{"id":4021,"date":"2023-08-14T11:09:10","date_gmt":"2023-08-14T10:09:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hedgehogcycling.co.uk\/wp\/?p=4021"},"modified":"2023-12-22T14:06:59","modified_gmt":"2023-12-22T14:06:59","slug":"endangered-species","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hedgehogcycling.co.uk\/wp\/2023\/08\/14\/endangered-species\/","title":{"rendered":"Endangered Species"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h1 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span style=\"color:#D06060\">Endangered Species<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-post-date\"><time datetime=\"2023-08-14T11:09:10+01:00\">14 August 2023<\/time><\/div>\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"848\" height=\"584\" src=\"https:\/\/hedgehogcycling.co.uk\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/Screen-Shot-2023-08-13-at-18.21.11.png\" alt=\"Red light at the bottom of Victoria Avenue\" class=\"wp-image-4022\" srcset=\"https:\/\/hedgehogcycling.co.uk\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/Screen-Shot-2023-08-13-at-18.21.11.png 848w, https:\/\/hedgehogcycling.co.uk\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/Screen-Shot-2023-08-13-at-18.21.11-300x207.png 300w, https:\/\/hedgehogcycling.co.uk\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/Screen-Shot-2023-08-13-at-18.21.11-768x529.png 768w, https:\/\/hedgehogcycling.co.uk\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/Screen-Shot-2023-08-13-at-18.21.11-600x413.png 600w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 848px) 100vw, 848px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Red light at the bottom of Victoria Avenue<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8216;You&#8217;re an endangered species&#8217;, a man told me yesterday. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He appeared to worse for wear as he crossed the junction where I was waiting for the lights to turn green. &#8216;You&#8217;re an endangered species&#8217;, he repeated. &#8216;A cyclist waiting at the lights.&#8217;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Then I cottoned on. He was parroting the trope about people on bikes and red lights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I run a cycle cam because I&#8217;m regularly put in danger by bad drivers. I have the man&#8217;s comments on video, but I won&#8217;t publish it here as:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>he had been drinking, and we&#8217;ve all said things we regret when drunk<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>he intended it as friendly banter, even though it was misjudged and crass<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>It was irritating for these reasons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">1) The Trope is Largely False<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>I find it astonishing that when a drunk person sees someone riding a bike, the first thought that pops into their head is jumping red lights. In Harrogate it is very largely rubbish.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Riding around town the other people I see on bikes are at least as law-abiding as drivers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">2) Why Was it the First Thing he Thought of?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>The logical next question, then, is why was it the first thing he thought of?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We appear to have a huge cultural problem around cycling, where negative tropes have been absorbed by a big percentage of the population.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The right-wing rags are largely to blame for this, and the anti-cycling mob in the comments of any online platform. Saying something about red lights is a good way to throw mud at people on bikes, and try to persuade others that all the road space should be hoarded by drivers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Meanwhile <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/uk-wales-66490869\">the daily carnage caused by drivers<\/a> is ignored, or regarded as just one of those things. <a href=\"https:\/\/hedgehogcycling.co.uk\/wp\/2023\/01\/18\/motonormativity\/\">Motonormativity<\/a> does its thing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"600\" height=\"400\" src=\"https:\/\/hedgehogcycling.co.uk\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/RLJ-600.jpg\" alt=\"RLJ graphic\" class=\"wp-image-4026\" srcset=\"https:\/\/hedgehogcycling.co.uk\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/RLJ-600.jpg 600w, https:\/\/hedgehogcycling.co.uk\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/RLJ-600-300x200.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">RLJ graphic<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">3) Unsolicited Comments from Strangers<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>If I&#8217;m out with my camera photographing wildlife, strangers take that as permission to start a conversation. &#8216;Have you seen anything interesting?&#8217;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>That&#8217;s fine, as long as they&#8217;re not scaring off the animals and birds. At least it&#8217;s friendly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Does riding a bike also automatically give people permission to approach you? If so, the unsolicited comments should at least be polite.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">4) This Was Not Polite<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>I didn&#8217;t find this man&#8217;s comment polite. He was essentially criticising me for something I wasn&#8217;t doing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I&#8217;ve had similar before. On a quiet country road, I made a lady walking her dog aware of my presence using my bell. She told me, &#8216;at least you&#8217;ve got a bell&#8217;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>What do you mean, at least I&#8217;ve got a bell? Are we saying that I&#8217;ve slightly ameliorated the inherent evil of my riding a bicycle by possessing a device that goes ding ding?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">5) A Minority Form of Transport<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Impolite comments and hostile attitudes result from the fact that getting around by bike is still a minority activity. That allows people to &#8216;other&#8217; and &#8216;out-group&#8217; you, and make generalisations about what all cyclists are like.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The same mentality has it that we all know each other and meet each other at the regular cyclists&#8217; meetings; and that everyone on a bike is responsible for the behaviour of everyone else on a bike &#8211; which doesn&#8217;t apply to any other form of transport.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>People who cause carnage while driving give themselves a bad reputation, not every other driver in the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Great Train Robbers are not thought to blacken the names of other rail passengers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Once cycling becomes more mainstream, the &#8216;othering&#8217; will stop. If someone does something wrong while riding a bike, they will be a person who did something wrong, not a &#8220;cyclist&#8221; who did something wrong.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We also need to reach the point where cycle infrastructure is as uncontroversial as water pipes or electricity cables.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">6) Illegal Behaviour by Drivers at that Very Junction<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>What really got my goat is that the particular junction where I was waiting is the scene of tens of road traffic offences a day &#8211; by drivers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n<video controls=\"controls\" height=\"400\" width=\"600\"> <source src=\"https:\/\/hedgehogcycling.co.uk\/left-turn-only-beech-grove.mp4\" type=\"video\/mp4\"><\/video>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Endangered Species &#8216;You&#8217;re an endangered species&#8217;, a man told me yesterday. He appeared to worse for wear as he crossed the junction where I was waiting for the lights to turn green. &#8216;You&#8217;re an endangered species&#8217;, he repeated. &#8216;A cyclist<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4023,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[127,36],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4021","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-rlj","category-utility-cycling"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hedgehogcycling.co.uk\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4021","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hedgehogcycling.co.uk\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hedgehogcycling.co.uk\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hedgehogcycling.co.uk\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hedgehogcycling.co.uk\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4021"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/hedgehogcycling.co.uk\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4021\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4031,"href":"https:\/\/hedgehogcycling.co.uk\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4021\/revisions\/4031"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hedgehogcycling.co.uk\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4023"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hedgehogcycling.co.uk\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4021"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hedgehogcycling.co.uk\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4021"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hedgehogcycling.co.uk\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4021"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}