Also in the UK - I've noticed a gradient in "aggression around cyclists", i.e. it's most awful in the south and gets progressively better the further north you go.

(I've never had issues when cycle touring in Scotland)

That goes for any "unconventional" outdoor sports really (i.e. anything that's not footy or horses). North is always up for crazy random shit, but good luck explaining paddleboarding or mountainbiking to someone in Cambridgeshire.

I can’t speak to Cambridge specifically but there are 4 B1KE mountain bike parks alone in the south of England (Wind hill, Rogate, Tidworth and S4P) so I’m not convinced of this north/south divide. There are others than just B1KE mountain bike parks too.

To be fair, you'll have a hard time explaining anything involving mountains to someone in Cambridgeshire.

...Suffolk Mountain Rescue has been established with the aim of rescuing a neglected mountain and bringing it back to safety.

I personally know from a charity Lands End to John O'Groats ride a few years ago that drivers in Scotland can be really lovely people.

I specifically remember truck drivers cheering us on in the highlands. Magic! :D

Sadly I've seen reports in the news of people in Scotland getting rough treatment there too.

Luckily, it's just a minority though. Most drivers, like everywhere, are just normal decent people.

It's a problem pretty much everywhere I guess. I've been almost killed 3 times in the last two years, and every time it was a car driver breaking a law.

From what I've gathered it seems car drivers are annoyed because overtaking cyclists requires more thinking than following the white line, and envious because cyclists don't have parking space problems and can just get off the bike and switch to the sidewalk.

Some people feel entitled to more rights on the road because they paid more for their vehicle.

Not really surprising when we have Clarkson leading the hate brigade.

No true scotsman would confuse “your” and “you’re”.

Uh, in fact, British and American natives are the worst, when it comes to homophonic errors. Your/you're, its/it's, their/there/they're - unless they're well educated (and often even if they are), chances are that the natives will get them wrong whereas foreigners won't. That's because they think of the language in terms of sounds first (as they learnt it before they could read), whereas foreigners are forced to think about it in logical terms first.

I know, it was a joke: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_true_Scotsman

I'm not a grammarian but "your" sure seems less wrong than "you're" in that sentence.

"I was going to sympathise with you are having to put up with [stuff]" - doesn't work.

> I'm not a grammarian but "your" sure seems less wrong than "you're" in that sentence.

This might have been a hint that you were looking at the wrong "your".

Oh, right you are, didn't spot the obvious one! Apologies.

In general I think it has got better. Thirty years ago it was really common to get deliberate abuse when out riding, now it's relatively rare.

I think this is mostly down to having more cyclists on the road.

There is still a long way to go though.