Groups of motorists who hate cyclists sharing the road are attacking bike riders online and off, with death threats sending one cycling lobby group leader off the road fearing for his life.

A freedom of information request by a cyclist obtained last week revealed NSW Police have not done any operations that target motorists breaching the safe passing laws since they began in March 2016.

However, since June 2016, NSW Police have launched six operations codenamed "Pedro" that hit about 1000 cyclists with fines, mostly for not wearing a helmet or riding on a footpath.

In the West Midlands area of the UK where a similar safe passing law exists, cyclist injuries and deaths have been reduced by 20 per cent after police fined more than 350 drivers in 12 months.

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NSW police said about 70 motorists were fined since 2016 for not giving cyclists at least a metre of space when passing in speed zones of 60km/h or below, and 1.5 metres in higher speed areas. Fines of $330 and two demerit points apply.

Bicycle NSW said they get at least one call every day from a member who claims to have had a dangerously close pass.

The lopsided use of police resources against cyclists was criticised by NSW state Liberal MLC, Shayne Mallard last month when he pointed to a "concerning level of hostility between police and the cycling community that did not exist before".

"It is regrettable that this government introduced laws that target cyclists for minor infringements like riding without a helmet or riding on the footpath," Mr Mallard said.

In March 2016, the NSW government multiplied many fines for cyclists for offences such as riding without a helmet going from $71 to $319, and riding without a "working warning device" or bell went up from $71 to $106. Riding on the footpath is legal in all states of Australia except for NSW and Victoria.

The result of these laws is that cyclists are "targeted" by NSW Police, Mr Mallard said.

"Some members of the public and some motorists have picked up on that hostility and projected it towards cyclists on our roads either through overt hostility and acts of road rage or through a lack of care or respect for cyclists," he said.

Australian Cycle Alliance president Edward Hore said that an "extremist motorist" lobby are using Facebook hate pages that are becoming "more sinister" recently and inciting hatred. Some trolls from these pages have sent him death threats and that online enmity is spilling on to the roads.

"The number of attacks on cyclists recently has never been this high, we had 11 attacks [nationally] in one week," Mr Hore said. "People are being told to ride single file and get off the road and get registration papers.

"We've never seen this level of aggression before and it could be because of the [Facebook] hate pages, there are about four of them and they are all based in Queensland."

The Herald will not name these pages as it may promote them further but the campaigns they are running against cyclists involve photoshopped images and fake news reports designed to outrage motorists.

One petition against cyclists on Change.org had its comments disabled in March after complaints of bullying via the comments.

"Car drivers do stupid things, so do cyclists but attacking cyclists is crazy and will potentially lead to people being injured or killed," Mr Hore said. "No passenger or driver has ever been killed by a cyclist.

"We're getting attacked for causing congestion – but let's ignore the truck that was overturned on the motorway, it's become just blame a cyclist for everything."

The anti-cyclist "propaganda" pages have been taken down a few times by Facebook but they reappear within a few days, Mr Hore said.

"Facebook needs to identify the owners of these pages or remove the pages. [They contain] lots of comments that have been removed, like death threats."

Mr Hore said his business pages on social media were also trolled recently.

"I was in such a slump earlier this year I wasn't riding, deliberately staying away from the road because I got severely attacked by crazy psychos with death threats," he said.

Charlie Butt filmed as he passed the group of cyclists in his truck on Granya Road at Granya.

Two cyclists, aged 28 and 49, travelling as part of a group on the Central Coast, were run over and suffered serious injuries on Saturday, May 19 about 11.30am. Members of the cycling group said a white Ford ute ran them down on purpose.

The driver, a 34-year-old man, was charged with eight offences including aggravated dangerous driving occasioning grievous bodily harm, and negligent driving.

Dulwich Hill cyclist David Maywald lodged a request for information about police enforcing the safe passing law last month because he "regularly" sees close passes, and the Dulwich Hill Bicycle Club president reported a close pass to police but it was never investigated.

David Maywald with members of the Dulwich Hill cycle club. Brook Mitchell

"That inspired me to check how often in the 26 months since the law started, police have targeted drivers for safe passing," Mr Maywald said.

"We get shouted at and it's well-known tradies don't give cyclists a lot of time as they are usually rushing around us trying to save a few seconds – a couple of times a month that happens.

"Every year I see dozens of instances of breaches of minimum passing distance law, some dangerously close."

Bicycle Network CEO Craig Richards said there needs to be more education of people about the road rules such as being able to ride two abreast because it is safer for everyone.

"In the future people will look back on this with embarrassment, shame and bewilderment," Mr Richards said. "These are just humans being targeted, humans who sometimes ride a bike, sometimes drive a car and sometimes walk."

A NSW Police spokesman said police will continue to "take the appropriate action against anyone who breaks road rules".

The number of fines given to drivers for breaking the safe passing distance law may not be indicative of the "number of legal actions taken", as it does not take into account other offences; such as negligent driving, dangerous driving or predatory driving, the spokesman said.

"We urge anyone with information or anyone with dashcam or other footage of traffic offences to come forward. Any matters reported to police will be investigated," the police spokesman said.