But now to a favourite pastime of certain sections of the media.

Bike bashing.

Here's the ABC's former Word Watch host Kel Richards filling in for Steve Price on Sydney's 2GB, and getting into shock jock gear:

KEL RICHARDS: Don't get me started on bicycle riders ... KEITH: It's just stupidity. They need to be run over to teach 'em a lesson but you can't. KEL RICHARDS: I wouldn't encourage you to do that, Keith. Don't get into trouble, Keith. Thanks for your call. — 2GB, Nights, 1st July, 2014

And here's another more famous broadcaster peddling one of his favourite lines:

ALEX CULLEN: What is your attitude to cyclists on our roads? DERRYN HINCH: Cockroaches on wheels. — Channel Seven, Sunday Night, 18th August, 2013

But it's not just ageing radio hosts who have a problem with bike riders.

The tabloids loathe them too.

As The Sunday Telegraph's Claire Harvey wrote recently

... a lot of cyclists are, basically, ungrateful dickheads. — The Sunday Telegraph, 18th May, 2014

Or as the ABC's Peter Goers railed in Adelaide's Sunday Mail ...

Cyclists are very annoying. They get in the way. They are erratic, fickle, don't use hand signals, flagrantly abuse road rules and can't see behind them. They have no respect. Motorists are expected to let them do what they want. — Sunday Mail, 25th May, 2014

And we need hardly remind you of The Daily Telegraph's relentless campaign against Sydney's bike-loving Mayor Clover Moore.

On your bike, Clover — The Daily Telegraph, 20th June, 2011

WE'RE OVER YOUR BIKES — The Daily Telegraph, 18th September, 2013

So why do the tabloids and shockjocks hate cyclists so much?

Partly, no doubt, because it goes down well with their audience.

But listening to Kel Richards it certainly sounds as if the bile is genuine:

KEL RICHARDS: My personal view is cyclists should be banned from the public roadways. They should not be allowed to ride their, their bikes on the road ... KEL RICHARDS: They are deliberately putting themselves in harm's way, and we, the motorists, we are told we are responsible to avoid them. — 2GB, Nights, 1st July, 2014

Kel Richards assured Media Watch he does not hate cyclists.

But two 2GB listeners told him his rants encouraged others to do so.

Earlier this year, after seven Sydney cyclists were badly hurt when a car ploughed into them, former cycling Olympian Kevin Nichols also wondered if those tabloid and shock jock tirades encourage drivers to behave badly:

" ... I was twice targeted by trucks, driving right up behind me to within a metre or two of my back wheel, blowing their horns and revving their motors. It was incredibly dangerous and I can only assume they'd been listening to those dickheads on the radio, winding them up." — The Weekend Australian Magazine, 19-20th April, 2014

Safe Cycling Australia's Dave Sharp also blames the media for making cyclists fair game. And he's so concerned he's written an open letter to the Australian press :

What you print has an impact on how your readership behave towards us out there on the tarmac, and out there four cyclists have been seriously injured or killed in Sydney alone in the last week. — Safe Cycling Australia, 20th June, 2014

So just to give you an idea of how rage against bike riders can turn out, have a look at this old but very graphic clip from Queensland that was published on YouTube for the first time this month.

Fortunately that rider survived.

But last year 50 cyclists were killed on Australia's roads .

That's up from 33 in 2012.

And in most cases, it seems, negligent drivers were to blame.

One South Australian investigation in 2013 found that in 8 out of 10 crashes with cars where cyclists were injured, the driver was at fault.

So in the hope that motorists might be persuaded to take more care not less, maybe the media should take a lead from the Gold Coast Bulletin which recently pronounced :

ANTAGONISM between motorists and cyclists has reached ridiculous and dangerous levels, if reports of drivers targeting bikes are correct ... The hostility cannot continue. Whether motorists and truckies like it or not, cyclists are here to stay and have as much right to the road as anyone else. — Gold Coast Bulletin, 2nd April, 2014

And I should tell you, I drive a car and I also ride a bike.

And I believe all road users need to obey the rules and show respect.

Read a statement from NSW Police.