“Medieval town ‘overrun’” screams The Telegraph; GB News follows up with “cyclists ride into row”; the Metro copies The Telegraph with “overrun”. No, these are not inflammatory headlines about migration, but classic scare stories about cycling in the right-wing media. It’s not a slow news week, but these are reliable sources of web traffic, as, for whatever reason, people love hating on us cyclists.
Dig down into the story, though – and it is just one story, rewritten – and there doesn’t appear to be much to get upset about. One café in Windsor, England, offers a discount for people arriving by bike, as it does for locals, and members of the armed forces, too. The discount has been running for 15 years, Ian Jones, the owner of the Cinnamon Café, told CW on Monday. It seems like it’s good for business, which is surely good for everyone. As for the idea that cyclists clog up roads, a dose of patience would be good for everyone behind a wheel. It’s rare that a couple of bikes will hold you up from your important drive for that long.
