Nuxx:4e343f8e$0$2540$da0feed9@news.zen.co.uk

Path: num2.nntp.dca.giganews.com!num1.nntp.dca.giganews.com!number.nntp.dca.giganews.com!border3.nntp.dca.giganews.com!border1.nntp.dca.giganews.com!nntp.giganews.com!goblin1!goblin2!goblin.stu.neva.ru!news.stack.nl!dedekind.zen.co.uk!zen.net.uk!hamilton.zen.co.uk!shaftesbury.zen.co.uk.POSTED!not-for-mail Message-ID: <4e343f8e$0$2540$da0feed9@news.zen.co.uk> From: Nuxx Bar  Newsgroups: uk.rec.cycling Subject: Re: Challenge for Simon Mason Date: Sat, 30 Jul 2011 18:29:48 +0100 References: <4e3417ce$0$2943$fa0fcedb@news.zen.co.uk>  Lines: 55 User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; Intel Mac OS X 10.7; en-US; rv:1.9.2.18) Gecko/20110616 Thunderbird/3.1.11 MIME-Version: 1.0 In-Reply-To:  Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Organization: Zen Internet NNTP-Posting-Host: 861321a1.news.zen.co.uk X-Trace: DXC=Y?7OkZV8kkR>j5bVn^?UPQnok4Z\ > "Nuxx Bar"  wrote in message > news:4e3417ce$0$2943$fa0fcedb@news.zen.co.uk... >> Please, without wriggling, provide Google Groups links to any post where >> you have ever complimented or said something nice about a motorist on >> uk.rec.cycling. >> >> (Obviously there are plenty where you have said something nice about a >> cyclist, so since you are not anti-motorist, I would expect there to >> also be a fair number where you have said something nice about a >> motorist...but it's funny, I just can't find any....) > > I searched the archives and this was the first I found. > From 27 April 1999. > "Speaking as a motorist, I have noticed that drivers, especially lorry > drivers, will give cyclists more than enough respect on the road. In the > main, they are patient and courteous to cyclists, if the cyclists behave > according to the highway code. The trouble starts when cyclists abuse the > laws of the road. > > > The next time a driver encounters a cyclist ignoring the rules of the > road, he or she is likely to think "If you can't be bothered to wait at a > red light, then I can't be bothered to give you enough room on the road". > "If you can't be bothered to have lights on then I can't be bothered to see > you if I'm coming out of a junction." > > > If I wasn't also a cyclist, I would have a very poor opinion of most of > them. I was walking down a busy narrow pavement the other day and had to > jump out of the way of a cyclist at full speed who sped past. When I > shouted after him and pointed out that it was a pavement, I got a mouthful > of abuse. This road had a dedicated cycle lane! I had helped to pay for > this facility. In my opinion, cyclists get more than a fair deal." > > ENDS

Fair enough I suppose. That was a while ago though, and I think your attitude towards motorists has hardened in the meantime. Every time you start a topic like "A Good Samaritan helps out", I just know that the "good guy" in question is going to be a cyclist and not a motorist...and I'm right, aren't I? Whereas if you start a topic that's negative about someone then that someone is invariably a motorist.

> Would you like me to ask YOU questions about your posting history? > No wriggling now.

You're quite welcome to ask a question of the form "Please provide Google Groups links to any post where you have ever [...]". What would be less useful is "Why did you say [xxx] about Chapman?" or "Why do you hate cyclists?" (especially since I don't "hate cyclists"). We could rebuke each other over supposedly "unacceptable" posts all day. But if there's something which you think I "should" have been doing, and you want me to provide examples of where I've done it, then fire away.