Jeremy Vile is, perhaps, the worst possible advocate for cycling. A pompous, self-righteous arsehole who will actively put himself in harm’s way to prove a point and get footage for his absurd online clicks. A thoroughly nasty little man. This incident is an example – where, perhaps, he nearly went too far.
This is the moment that Jeremy Vine banged on the door of a van after he claimed it took an illegal right turn on a busy London street.
The broadcaster, who is also an avid cyclist, posted footage of the incident from this morning to X, formerly known as Twitter, with the caption: ‘This morning. About an hour ago. Illegal right turn, then watch. Unbelievable.’
The video showed Vine cycling down a road before entering a junction where a white van can be seen driving towards him on the other side of the road.
The vehicle then turns right across the path of Vine forcing him to stop and repeatedly honk his bike horn.
He then gets behind the van, which begins reversing into him and Vine then uses both hands to slam the back of the truck to make it stop.
Oddly enough, I had someone reverse into me a few months back. The traffic had stopped and the Range Rover in front decided to reverse back to let a bus through. I’d allowed plenty of room, yet still she ended up nudging my front tyre before she responded to the situation. I did not do in this instance, what Vile did here. He actively went behind a van that was obviously going to reverse as the driver recognised his mistake. It would also be obvious to all but the most dense, that the driver would be flustered and might not be looking properly, but Vile goes behind the van, right into the blind spot. His bike getting run over was a lucky escape, for it could have been much worse. All he had to do upon seeing the van start the turn, was to back off and wait. I’m having to do this when drivers fuck up on a regular basis. What I don’t do is get my knickers in a knot, put myself in unnecessary danger, or post the footage online so that I can look hard done by, or to self-righteously complain that people drive badly. Not that there is any footage to post, of course, because I’m not an hysterical, immature drama queen trying to get clicks on YouTube or X or wherever.
Of course people drive badly. A good advocate for cycling would be doing so in a calm manner and offering practical advice about what to do when these things happen. What Vile does is the very opposite of what you should do. No one should be listening to this little man on anything, frankly, especially road safety.
I’m sure he wants to die in a car crash so he can have “I told you so” written on his gravestone.
Well, I wish he would hurry up and spare us his constant histrionics.
Well, if he wants to be buried in a snowy field, I’d happily write it in piss!
Or
“I wouldn’t piss on him if he was on fire. However, once the fire was out. . . . . “
A simple change to the laws covering the highways is needed. I suggest ” All road users must obey the highway code” and apply it to pedestrians if they wish to venture into the road. Cyclists would then be be reclassified as road users. With all that that entails.
Actually, they are. It just isn’t enforced in any meaningful way.
A quote I’ve been using a lot rercently:
“What the political left, even in democratic countries, share is the notion that knowledgeable and virtuous people like themselves have both a right and a duty to use the power of government to impose their superior knowledge and virtue on others.
~ Thomas Sowell”
Perhaps Jeremy Vine considers himself so knowledgeable and virtuous that he must impose his glorious ascendant will on those less graced around him? Yes, he is apparently so up himself that he must do so.
He does seem to get himself into these scrapes with monotonous regularity. I used to cycle commute on a regular basis and incidents with traffic were extremely rare. Maybe drivers in London are much worse than those in Hull, or maybe he has zero situational awareness. As I see it there is rarely a need to be confrontational, people make mistakes, deal with it and avoid accidents whenever possible. Good observation and looking and planning ahead usually means that you can spot other’s mistakes before they become a problem.
I was taught, many years ago when I first started riding motorbikes, a little piece of advice.
“Egg falls on rock, egg breaks. Rock falls on egg, egg breaks”.
In other words, if you are a cyclist or a motorcyclist, if anything goes wrong, no matter whose fault, you will come off worst.
Maybe he needs to be taught that in a practical lesson.
I remember being told the following ditty when I first started offshore sailing…
“Here lies the body of Harold Day
who insisted on his Right of Way.
He was right, dead right as he sailed along
but he’s just as dead as if he’d been wrong.”
Applies just as well to anyone on two wheels on the road.
Slightly OT but I just watched a You Tube video of two guys unboxing a brand new 40 year old Honda FT500 Ascot. They were hoping to assemble it and ride it 300 miles home but the seals on the brakes were knackered. The amazing part was that the engine started after about five seconds on the start button.
Beards and Bikes. Yes, I saw that one. They’ve done a few. The Norton Commando hadn’t survived too well.
I watched this video last week and commented on that site. I didn’t know it was this prat.
I’m with you. The Van driver clearly made a mistake. Not surprising with all the one way streets and signs that the confusing to say the least. Especially if you don’t know the area. Then this idiot gets behind the van in its blind spot and stops. If he just carried on then it would have been fine, van reverses out people give him the finger he waves his hand apologising and everything goes on as normal but now it is much more.
Van driver didn’t reverse far enough or quick enough imo.
You aren’t the only one thinking that.
I use to cycle a lot, loved it, but today too much traffic. When I cycled we didn’t have cycle ways or cycle lanes, there were still cyclists who did not abide by highway code and that pissed off everyone. Now cyclists are more protected and provided for which is good but doubt many have done the cycling proficiency test or know much about the rules of the road. Where I live there is a safe cycling route but cyclists will insist on going on the main road clogging up the traffic. When there is no alternative I can accept it but why not use the provisions given to them. Also when on a main road surely they should be obliged to pull over and let traffic pass like tractors when there is a build up. Narrow roads, sharp bends and new rules makes it very hard to overtake.
,
“Where I live there is a safe cycling route but cyclists will insist on going on the main road clogging up the traffic. When there is no alternative I can accept it but why not use the provisions given to them?”
One of the cycleways on my commute was a shared space for cyclists and pedestrians, and therefore not recommended for cyclists who want to ride fast. It also had the issue that, when you come to a roundabout, you would have to ride around the corner, negotiate two road crossings and then around the corner again to rejoin your route. When cycling in heavy traffic I would often be able to keep up with the flow so slowing other road users down wasn’t an issue.
If Vine was as smart as he likes to believe himself to be, he’d have anticipated that the van driver would realize that they had made an illegal turn and therefore would in all probability, try to reverse out. Any competent driver/rider/cyclist would stop and wait. Not Vine as he is someone who has to cause a scene for his self agrandisment.
Precisely. The driver’s reaction was entirely predictable. Come to that, so was Vine’s. Toxic little man.
Funny how the BBC always seems to find these people, isn’t it?
I mean, he could’ve worked absolutely anywhere, but once you’ve read about his insufferably smug, low-intellect-but-thinks-he’s-better-than-that, mean and self-aggrandising attitude, there really is only one place it could be.
And lo. It is so.
I wonder if they put potential employees through some sort of psychological testing, to make sure they are all as appalling as each other…