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Things people blamed on bicycles

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Re: Things people blamed on bicycles

#661

Post by _gabe_ »

DonHopkins wrote: post #299
cinntaile wrote: post #275

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think I have ever seen this behaviour? This must be a cultural thing?

[flagged]

> The right wing in the US is so pathologically sociopathic that they actually glorify assholes for rolling coal on bicyclists as heroes, and think it's hilariously funny.

Or, you know, perhaps the articles that make money based off of clickbaiting people with outrageous premises that make people mad are not indicative of the vast majority of people. I find that when I talk to people, you know face to face in person, we usually agree on 90% of topics regardless of which side of the aisle you fall on.

The internet and social media thrives on labeling your in-group as the heroes and your out-group as racist, homophobic bigots (left and right). I really hate this mentality because it paints a broad stroke on a whole lot of people that are not crazy and holding radical ideas.

I would hope on HN I could expect the average commenter to be able to realize this and recognize that there's a lot more commonality than social media and news media would like us to believe. And that the average HN commenter wouldn't resort to automatically pointing a finger at their out-group and casting all social woes and responsibility on them. There are jerks on both sides of the aisle. There are great people on both sides of the aisle.

And just as an example, here's Chris Cuomo bullying a bicyclist[0]. I'm sure there are others on the left like this as well, but I'm not going to automatically assume that somebody on the left hate or loves bicyclists. I don't know that because we're all individuals and make our own decisions at the end of the day.

[0]: https://nypost.com/2020/04/14/long-island-bicyclist-verbally...

Re: Things people blamed on bicycles

#662

Post by dennis_jeeves1 »

ThinkingGuy wrote: post #586
dionidium wrote: post #454

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.

Relevant Oatmeal cartoon: https://theoatmeal.com/pl/minor_differences/cutting_off

Lol, good one, never knew about the oatmeal.

Re: Things people blamed on bicycles

#663

Post by bagacrap »

Some of these are hilariously still true. I know plenty of hardcore cyclists who let their hobby get in the way of home life (disrupting marriage and homemaking). Of course there's nothing actionable here, but I think these should be read with amusement rather than outrage.

Re: Things people blamed on bicycles

#664

Post by olyjohn »

MrFantastic wrote: post #441
antihero wrote: post #310

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.

Cover the branding labels on your bike. The thieves want to steal expensive bikes, not a walmart bike. I used white engineering reflective tape. They'd have to be very dedicated thief to notice to the Deore XT components. Plus, the reflective tape is very visible at night.

Yeah... this is totally wrong, or maybe it depends on where you live... Here, cheap bikes get stolen all the time. I started riding my heavy-ass, ancient, steel, suspensionless bike that I had bought 20 years prior for like $200 from Target. Not even a pawn shop would want to take the bike, because they are cheap junk. It got stolen from me in less than a week after starting a biking commute. And yes I locked it up. The lock was cut right off.

The thing is people aren't stealing them to always sell them. Sometimes it's just easier to quickly grab a bike when the thief needs to get across town for some other reason. When they get to where they want to go, they just ditch the bike. Sometimes I think some people just want to steal a bike for no real reason.

In Seattle, I've seen gigantic piles with hundred of bikes in them just sitting in a homeless camp. They clearly aren't selling those bikes, as they've been sitting out in the rain for months, or even years now. And I guarantee those homeless camps aren't full of multi-thousand dollar bikes.

Re: Things people blamed on bicycles

#665

Post by runarberg »

usrusr wrote: post #392
411111111111111 wrote: post #257

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Drunk cyclists can. Back in my wild years, on some occasions walking to the bike was the difficult part. Bikes are much better at self-stabilizing than legs. The main danger (outside of going too fast, if you happen to have the training) is losing track of traffic. This isn't much of a problem on deserted night-time streets, but can easily be overwhelming during the day. Don't ever consider the bike when planning for…

The potential injuries from drunk biking is in a whole other league the the injuries from drunk driving. Most bike injuries can be patched up at you local clinic (or even your home; unless your injury involves a car; so safe bike infrastructure is essential in making drunk biking safe), whereas drunk driving can cause some pretty horrendous injuries, to you, or your victims. The two modes should not be compared.

Re: Things people blamed on bicycles

#666

Post by HarryHirsch »

spaetzleesser wrote: post #607
grecy wrote: post #173

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A lot of people have no idea of the destructive power of the three ton death machine they are in command of. For that reason I think it should be mandatory to volunteer in a crash recovery ward at a hospital for 100 hours before getting a drivers license.

