Television and radio presenter Jeremy Vine has announced he will no longer post cycling videos to social media.
The BBC presenter has spent years sharing videos of his commute in London, capturing the close encounters and exchanges he has had with car drivers.
In a long thread posted on X, Vine said that the videos had gathered “well over 100 million views”, but “the trolling just got too bad”.
“In the end the anger [the videos] generate has genuinely upset me,” he wrote. “A regular theme has been the desire to see me crushed by a truck. Any cyclist knows this is a very real danger.
“My aim was only to get all of us who drive to think about the dangers of trying to move around cities on a pushbike. I know I’ve sometimes got a little cross when a driver has, say, pulled out without looking, but I only ever uploaded the film to show the danger.”
Vine added that his bike was stolen from outside his home a week ago, and the thought of buying a new one made him reflect on the abuse he has faced.
“Do I want to get a replacement and go back into the trolling-furnace? As I say, it just got too hot,” he wrote. “There are at least two death threats against me currently being investigated by police.
“I enjoy debates but not abuse. It’s strange that getting interested in road safety can actually endanger a person. I see other cyclists facing the same and wonder how they deal with it. So when I get my new bike I’ll stay vigilant but won’t share my adventures.”
Within the thread, Vine shared examples of the responses he received to his videos. “Jeremy, you are beyond hatred,” one said. Another described him as “the lowest form of scum on this planet”, while one user willed him to “fall under the wheels of five cars”.
Earlier this month, Vine said on Gaby Roslin’s podcast that angry drivers have “small dick energy”.
“What happens is, all the people who are not getting enough sex lock themselves in small metal boxes and drive around London. That’s fundamentally what’s going on in our society,” he said.
In 2017, a driver was found guilty of using threatening behaviour towards Vine, and jailed for nine months. The video of the incident was viewed more than 15 million times on social media.
Writing on X, the presenter explained he has “never made a penny” from the videos. His most recent one, shared on 22 April, showed him ringing his bell at a car passenger exiting a vehicle into a bike lane, and being met with a car horn in response.
