Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Guerrilla Bike Lanes in San Francisco

fastcoexist.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

101–110 of 274 posts

Re: Guerrilla Bike Lanes in San Francisco

#101

Post by dweinus »

falcolas wrote: post #42

As a former bicyclist, and a current motorcyclist and "cager", let me give one piece of advice that has kept me alive to this day. Your safety and protection is entirely up to you. No government, painted lines or traffic cones are going to save you on the road. When you're on the road, the only thing that matters is "the right of weight". If you're hit by a car, and you're not in a protective cage of steel, it's not…

I agree that mindset is safer, but defensive riding and defensive infrastructure are not mutually exclusive concepts. Both save lives.

Re: Guerrilla Bike Lanes in San Francisco

#102

Post by pyb »

dasil003 wrote: post #84

I've spent most of my life with cycling as my primary mode of transportation, living in Minneapolis, Santa Fe, London and SF/Oakland. I ride fast and generally try to go with the flow to avoid inconveniencing drivers while also being considerate to pedestrians. I think this traffic cone thing is pretty cool, but I have a larger observation to make: Here's the thing about SF: everyone is way too fucking agro. Drivers…

Agreed, but the funny thing about London is that cyclists tend to be more of a menace than cars. There is a noticeable minority who just don't want to stop for pedestrians.

Re: Guerrilla Bike Lanes in San Francisco

#103

Post by stephentmcm »

crazy1van wrote: post #90
stephentmcm wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seriously? This is easily the worst argument against bicycles I see bought up again and again. Next time you're driving count how many people you see breaking the law be it bicycle, pedestrian or motor vehicle. Now count how many you see receiving fines/being talked to by the police. But let's go ahead and agree with you and add number plates to bicycles - ignoring the huge costs incurred by the state - how exactly d…

> Next time you're driving count how many people you see breaking the law be it bicycle, pedestrian or motor vehicle. If I don't count minor speeding (<10 mph over), I see a much higher percentage of cyclists breaking the law than cars. I drive through a busy four way stop while commuting and nearly every bicyclist does not stop and about half don't even slow down. I don't think I've ever seen a car just completely b…

Interesting that's likely a location thing. Also I'd question Depending again on location, there's almost definitely laws on indicating turns which I'd say is probably the one I see ignored the most (to cut off the 'I see bicycles not indicating' line, most places have a 'when safe to do so' clause for bicycles).

Re: Guerrilla Bike Lanes in San Francisco

#104

Post by brokenmachine »

adrianratnapala wrote: post #87
brokenmachine wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's the law, draconian or not. I personally don't want to come within 1m of a 1500kg vehicle, probably driven by someone playing with their phone, going faster than I am. It is possible on Sydney roads if drivers wait until there's an overtaking lane, which is actually the only legal solution. Anyway, it's never enforced so what difference does it make? Drivers will continue to only care about themselves and cycli…

> Countries with governments that aren't crap have separate tracks for cyclists, It's not about crap governments. It's about practical responses to the world as it is. Now I live in Munich and enjoy riding on dedicated bike lanes. But these are built on seriously wide roads. In Sydney that space is used for other things. Such land-use decisions were locked in during the early 20th century. Now it's perfectly reasonab…

So cyclists can't have safe infrastructure because of history, and also can't expect drivers to obey the road laws because of impatience. That's just great.

Re: Guerrilla Bike Lanes in San Francisco

#105

Post by aoloe »

shard972 wrote: post #8
zo7 wrote: post #3

I don't think non-cyclists realize how much risk you take on when you ride in the city. In my town we really only have bike lanes on the two main roads that go up and down the bulk of the city, and they ride dangerously close to lines of parked cars. I was riding downhill once when someone opened their door in front of me without looking -- luckily I managed to get past, but had they opened it a few moments earlier I…

As a driver it's the main reason I refuse to ride a bike, I don't want to die. Even here in perth that is generally trying to help bike riders I just don't see how it's safe to ride around at 20-30km when the speed limit is 70km and there isn't enough room to overtake without going into the other lane. I just don't see how you can be safe when people are trying to overtake you in giant utes going twice your speed try…

This post shows two huge flaws in the way car traffic works:

- You don't have a right to drive at 70 km/h! It's the upper bound!