A lot of people buy these three ton machines to feel "safe". In turn they don't feel the need to protect others from that machine. In my LA neighborhood I saw a lot of moms barreling through the neighborhood in their big SUVs with their kids while talking on the phone or texting. I have had several occasions where I had to jump out of the way to not getting run over. I don't think the drivers even noticed me. when I…

And the worst thing is: when they do run someone over the DA won't prosecute because they want to be re-elected, and when it does end up in criminal court the jury won't convict because they know it might have easily been them.

Re: Things people blamed on bicycles

#667

Post by [deleted] »

wongarsu wrote: post #445
rimliu wrote: 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

[deleted]

Re: Things people blamed on bicycles

#668

Post by lastofthemojito »

gknoy wrote: post #644
lastofthemojito wrote: post #569

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As I understand it there are 2 Dutch words for cycling [0]: >Crucially, the Dutch distinguish between everyday cycling (fietsen) and competitive cycling (wielrennen). Fietsers (cyclists) are found everywhere. ... The term wielrennen, on the other hand, is reserved for the sweaty, colourful and seemingly endless cycle races on which the people of Benelux are so keen. In my experience, at least in my area of the US, mo…

at traffic lights they cut to the front, only to advance relatively slowly when the light turns green they blow through a stop sign as a car is approaching I thought the former was entirely proper -- motorcycles do similarly, going up the gap between traffic. The latter, though ... I've seen that far too much, and is frustrating. I also see kids and adults riding their bicycles on the sidewalk, sometimes even the wro…

> I thought the former was entirely proper -- motorcycles do similarly, going up the gap between traffic.

Apparently it's a matter of debate/context: https://old.reddit.com/r/cycling/comments/b9xklo/at_a_red_li...

Re: Things people blamed on bicycles

#669

Post by bartwe »

celtain wrote: post #646
ricardobeat wrote: post #556

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cycling already has the lowest percentage of road traffic fatalities compared to other modes. The highest is pedestrians - should pedestrians wear helmets? A helmet requirement is wholly incompatible with the role of cycling in NL. You hop on a bike anywhere, regardless of what you're wearing. It's a casual transportation mode, just like walking, not a sport activity. This proposal can only make sense for people who…

>A helmet requirement is wholly incompatible with the role of cycling in NL. You hop on a bike anywhere, regardless of what you're wearing. I don't really understand this. I keep my helmet clipped to my handlebars, so if I have my bike, I have my helmet. Is it really so much of an inconvenience? I'm sympathetic to the overall anti-helmet-requirement position, even seemingly trivial concerns like "it messes up my hair…

You can't really keep your helmet clipped to the handlebar at public parking places as they'll get vandalized or stolen.

Re: Things people blamed on bicycles

#670

Post by kiliantics »

noobker wrote: post #491
kiliantics wrote: post #457

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The funny thing though is that, in most urban settings, this is completely untrue. Cyclists actually speed things up by creating less traffic. Every cyclist on the road means less cars on the road. And the speed of traffic is not determined by the speed of the cars, which most drivers seem to believe for some reason. In a city, the speed of traffic is entirely determined by the stop signals. There is a fixed time it…

> The funny thing though is that, in most urban settings, this is completely untrue. Cyclists actually speed things up by creating less traffic. Citation please. > Every cyclist on the road means less cars on the road. While that part is certainly more true than not, the implications of fewer cars but several bottlenecks added to the traffic system is far from certain and likely relies on so many other factors than j…

This kind of information is easy to google and also easy to prove to yourself by just making an honest attempt to get places by bicycle. But here is one example of a study:

https://www.fastcompany.com/1707222/bike-computer-study-prov...

I am not a traffic engineer but I think if you know a few simple numbers like average travel distance, average car size, bike size, etc. you can see how it will be difficult to design any system where cars will beat bicycles. The only conceivable way for this to work is to space everything 20 miles apart with 8 lane highways connecting them and even then you still have last mile problems in such a system that necessarily slows things down. Even the freeways themselves can be bumper to bumper at rush hour, just look at the Katy Freeway in Houston.

Basically, there are already bottlenecks in car traffic systems and there is no way to avoid them because of induced demand. Adding cycling infrastructure will not hurt drivers but would help get more people on bikes.

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