The relationship between two wheels and four can be tense and is a regular subject of debate, but this week one local businessman Jason Wells completely lost all sense of proportion when he believed a cyclist Nick Squillari 'hit' his 4x4 on Roehampton Lane.

The two faces of Jason Wells

Mr Squillari was riding along Priory Lane, Roehampton, towards Richmond Park, when Mr Wells in his Land Rover Discovery 4 attempted to overtake him. The 4x4 pulled up ahead of the cyclist and Mr Wells got out and hurled a torrent of abuse at Mr Squillari. The event was all caught on Mr Squillari's cycle mounted video - showing four minutes of expletives and threats of physical violence including 'smash his teeth' & 'break his neck'.

The video shows both cyclist and driving swearing at each other - horns tooted by other drivers as a backlog of traffic was created.

Jason Wells is the owner of the Brew café chain, which has outlets in Clapham, Wandsworth and Wimbledon as well as the Lower Richmond Road cafe in Putney. It is reported that he plans to open new branches in Chiswick and Kew.

 

WARNING: the video contains a significant number of expletives


Mr Wells pointed out that there is a cycle land on Roehampton Lane, but it only cover half of the road from the Upper Richmond Rd to Richmond Park and most cyclist avoid it.

Regular contributor to the forum on this site Adam Gray pointed out: "the cycle lane is dodgy: it's very narrow, and in turn was added to a quite narrow pavement which means pedestrians are often squeezed onto it. There certainly is not space for two-way cyclist traffic and pedestrians; and that's before we take into account the different types of cyclist using it."

Alex Greenbank explained on the forum: "Because you have to cede priority at all of the side roads. Because it's often covered in broken glass or other rubbish. Because it's generally safer to ride on the road. Because it's generally faster to ride on the road. Because cyclists have a legal right to be on the road."