A rather unfortunate thing tends to happen to most cycling lobbyists. Over time, inexorably and imperceptibly, they start to lose their minds. Normally, most of us would feel a certain degree of empathy for such people. Perhaps a discreet phone call asking if they’re OK? But with cycling lobbyists it’s hard to do that. Primarily because they bring the problem on themselves.
Perhaps you’ve been busy doing other things lately, but cycling lobbyists (and vegans) are a bit like socialists or communists from 100 years ago. From their perspective they’ve discovered a “new and better way” of living which the whole world should also follow. In their minds, it’s such a magnificent discovery it’s only a matter of time before all of society catches up to THEIR way of thinking.
But there’s a problem. When the rest of the world DOESN’T catch on, or worse yet, when the rest of the world rejects their vision, cycling lobbyists start to go crazy. And the meltdowns are spectacular.
Which brings us to the latest "poor me I'm a victim" YouTube video by a cycling lobbyist named Ed Hore. As you'll see, the surprisingly rotund cyclist loses his cool with motorists pretty easily. A true passive-aggressive in other words.
When it comes to safely passing a cyclist, according to Ed Hore (who by the way is the self appointed El Presidento of a cycling lobby group in Melbourne Australia), a distance of one metre isn’t good enough. You can read about his opinions on the subject by clicking here. No only does Ed Hore believe cars should have to completely change lanes before passing a cyclist, that’s the way he rides.
When Ed Hore rides a bike he deliberately rides as wide as he can to make it impossible for another car driver to overtake him in the same lane. It’s not lawful mind you, he has no right to do that, but he’s a cycling lobbyist you see. Put another way, Ed Hore has taken it upon himself to change Australian driving behaviour (in the presence of cyclists) one car at a time.
Needless to say, motorists tend to get very upset with Ed Hore and it looks like they get upset on a regular basis. In fact, if his Twitter account is anything to go by? It’s a daily occurrence.
The weird thing is Ed Hore seems to have absolutely no idea why these incidents keep happening. He’s happy to blame the media, he’s happy to blame government policy, he’s happy to blame poor education – but it never occurs to him perhaps the way he rides a bicycle is actually the issue?
In his latest video, Hore is seen riding down a gentle hill with a 4m wide lane and a further 2m of parking lane to his left. The footage shows him riding a full 3m away from the left side of his lane, and a passing motorist gives him a mouth full as they drive past. In Ed Hore’s words “I was attacked! Again!”
It's pretty obvious in this still shot what the problem is. Well, for normal people that is. But Ed Hore isn't a normal person. He's a conflict junkie, and he has form.
In his latest video Hore states “I want to meet this guy!” Well of course he does. That’s what conflict junkies do. He wants conflict. He WANTS to have an argument. Never mind he was riding in the middle of the road. That’s irrelevant.
They say we live in a social media age, and if anything, a case could be made (as a species) we’re now over communicating. Well, Ed Hore’s twitter account is strewn with incident upon incident of him seeking conflict with members of the public in a public setting. And the police know this. He is, by any yardstick, a serial offender.
At the end of his latest video, the reader will note Hore declares Melbourne’s Northcote Police are ‘totallly useless.’ But the problem Hore has created for himself is (a) he repeatedly slags off police on social media on a regular basis and (b) he has form when it comes to seeking conflict.
Perhaps the most galling part is the number plate which is plastered in the still screenshot. Think about that for a moment. Cyclists get to name and shame car drivers because cars are obligated to have number plates. And yet, in this instance Ed Hore is the person deliberately blocking a lane. The worst part is cyclists don’t have to wear a number plate themselves.
There are a number of overlapping issues with cycling lobbyists like Ed Hore. What's important is he's not alone. Every cycling lobbyists ends up acting this way sooner or later.
The title photo to this article says “When Cyclists Slowly Start Losing Their Minds”, and it’s a known syndrome. The sense of persecution, the anger towards police, the anger towards the public, the super pronounced passive-aggressive behaviour, the ongoing exasperation with people who refuse to concede cycling can save the world. It all gets wrapped up in one. Indeed, name a city, name a country, and there will be at least one cycling lobbyist in that city just like Ed Hore.
By his own admission, Ed Hore says he crosses a line quite regularly in the way he speaks to people. His outrage is often so acute he swears with venomous acidity in the presence of parents and their children. Cycling lobbyists don’t start out that way of course, but at some point they start to cross that line, and once they do, everything becomes justified no matter how bad their behaviour gets.
The reason why cycling lobbyists slowly lose their minds is their desire to change society eventually competes with the realisation they can't change society. And there they stay, in a permanent state of self generated intellectual turmoil.
In March of this year Ed Hore had a massive spit towards Melbourne police who had the unmitigated gall to park a police van on official police business, and they did so in such a way it blocked Ed Hore’s progress while riding a bicycle on his way to work.
Well, he didn’t make himself popular. Our story generated a lot of comments from police officers.
After all, the police aren’t dumb. Ed Hore’s twitter feed and his YouTube videos make it pretty easy for police to see what he’s like, and how he seeks conflict with motorists on a regular basis.
Like so many other cycling lobbyists around the globe, he regularly accuses police of institutional bias and corruption towards cyclists. But then, at the same time, he constantly demands police should do more to protect cyclists.
And all this in circumstances where Ed Hore consistently rides as wide as possible on the road to block cars from passing him in the same lane. What we’re dealing with is someone who is determined to shape the world in HIS vision, and he is now a very VERY angry man because it isn’t working out.
