In a YouTube clip, watched more than 250,000 times, a white Audi saloon is seen edging into the advanced stop lane – a space at traffic lights designed to give cyclists a head-start on motorists.
The suited cyclist then approaches the vehicle, a white Audi saloon, to point out the area is a cycle lane, at which point the lights change and the car speeds off.
The description under the YouTube video, captured by the headcam of a 26-year-old magazine editor called Jude, says the driver “possibly” runs over his foot.
Both the cyclist and filming rider eventually catch up with the Audi at the next set of lights, where Jude turns around just in time for his headcam to capture a man – who appears to have got out the car – punching the cyclist in the face and pushing him into a nearby taxi.Hmmm, something missing from that bland verbatim description of the video, methinks…
Jude, who asked not to be named, has reported the incident to the police and is now calling for the victim to come forward.
The keen cyclist said: “I am surprised that it has got this many hits - I put it up purely to find the cyclist and make a statement that this kind of thing is unacceptable.
“We are seeing an increased use of these cameras now due to the safety that they create. It takes away the ‘your word against mine’. ”Yes, it also shows when the so-called ‘victim’ has proven to be the author of his own misfortune. Doesn't it, Jude?
H/T: David Vance via Twitter
15 comments:
We don't see the full video, there is clearly some footage missing between where the cyclist(s) have caught up with the Audi and where the car passenger has allegedly punched the cyclist and knocked him over. The 'victim' has clearly lost the plot, acting extremely aggressively to the driver - we cannot hear what he is shouting. I just think the cyclist is a typically arrogant urban cyclist who got himself wound up into a self righteous rage and didn't consider the consequences of making threats. Maybe the Audi occupants felt that the cyclist would cause injury or damage to them or the car? The car driver commits an offence entering the box when the lights are red but that doesn't excuse the bonkers behaviour of the cyclistNow more public money is going to be wasted on an incident that should be left to lie where it is.
"...Yes, it also shows when the so-called ‘victim’ has proven to be the author of his own misfortune. Doesn't it, Jude?..."
No it doesn't. Unless you think that it's fine for motorists to harass other road users and that any objection to the harassment is worthy of a punch in the face.
And the cyclist appears to possibly break the speed limit in his attempt to catch up with the car that had the 'head start'.
Wouldn't it be ironic if his own head-cam was used as evidence in a 'speeding' prosecution?
I wager you lost count of the number of times you gloated over replays of the video, Julia.
Had the recent scene of a firearms plod mistaking his limb for a table leg been similarly immortalised, the YouTube hits would have certainly gone viral.
Well you learn something new every day. I thought these things were so cyclists turning at the junction have room to get around cars etc.
If the object of the exercise is for cyclists to line up 15 abreast and slow the flow of traffic, what fucking pleb thought that one up?
I personally think the abusive cyclist was lucky to only receive a well deserved smack in the mouth, and before all the cyclists out there start, if it was the other way round, and a lone cyclist was surrounded by 15 car drivers and and a driver started shouting abuse, and then chased him down and started abusing him some more and the cyclist smacked him in the mouth, I'd come to the same conclusion, the driver asked for everything he got.
If he had fronted me up like that, he would have got worse.
If you are threatened like that "prick" did (his words) you are allowed a pre-emptive strike.
Self defence.
The council around here are spending thousands on cycle lanes (what cuts ?) and guess what the assholes don't use them. When I slowed down to advise them that riding 3 abreast and not in the cycle lane was "wrong" I was told to "fuck off wanker". Then when one gets injured or even worse the Demon drivers are evil and should be all locked up.
Yup, he brought it upon himself. What he should have done, was ignore it. Chasing after the offender and then shouting at him was asking for trouble and the smack in the mouth was a predictable outcome. But, then, that is what happens when you let your self-righteousness overcome your sense of survival. This is one of those situations where you want both parties to lose.
xX pushing him into a nearby taxi.XX
Hope he was carrying enough to pay the fare.
Was on the motorbike once when one of these bastards "cut me up."
NMext traffic lights, stopped alongside.
Lights ghanged, hand grasping cyclists saddle and GO!
I was doing 70 before I let it go.
If he had snuffed it?
Na so what?
If you are threatened like that "prick" did (his words) you are allowed a pre-emptive strike.
If he gets out of the car to protect his property (the car) then feels threatened - correct. This may well be what happened.
I don't think a bicycle can'speed' but it can be 'ridden furiously'
"Was on the motorbike...NMext traffic lights, stopped alongside. Lights ghanged, hand grasping cyclists saddle and GO! I was doing 70 before I let it go."
Outrageous fantasy. Another improbable yarn filched from the Baron von Munchausen collection.
Presumably one of those radical ideological cyclists for whom leg-powered transport isn't just a means of getting around, it's a crusade against the system.
It all started in the 1970s with the appearance of a certain cohort of women who ferried their children around on gigantic, intimidating tricycles. They ate wholefoods, and made their own clothes, and their legs were as stout as trees.
I remember. I was there.
"The 'victim' has clearly lost the plot, acting extremely aggressively to the driver..."
And in London especially, that's risky.
"Unless you think that it's fine for motorists to harass other road users..."
'I wouldn't call that 'harassment' any more than I'd call a pat on the bum 'rape'.
"I wager you lost count of the number of times you gloated over replays of the video, Julia."
Just three times.
"But, then, that is what happens when you let your self-righteousness overcome your sense of survival."
Exactly!
"Hope he was carrying enough to pay the fare."
:D
"Presumably one of those radical ideological cyclists for whom leg-powered transport isn't just a means of getting around, it's a crusade against the system."
Yes, indeed.
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