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Things people blamed on bicycles

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Re: Things people blamed on bicycles

#721

Post by [deleted] »

bertil wrote: post #658
speedgoose wrote: post #596

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

23% of the French population is more than 6km from a train station [1], which is considered close enough to bike. That's 15.6 million people. Assuming those are families of 2.2 people on average, they would need 7 million cars. That’s 18% of the current 38 million cars in France. We could have five times fewer cars, and half of the country’s carbon footprint if the 31 million car owners who don’t need them gave their…

[deleted]

Re: Things people blamed on bicycles

#722

Post by speedgoose »

bertil wrote: post #658
speedgoose wrote: post #596

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

23% of the French population is more than 6km from a train station [1], which is considered close enough to bike. That's 15.6 million people. Assuming those are families of 2.2 people on average, they would need 7 million cars. That’s 18% of the current 38 million cars in France. We could have five times fewer cars, and half of the country’s carbon footprint if the 31 million car owners who don’t need them gave their…

12km of daily biking is not for every family.

Re: Things people blamed on bicycles

#723

Post by adhesive_wombat »

UncleEntity wrote: post #622
adhesive_wombat wrote: post #489

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Indeed: A bit like how wearing a flak jacket is correlated with being shot, and use of scuba tanks are correlated with drowning underwater.

I’ve only ever been shot at while wearing a flak jacket…

See?! My idea "Flak jackets considered harmful" is proven (n=1).

Re: Things people blamed on bicycles

#724

Post by kyleee »

bluecalm wrote: post #651
ClumsyPilot wrote: post #525

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Bike theft is a very harmful crime. Yes it is, but I disagree that turning bike theft into a 20-year sentence is going to help. > Idk, it seems theft is low in countries where they cut hands for it. Russia has 99% conviction rate, long sentences and torture in prisons, yet crime rate is sky high. US has more prisoner and tougher sentenses than UK, but UK has less crime Half the people here are engineers, think like…

You're repeating the old trope that tough punishment doesn't work. Look at the theft statistics though: https://www.theglobaleconomy.com/rankings/theft/ Neither USA nor UK have tough punishment for theft. Theft is different than violent crime as that is most often caused by emotions/rage/etc. While theft is more calculated. It makes sense there is little consideration to punishment when committing the former but more…

yeah some good old sting operations would be great to see

Re: Things people blamed on bicycles

#725

Post by danenania »

happyopossum wrote: post #712
danenania wrote: post #634

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

> The police could easily track these people down if they were willing to put any energy into it. That's a bit of a myopic view - in many of these cities, the DA will refuse to prosecute someone for thefts like this, so it does no good to arrest someone. Police in many cities are underfunded and understaffed, and if they're getting no support from the DA they have to prioritize.

Fair enough. "Police" in my comment should be expanded to include prosecutors and even the mayor I suppose.

Re: Things people blamed on bicycles

#726

Post by colinsane »

samstave wrote: post #529
shapefrog wrote: post #208

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Those headlines look silly now, but they ... were featured in reputable publications at the time , said by reputable and in some cases domain expert people at the time . I say that not to be one of those "mainstream media blah blah" people, its just that when it comes to new things or change in general nobody has a f'ing clue.

The scary thing about your knowledge, is that you don't know what you don't know.

as long as you don’t know that you don’t know what you don’t know, there’s no reason to be scared.

it’s only scary once you know.

Re: Things people blamed on bicycles

#727

Post by mmcnl »

sleepybrett wrote: post #710
antihero wrote: post #652

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I never used to wear a helmet, and I don’t think anyone should be forced to, but countless anecdotes about people being in comas and becoming permanently brain damaged due to no-fault accidents, combined with peer pressure from everyone I know, and finding one I don’t actively despise the look of, means that now I do. If I’m going grocery shopping I simply don’t take it off in the shop. I’ve incorporated it into my o…

If my city were more like amsterdam I'd be happy to forgo the helmet, but in hilly seattle between the chances of getting clipped by a suv or taking a tumble on a steep grade.. I'll stick with the helmet. I don't find it too much of an inconvenience. I just clip it to my bag after I lock up.

Fyi, Amsterdam is one of the worst places as a cyclist in The Netherlands. It's very crowded and narrow with very few separated bicycle lanes. The average bicycle infrastructure in the Dutch suburbs are way better.

Re: Things people blamed on bicycles

#728

Post by nashashmi »

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…

> less dangerous to pedestrians

try braking suddenly on a bike when a pedestrian walks in your way. and either you will get thrown forward or you will not break in time. I would argue that bikes make it more hazardous to the user to suddenly brake.

I have gotten hit before!

Re: Things people blamed on bicycles

#729

Post by Phrodo_00 »

sirmarksalot wrote: post #674
celtain wrote: post #646

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>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…

Living in a city, the idea of leaving anything of value on your bike, and expecting it to still be there when you get back is completely foreign to me. When I visited Amsterdam, I even had the seat stolen off my rental bike. Biking in the states means carrying a helmet inside with you everywhere you go, and it absolutely sucks.

uh, I normally lock my helmet by putting my u-lock through the double section of the strap. Sure someone could cut the strap but then the helmet would be useless. I haven't had any issues and live in a city with pretty high bicycle theft.
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