You'd think pootling around the place on a bike was a harmless activity but it seems to arouse pent-up fury in pedestrians and motorists.

This has been amply proved ever since Sunday when papers revealed inaccurately that drivers' insurance premiums will have to rise to pay for cyclists.

There were inevitable references to Lycra louts. The general impression was given that all cyclists flout the rules, knock down old ladies on pavements and are a menace to decent law-abiding drivers.

In all the years I have been Cycling I have never seen anyone knocked over by a bike. Usually the number of injuries is small and deaths are almost unknown. Yet up to 200 cyclists are killed every year by cars and many more are maimed.

There are some riders who break traffic regulations but they are in the minority. If you do not believe me, that's because you, like many other drivers and pedestrians, treat cyclists as invisible, which is really part of the problem.

Bikes do not fit well on roads where they tend to be crushed into the gutters. Pedestrians do not like them on pavements, although in more cycle-friendly countries, such as The Netherlands, shared pavements are accepted as the norm.

There are more bikes in Britain than cars. But while the average motorist travels about 7,000 miles a year, the typical cyclist does about 180 and the bike goes out just 16 times a year.

Why is cycling so ignored even though it is the quickest, most efficient and cheapest way of getting round most towns? It's partly caution in that most people do not feel safe on bikes. It's partly laziness in a country where loafing around has become an art form. It's partly the weather when it rains on half the days each years.And it's partly cycling is widely seen to be naff.

There are risks to riding a bike. But more cycle lanes are being built and the national cycle network will soon ensure no one is more than five miles from a route. The busier the road, the more motorists are on the lookout, so I am more cautious on a country lane than I am riding round Hyde Park Corner.

Cycling does not take a great deal of energy along the flat and you can carry an enormous amount of baggage with ease using a little skill and ingenuity. Hills can be awkward to go up but there are few greater thrills than careering down one at 30, 40 or even 50mph.

It may rain on many days but it falls for only one hour in 12 and the number of days when you get drenched, even cycling every day as I do, is about eight a year. While traffic tends to get jammed in wet weather, bikes can sail serenely through the cycle lane puddles.

Cycling can seem unfashionable because there are so few riders and those left tend to be keen to the point of fanaticism. When 500 cycle stands were proposed for a development at the King Alfred Leisure Centre a few years ago including a casino, people scoffed and said no one would go to a casino on a bike. Yet I have done so and the number would not seem unreasonable in a city where cycling is the norm such as Groningen in The Netherlands.

Over the years, I have been spat at, sworn at (the latest example being last week), threatened, and run off the road. Yet these instances are mercifully rare and probably no more than drivers encounter from each other. They don't put me off but my worry is they will other people.

Cycling is by far the best way of getting about most parts of this crowded little country, particularly in the towns. Yet instead of being encouraged, it is often reviled. Get on your bike and help get rid of what is fast becoming a vicious cycle.