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Things people blamed on bicycles

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Re: Things people blamed on bicycles

#411

Post by desas »

machinawhite wrote: post #177
desas wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's literally the guidance that every police force in the UK work to, you need to leave a space of 1.5 metres between your car and the cyclist when overtaking at 30mph. It might be that our road lanes are narrower than yours of course. See https://www.northants.police.uk/police-forces/northamptonshi...

Yeah I've had a police car leave a space of maybe 1.5cm between me and their VW transporter. They don't care either

The police are just people. They employ some bad drivers, just like they employ some bad people.

Re: Things people blamed on bicycles

#412

Post by pessimizer »

slingnow wrote: post #372
seszett wrote: post #187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well... I'm both a pedestrian and biker (and I generally use a car when outside my city) and honestly, I find it normal for pedestrians to give priority to bikes. It's just a lot more energy expensive to stop and start again for a bike, while it is essentially free for a pedestrian. As a pedestrian I always try to avoid making bikes stop unnecessarily, and most people seem to do the same here, even if pedestrians tec…

Well if energy output is your reasoning: then it's orders of magnitude more energy for a car to come to a full stop and re-accelerate than it is for a pedestrian to let it pass. Should cars then have priority over people in a crosswalk?

> it's orders of magnitude more energy for a car

Not for the driver. This isn't an environmental argument. This is an argument that a pedestrian just has to stand for a moment, a driver just has to slightly move their feet, and a bicyclist has to do a bunch of physically strenuous shit to stop.

edit: I'm not a bicyclist.

Re: Things people blamed on bicycles

#413

Post by ectopod »

microtherion wrote: post #370
beowulfey wrote: post #320

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Both of my hits while riding a bike have been because of cars turning. For one, the driver was turning right and only looked left -- I was still in front of him, and he never looked ahead; T-boned! For the other, I pull up to a stoplight alongside a few cars, against the curb. There is only one lane for left/right/straight. No one had on turn signals. Light turns green, so myself and the first car go straight. Second…

As a former bicyclist, I try to be extra mindful of bicyclists when driving. One of the right turns on a common route I take is on a downhill slope, and I've noticed cyclists passing me on the right even when I already had my turn signal on for several seconds. I hate to use the common refrain, but it really seems to me that a higher percentage of bicyclists drive like maniacs. What purpose, exactly, does driving wit…

> I've noticed cyclists passing me on the right even when I already had my turn signal on for several seconds.

Had you just overtaken these cyclists?

Re: Things people blamed on bicycles

#414

Post by belorn »

LtWorf wrote: post #330
stinos wrote: post #280

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I do not think it is less dangerous to pedestrians. I remember when I used to live in the Netherlands, it was uncomfortable being a pedestrian because there were so many cyclists. Actual statistics about encounters clearly do show it is less dangerous, and expecting a concussion to be a false interpretion of actual risks. I do get your problem though: you're not used to it. You need eyes everywhere which essentially…

Bah, in my experience bicycle users behave really badly on average. Certainly no better than car drivers. For example they will be ready to crash on a pedestrian who is walking on a bike lane for good reason (most common ones are: an excavator made a trench on the sidewalk, the snow clearing machine took all the snow from the road and made a mountain on the sidewalk). However when there is no bike lane available, the…

Take a look when outside and see if you ever see strollers or children with training wheels on bike lanes. Then ask, why don't you hear about the many deaths that should occur when those 50km/h bikes are crashing into those helpless children.

The average speed of a bike, as measured in Netherlands, is around 15km/h. When there is snow the speed is generally even lower. It is also fairly common where I live to see parents use strollers on snowy days since the bike roads tend to be clear of snow before sidewalk. No one, neither police or other pedestrians, acts as if those parents are putting their children at mortal danger. Statistics also support this.

A motorized two wheeler that can travel 50 km/h is not a bicycle, it is a moped. If its electrical then its an electric moped. Mopeds are not allowed where I live to use bike lanes unless they travel at the maximum speed of bikes. Mopeds also require a moped driving license and a license plate, and police can and has apprehended people who break the traffic law in this way.

