Jeremy Vine reveals why he decided to give up cycling videos

Jeremy Vine has revealed the moment he decided to give up on posting footage of his tense cycling encounters with motorists.

The BBC Radio 2 presenter has been sharing videos of his commute to work in London for years, using his platform to call out dangerous drivers and campaign for better road safety for cyclists.

However, the 59-year-old announced last weekend that he will no longer be posting the videos because the trolling he has experienced has “just got too bad”.

Now, he has revealed how he came to both the decisions to begin filming and to stop.

In 2010, Mr Vine said he was cycling to work, heading into Hallam Street by the BBC’s London headquarters, when a cab driver shouted at him: “We was here first!”

The broadcaster said he had asked why the taxi driver had tried to cut across his path, to which the response was that he paid road tax and Mr Vine did not.

Mr Vine replied: “I think we all have to share the roads, don’t we?” The cab driver shot back: “We was here first!” And when the broadcaster questioned what he meant, the taxi driver yelled “Cars!” before driving off.

Writing in The Times, Mr Vine called this “historical sleight-of-hand” and said: “At that moment, back in 2010, I felt the iron enter my soul.”

The broadcaster admitted he had previously been “pretty anti-cyclist” but began commuting into work on his bicycle when he realised he needed to start taking better care of his health.

Then he said he went through his “peace and love” or “kumbaya” phase, imagining his space on the roads would be respected by motorists.

“In the end it didn’t work,” Mr Vine wrote. “Bad drivers don’t notice other road users, and with cyclists that can be fatal. Close passes are incessant. All along my commuting route were places where my fellow riders had died.”

Mr Vine said he bought his first camera in 2012, initially because he assumed he was to blame for the near-misses and wanted to double-check if this was the case.

Then, he said interest in his Twitter account exponentially surged at the same time as the Metropolitan Police set up a portal where cyclists could upload videos of lawbreaking motorists.

Mr Vine’s cycling videos have now been viewed more than 100 million times, while he said he successfully complained via the Met’s portal around 60 times.

“But something also happened that I wasn’t expecting: people got angry with me,” he wrote. “I have been deluged with abuse and death threats. Someone tweeted: ‘I hope he falls under the wheels of five cars that reverse and make sure the job’s done.’”

But Mr Vine continued on his mission – and he said he noticed that the behaviour of drivers was starting to change, now that there was a higher possibility they could be held accountable.

However, he did finally quit last week, he said, for three reasons: firstly, because his bicycle was stolen from outside his house, secondly because he wants to focus on his newly released book, Murder on Line One, and finally, because “the abuse got too much”.