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Things people blamed on bicycles

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Re: Things people blamed on bicycles

#131

Post by [deleted] »

ginko wrote: post #44
fzfaa wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

[deleted]

Re: Things people blamed on bicycles

#132

Post by austinjp »

evandijk70 wrote: post #76
ChrisRR wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the UK as a cyclist I still get so much hate on the road. I'm just trying to get to work like everyone else, but people still drive their cars up right behind me, squeeze past when there's not enough space, beep their horns and shout out the window. And then the justification is always "well I saw a cyclist run a red light once, therefore all cyclists are shit"

How often does that kind of thing happen? Daily, weekly, monthly, yearly?

Motorist squeezing past at speed without adequate space? Every single time.

Re: Things people blamed on bicycles

#133

Post by laputan_machine »

evandijk70 wrote: post #76
ChrisRR wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the UK as a cyclist I still get so much hate on the road. I'm just trying to get to work like everyone else, but people still drive their cars up right behind me, squeeze past when there's not enough space, beep their horns and shout out the window. And then the justification is always "well I saw a cyclist run a red light once, therefore all cyclists are shit"

How often does that kind of thing happen? Daily, weekly, monthly, yearly?

If you commute daily (5 times a week) then you will see at least one terrible / dangerous driver in that time period.

Some weeks it can be really bad, several a day, some weeks it will be almost silent (but always at least one nutter).

The weather makes a big difference, for some reason drivers drive a lot worse in the rain and really hot weather, usually speeding / running reds and not checking mirrors more often than in overcast / typical UK weather.

Re: Things people blamed on bicycles

#134

Post by desas »

sschueller wrote: post #109
ChrisRR wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the UK as a cyclist I still get so much hate on the road. I'm just trying to get to work like everyone else, but people still drive their cars up right behind me, squeeze past when there's not enough space, beep their horns and shout out the window. And then the justification is always "well I saw a cyclist run a red light once, therefore all cyclists are shit"

Well cyclist running red lights is extremely common here in Zürich Switzerland especially during morning rush hour. I have seen some crazy altercations between not cars and cyclist but public transport like trams and cyclist. Once a cyclist managed to pull up to the front of a double bendy trollybus[1] I was in just to cut across the front of the bus forcing the driver to hard break. In another incident recently whic…

You're falling into the exact same trope that the person you're replying to is admonishing.

Motorists running red lights, speeding up for amber lights, exceeding the speed limits, tailgating, dangerously overtaking and so on, is all so common as to be unnoteworthy. This doesn't justify cyclists running reds, but it should put it into perspective.

Re: Things people blamed on bicycles

#135

Post by rizach8 »

A big issue is infrastructure, which leads to frustration. In many places in Europe, dedicated bike roads are built. Red lights are also much less used and often replaced with roundabouts. If streets are built for a co existence, there is not need to fight about space.

Google: Amsterdam Bike Roads, to get an idea.

Re: Things people blamed on bicycles

#136

Post by [deleted] »

eptcyka wrote: post #47
mrweasel wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

[deleted]

Re: Things people blamed on bicycles

#137

Post by atoav »

montebicyclelo wrote: post #114

Cycling is cheap, often faster than driving (in my city), healthy, less noisy, creates vastly less pollution, less dangerous to pedastrians... And I'd guess that about 95% of drivers that I come across are respectful of the danger they present - overtaking with enough space, and not at too high a speed (my city doesn't have great bike lanes). Unfortunately, a typical journey involves passing more than 20 cars, which…

This kind of driver is the same that would accelerate towards you as you (legally) cross a road only to stop at a red light 50m behind you – a red light was clearly visible from where they were when they saw you. For them driving is just about their own emotion. The moment they see someone "who deserves it" their emotion takes over and their brain switches off.

People like that should have their driving license taken away, because they show that they cannot be trusted to operate a vehicle in a public setting.

Re: Things people blamed on bicycles

#138

Post by ralferoo »

eptcyka wrote: post #129
ajuc wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No they don't. Do you drive? Cause if so - you're a threat to other people... When a pedestrian crosses a street - cars and bikes have to stop for example. When a bike and a car meet on an intersection of equal roads with no lights or signs - whoever is on the left has to yield, no matter what their speed is. When signs or lights show who has to yield - it also doesn't matter if you drive a car/bike or walk. I can't…

Pedestrians are not vehichles. I am specifically referring to a situation where there's traffic going one way on a road and slower vehicles are impeding on traffic behind them - in this case it's the responsibility of the slower vehicle to let the faster traffic pass in a safe manner. Seems like I've worded myself poorly here given that people are clearly misunderstanding me. Yes, at intersections, as a driver, I wil…

> 30 minutes later when on a mountain road, I expect the soccer mom and the cycling enthusiasts to do the same.

I have a feeling that you'll end up killing someone on one of these mountain roads with that attitude.

You wait behind them until you're on a clear stretch of straight road, and then overtake. If you don't have a clear stretch of road, you continue to wait behind them. Anything else, and you're putting either the cyclist in danger, or yourself and the oncoming traffic in danger.

Re: Things people blamed on bicycles

#139

Post by shaoonb »

mnd999 wrote: post #32
sasaf5 wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's actually because of pedestrians jaywalking all the time. Horrible example for car ownership abiding citizens. As if it wasn't enough, they also make traffic a lot more dangerous by selfishly exposing themselves unvehicled.

For me, from the UK, jaywalking is a strange law, we’ve never had it and I don’t really know why it exists elsewhere. It makes streets more pedestrian friendly and encourages drivers to look out for them.

Moved from Auckland (with fairly weak, unenforced jaywalking laws) to London and I've found that jaywalking is essentially required here due to how slow most pedestrian lights tend to be. Perhaps in places with stronger jaywalking laws, lights are timed in such a way that you don't have to wait too long to cross legally?

Re: Things people blamed on bicycles

#140

Post by rizach8 »

montebicyclelo wrote: post #114

Cycling is cheap, often faster than driving (in my city), healthy, less noisy, creates vastly less pollution, less dangerous to pedastrians... And I'd guess that about 95% of drivers that I come across are respectful of the danger they present - overtaking with enough space, and not at too high a speed (my city doesn't have great bike lanes). Unfortunately, a typical journey involves passing more than 20 cars, which…

The solution is to build for bikes, pedestrian and cars to coexist. Red lights are also an arbitrary solution to an non existing problem.
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