'You walking in the garden ah?' Driver accuses cyclist of road hogging and name calling

It's nice to slow down and smell the roses on a leisurely bike ride — but perhaps only if you're along a park connector.

Do that on the road and you could be accused of hogging the road.

One driver claimed a cyclist was going too slowly and ended up getting into an argument with him, according to a video uploaded to the SgfollowsAll Instagram page on Tuesday (May 7).

In the 40-second clip, a female driver has wound down her window and is filming the cyclist, who is on his bike on the driver's side of the car.

She accuses him of cycling "very slowly" and asks sarcastically: "You're walking in the garden ah?"

Raising her voice, she adds: "You're cycling very dangerously. On top of that, I need to move!"

In response, the cyclist says he was cycling on the left side of the road and that he couldn't go faster because he wasn't driving a car.

As the driver continues to confront him in a heightened tone, he tells her not to be rude.

"You know you're on camera, that's why you're very nice," she replies exasperatedly, adding that she will upload the video online.

The man then calls her a "b****" accompanied by an expletive, before the video ends.

According to the post on SgfollowsAll, the cyclist was allegedly cycling slowly on a narrow road, which prompted the driver to honk at him.

The cyclist purportedly "gave chase" after she passed him, and she accused him of flipping her off.

"People like you endanger others," the post said.

'Lost her chance to level up as a human being'

Many netizens were upset by the cyclist's behaviour, with some commenting that he shouldn't have reacted excessively to the honking.

"When walking on the pavement, it's not uncommon to get honked by cyclists… to let us know they're behind us. So why the double standard?", one said.

Some pointed out that the man wasn't wearing a helmet when cycling on the road, which is against Land Transport Authority (LTA) regulations.

However, others felt the woman was also to blame.

One netizen said: "Roads are infrastructures in any civilised world that are meant to be shared... doesn't mean you pay, you are entitled to these infrastructures. 

"The lady just lost her chance to level up as a human being," the netizen added, explaining that she could have shown empathy for the cyclist.

According to LTA rules and guidelines for safe cycling on roads, cyclists must obey all traffic signals and travel in the same direction as the flow of traffic.

Other than wearing a helmet, they must also ride as close as practicable to the far left edge of the road, allowing traffic to overtake safely.

Cyclist also ought to use bicycle lanes where available and are not allowed on expressways, and in road tunnels and some viaducts.

ALSO READ: 'Follow me go police station': Driver and cyclist get in heated argument after colliding at zebra crossing in Jurong

khooyihang@asiaone.com