Reader’s letter: The motorist who shouted abuse at me pushing my bike up Windhill

Decent people outnumber the likes of abusive driver

Last Tuesday afternoon I went in town on my bike to get a haircut, go to the bank and pick up some things at Waitrose, writes Joe Connolly.

These days, I cannot pedal all the way up Windhill so I get off at the bottom and push as far as the town council offices.

On my way up last Tuesday, I kept the bike in the road, close to the kerb, and steered it from the pavement. As I was nearly at the top, a man in a large expensive black car pulled alongside me and shouted. Apparently I was being selfish, although I have no idea why.

Prior to that, the other encounters I had in town were as follows: an assistant in NatWest bank had been really patient with me in sorting out a problem, my Turkish barber came running after me in the street to shake my hand and apologise because he had not seen me leave so hadn’t said goodbye, the lady in charge of the self-checkouts in Waitrose was helpful and sociable, a young man in Waitrose car park held my bike while I put on my backpack and a student from The Bishop’s Stortford High School thanked me politely for allowing him to pass.

Those are pretty good odds at five to one, but I know from living in Stortford that the odds of meeting decent people are infinitely better than that.

Sadly, however, other than the driver, none of the people I mentioned would have had the satisfaction of being able to tell their friends that they had shouted abuse at an old man pushing his bike up a hill.

Joe Connolly, The Stewarts, Bishop’s Stortford