads, aunts and uncles. Kids, tradespeople, checkout staff, solicitors, the list goes on. Trying to suggest that these people that get around sometimes on a bike are some sort of homogenous group of humourless bores, is silly. Over 80% of UK adults that use bikes regularly are drivers too. I go to work, I have a family, I have down-to-earth mates that I go to the pub with, so probably no different to anybody else. I also ride a bike sometimes.
You really do need to get over this idea that people that get around on bikes are any different to anyone else, they are just people, some nice, some not so nice, some with a sense of humour, some without.
when cyclists pay towards the upkeep of the roads...
Let me just stop you there, people on bikes do pay for the roads. Roads are funded through general taxation, road tax being abolished in 1937 by Winston Churchill, so that people using cars didn't feel that they were any more entitled to the roads than others, like people on bikes, people walking, or people riding horses. Remember that these groups have a right to the roads by law and that cyclists, incidentally, were the first to campaign for hard surfaced roads, they then shared those roads with people in cars and, what was the upshot of this? Well people in cars got the wrong end of the stick over the years and thought that they had some sort of right to the roads over everybody else. This can be seen when these people come out with things like this:
... they are quite entitled to block country lanes 3 abreast causung a mile long tailback. ( oh, sugar, they already do ).
You see , these people are not blocking roads, they are
using roads to get to somewhere, just like people in cars. The fact that they are sometimes 3 abreast is neither here nor there, it is not illegal, not dangerous, and you can just use the other lane to overtake if you need to, just as you would overtake any other slow moving vehicle. In fact overtaking a group of 3 abreast is much easier than 3 in a longer line as you spend less time in the other lane.
So, I hope that clears things up.
Ta,
Nick.
