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Things people blamed on bicycles

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Re: Things people blamed on bicycles

#771

Post by Maarten88 »

vocram wrote: post #15

Hate for bicycles hasn’t changed. People think a bike travel is recreational, and thus less important than a car travel. Someone goes out of their way to affirm that, by having to overtake bikes or not let them overtake their cars. A couple of times I met cars busting their brakes trying to keep up with me with a disc road bike on long technical descents

Car drivers who hate bikes are dumb. Why don't they understand that every bike trip means one car less in traffic, thus freeing up space for their car?

Re: Things people blamed on bicycles

#772

Post by cogman10 »

wpietri wrote: post #603
cogman10 wrote: post #584

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, not to defend the police, but after a bike is stolen I don't know what you could expect them to do. Even if they had a dedicated bike recovery task force, the most they could do is visit local pawn shops and browse community marketplaces for a bike matching the description (assuming it wasn't broken down for parts). Now, before a bike is stolen, I'd expect police to actually patrol places where bikes are being…

I think it would be great if they actually policed not just the pawn shops and sketchier bike shops, but also the people randomly selling them on the street and the back-alley bicycle chop shops, which are easily visible. Instead of the theft victims wandering the neighborhood trying to find their bike and get it back, which is what happens a lot here, I would like the police to take a swing at it. But from the air o…

I really have to wonder what cops spend their days doing. They don't seem to care about the most common crimes which really stinks.

Re: Things people blamed on bicycles

#773

Post by dang »

All: come on you guys, this is not an occasion to have a generic flamewar about bicycles. The interest here (the intellectual interest, at least) is obviously historical.

Cyclist-vs.-car (and vs. pedestrian) flamewars are perhaps second only to cat-vs.dog flamewars as the lamest and most easily avoidable, and—perhaps this is connected—prone to getting surprisingly nasty.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Re: Things people blamed on bicycles

#774

Post by matheusmoreira »

vishnugupta wrote: post #274
DoubleFree wrote: post #194

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 "…

Third reason, law. In an incident between cycle and car, the car is deemed to be at fault by default. Unless the cyclist does something outrageously stupid bordering on committing suicide.

> Unless the cyclist does something outrageously stupid bordering on committing suicide.

Yeah, like riding a bike in the first place. Only thing worse is riding a motorcycle.

"The car is always wrong" has got to be the stupidest traffic law ever written. Every single day cyclists and motorcyclists do straight up illegal stuff near me and I have to accomodate them because of stupid laws like that. They do absolutely insane stuff. I get anxious every time I see one on my mirrors.

Re: Things people blamed on bicycles

#775

Post by ehnto »

peoplefromibiza wrote: post #519
ehnto wrote: post #396

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> welcome to the reality. You are in control of your car no?

you are in control of your bike no? if you die riding something that runs on two minuscule strips of rubber that requires movement to stay in equilibrium and has no protection whatsoever for the rider, that usually don't even protect themselves because "who cares", why should be other people's fault?

As a community, we decided bikes can use the road like they used to before cars. You are responsible for driving your vehicle around them responsibly. At no poiny have you considered thst the risk as actually the car, you think the lack of a car is the risk. If everyone were on foot or bicycles there would be no issue, but that's not reality so when we take our cars into the city we have to accept that we brought the danger into the city.

Re: Things people blamed on bicycles

#776

Post by matheusmoreira »

atoav wrote: post #137
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…

This kind of driver is the same that would accelerate towards you as you (legally) cross a road only to stop at a red light 50m behind you – a red light was clearly visible from where they were when they saw you. For them driving is just about their own emotion. The moment they see someone "who deserves it" their emotion takes over and their brain switches off. People like that should have their driving license taken…

> People like that should have their driving license taken away

Cyclists shouldn't even be allowed on the road without a license. It's unbelievable the amount of crap I have to deal with on a daily basis because of people on bikes and motorcycles. Cyclists going the wrong way and against traffic, on the side walk, blowing past pedestrians at high speed even on pedestrian crossings, running red lights, failing to signal turns, travelling at obnoxiously slow speed, a whole group of them travelling side by side talking while blocking half a dozen vehicles behind them, travelling in between the traffic lanes, weaving through traffic, colliding and destroying car side mirrors even stationary parked cars, driving extremely aggressively in general, doing wheelies near me... It goes on and on, and any number of these behaviors can combine into something new. Every day cyclists invent new stupid shit for me to deal with. It takes serious effort not to accidentally kill someone on a bike.

Re: Things people blamed on bicycles

#777

Post by matheusmoreira »

walls wrote: post #450
atoav wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This kind of driver is the same that would accelerate towards you as you (legally) cross a road only to stop at a red light 50m behind you – a red light was clearly visible from where they were when they saw you. For them driving is just about their own emotion. The moment they see someone "who deserves it" their emotion takes over and their brain switches off. People like that should have their driving license taken…

I like that you had to specify 'legally' because riders in America basically never follow traffic laws.

Where I live I don't think cyclists even know the traffic laws.

Re: Things people blamed on bicycles

#778

Post by matheusmoreira »

sokoloff wrote: post #367
glandium wrote: post #225

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Let's be honest: given the opportunity (multiple lanes, etc.), the car would likely overtake a slow car as well, and stop at a red light right after that. I see that all the time (albeit I'm in Japan, not in the US) Edit: point being, for some reason, some drivers really like to reach red light as quickly as they can, and that's not necessarily related to bikes.

I think safely overtaking a slow car before a red light makes sense, if you make the reasonable assumption that 3 minutes in the future they will also be traveling slower than you intend to go.

Exactly. It's always better to pass slow vehicles as soon as it is safe to do so, red light or not. That they managed to catch up because of a red light is irrelevant. They're still behind me and no longer blocking my advance.

I just want as much distance as possible between other drivers. Less stuff to deal with.

Re: Things people blamed on bicycles

#779

Post by matheusmoreira »

mrob wrote: post #217
ndsipa_pomu wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Motorists often forget that a lot of motorists jump red lights too, and then there's the habitual speeding that seems expected of drivers, rather than being recognised as dangerous behaviour. With red light jumping, there's also a very different pattern of behaviour as motorists will speed up to get through a light that's just turned red, whereas cyclists tend to either slow down or continue at the same pace when RLJ…

In the UK, it's illegal for a motorist to cross a solid white center line on their side of the road to overtake a cyclist unless the cyclist is traveling 10mph or slower. I estimate less than 1% of motorists obey this law. Rule 129: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/the-highway-code/general-rules-t... Some rules in the Highway Code are guidance only, but those marked with uppercase "MUST" or "MUST NOT" have legal force.

Of course. The line is solid and can't be crossed to overtake slower vehicles. Not just bikes.

I think that's a really interesting law since it actually makes an exception for slow bicycles. Looks like they're such a nuisance that cars are actually allowed to overtake them despite the solid line.

Re: Things people blamed on bicycles

#780

Post by matheusmoreira »

bwindels wrote: post #333
markus_zhang wrote: post #316

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The point, from a driver's perspective, is that driving is a social activity, so whoever does not behave well is not welcomed, drivers or cyclists. I have no issue if cyclists are riding on reserved lanes, but I DO have an issue if 1) they are blocking other vehicles for 20+ seconds, 2) suddenly come onto road from sidewalk, 3) anything else that adds mental burden to other people That said, I hope ALL roads have cyc…

So if you can't safely overtake a bicycle, you expect it to stop by the side of the road to let you pass after 20 seconds?

Absolutely. Not just bikes either. All slow vehicles should make it as easy as possible for others to overtake them.
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