Jeremy Vine is not a c*nt but I’m glad he’s stopped posting his cycling videos

Broadcaster Jeremy Vine has announced he will no longer post cycling videos on social media due to the abuse he receives.

For the past decade Vine - who cycles to work in London wearing a helmet camera - has been posting clips that purport to show evidence of poor or even dangerous driving that puts cyclists like him at risk of serious injury.

Some of the clips, as I have previously conceded, are truly gobsmacking. Sometimes however they suggest (to me) that the cyclist is at fault but Vine often seemed blind to this, preferring to point the finger at the driver.

Six years ago he blocked me on Twitter after I suggested - not impolitely - that had he waited a few seconds the situation that developed might have been avoided.

I specifically didn’t condone the abuse he received from the driver of the van he had an issue with, but I felt it was too easy to criticise the driver rather than accept some responsibility himself.

A few years ago, as part of a longer post, I had this to say about cyclists:

Some are either oblivious to the rules of the road or they seem to think the onus is exclusively on the driver of a car, bus or lorry to avoid any accidents.

Frankly I don’t care if cyclists go through red lights if the road is clear. That’s one of the perks of riding a bike.

What does bother me is when cyclists undertake or don’t slow down for moving vehicles that may obstruct their path.

A couple of years ago I had a small disagreement about this with Jeremy Vine on Twitter and he blocked me!

That said a lot about the attitude of some cyclists and their refusal to accept even the mildest suggestion that the driver might not be wholly to blame.

Recently there was another spat on Twitter when a video was posted showing a close encounter between a Waitrose delivery lorry that was in one lane and a cyclist who was in another.

It was clear from the video that the lorry driver had never left his lane and had done nothing wrong but despite that (and the fact that no-one got hurt) there was the usual blame game.

Waitrose, I'm pleased to say, stood by their man and after examining the evidence exonerated him of any fault.

I'm sure there are many cyclists who are more sinned against than sinning (this week I was in a black cab that came perilously close to a cyclist who took umbrage and shouted at the driver) but the Waitrose lorry incident highlighted the worst side of the more extreme cycling fraternity.

As I say, I don’t condone the abuse Vine has received, but I’m glad he has decided to stop posting his cycling videos because not only was there something holier-than-thou about them, I’m not a fan of vigilante cyclists targeting London’s ‘dangerous’ drivers.

Poor driving shouldn’t be tolerated, and reckless drivers should be prosecuted, but there are a substantial number of irresponsible cyclists out there too, and while they generally can’t do as much harm as a badly driven car or lorry, they have a responsibility to use the roads we share with due care and attention too.

The irony is that I have been on Jeremy Vine’s Radio 2 show several times - the last time earlier this month - and I have always found him to be a fair and impartial interviewer.

On this issue however he seems to have a blind spot and if he thought my comment was worthy of blocking me I can’t imagine how many other people he must have blocked - tens of thousands at least!

See: Jeremy Vine ‘stopping cycling videos’ due to abuse he receives (Guardian), How Jeremy Vine became Britain’s most hated cyclist (Telegraph)