Forum Topic

Jeremy Vine ends cycling commute posts

I've never been a huge fan of Jeremy Vine's approach to cycling with its emphasis on conflict with other drivers and danger to people on a bike. My personal view is that this can be counterproductive and that the best way to encourage people to cycling is to tell them how safe and stress free it generally is even in an urban London environment. That said we'd both agree that the more people that cycle the better and perhaps my approach is dictated more by me wanting to avoid conflict rather than any proper assessment of how effective it is.The question of the legacy of his posts is a tricky one. The reach of Twitter is probably much exaggerated. I don't visit it much now but when I do his posts often pop up. It is likely that the millions of views recorded are from a relatively small bunch of people on each side of the debate getting very worked up about them. There always seemed to be very low engagement for his posts when there clearly was a case of very bad driving but lots of traction when he was essentially aggressively enforcing his right of way and was annoyed a driver had forced him to slow for a fraction of a second.While the abuse that he got was unacceptable, it is not atypical for that seen on Twitter these days with its almost total lack of moderation. He was actively courting controversy so he must have known what was coming but I think he is right to walk away now.Overall, despite my reservations about his methods, I think he has made life safer for cyclists in London. The claim that he has made people hate people on bikes doesn't stand up. The people who describe themselves as cyclists on their social media profile do a good job of generating hostility on their own and they are a tiny sub-set of those who actually ride a bike on a daily basis. My own experience has been that motorists have become much more considerate of cyclists and aware of the rules of the road with regard to bikes over the last decade. That may in part be due to the rise of the Go Pro and awareness that any encounter might be filmed but Jeremy's posts will have served to reinforce that so I think they have served to make our roads safer for all if not actually saved lives.

Mark Evans ● 15d39 Comments

WOW!  How profound.

Steve Taylor ● 12d

Ain't no lie, if you're fat you're going to die. 

John Hall ● 12d

“But the cycling lobby have achieved so much now, and the governmentjust follows their agenda.”Fortunately this government is doing such a bad job that no serious person follows their agenda or could be bothered to listen to all their lies

Steve Taylor ● 12d

“My thought is that the BBCs recent focus and pronouncements on the behaviour they expect from their talent may not be unconnected to Jeremy’s decision to desist.”I think you are 100% spot on. The BBC has been under considerable pressure from Parliament to clean up its act regarding their broadcasters’ behaviour where they seem to think they can do what they like and say what they like. The public won’t put up with bullying behaviour anymore and it’s quite possible the BBC told Vine to stop his nonsense which antagonises licence fee payers. I suspect that his nonsense has caused ratings to drop.

Steve Taylor ● 12d

“ Specifically him filming cyclists riding four abreast, and then posting 'Sunday morning in the country. Absolutely no problem with this at all. This is exactly how cyclists should ride. They're calming the traffic behind them.' This received a number of complaints, many of them from other cyclists who saw the comment as promoting dangerous driving, as it could encourage people to take risks.”It is 100% promoting dangerous driving and 100% encouraging cyclists to contriving the Highway Code which specifically calls for riders to ride in single file if cars are trying to overtake them.

Steve Taylor ● 12d

Thank you Richard.

Janice Evans ● 12d

Paul.and Jeremy supported each other’s posts on Twitter regularly, in the past. Whether they are ‘friends’ is another matter, but they were allies. My thought is that the BBCs recent focus and pronouncements on the behaviour they expect from their talent may not be unconnected to Jeremy’s decision to desist. Who knows? But the cycling lobby have achieved so much now, and the governmentjust follows their agenda.

Jackie Elton ● 13d

I've bumped it for you, Janice.

Richard Greenhough ● 13d

I wonder if Jeremy V was good friends with Paul ?

Anna Kirkpatrick ● 13d

Don't know how the find the post, search never works for me.

Janice Evans ● 13d

Ah thank you , i must have missed that one.

Janice Evans ● 13d

That was in response to Janice ........

Mark Talbot ● 13d

Conveniently disappeared since his post on 23/12/24 @ 22:44 on "Sofas by Saxon have vacated the premises" stating "You've had your warning. The post is taken down by 31st Dec or you are engaged with the solicitor".  The post is still up .........

Mark Talbot ● 13d

"And yet his posts have included encouraging cyclists to ride four abreast 'as a traffic calming measure'"Can you advise where Vine actually said that, Mark ?

Richard Greenhough ● 13d

Just to clarify, my original post referred to one of the many comments made by Vine over the years that was deemed to encourage both anti cycling sentiments and dangerous road use. Specifically him filming cyclists riding four abreast, and then posting 'Sunday morning in the country. Absolutely no problem with this at all. This is exactly how cyclists should ride. They're calming the traffic behind them.' This received a number of complaints, many of them from other cyclists who saw the comment as promoting dangerous driving, as it could encourage people to take risks.I also make a point of sticking to the facts when posting here.

Mark Edwards ● 13d

“ My own experience has been that motorists have become much more considerate of cyclists and aware of the rules of the road with regard to bikes over the last decade.”It’s such a pity that cyclists have become much more inconsiderate of motorists and pedestrians over the last decade and that so many of them are either totally  unaware of the rules of the road and the Highway Code or are aggressively ignoring them.