- Cyclists are seen as obstacles and not as road users.

I don't own a car but sometimes have a ride with other people and it's scary to notice how aggressive some people are towards the other road users. And I'm even more frightened by those people who drive too fast (for their skills) just because they don't want to get in the way of the aggressive ones.

But luckily, there are also very cool drivers!

Re: Guerrilla Bike Lanes in San Francisco

#107

Post by danielrhodes »

falcolas wrote: post #42

As a former bicyclist, and a current motorcyclist and "cager", let me give one piece of advice that has kept me alive to this day. Your safety and protection is entirely up to you. No government, painted lines or traffic cones are going to save you on the road. When you're on the road, the only thing that matters is "the right of weight". If you're hit by a car, and you're not in a protective cage of steel, it's not…

From the individual perspective this makes sense and a mindset everybody should have. Collectively, when you add these sorts of things up it has a measurable impact on reducing the total number of injured cyclists.

Re: Guerrilla Bike Lanes in San Francisco

#108

Post by Someone »

sampo wrote: post #39

I googled for some statistics: USA 1% of all trips is by cycle [1] 743 cyclist fatalities per year (2013) [2] population 320 million. Denmark 17% of all trips is by cycle [3] 33 cyclist fatalities per year (2013) [3] population 5.6 million. Cyclist fatalities per 1 million people: USA: 2.3 Denmark: 5.9 ...per cycling frequency: USA: 232 Denmark: 35 I guess I was expecting worse. American cyclists die only 7x more tha…

"American cyclists die only 7x more than Danish cyclists."

reason that this is so 'low' is a difference in the population that cycles.

I don't know for Denmark, but in the Netherlands, about 60% of cyclists dying in traffic are over 65 years old (106 out of 185 in 2014).

Re: Guerrilla Bike Lanes in San Francisco

#109

Post by danielrhodes »

SomeHacker44 wrote: post #50
Frondo wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Heh, just today I was biking down a hill in a segregated lane. Green lights ahead of me, all the way to the waterfront. Some guy in the crosswalk, going against the signal (I have green lights for several blocks), left to right across the street. I'm half a block away but I'm going downhill and going pretty fast. I yell, "Watch out!" He keeps moving, so I start to veer to the left to go around him to the left. THEN h…

Yep. Pedestrians, especially New Yorkers, are j-walkers. I spent the last 12 days in various places in Japan and boy, there are none of those except in places without crosswalks. It was weird!! But yes, best thing to do is be predictable if you're doing something (even if it is wrong). People sometimes think New Yorkers are crazy drivers. To the inexperienced it probably looks that way. However after driving here mos…

It's the same in Vietnam. Coming from the west, the driving there looks verifiably insane. After a few weeks you learn their rules (or how to compensate for lack thereof) and it doesn't feel as unsafe anymore.

Re: Guerrilla Bike Lanes in San Francisco

#110

Post by MagnumOpus »

pyb wrote: post #102
dasil003 wrote: post #84

I've spent most of my life with cycling as my primary mode of transportation, living in Minneapolis, Santa Fe, London and SF/Oakland. I ride fast and generally try to go with the flow to avoid inconveniencing drivers while also being considerate to pedestrians. I think this traffic cone thing is pretty cool, but I have a larger observation to make: Here's the thing about SF: everyone is way too fucking agro. Drivers…

Agreed, but the funny thing about London is that cyclists tend to be more of a menace than cars. There is a noticeable minority who just don't want to stop for pedestrians.

Cycle couriers/deliveroos are the cycle equivalent of the white van man and the black cabbie - they drive for a living and time is money, so they try to kill you if you so much stand in their way.

Luckily even if they crash into you, they are as likely to kill themselves a you - something that cannot be said of white van men...

Post reply on HN