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Things people blamed on bicycles

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Re: Things people blamed on bicycles

#291

Post by davidguetta »

jokoon wrote: post #248

I often discuss on the french subreddit, and it's crazy how hard some people fight back giving up their cars. The recurring excuse is a long commute and bad availability of public transit. Most people don't have a long commute, since public transit covers most french citizens, but weirdly there is a very vocal minority who live in the middle of nowhere. I keep explaining to them that they can keep driving since they'…

Im french. Cars are replaceable, and actually a burden, in big cities but its insane to think that people in the smaller cities can switch.

My parents love biking but theres no f**ing way they can do their life on the littoral without a car. When all your friends and the closer market is 10/15km away from each other.

Also the advice to go live close to a train station is literally nuts. You want everyone in a departement. to live <2km to a train station ? Welcome to hong kong.

Re: Things people blamed on bicycles

#292

Post by koolba »

dazc wrote: post #255
atoav wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

I see this nearly everyday and wonder how it took billions of years to produce a species which is so dumb?

A lot of the genetic evolutions for individual survival do not perform well in a group setting.

It’s kind of like how our love for sugar once, it’s abundantly available, turns us into a diabetes machine.

Re: Things people blamed on bicycles

#293

Post by rimliu »

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

Mine increased, actually. Cyclists have the least respect for traffic rules out of all participants. Like literally everyone else on the road has to bend to their will.

Re: Things people blamed on bicycles

#294

Post by woodruffw »

throwaway0a5e wrote: post #240
grecy wrote: post #173

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A lot of people have no idea of the destructive power of the three ton death machine they are in command of. For that reason I think it should be mandatory to volunteer in a crash recovery ward at a hospital for 100 hours before getting a drivers license.

How do you square the "three ton death machine" with the whole "recreationally gallivanting across Africa in a Jeep and blogging about it for internet points" thing? Your words say a car usage should be minimized. Your actions say another thing. It comes across a lot like taking your private jet to a climate summit. I'm genuinely curious how you reconcile this apparent conflict.

There are two answers to this:

1. The person you're responding to is clearly aware of the responsibility required when driving a large car (their comment says this explicitly);

2. An outbacking trip through Africa is not meaningfully comparable to daily automotive commuting. It's probably safe to assume that the GP practiced outsized caution, given the logistical and legal complexity of such a trip.

Re: Things people blamed on bicycles

#295

Post by rimliu »

laputan_machine wrote: post #128
sschueller wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

And just like that, you've proven his point. This guy doesn't run reds, I don't either. Apparently that's irrelevant because some cyclists do (and here's a bunch of anecdotes) so it's not a problem to harrass cyclists. Right on!

I see a car passing red light maybe twice in a year. I see a cyclist doing the same twice a week.

Re: Things people blamed on bicycles

#296

Post by onionisafruit »

Raed667 wrote: post #23

And somehow this translates to some drivers deciding that it is OK to kill cyclists because they will be 20 seconds late to the next red light stop.

You think blaming poor furniture sales in 19th century England on the popularity of bicycles is related to present day drivers running down cyclists?

Re: Things people blamed on bicycles

#297

Post by martyvis »

mrob wrote: post #217
ndsipa_pomu wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Motorists often forget that a lot of motorists jump red lights too, and then there's the habitual speeding that seems expected of drivers, rather than being recognised as dangerous behaviour. With red light jumping, there's also a very different pattern of behaviour as motorists will speed up to get through a light that's just turned red, whereas cyclists tend to either slow down or continue at the same pace when RLJ…

In the UK, it's illegal for a motorist to cross a solid white center line on their side of the road to overtake a cyclist unless the cyclist is traveling 10mph or slower. I estimate less than 1% of motorists obey this law. Rule 129: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/the-highway-code/general-rules-t... Some rules in the Highway Code are guidance only, but those marked with uppercase "MUST" or "MUST NOT" have legal force.

Here in NSW Australia it is almost the exact opposite now. You are permitted to cross the centre lane to overtake a bicycle (if it is safe) and need to keep a 1 to 1.5 metre gap to the bike. https://www.nsw.gov.au/driving-boating-and-transport/roads-s....

Re: Things people blamed on bicycles

#298

Post by cassianoleal »

peoplefromibiza wrote: post #228
matthewmacleod wrote: post #195

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No - as someone who has cycled extensively in London, it is very obviously not the case that drivers are squeezing past cyclists out of a desire to keep them safe. It’s a pretty laughable idea. The vast majority of drivers are actually totally fine and courteous on the road. But when a moderate cycle can take you past literally hundreds of cars, even a tiny percentage of discourteous drivers can make the whole experi…

they are not tying to save you, they are trying to save themselves from hitting you because the cars behind don't see the bike and assume you are going slowly just because and road rage is the most dangerous thing while driving. please understand than bikers don't make a good judge, because they are biased to think everyone is trying to kill them because everyone hates how free and both environmentally and physically…

> I would like to avoid bikes too, but they use the pavement I'm walking on 'because roads aren't safe', like their right to defend their safety overrides my right to not be bothered where only pedestrian should walk.

Pretty telling that you think that but at the same time defend drivers squeezing past cyclists at high speed.

Re: Things people blamed on bicycles

#299

Post by DonHopkins »

cinntaile wrote: post #275
atoav wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

I don't think I have ever seen this behaviour? This must be a cultural thing?

[flagged]

Re: Things people blamed on bicycles

#300

Post by heresie-dabord »

dazc wrote: post #255
atoav wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

I see this nearly everyday and wonder how it took billions of years to produce a species which is so dumb?

Unlike other species, we have optimised our ability to create losing conditions for some.
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