Steve Taylor ● 13d

“(which we really can't as much of what you say on this forum turns out to be untrue) “Nothing I state on this forum is untrue but carry on being abusive and I never stated that Vine encouraged people to ride 4 abreast. I was merely responding to Mark Edwards’ post of 29/4 @ 22:04 hours.

Steve Taylor ● 13d

And it's not up to him or 4 cyclists to decide when,how and where traffic needs calming.

Keith Iddon ● 13d

Your understanding of the Highway Code is wrong. It states that cyclists 'should' ride in single file on narrow or busy roads. That means it is advised against but not illegal to ride two abreast. Assuming Jeremy Vine actually did state that cyclists should ride four abreast as a traffic calming measure (which we really can't as much of what you say on this forum turns out to be untrue) that is clearly a daft idea unless a group of cyclists is trying to indicate to approaching motorists that they shouldn't overtake due to oncoming traffic.

Mark Evans ● 13d

“ And yet his posts have included encouraging cyclists to ride four abreast 'as a traffic calming measure',”My understanding of the Highway Code is that if there are motor vehicles using the road and wanting to overtake cyclists, it’s illegal for cyclists to ride two abreast. They are supposed to slip into single file until the motor vehicles have passed so it seems that Vine has been encouraging cyclists to act dangerously and illegally?  As for encouraging cyclists to ride on pavements, that’s just selfish, careless and arrogantly dangerous, not to mention plain stupid.

Steve Taylor ● 13d

I think Vine has a book to sell at the moment.

Roger Talbot ● 14d

With Paul you have to divert him off the path he is trying to take you down, plead ignorance and talk rubbish, he then loses interest.

Janice Evans ● 14d

Jeremy has quite consciously acted as a provocateur and done so with a manner that must be designed to annoy people. His tone is smug and supercilious and this has, not surprisingly, brought many who disagree with him to spluttering anger. This way of advancing an argument is nothing new and many people have used it very effectively. One example that comes to mind is Peter Tatchell. He had things to say that were very challenging to many people and didn't seek to sweeten the pill by being charming about it. However, when we look back, we can see there wasn't anybody as effective at promoting the gay rights as him. Whether Jeremy has had any success is hard to say. Social media is not fertile ground for changing minds as it seems to tend to harden existing views rather then encouraging people to reconsider them.As for Paul, he remains active on X in a group of middle aged men engaged in a endlessly repeating cycle of argument about cycling.

Francis Rowe ● 14d

I was in Chiswick on Monday morning and saw two cyclists  at different times on the footpath,one merrily weaving his way in and out of pedestrians whilst holding a conversation on his phone.I suppose a third of the highway isn't enough for prats like him.

Keith Iddon ● 14d

Interesting to read how his aim was to educate people, and encourage debate, not abuse. And yet his posts have included encouraging cyclists to ride four abreast 'as a traffic calming measure', to cycle on pavements 'if safe to do so', and even not to feel obliged to use cycle lanes. He has also said it should be illegal for cars to overtake cyclists in town centres. A lot of his posts on X clearly showed him getting into antagonistic situations with drivers that could have easily been avoided, and then posting the results. This obviously was going to fuel any negative feelings towards cyclists. Imagine if one of us went out with a camera with the intention of naming and shaming every cyclist either riding on a pavement, through a red light or not stopping at a zebra crossing? I reckon one could post over 100 times a day, assuming you weren't given a dry slap for your troubles.

Mark Edwards ● 14d

🙊

Janice Evans ● 15d

Hush, Janice - if you say his name too often it will call him back, like Beetlejuice.

Richard Greenhough ● 15d

He thought I was posting under a fake name,  I would never have chosen such a boring name.

Janice Evans ● 15d

likely posting under a different name to hide his shame !

Anna Kirkpatrick ● 15d

Talking of cycling, where is Paul ?

Janice Evans ● 15d

he pushed Big Pharma poison and now Karma is chasing after him..

Anna Kirkpatrick ● 15d

sadly for Jeremy he has discovered that bike thieves are so common in Chiswick and so well tooled that no reasonably expensive bike is safe - if they can see the bike they can steal it, the only issue is how long will it take

Justin Stephenson ● 15d

he was a shill for big pharma.

Anna Kirkpatrick ● 15d

He speaks very highly of you Claire.

Chris Blackwell ● 15d

The less we see and hear of that odious spiteful man the better.

Claire Moran ● 15d

The front page news story has a photo of the thief taking the bike - https://www.chiswickw4.com/default.asp?section=info&page=conjeremyvine005.htm

Richard Greenhough ● 15d

I assume it wasn't the penny farthing that was stolen then?

Andrew Jones ● 15d

I'm not a fan of Jeremy Vine but I'm sorry to see that his bike has been stolen by a brazen thief. I wonder whether he had any ID on the bike which might help him to recover it ?

Richard Greenhough ● 15d

He has a rather self righteous approach that people find annoying, and I'm a cyclist.

Mark Frost ● 15d