Jeremy Vine has been called out by social media users after he slammed a motorist for driving too close to him while riding his penny farthing.
The broadcaster, who is an avid cyclist, shared footage early on Tuesday morning on Twitter of a car overtaking him and another cyclist on a narrow road, claiming the manoeuvre was dangerously close them.
Captioning the video, he wrote: “What sort of imbecile does a close pass on a Penny Farthing?”
Despite his outrage, many Twitter users fired back at the 57-year-old’s frustration and branded the presenter’s outrage as “ridiculous” while others claimed he is tempting fate riding a penny farthing in the city.
One commented: “Outrageous! A car using the road that was built for the motorists to use. You’re starting to look a little bit ridiculous now Jeremy.”
“Awful babes I’m too frightened to get on my penny farthing these days here if you need me x,” another sarcastically wrote.
What sort of imbecile does a close pass on a Penny Farthing? pic.twitter.com/uiND89CEjs
— Jeremy Vine (@theJeremyVine) March 14, 2023
A third remarked: “Yeah, I ride a penny farthing to work. Nothing about attention seeking.
“It’s just an incredibly practical and safe bike to use in a capital city... particularly one that’s known to have a lot of cyclist fatalities.”
“There’s reason the Penny Farthing was replaced by something then called ‘the safety bicycle’,” another penned. “It’s crazy to ride such a machine on public roads.”
A fifth shared: “I’m not condoning it at all Jeremy, but maybe you should consider that these bikes aren’t designed for modern roads.”.
As a cyclist I support showing how dangerous it is out there. But surely you're unnecessarily putting yourself at risk cycling on that. Commuting is dangerous enough in a big city but being on that is asking for trouble imo.
— Chris 🏊🚴🏃🇪🇺 (@Ineededthat1214) March 14, 2023
Another social media user wrote: “As a cyclist I support showing how dangerous it is out there. But surely you’re unnecessarily putting yourself at risk cycling on that. Commuting is dangerous enough in a big city but being on that is asking for trouble imo.”
Despite the backlash to his video, someone claiming to be an eyewitness came to Vine’s aid and said that the car was a lot closer to them than showed in the clip.
OMG 😳 that was a close call I’m glad you kept hold of your handle bars!
— scott anthony willis (@scottwillis87) March 14, 2023
They wrote: “I was wondering whether you’d post this! I’m the guy in the orange hat on the left of the video, I noticed it was you (not that I could miss you on a Penny Farthing) it looked a hell of a lot closer in person compared to the video.”
“Good old Penny Farthing cycling. There is no excuse for not seeing you,” another penned.
A third posted: “OMG that was a close call I’m glad you kept hold of your handle bars!”
