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

Things people blamed on bicycles

twitter.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–50 of 852 posts

Re: Things people blamed on bicycles

#41

Post by usrusr »

theK wrote: post #28
vocram wrote: post #15

Hate for bicycles hasn’t changed. People think a bike travel is recreational, and thus less important than a car travel. Someone goes out of their way to affirm that, by having to overtake bikes or not let them overtake their cars. A couple of times I met cars busting their brakes trying to keep up with me with a disc road bike on long technical descents

Re: hate for bicycles I think, especially in cities, you just have the problem of bicycles not fitting in either of the two historically present transport modes. They are too slow for the street and waaaaay to fast for the pedestrian side. Bike lanes historically do not deliver as they increase traffic pattern complexity significantly for all three participants. I have seen some very ambitious plans to make city Cent…

Ah, good old "one of my best friends is a mountain bike I drive to the trailhead"

Bikes have been historically present for a generation or two longer than cars. https://www.vox.com/2015/3/19/8253035/roads-cyclists-cars-hi...

Re: Things people blamed on bicycles

#42

Post by hellweaver666 »

mattashii wrote: post #37
theK wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Re: hate for bicycles I think, especially in cities, you just have the problem of bicycles not fitting in either of the two historically present transport modes. They are too slow for the street and waaaaay to fast for the pedestrian side. Bike lanes historically do not deliver as they increase traffic pattern complexity significantly for all three participants. I have seen some very ambitious plans to make city Cent…

> waaaaay to fast for the pedestrian side. Uh, what? Reaching 15km/h is not unheard of for running either, so why would that be waaaaay too fast on a bike in mainly pedestrian areas? Sure, the bike should slow down to lower speeds than their norm to ensure safety for all people involved in traffic, but isn't that no different from how cars shouldn't go 100km/h+ in city centers?

I live in Amsterdam, 15km/h is a "slow" bike. Most fit adults cruise at around 20km/h and e-bikes are often blasting along at 25km/h+

The problem with bikes is that most don't have a speedo so they have no clue how fast they are travelling.

Re: Things people blamed on bicycles

#43

Post by usrusr »

mattashii wrote: post #37
theK wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Re: hate for bicycles I think, especially in cities, you just have the problem of bicycles not fitting in either of the two historically present transport modes. They are too slow for the street and waaaaay to fast for the pedestrian side. Bike lanes historically do not deliver as they increase traffic pattern complexity significantly for all three participants. I have seen some very ambitious plans to make city Cent…

> waaaaay to fast for the pedestrian side. Uh, what? Reaching 15km/h is not unheard of for running either, so why would that be waaaaay too fast on a bike in mainly pedestrian areas? Sure, the bike should slow down to lower speeds than their norm to ensure safety for all people involved in traffic, but isn't that no different from how cars shouldn't go 100km/h+ in city centers?

And why would cyclists go 15 km/h? By that matter, cars aren't too fast for the sidewalk either.

Re: Things people blamed on bicycles

#44

Post by ginko »

fzfaa wrote: post #36
mnd999 wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a lot more hate for bicycles since I stopped driving and started walking as it turns out.

When driving, cyclists are dangerous for themselves and for others. When walking, cyclists have absolutely no regard for my physical safety. When I lived in a city with a lot of cyclists I ended up developing some kind of fear that made me look around all the time because of how many cyclists had almost killed me when I was peacefully walking along the pavement. Oh god how I hate cyclists.

You seem to be under the impression that bikes are like cars where you're essentially guaranteed to be dead of at least maimed when they hit you.

In reality the most likely thing to happen to you is that you maybe get so nasty scratches and dirty clothing.

Re: Things people blamed on bicycles

#45

Post by amelius »

mellonaut wrote: post #19

This is hilarious. I remember a similar collection of headlines and opinion pieces calling out ‘newspapers on trains causing people not to talk to each other’, where ‘newspapers’ could be easily substituted for ‘smartphones’ to bring the title in the current era. I wonder which piece of technology is currently cautioned as the root of all evil, bringing a laugh to future historians. ‘Video Games’ (causing violence an…

> I wonder which piece of technology is currently cautioned as the root of all evil, bringing a laugh to future historians. ‘Video Games’ (causing violence and obesity) come to mind, and ‘AI’ (taking our jobs).

Smartphones, social media.

Re: Things people blamed on bicycles

#46

Post by nopehnnope »

mattashii wrote: post #37
theK wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Re: hate for bicycles I think, especially in cities, you just have the problem of bicycles not fitting in either of the two historically present transport modes. They are too slow for the street and waaaaay to fast for the pedestrian side. Bike lanes historically do not deliver as they increase traffic pattern complexity significantly for all three participants. I have seen some very ambitious plans to make city Cent…

> waaaaay to fast for the pedestrian side. Uh, what? Reaching 15km/h is not unheard of for running either, so why would that be waaaaay too fast on a bike in mainly pedestrian areas? Sure, the bike should slow down to lower speeds than their norm to ensure safety for all people involved in traffic, but isn't that no different from how cars shouldn't go 100km/h+ in city centers?

