VeloCast

An article on the road.cc website yesterday hightlights what wrong with “us” just as much as what’s wrong with “them”.

Firstly, I really like Road.cc.  It’s a great website, usually full of well-written articles.  But the piece published on the 19th of February titled ‘Naughty cyclists’ doc presented by former Top Gear man, had me reaching for that most pithy of bart Simpson quotes; “this both sucks AND blows”.

The piece looks ahead to a regional BBC programme containing a report by former Top Gear presenter, Adrian Simpson, asking; “With one in five cyclists riding roughshod over the law, has pedal power gone too far?”.  It freely admits that “details of the programme are sketchy at the moment” and that they’re “not really sure which set of cycling-related crime statistics Mr Simpson is referring to”.  Road.cc goes on to assert that the programme will “present a fair and accurate picture of cycling in London of the sort you’d expect from a former presenter of Top Gear.”

However, it’s not the contention in Tom Henry’s post that the BBC programme will be as biased as its’ title suggests.  That’s the problem television has always had with presenting what are, essentially, “Op-Ed”  pieces – the lines between what is news and what is opinion are often dangerously blurred. No, it’s that in the proceeding paragraphs he goes on to consign Adrian Simpson, along with other former Top Gear presenters Vicki Butler-Henderson and Tiff Needell, to the ‘where-are-they-now’ file – victims of the BBC revamp that saw Jeremy Clarkson return to “ride roughshod over anything that doesn’t belong in his world”.

All, arguably, true.  But if the BBC wants to get swept along with the Daily Mail and every other internet troll trying to start a tide of “US versus…”, we shouldn’t be so keen to retract into being the “THEM” that such protagonists so cravenly seek.  It’s both pointless and stupid, leads to nothing more than retreating to intractable positions and willfully ignores where we all go wrong.  Do people do stupid, dangerous things in cars on a daily basis?  Of course they do.  Do people do equally stupid, dangerous things whilst on a bike on any given day too?  You bet your lycra clad ass they do!

And before you start snorting with the kind of righteous indignation normally reserved for nerds pointing out a plot inconsistencies at Star Trek convention, yes, I know all the arguments about cars and how much damage they can do.  I’m not here to defend the automobile.  But by the same token I have no wish or desire to blindly defend cyclists with facile, deprecatory remarks on the careers of TV Presenters.  Nor should Road.cc or Tom Henry.  Nor should you.

Here’s a notion: how about, instead of petty mud-slinging, we wait until after the programme has aired and then judge it on it’s merits?  Here’s a link in case you want to watch it on or after the 22nd of Feb.