We get a lot of flack us cyclists. Personally I absorb the comments, quietly dissent and then move on with my life but it seems breaking point is upon me and after being called passive aggressive last week, the time has come to offer some reply.

We are often described as lycra ninjas, actively looking for red lights to jump or pedestrians to mow down. We’re told to decorate ourselves and our bikes like Christmas trees, otherwise it’s our fault if we get knocked off.

Where we ride or park is seen as a constant annoyance, signs are erected dictating where and when we can ride and where not to park, despite no other alternative being provided.

And God forbid you hold up a motor vehicle for a minute or two when you use the road. The way some people react to this minor delay, you would think their house was fire.

Cyclists are publicly attacked in the media, for example the former MP Matthew Parris wrote “A festive custom we could do worse than foster would be stringing piano wire across country lanes to decapitate cyclists.”

And the celebrity chef-cum-motoring correspondent James Martin gleefully relayed the moment he silently crept up behind a group of cyclists in an electric car, honking his horn just at the right moment to scare them.

Recently John Griffin, the controversial boss of London private hire taxi company Addison Lee sparked controversy when he said all cyclists should be forced to be trained up and paid up if we want to use the road – the good old road tax argument again, that old chestnut has been reused so many times that it puts recycled toilet tissue to shame.

So in reply to you cyclist-haters out there, Cycling is an enjoyable way to travel, this is why we do it. You can go where you want, when you want – you could cycle to India if the mood took you. You feel part of your surroundings on a bike, just like walking you can enjoy nature and architecture. Your view is not obscured by the tin box you would otherwise be travelling in.

Cycling creates no harmful emissions. This is why we don’t pay road tax and, either way, road tax was abolished in 1937.

Car drivers pay Vehicle Excise Duty, which is linked to emissions and therefore not applicable to cyclists.

The maintenance of Britain’s road network is paid for out of general taxation paid by most adult citizens, including cyclists.

Most cyclists are drivers as well, so those ones do pay Vehicle Excise Duty anyway.

And if those journeys we decide to make by bike were suddenly made by car, imagine the congestion in our towns and cities, not to mention the resulting fuel shortages.

Generally speaking, the general population cycle and drive safely. There will always be a few exceptions to the rule and these are the people who will annoy you.

This does not mean that all cyclists abandon their own safety on a whim, nor does it turn all motor vehicle drivers into demons, so we must learn to get along.

So there you go, I am no longer passive-aggressive. With that off my chest I’m off to do what I do best, ride my bicycle.