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Things people blamed on bicycles

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Re: Things people blamed on bicycles

#611

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just need a way to deal with bike theft. My number one concern is parking my pretty decent bike within view of where I’m sitting or not leaving it unattended for over five minutes. I’m insured, but I have a bond with my wheels! If anyone has recommendations for stealth theft detection/tracking devices I’m all ears.

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…

This very much varies by location in the US. In the central areas of most major metros your bike WILL be stripped if locked up on the street and not attended/guarded. I live in one of the most bike friendly cities in the US, and I can't even lock up my bike outside of a bar/restaurant downtown without having to chase off aggro dudes trying to strip parts off it in the broad daylight. And I'm talking a dirt cheap commuter bike from bikesdirect.com. A $2k bike locked up downtown here would last 2 minutes. They use battery powered grinders, so how uber your lock is doesn't matter anymore either.

It's a really frustrating problem, and has changed the way I feel about this city a lot. Being able to just casually ride around with friends socializing in summer evenings was really great. Now it's everyone taking ubers.

Re: Things people blamed on bicycles

#612

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a highly idealistic myth. Most drivers are not "cyclists a few hours earlier/later", and many definitely aren't empathetic. The split between bike lanes and car lanes, as well as the law favoring cyclists, should make that obvious. Cyclists even get away not showing their direction despite this being taught from early age.

My experience is the complete opposite of what you describe.

That's cool, but the stats continue to show wealth causes increase in driving and people continue to live pretty far away from work. Most people are not going to cycle after getting home from work or prior. The few Amsterdam anecdotes in this thread don't weight up against the masses driving 20+ minutes and the high traffic roads being expanded again.

Now add the many laws favorable towards cyclists and measurements taken to accommodate them. It's not empathy. It's saving one's own hide from causing a lot of harm, a sense of guilt and the potential lawsuit waiting to happen. There's no special empathy given to cyclists in particular, only universal respect towards any non-motorized vehicle and individuals (e.g. children, individuals with heavy groceries).

Your experience is dispelled the moment you take an hour cycling to and from work. That's pretty easy for anyone not on a SDE salary.

Re: Things people blamed on bicycles

#613

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

This 1950 cartoon depicts Goofy -- an ordinary, kind, thoughtful citizen -- turning into a monster when he gets behind the wheel:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mwPSIb3kt_4

The phenomenon has been around as long as there have been automobiles.

Re: Things people blamed on bicycles

#614

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Just need a way to deal with bike theft. Vehicle registration works, but takes a bit of effort: * https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=el1Xznv5ge4 Vancouver had a 42% drop in theft after joining this program: * https://project529.com/garage Created by X-box co-founder: * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J_Allard

A few years ago my wife had her registered bicycle stolen after I screwed up and left the garage open. We reported it stolen and only took 3 days for it to make its way back to us. It made its way back to us because the cops stopped someone for looking like they too nice of a bike, so that's a whole other problem, but registration works.

> that's a whole other problem

Is it? Or were your cops right and doing their job?

Re: Things people blamed on bicycles

#615
post #265

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>>Cars kill someone every three seconds. Do you have evidence to back that up? That would imply 10.5 million people are killed by cars each year - I don't buy that. 31557600 seconds in a year, divided by 3 = 10,519,200

bertil seems to be off by an order of magnitude. WHO claims 1.3 million people die from car related injuries every year, 1 person every 25 seconds. https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/road-traffi...

Oh, I thought they were talking about the fossil fuel (which is still the majority) and the effects of it.

