Things people blamed on bicycles • Hacker News Board

Re: Things people blamed on bicycles

#631

Post by killion » Wed, Aug 24, 2022, 5:05 PM UTC

simplebutimpact wrote: post #337

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…

The law should enforce passing distance on both cars and bikes. E.g. no more should a bike be allowed to pass a car unless there is one meter of clearance then a car should be allowed to pass a bike without one meter of clearance. Enforcing such a law would remove the vast majority of dangerous interactions between cars and bikes.

In California that is the law. Cars cannot pass a bike if they will be less than 3 feet from the bike.

Re: Things people blamed on bicycles

#632

Post by dncornholio » Wed, Aug 24, 2022, 5:06 PM UTC

BlargMcLarg wrote: post #612

mrsuprawsm wrote: post #566

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Amsterdam is a pretty shitty place to bike if you compare it to the rest of the Netherlands.

The point these posts are making is that you need dedicated infrastructure to get people to cycle. Roads need to be walkable as well. So NA's car centric infra is the cause. Not the cyclists.

Re: Things people blamed on bicycles

#633

Post by dqpb » Wed, Aug 24, 2022, 5:08 PM UTC

whatever1 wrote: post #550

Bicycles convert their owners to horrible people. And I speak from personal experience, when I ride my bike I always become super angry at others. Cars that might cut me off (ok that is mostly fair), but I also get angry with pedestrians, traffic lights, uphills, bad paving etc. I think know why, because any of the above require me to pedal even harder, when I am already tired. Maybe e-bikes are a better option for m…

And after all that, you show up to work with bicycle face, coworkers muttering “wheelman” to themselves as you walk by.

Re: Things people blamed on bicycles

#634

Post by danenania » Wed, Aug 24, 2022, 5:13 PM UTC

merely-unlikely wrote: post #581

microtonal wrote: post #405

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

I wouldn't want to confront a potentially aggressive person with a saw in hand either. I might call the police, but I'd assume that by the time they got there, the thief would be gone, and that's if the police even cared enough to send someone.

I think this is mainly an enforcement issue. The police could easily track these people down if they were willing to put any energy into it.

Re: Things people blamed on bicycles

#635

Post by macinjosh » Wed, Aug 24, 2022, 5:14 PM UTC

We live in a mountainous area that is quite popular with road bicyclists. We have a really great law that requires drivers to give them 3 feet of space when passing.

In this one nearby area there are essentially no shoulders (near vertical mountain on one side, guardrail with a drop on the other side). Additionally, there are many blind corners which logically means a double yellow line on a two lane road.

I was driving through this area with my family in the car and we come upon a bicyclist. We can't legally or safely pass so I slow down and start following him through the curves. At some point we start hearing pings on the roof of our car. Looking up the mountain side it is clearly the start of a rock slide. I wanted to zoom ahead and get clear of the slide as surely it would start to pick up. However, that came at the risk of going into the oncoming lane at a blind curve, as well as not giving the cyclist their required 3 feet. Luckily for me a giant boulder took the cyclist down the hill and I was able to floor it and quickly escape unscathed. Good thing the bicyclist was wearing his helmet, it saved his life!

Re: Things people blamed on bicycles

#636

Post by logifail » Wed, Aug 24, 2022, 5:20 PM UTC

DoubleFree wrote: post #194

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…

The problem of dangerous interactions between drivers and cyclists is much smaller here in the Netherlands, mainly due to two reasons. The first reason is the infrastructure, both visible and invisible. Separated bicycle lanes are commonplace and in the few places where they intersect with car traffic, care is taken to make crossing safe and comfortable. This visible infrastructure is complemented by the concept of "…

> Kids cycle to school alone from a young age

Unfortunately our kids weren't allowed to cycle to school unaccompanied by an adult until they reached year 4 and had passed their cycling proficiency test (mid-way through that school year).

I've been cycling with my daughter to kindergarten for at least a year, she's fine with the cycling bit, it's the looking-out-for-other-vehicles bit that's not quite there yet :/ This obviously depends a lot on local road layouts, and unfortunately we have a junction more or less right outside the school and kindergarten that way too many car drivers come through at speed...

Re: Things people blamed on bicycles

#637

Post by stonogo » Wed, Aug 24, 2022, 5:27 PM UTC

vdqtp3 wrote: post #614

SketchySeaBeast wrote: post #469

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

Impossible to tell from one event, coming from someone who has been pulled over because I "didn't look like" I could afford my car.

Re: Things people blamed on bicycles

#638

Post by bedatadriven » Wed, Aug 24, 2022, 5:33 PM UTC

bluGill wrote: post #431

wkjagt wrote: post #304

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Another reason is that being really respectful around cyclists is an important part of driving lessons in The Netherlands. And I think you can fail your driving test if you pass a bike too close, open your door without looking if a cyclists is coming from behind, or passing over a bike lane at an intersection without looking. I am from The Netherlands and I only realized since moving to Canada that my home country is…

>I find it interesting that no one in The Netherlands wears a helmet when cycling and yet serious cycling injuries don’t seem to be a common thing Neurosurgeons in the Netherlands disagree with this, and are begging locals to wear helmets. https://www.dutchnews.nl/news/2021/10/neurologists-launch-ca... I don't know how rates of injuries compare between countries, but that is irrelevant.

There are costs and benefits to requiring helmets.

Requiring a helmet has apparently been shown to depress the use of bikes for every day activities. Going grocery shopping with a bike is less convenient if you have to juggle a helmet along with a liter of milk.

Less biking means roughly more pollution, more obesity, bigger roads, more car accide ts.

On the other side of this equation is the death and injury that helmets prevent. This is non-zero, but apparently in the Netherlands we have judged this marginal benefit of helmets to be less than the advantages of more cycling.

The calculation might be different in countries with inferior cycling infrastructure.

Re: Things people blamed on bicycles

#639

Post by bertil » Wed, Aug 24, 2022, 5:34 PM UTC

raisin_churn wrote: post #230

bertil wrote: post #202

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All of those require a thorough WTF, but "gun violence" is special. What could possibly be the connection?

I found it equally bewildering when I heard the claim, but perhaps because gun violence is overwhelmingly perpetrated by young men, and in the neighborhoods most impacted by gun violence, young men are also the overwhelming majority of bicyclists. No idea what causal mechanism the claimant was inferring from this correlation. Indeed, it's a highly localized correlation anyways: in less economically depressed parts of…

Thanks for the answer, but, predictably that somehow felt worst than not knowing.

Re: Things people blamed on bicycles

#640

Post by kevin_thibedeau » Wed, Aug 24, 2022, 5:35 PM UTC

beowulfey wrote: post #320

tralarpa wrote: post #179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> In fact, a car coming too close and knocking you off your bike is not a common cause of injury Interesting question. I just googled for statistics and found some for German cities. In Berlin (2021), the majority (~50%) of accidents involving bicyclists in which the bicyclist was not at fault were caused by cars turning. But "insufficient distance" was still at 5%.

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…

This is why you take the lane at intersections. Sensible jurisdictions permit this in their vehicle code.

Always prevent careless drivers from killing you and always have an escape path.