Automoron of the Week

Let's have a big hand for Richard Nye, editor of south-west London lifestyle glossy freesheet The Richmond Magazine, who is the inaugural recipient of my occasionally awarded Automoron of the Week Award for some extremely stupid comments he wrote in the September edition (link is to a photo sharing site, I refuse to help their Google rankings).

"After years of sullen rage against the cycling fraternity," writes Nye, "I tend towards the temperate view that the only good cyclist is a dead one."

This comment is plainly irresponsible and almost grotesquely offensive to many thousands of London cyclists who behave with responsibility on the roads and have almost certainly never come across Mr Nye, who sounds exactly like one of those drivers in a black German saloon who would pass you at six inches and then slam on his brakes for a traffic light, all for the sake of making up two seconds of time.

Hey, if Nye wants to generalise about people he knows nothing about, then so will I.

The effect of these comments, to paraphrase Pratchett and Gaiman, is like water on a prayer wheel, they may seem largely harmless, but they have a damaging and dangerous effect. Nye is essentially normalising the idea that cycling is an abnormal, minority activity.

Like it or not this kind of attitude rubs off on those who read it, and just maybe, that reader will overtake the next cyclist he encounters a bit closer, take just a bit less care on the roads, lose a bit of patience.

The net effect is to make our roads more dangerous for every cyclist, law-abiding bikers and red light jumping tosspots alike.

BikeBiz has comment from two cycling specialists, one of which certainly suggests Nye should be fearing for his job, the other appreciating that he likely did not intend for his comments to be taken seriously. I think whatever side of that particular debate you choose to come down on we can agree this comment was spectacularly mis-judged.

But what strikes me as truly bizarre is that Nye's comments come in an otherwise fairly positive editorial about cycling at the Olympic Games; both the road race and time trial visited parts of the borough, and he apparently watched and enjoyed them.

Doubtless in the face of today's Twitter backlash Nye will attempt to laugh it off as a Clarksonesque joke, but I also wonder, does he even know the first thing about the area his mag represents?

The Guardian Data Blog recently reported that Richmond in fact has one of the highest frequencies of cycling in England, by local authority; its data show that 25-35 per cent of borough residents cycle at least once a month, which I imagine can be quite easily attributed to the superb and largely safe leisure cycling routes in Richmond Park and along the Thames Path.

Happily, Nye seems to have got over his momentary lapse of reason. He concludes: "'Bastardo!' I yelled at the windscreen. 'Cycling swinehunt [sic]! Two-wheeled son of Beelzebub!'"

As one commentator remarked on Twitter, if Mr Nye can't keep his emotions in check when in control of two tonnes of metal, maybe he should consider returning his driving licence to the DVLA?