At no time did I attack a poor little motorist, defenceless in their two-tonne steel box. I responded to a letter attacking cyclists, ascribing anything the writer has ever seen a cyclist do wrong to every cyclist on the road. A practice which has the potential to seriously endanger them. There are nut jobs out there who think this sort of bicycle-hating bigotry gives them permission to run bikes off the road.
W B (I seem to have forgotten what I wrote) Crompton tells us he’s not impatient with cyclists or complaining about overtaking them. Courage, his word, is only needed if there is fear. If there is fear when overtaking a cyclist it’s probably because it’s happening in a really stupid place where using the brake would be a better idea than using the accelerator. However there are motorists out there who would feel emasculated to not overtake a bike and I suspect W B (I never done nuffin’) Crompton is one of them.
There is no doubt motorists pay an inordinate amount to use the roads. In fact I think they are being ripped off. To respond to being ripped off by saying others should be ripped off too is not okay. We are all taxpayers, we all pay for the roads and bicycles don’t damage them at all.
I’m as unimpressed with having my bum ogled by W B (I think I may need glasses) Crompton as he eventually is. In fact I would rather not share the road with him and his kind, mercifully rare in this shire. The rail trail and more bike paths might have him a lot less pissed off.
Robin Harrison, Binna Burra
