Whispering Smith Column published in the Littlehampton Gazette April 14th 2016

I don’t usually get involved in such matters but being both a cyclist and a motorist I do feel to some extent qualified to engage in the debate raging on the letters page of this journal between one of each. Mostly I am a lapsed cyclist my Dawes Roadster being in many parts now stored in the shed, the garage or the loft. I am not quite sure exactly where but I am keeping it in anticipation of the coming apocalypse or for when the world finally runs out of oil – I will be prepared for either eventuality. As a motorist I have had a green Lycra clad buffoon bang on the roof of my car when I very carefully overtook him on the uphill side of Long Furlong and, as a cyclist, I apparently upset a motorist when he cut me up on the Rustington roundabout. He got very angry, mainly I believe, because he had no understanding of the Anglo Saxon word I used to describe his lack of road sense. Point is I would guess, it is usually six of one, half dozen of the other. True some cyclists do think they are God’s gift to the environment and also true that too many selfish motorists believe that the highways and byways of our lovely isle were built specifically for their four wheels and that the two wheelers are, like the grey squirrel, an imported species to be eradicated. Both are a bit off course. Those selfish and careless individuals on both sides need to show a little more respect, tolerance and understanding liberally sprinkled with a hefty dose of good manners, that would go some way to solving the problem. Last word is though, if Mr Peat showed such an attitude to cyclists as the ‘ex police road safety expert’ he claims to be, I thank my Higher Power that I do not live in Lincolnshire.