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Things people blamed on bicycles

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Re: Things people blamed on bicycles

#591

Post by kjkjadksj »

thaumasiotes wrote: post #251
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'…

> I keep explaining to them that they can keep driving since they're a minority so it's not such a big problem, but that they should also consider moving near train stations. We had train stations before we had cars. This tends to suggest that train stations are worse than cars.

People didn't use fentanyl, then they did. Does that suggest fentanyl is good?

Re: Things people blamed on bicycles

#592

Post by dpb1 »

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…

I'd say your number is about right. Not just for bikes, but cars too. 5% of drivers follow me way too close, speed between lanes for no apparent benefit or emergency, pass far to close, don't signal, don't give time for people to adjust. 5% seems very low, but when there are hundreds or thousands of cars you see in a day, it's a lot of bad drivers.

And, I usually have a lot of steel and airbags around me to protect me.

It's the #1 reason I don't ride bikes on the road in the US. If I lived elsewhere I might change that.

Re: Things people blamed on bicycles

#593

Post by alistairSH »

admax88qqq wrote: post #531
alistairSH wrote: post #498

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, note he stated "if head injuries are more common with helmets". There have been some studies that correlate higher levels of head injuries with mandatory helmet laws. The thesis was that wearing a helmet induces more reckless cycling (higher speeds, etc) due to feeling safer. I don't remember seeing any good follow-ups studies either way and don't necessarily agree with the study.

The other theory is that helmet laws reduce casual cycling by adding an impediment to just hoping on and going. And that those short trips to the strore tend to be safer. Personally my wife can't find a helmet that fits, Asians have rounder heads and north American helmet manufacturers are oblivious. As a result we never cycle.

That's possibly true. I wear a helmet when I go for a bike ride (for pleasure/fitness) but don't wear one when I run an errand by bike. The former, speeds avg 18mph, top out above 30mph, and use different roads. The latter, speeds are closer to 10mph and use mostly bike lanes and wide sidewalks.

Re: Things people blamed on bicycles

#594

Post by pastage »

peoplefromibiza wrote: post #521
gspr wrote: post #306

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're the kind of driver who makes me want to kick cars off of roads in densely populated area. What a ridiculous notion that it's the soft participants in traffic that need to heed the hard ones!

> You're the kind of driver who makes me want to kick cars off of road I'm also the kind of driver that when you trip from your bike because you are on death on wheels vehicle, stops and helps you And when you burn. ared light, brakes and when you miscalculate a turn and go wide, leaves you room, because I an actually looking around me when I drive, you aren't, because you don't care. maybe I should stop doing all th…

We don't hand out medals to normal people, but incarcinate the ones "who want to teach you a lesson". What you just described is what normal people do on the road. There is a lot of research on this and cyclists are not any different than other road users.

Re: Things people blamed on bicycles

#595

Post by atoav »

atoav wrote: post #146
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…

As a cyclist who never runs red lights and always tries to communicate clearly where I am going next, there are many cyclists who don't know how to behave in traffic. Yet for every cyclist that behaves like that I will wittness a motorist who is equally wreckless. The only difference being, when the cyclist hits me, I might be hurt, when the motorist hits me I might be dead.

Additional thought here: If you take part in traffic you are taking part in some weirdly formalized form of communications. It is all about "speaking" in a way so others can understand what you like to do. And in traffic you speak by what you do, how you do it and by giving signs.

If you e.g. see pedestrians, brake and continue to roll slowly towards them in your car, you might think: "This is perfectly fine, I saw them!". But the question is: Did they see that you saw them? If not, then your slowly rolling car communicates; "Yo, I am gonna kill you!" to these pedestrians. This means in that situation the act of stopping is the clearest communication that you saw them.

Using blinkers, hand signs in the way they are intended (to communicate intent) makes also sense. On the highway check your damn mirrors before blinking unless your intent is to ram that car that could be there.

Re: Things people blamed on bicycles

#596

Post by speedgoose »

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'…

The vocal minority you talk about represents millions of people. And they cannot really move near train stations, they can be very far away or in much more expensive areas.

Re: Things people blamed on bicycles

#597

Post by wpietri »

neutronicus wrote: post #468
DonHopkins wrote: post #299

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

FWIW, I live in one of the least right-wing cities in the US (Baltimore), and cyclists here report that aggressive driving towards them is common. A few have reported that pedestrian aggression towards them is common, too.

It doesn't take a lot of people for aggression to feel common to cyclists.

Just as a proxy measure of right-wing-ness, 11% of people in Balitmore city voted for Trump, and 35% in Baltimore County.

But I think the aggression is part of dominance assertion, a behavior that is more approved of on the right, but you still see plenty of on the left.

Re: Things people blamed on bicycles

#598

Post by pastage »

peoplefromibiza wrote: post #523
ehnto wrote: post #381

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you wanted to keep cyclists safe, you would just stay behind them at a safe distance until a safe passing moment appears, just like you must do for cars. It sounds to me like you aren't keeping a safe distance and you are percieving the risk you are putting on others. At a safe distance, the problem you describe is not an issue. When I am near cyclist or motorbikes there is a lot of ways I can not put them in dang…

> If you wanted to keep cyclists safe, you would just stay behind them if they wanted to be safe, they wouldn't go when cars are allowed to go 90km/h, side by side. if you are suicidal, I don't wanna be part of your plan. > Cyclists are doing the best with an infrastructure built in favour of cars, that's so boring that is gives me nausea Americans don't understand that they are not the center of the world. Most of t…

Bike accidents are correlated to popoulation densisty in all the statistics I have seen. Is it really that different in Italy?

Re: Things people blamed on bicycles

#599

Post by spaetzleesser »

411111111111111 wrote: post #257
moffkalast wrote: post #246

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Going out for drinks? Bike. As long as you don't actually drink anything hah. Everyone's a designated driver with bikes.

Tbf, the danger of drunk cycling is significantly lower to third parties vs driving in a car. And you're unlikely to succeed if you're too drunk as well, as you still need to balance - which drunk people can't. It's still illegal in most places however, so your point stands

In Munich I almost ran over a drunk bicycle guy because he suddenly swerved into my lane.

I am ok with people killing themselves but it's not OK do something stupid that makes another person kill you. An example would be jumping in front of a train to commit suicide. These things leave deep trauma in the people this happened to. I view drunk cycling in that category.

Re: Things people blamed on bicycles

#600

Post by kjkjadksj »

tablespoon wrote: post #479

https://twitter.com/mstyczen/status/1561856668450754562 : > Biking linked to impotence IMHO, that one's probably true: https://www.webmd.com/men/features/biking-and-erectile-dysfu... : > ...too many hours on a bicycle saddle can compress the artery and vital nerves leading to the penis. > The result? A risk of numbness, pain, and erectile dysfunction. > Male cyclists can place a significant percentage of their weight…

This is why male saddles have a channel down the middle these days versus the old brooks style saddle
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