This article is ridiculous… Forward thinking? I hardly see that in evidence anywhere in this recycled, stereotypical twaddle.
Show me where cyclists believe they are entirely innocent? That website was set up to document cases involving bicycles and drivers as the majority of minor incidents never get any legal scrutiny, in most cases drivers don’t even bother pulling over, or at worst, police, when called, don’t bother turning up. In the same way you say cyclists are subject to no recourse for their ‘crimes’ drivers seem to have a similar immunity when it comes to altercations with cyclists, why even killing a cyclist warrants nothing more than a slap on the wrist these days!

Cyclists are constantly being harangued for having some ‘holier-than-thou’ attitude, which I believe, and I’ll use as many facts and figures to back up my statements as you have, stems from some awful insecurities of those who appear to see it.

I have never heard of the ‘bicycling reaction’ before and frankly find it irritatingly askew. If what you say is true cyclists bow to cars and stomp on pedestrians? But wait… you say “those that came first”, so surely that means cyclists should be the top of this food chain? And you are actually trying to state that cycle commuting is a rich man’s pursuit… boy you have some imagination! The cyclist out slogging on his 10-mile commute in the rain and cold is really lording it over the BMW driver who had driven in from the countryside… seriously man, what are you talking about??? The average journey taken by car in Dublin is far under 10km. You say later in your ‘article’ that one of cycling’s benefits is that it is cheap… that doesn’t fit in with your world view of cyclist flaunting their bikes at those mugs who can only afford to pay to sit in expensive metal boxes with internal combustion engines…
“Based on petrol prices alone, the average Dublin car commute costs €1,957 annually” Quote from John Henry, director of DTO.

I am all for cyclists obeying the rules of the road and the police cracking down more, I personally find more threat from bad cyclists than drivers(excluding bus drivers, who occupy some separate universe altogether), but your article is hardly pro-active, in fact it’s not balanced at all. From someone who claims to be a regular cycling commuter I find this all very far-fetched.

As for cycling on the pavement, the majority of that happens because cyclist fear for their safety or because someone has used our ‘amazing’ cycle-lanes for their most popular use, a parking space. Statistics show that more pedestrians were killed by cars on pavements than by bicycles, see the Guardian article you referenced.

I am so tired of seeing these biased articles, and to be honest I do see more like this than praising the cycling fraternity’s ‘saintlyhood’, but really, do you honestly commute by bicycle? It’s very disheartening to read an article like this if you genuinely do.