He gave the average speed of a car as 15kph. "In every urban area in Ireland, cyclists are travelling at twice the speed of a motor car." "I’m now in constant terror that a cyclist will come whizzing along a footpath and knock me down," complained Hook. O’Doherty refuted this "road tax" argument but then Hook accused cyclists of being "fanatics" who mow down pedestrians. Hook said: "Cyclists want the road, the cycle lane and the pavement, yet they make no contribution whatsoever to their benefit." Author and broadcaster Malachi O’Doherty put the case for cyclists. Nolan – not a noted lover of cycling – invited Hook on the programme to give an anti-cycling point of view (for which he has previous). If the audience’s reaction to that suggestion, and the "cyclists are Nazis" comment, are anything to go by the Sustrans survey may not be as representative as claimed. The piece – which starts on BBC iPlayer at 47 minutes in to the hour-long programme – was supposed to be about the Bike Life report from Sustrans which claims that the majority of British people want to see cycleways installed even if that means taking space away from motorists. The segment aired on BBC’s Nolan Live in Northern Ireland. A live BBC discussion programme descended into farce last night when one of the journalist contributors pulled a Nazi salute and accused all cyclists of "wearing Brown shirts and singing the Horst Wessel song." The audience laughed at this gibe from George Hook, a controversial pundit and broadcaster.
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