Do you really need it explained to you how a bike is more dangerous to pedestrians than a runner? A bike has way more inertia, is harder to stop than someone running, and is a tangle of metal that can seriously injure someone, and more difficult to safely maneuver around short of standing the side and stopping to let them pass. Takes half a second of thought to realize all this but you chose to play incredulous instead.

Re: Things people blamed on bicycles

#47

Post by eptcyka »

mrweasel wrote: post #38
vocram wrote: post #15

Hate for bicycles hasn’t changed. People think a bike travel is recreational, and thus less important than a car travel. Someone goes out of their way to affirm that, by having to overtake bikes or not let them overtake their cars. A couple of times I met cars busting their brakes trying to keep up with me with a disc road bike on long technical descents

Hate to say it, but when I see how bikes are "integrated" into for example American traffic, I don't blame the drivers at all. WTF is a bike doing in the middle of the road? If there's no bike lanes, then the bikes go all the way to the right, there are almost no exceptions. I've watches a few videos of people biking, on bike lanes, in New York, and those lanes are placed by a mad man. Sometimes they are even on the…

How am I supposed to make a left turn at an intersection? Other than that, yes, being on the far right on the road is where I'd feel safest.

Re: Things people blamed on bicycles

#48

Post by CaptArmchair »

theK wrote: post #28
vocram wrote: post #15

Hate for bicycles hasn’t changed. People think a bike travel is recreational, and thus less important than a car travel. Someone goes out of their way to affirm that, by having to overtake bikes or not let them overtake their cars. A couple of times I met cars busting their brakes trying to keep up with me with a disc road bike on long technical descents

Re: hate for bicycles I think, especially in cities, you just have the problem of bicycles not fitting in either of the two historically present transport modes. They are too slow for the street and waaaaay to fast for the pedestrian side. Bike lanes historically do not deliver as they increase traffic pattern complexity significantly for all three participants. I have seen some very ambitious plans to make city Cent…

> I think, especially in cities, you just have the problem of bicycles not fitting in either of the two historically present transport modes. They are too slow for the street and waaaaay to fast for the pedestrian side

Replace that bicycles with cars and the argument still holds up. "historically" here is really an argumentum ad antiquitatem. Both cars and bicycles are fairly modern inventions which both appeared around the same time.

In fact, city streets were mostly dominated by pedestrians, horses and carriages up to the late 19th / early 20th century. Moreover, there was a backlash against early cars as well. The more interesting question is this: how did cars really ended up overtaking streets in cities and towns? Why did infrastructure / urban planning ended up favoring car use in the public space?

> I have seen some very ambitious plans to make city Centers free of anything that can go faster than 25kph and I root for such plans but they are all very naive usually

Why are they naive? I live in a historic city center. Streets used to be cramped with cars, it smelled horribly with exhaust gasses, soot covered historic buildings, parking space is extremely limited and small sidewalks were crowded forcing you to teeter into traffic.

Over the past decades, that all changed as car use was gradually disincentivized and in some areas downright banned. All I can say is that it has been a massive improvement. The city is far more appealing then it used to be... and these days I know few people contesting that it's "unfeasible" or "unpractical".

Would it work everywhere? No, not really. Let's be realistic. But let's not venture into the other extreme dismissing wholesale as a naive idea either.

Re: Things people blamed on bicycles

#49

Post by eptcyka »

imgabe wrote: post #39
theK wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Re: hate for bicycles I think, especially in cities, you just have the problem of bicycles not fitting in either of the two historically present transport modes. They are too slow for the street and waaaaay to fast for the pedestrian side. Bike lanes historically do not deliver as they increase traffic pattern complexity significantly for all three participants. I have seen some very ambitious plans to make city Cent…

There's no legitimate reason to hate on any other mode of transportation. Unless you're on an interstate or other highway that specifically forbids certain vehicles or has a minimum speed, everyone else has the same right to use the road you do.

Generally yes, but, especially in California, people often forget that it's the slower vehicle's responsibility to yield to faster traffic, regardless of the type of slower vehicle.

EDIT: Yield here is a misnomer, what I mean to convey is that slower moving traffic by law is supposed to pass faster moving traffic if it's possible to do so safely, and this is a feat that I rarely see take place, be it with cyclists or drivers.

Re: Things people blamed on bicycles

#50

Post by prmoustache »

mattashii wrote: post #37
theK wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Re: hate for bicycles I think, especially in cities, you just have the problem of bicycles not fitting in either of the two historically present transport modes. They are too slow for the street and waaaaay to fast for the pedestrian side. Bike lanes historically do not deliver as they increase traffic pattern complexity significantly for all three participants. I have seen some very ambitious plans to make city Cent…

> waaaaay to fast for the pedestrian side. Uh, what? Reaching 15km/h is not unheard of for running either, so why would that be waaaaay too fast on a bike in mainly pedestrian areas? Sure, the bike should slow down to lower speeds than their norm to ensure safety for all people involved in traffic, but isn't that no different from how cars shouldn't go 100km/h+ in city centers?

It is rather the cars that should slow down to 30kph in cities.
Post reply on HN