Re: Things people blamed on bicycles

#616

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would agree with all of those points, except for one. 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. They are still going fast enough that if they crash into you, you can expect a concussion or even worse. And they do not respect the traffic laws in the same way that cars do. And beca…

100% this. And Dutch cyclists are usually nicer ones. Where I live (Geneva, Switzerland), cyclists are very aggressive towards... well everybody. As a pedestrian, I had few super close calls (5cm max) where a crowd of us pedestrians were going through the road on green light and cyclist zoomed at 30-40kph through cars on red light and our crowd, not even attempting to break. At that speed, crash can be fatal/disablin…

Well you obviously made someone unhappy so there is a chance you are not as perceptive as you think. Statistics says that cyclists are like most other road users. The chance that the cyclists around you are different is a lot less likely than you cherry picking situations.

With that said, people do stupid things there are always outliers.

Re: Things people blamed on bicycles

#617

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…

This very much varies by location in the US. In the central areas of most major metros your bike WILL be stripped if locked up on the street and not attended/guarded. I live in one of the most bike friendly cities in the US, and I can't even lock up my bike outside of a bar/restaurant downtown without having to chase off aggro dudes trying to strip parts off it in the broad daylight. And I'm talking a dirt cheap comm…

No post body was provided.

Re: Things people blamed on bicycles

#618

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a highly idealistic myth. Most drivers are not "cyclists a few hours earlier/later", and many definitely aren't empathetic. The split between bike lanes and car lanes, as well as the law favoring cyclists, should make that obvious. Cyclists even get away not showing their direction despite this being taught from early age.

This is how we can tell you are not a cyclist. It is very difficult to use the brakes and indicate a change in direction at the same time. While cyclists should indicate, the nature of the vehicle does make it hard under some conditions. Here's a question for you. If i am stopped at a red light on my bike in what is clearly a left turn lane, why do cars attempt to pull up in front of me anyhow? Cant be bothered waiti…

None of what you said has to do with the reality of the matter, nor does you trying to flip the script change things. Look past your own emotions instead of trying to low blow immediately.

Comment in question claims people are more empathetic because individuals seem to switch between biking and driving cars almost daily. This is not happening. Live a 30 minute drive away from work, most individuals would take the bike every weekend at best. Most individuals do in fact live that far from work. Furthermore, car usage continues to increase, and roads continue to be expanded as a result. You can say all you want, most individuals are not going to cycle after an 8 hour workday and spending at least an hour commuting.

>While cyclists should indicate, the nature of the vehicle

>why do cars attempt to pull up in front of me anyhow?

Way too focused on cyclist vs vehicle. There are plenty of roads where it isn't always obvious which way someone is going, no matter cyclist or vehicle. These are old roads, but they exist nonetheless. Vehicles are actively punished for not indicating, cyclists are not. Both are hazards for everyone else, themselves and pedestrians included. That's not exactly something that would instill empathy.

That should also make it obvious the inverse situation doesn't create empathy either. It's a two-way street and neither is particularly giving to the other. That has nothing to do with automobile vs cyclist vs pedestrian vs whatever, it has to do with.. who would've guessed, people being people.

Why do you think laws were made to accommodate cyclists in particular? Why do you think lanes are split? Why do you think many individuals have a particular distaste for sport cyclists, who go high speed through busy roads and expect everyone to adapt to them? It's not empathy, it's a lack of empathy, followed by individuals not wanting to get in trouble over petty little things, and a legal system not wanting to spend thousands of manhours covering he-said-she-said scenarios.

Re: Things people blamed on bicycles

#619
post #295

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

I see cars driving 50km/h in a 30km/h area multiple times a day. Everyone breaks the traffic laws, it's just that for cars it's about speed (speed limits, illegal overtaking etc) while for cyclists it's about momentum (running red lights, stop signs etc). Both are dangerous behaviors that put others at risk

Citation needed for cyclists running stop signs being dangerous. There have been numerous studies showing that at least for stop signs, it's actually safer/neutral. Anecdotally, treating stop signs as yields for biking encourages me to ride on more neighborhood streets with stop signs instead of full on signals; additionally, while stopping has negligible benefit in terms of yielding to cross traffic, doing a full stop each time means it will take much longer for me to cross the intersection which is the most dangerous part of the road.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Idaho_stop

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