Bournemouth cyclist films himself passing 'no less than 1,300 cars' during bank holiday 'carmageddon'

A Bournemouth man has claimed that he cycled past no fewer than 1,300 cars during a recent two-hour bank holiday ride. A certain proportion of those commenting on a Bournemouth Echo report apparently believe that the cyclist in question was responsible for the tailbacks he was passing.

Dave Williams recorded footage of what he termed ‘carmageddon’ via a helmet-mounted GoPro camera on Monday, August 28.

"On bank holiday Monday, the cars were struggling to do one mile per hour," he said. "I was doing 12mph without even trying."

He said one solution would have been to close town centre roads to cars.

"If I was a councillor, I would have got this sorted before the Monday and publicly announced that all roads within a two-mile radius of the town centre were only to be open to cyclists, motorbikes, buses and delivery vans – no personal cars allowed.

"Buses would transport people in with their children and luggage, and those on two wheels could park easily in the current available spaces near the seafront.”

With somewhat confusing reasoning, he then explained why he didn’t think it would be a good idea to encourage people to cycle instead of drive.

"I don't think it's possible or wise to get everybody to cycle. People just aren't going to do it, not with the amount of traffic on the road."

Here at road.cc we don't really have the mental resilience to read too many of the comments on stories such as this.

However, some of the point-missing highlights on this occasion include:

• “Counting cars rather than looking where he was going!”
• “These idiots cause more congestion than cars do, the tailbacks I've seen because of an idiot on a bike riding in the middle of the road rather than use an expensive cycle lane.”
• “Curious as to why he's squeezing down the middle of these cars rather than sticking to the left. I wonder how many wing mirrors he clipped.”