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Things people blamed on bicycles

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Re: Things people blamed on bicycles

#581

Post by merely-unlikely »

microtonal wrote: post #405
mauvehaus wrote: post #363

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In my experience it's mostly a matter of not having the most desirable bike or the shittiest lock. Put a $100 u-lock on a $300 bike, and you can almost be assured that you'll have neither. Put a nice enough lock on yours, and you can be pretty sure you won't have the most easily stolen bike either. At least in the US, road bikes are pretty much immune to being stolen because they're seen as terminally uncool by the l…

In my experience it's mostly a matter of not having the most desirable bike or the shittiest lock. Right, in The Netherlands, where there are a lot of bikes, this is the basic rule: just make sure that there are other bikes that are more attractive to steal, even if it's a new bike. The second basic rule is: use a chain lock to attach your bike frame to an unmovable object, so that a thief cannot just throw your bike…

Unfortunately here in NYC the public won't bat an eye while your lock is cut off[1]

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UGttmR2DTY8

Re: Things people blamed on bicycles

#582

Post by M2Ys4U »

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.

The key point in that rule is that it only applies to solid centre lines. Motorists are free to cross broken lines to overtake.

Re: Things people blamed on bicycles

#583

Post by Ajedi32 »

ChrisRR wrote: post #52
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

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"

I don't think that's really a bike specific thing. Those same drivers would likely get just as angry at a car or other motor vehicle driving below the speed limit on the same road. Maybe even angrier since they can't pass as easily.

Re: Things people blamed on bicycles

#584

Post by cogman10 »

wpietri wrote: post #578
cogman10 wrote: post #559

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Steal the bike, sell it on craigslist/facebook marketplace/etc for $100, profit. It can often take less that 5/10 minutes to steal a bike which is a pretty good RoR. How could we stop it? Probably the best way would be stronger regulations on community marketplaces/pawn shops/ebay/etc. ATM, they don't GAF about selling stolen goods.

I also think the police just don't take it very seriously. Certainly that's the case here in SF. I've reported a number of stolen bikes over the years and my impression was of massive indifference. After bike number 7 was stolen, I just gave up. A few years later I'm thinking about buying a bike again, and risk of theft is my number one concern.

Well, not to defend the police, but after a bike is stolen I don't know what you could expect them to do.

Even if they had a dedicated bike recovery task force, the most they could do is visit local pawn shops and browse community marketplaces for a bike matching the description (assuming it wasn't broken down for parts).

Now, before a bike is stolen, I'd expect police to actually patrol places where bikes are being commonly stolen from (or for that matter, places where cars are commonly broken into). That part is something I do blame them for. The fact that SF is basically synonymous with "don't leave anything in the car" is an indictment on local police.

Re: Things people blamed on bicycles

#585

Post by richiebful1 »

josefresco wrote: post #507
acdha wrote: post #455

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I used to feel that way too, but then I started paying closer attention to travel times, which were the same no matter whether that happened. Unless you’re on a rural road with no traffic or signals, a cyclist going 15mph is probably not costing you a second of door to door travel time rather than decreasing the time you spend stopping for signals or waiting for the car ahead of you to start moving.

I understand that I'm not gaining a huge amount of time as a motorist, but if I follow behind I end up "stalking" the bicyclist which can make them uncomfortable.

As a cyclist, I'm not bothered by someone following me at a safe distance. And if you follow me for 1km or so, I'll pull over and let you pass if it is safe.

Re: Things people blamed on bicycles

#586

Post by ThinkingGuy »

dionidium wrote: post #454
dageshi wrote: post #358

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Let's be honest, the real reason is that cyclists are frustrating to drivers merely by being cyclists. They're slow so they force the driver to either try to overtake or slow down everyone behind them and most people when driving will feel a pressure not to slow down the journeys of others behind them. So long as cyclists and drivers share the same roads it will always exist, some drivers will just be better about it…

It also annoys me when somebody is moving too slow in the aisle at the grocery store, but I've literally never once seen someone flip out and yell at or physically push past someone for moving too slow in that context. We've had 100 years to examine the effects of driving on people's brains and it's...deranging, clearly.

Relevant Oatmeal cartoon:

https://theoatmeal.com/pl/minor_differences/cutting_off

Re: Things people blamed on bicycles

#587

Post by acdha »

josefresco wrote: post #507
acdha wrote: post #455

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I used to feel that way too, but then I started paying closer attention to travel times, which were the same no matter whether that happened. Unless you’re on a rural road with no traffic or signals, a cyclist going 15mph is probably not costing you a second of door to door travel time rather than decreasing the time you spend stopping for signals or waiting for the car ahead of you to start moving.

I understand that I'm not gaining a huge amount of time as a motorist, but if I follow behind I end up "stalking" the bicyclist which can make them uncomfortable.

Yeah, I usually just settle back to allow room and pretend they’re a city bus - probably faster, way better smelling

Re: Things people blamed on bicycles

#588

Post by Ajedi32 »

dionidium wrote: post #454
dageshi wrote: post #358

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Let's be honest, the real reason is that cyclists are frustrating to drivers merely by being cyclists. They're slow so they force the driver to either try to overtake or slow down everyone behind them and most people when driving will feel a pressure not to slow down the journeys of others behind them. So long as cyclists and drivers share the same roads it will always exist, some drivers will just be better about it…

It also annoys me when somebody is moving too slow in the aisle at the grocery store, but I've literally never once seen someone flip out and yell at or physically push past someone for moving too slow in that context. We've had 100 years to examine the effects of driving on people's brains and it's...deranging, clearly.

It's so common we even have a name for it: road rage. What it is about driving that induces rage in so many people is beyond me.

Re: Things people blamed on bicycles

#589

Post by wpietri »

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?

For humans, a lot of the "dumb" stuff is rooted in our evolutionary history as primates, for whom dominance hierarchies are a big part of their evolutionary environment.

For our nearest ancestors, chimps, being a dominant male has a lot of value in terms of reproductive success. So it's not shock to me that humans males are prone to the same sort of dominance assertion and performance of being highly placed that chimps are. I read this sort of behavior as the driver asserting his "superiority", putting "lesser" people in "their place".

If you're interested, de Waal's "Chimpanzee Politics" was a real eye-opener for me. There was a big chunk of human behavior that went from "what is wrong with him" to "ah, ok, primates gonna prime".

Re: Things people blamed on bicycles

#590

Post by amadeuspagel »

ClumsyPilot wrote: post #472
aaaaaaaaaaab wrote: post #362

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Easy. Vote for politicians who promise punishing bike theft with multi-year prison sentences. The reasoning is simple: bike thieves disproportionately contribute to climate change by discouraging large-scale bike use. This must be punished.

> Vote for politicians who promise punishing bike theft with multi-year prison sentences Please don't - this is typical 'tough on crime' trick: promise long sentences, so easy - longer sentence-less crime, right? Wrong. Sentenses are useless if no-one ever gets caught. Look at countries with the toughest sentenses in the world, and you will find they have loads of crime You actually have to use your brain, and think…

> Please don't - this is typical 'tough on crime' trick: promise long sentences, so easy - longer sentence-less crime, right? Wrong. Sentenses are useless if no-one ever gets caught. Look at countries with the toughest sentenses in the world, and you will find they have loads of crime

Perhaps the causality goes the other way here? Perhaps suffering under loads of crime makes people vote for tough sentences?

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