Re: Things people blamed on bicycles

#415

Post by analog31 »

Tade0 wrote: post #351
chriswarbo wrote: post #289

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> And they do not respect the traffic laws in the same way that cars do This seems to be a persistent myth. All the studies I've come across say the exact opposite; for example: https://www.forbes.com/sites/carltonreid/2019/05/10/cyclists...

> A Transport for London study investigated the “hypothesis that the majority of cyclists ride through red lights” and discovered that 84% of cyclists stopped on reds. Imagine 16% drivers not stopping on red.

In my observation, the crimes of motorists and cyclists are crimes of convenience and opportunity.

Motorists exceed the speed limit, roll through stop signs, sometimes blow through red lights (every light cycle at one intersection on my daily commute), and drive while distracted (I see the cell phones from my bike).

Cyclists blow through stop signs, sometimes blow red lights, and often take shortcuts that are technically illegal.

Re: Things people blamed on bicycles

#416

Post by bnralt »

desas wrote: post #134
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…

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.

You almost never see a bunch of drivers arguing that it's OK to run red lights. It's quite common with cyclists; you can even look at the comments here and see several arguing that it's not a problem for cyclists to run red lights. Whether or not they're correct, it at least indicates that the behavior is much more common among cyclists.

Re: Things people blamed on bicycles

#417

Post by DFHippie »

sokoloff wrote: post #361
ch_sm wrote: post #348

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This article is so insane, it just has to be some sort of outrage-bait (that actually worked for me, although my blood typically has a pretty high boiling point).

Seems a satirical essay akin to a Modest Proposal: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Modest_Proposal

"A Modest Proposal" is meant to make the rich think twice about their treatment of the poor. Do you think the Free Beacon wants its readers to feel worse about rolling coal and abusing cyclists?

Re: Things people blamed on bicycles

#418

Post by LtWorf »

kuschku wrote: post #349
LtWorf wrote: post #330

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bah, in my experience bicycle users behave really badly on average. Certainly no better than car drivers. For example they will be ready to crash on a pedestrian who is walking on a bike lane for good reason (most common ones are: an excavator made a trench on the sidewalk, the snow clearing machine took all the snow from the road and made a mountain on the sidewalk). However when there is no bike lane available, the…

I wonder where they’d get an electric bicycle going 50, considering it’s impossible to buy or import ones going more than 20 km/h in most of the EU.

You download a chinese firmware and flash it of course…

Re: Things people blamed on bicycles

#419

Post by analog31 »

xattt wrote: post #245
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…

> Cycling is cheap, often faster than driving (in my city), healthy, less noisy, creates vastly less pollution, less dangerous to pedastrians Can we talk about people on e-bikes with phat tires? There’s a certain profile of riders that think they are just as meek and harmless as a normal rider, but their presence and riding style is usually aggressive. Don’t forget the angsty 40- and 50-year-olds who uncapped their l…

On my daily commute, I've now had a chance to observe the same e-cyclists several times through the summer months. I tend to notice and recognize bikes and cyclists because I'm interested in cycling. I think a lot of the behavior that folks are noticing, such as "it seems like e-bikes don't have brakes" is due to inexperience and residual car driving habits such as accelerating out of congestion.

Re: Things people blamed on bicycles

#420

Post by LtWorf »

tokai wrote: post #375
LtWorf wrote: post #325

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree. In Copenhagen multiple bas stops just go onto bike traffic. And they DO NOT CARE that a bus just stopped and people are about to come out.

You know that there is a difference between the stops right? If there is pavement on the side of the bikelane going out to the road, its on the bus passengers to stop and let the cyclist pass. So many pedestrians don't know this and think they can just throw themselves out on the bike lane.

Yeah, because there aren't other passengers behind pushing.

The city is badly designed. Busses shouldn't stop on traffic.

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