Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Things people blamed on bicycles

twitter.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

801–810 of 852 posts

Re: Things people blamed on bicycles

#801

Post by kuschku »

andruby wrote: post #764
logifail wrote: post #636

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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 :/ Thi…

What age are kids generally in “year 4”? I assume you didn’t mean kids of age 4?

The fourth year of school, the last year of primary school, is at age 10.

Depending on region, children cycling on their own to school typically starts somewhere between ages 6-10.

Re: Things people blamed on bicycles

#802

Post by kuschku »

matheusmoreira wrote: post #777
walls wrote: post #450

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

According to a study by the ADAC (German auto club), cyclists have a better understanding of the StVO (German traffic regulations) than motorists, on average.

Re: Things people blamed on bicycles

#803

Post by kuschku »

speedgoose wrote: post #789
bertil wrote: post #786

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That’s 30 min of light exercise, five times a week — less if you are using electric assist. It’s the minimum requirement to not be considered sedentary, which would triple your health risks. If you think that’s too much and you don’t have a serious physical handicap, you are about likely to have one.

I assume you don’t have small kids and you live in a flat sunny part of France with good road infrastructures for biking.

I used to live in a hilly, rainy part of Germany. I cycled that exact distance every day. It's not an issue. If you've got children, get a cargo bike with child seats or a bicycle trailer with child seats. Works fine, many parents did that.

Re: Things people blamed on bicycles

#804

Post by saiya-jin »

pastage wrote: post #616
saiya-jin wrote: post #243

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I don't think you actually read what I described since you are completely oblivious to all facts stated by me and not even reacting on any of them, just dismissing everything as my fault. Looks to me exactly as cyclist mindset I write about - its not about me, rules are not for me and so on.

How did I make any cyclist unhappy by just standing still with my car on red light in a row of other cars?

How did I insult cyclists by daring to cross on green light as pedestrian?

I don't talk about outliers, I talk about daily experience for past 10 years I live here. Consistently the same. As with cars, you don't notice normal drivers/riders, but a-holes you notice well. And a-holes on bikes I do notice practically every single day, unlike any other traffic on the roads which respects basic traffic rules.

Re: Things people blamed on bicycles

#805

Post by speedgoose »

kuschku wrote: post #803
speedgoose wrote: post #789

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I assume you don’t have small kids and you live in a flat sunny part of France with good road infrastructures for biking.

I used to live in a hilly, rainy part of Germany. I cycled that exact distance every day. It's not an issue. If you've got children, get a cargo bike with child seats or a bicycle trailer with child seats. Works fine, many parents did that.

You need very convincing arguments to convince people to downgrade their quality of life that much. Biking on the rain uphill with a bike trailer is not fun compared to driving a car.

That’s my point, I personally enjoy biking.

Re: Things people blamed on bicycles

#806

Post by pastage »

saiya-jin wrote: post #804
pastage wrote: post #616

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I don't think you actually read what I described since you are completely oblivious to all facts stated by me and not even reacting on any of them, just dismissing everything as my fault. Looks to me exactly as cyclist mindset I write about - its not about me, rules are not for me and so on. How did I make any cyclist unhappy by just standing still with my car on red light in a row of other cars? How did I insult cyc…

As I said you might just be extremely unlucky. If not maybe take a step back and analyze why your world view is different from research on how mode of transport is no indicator of behviour.

Crazy stuff happens in traffic for sure, but when someone is angry with you it is mostly because you have done something. The cases of random deliberate violence are so rare that they should not happen to you.

If you want to live a life were you assume the worst about a completly heterogeneous group of people consisting of people from all walks of life and state of mind, that represents "people", you are free to make that choice but do not blme cyclists for that. This is my point: you might feel innocent all the time, but what you do is also interpreted by others they might feel the same thing.

Again I do not really talk about you or your specific experience but in general, and what should be true for longer period of times. What you feel and experience is up to you, can't change that.

Re: Things people blamed on bicycles

#807

Post by DonHopkins »

wpietri wrote: post #597
neutronicus wrote: post #468

Earlier quoted context omitted.

FWIW, I live in one of the least right-wing cities in the US (Baltimore), and cyclists here report that aggressive driving towards them is common. A few have reported that pedestrian aggression towards them is common, too.

It doesn't take a lot of people for aggression to feel common to cyclists. Just as a proxy measure of right-wing-ness, 11% of people in Balitmore city voted for Trump, and 35% in Baltimore County. But I think the aggression is part of dominance assertion, a behavior that is more approved of on the right, but you still see plenty of on the left.

Rolling coal on cyclists, and proudly posting videos of it on youtube, and plowing trucks through the bicyclists, and writing articles portraying the perpetrators as heroes, is a hell of a lot worse than the common everyday "aggression" that American cyclists experience.

They're absolutely not equivalent.

Can you link to hundreds videos of left wingers with Biden bumper stickers rolling coal on anti-environmentalists, smashing their scooters and pickup trucks with Priuses, Biden supporters murdering right wing protesters with their cars just like a Nazi Trump supporter murdered Heather Heyer, and articles glorifying those attackers as left wing "heroes" and "man of the year"?

Or are you just trying to make another tired and dishonest false equivalence to justify and carry the water for right wing violence and aggression that is no way reflected on "both sides"?

And rolling coal is only a drop in the bucket of the mainstream right wing violence that's happening today. I can't recall anyone on the left wing rioting and breaking into the capitol, hanging a noose to murder the vice president, proudly marching and waving Confederate flags and flagpoles with spear tips, vandalizing and defecating through the halls of the Capitol, or shooting a nail gun at FBI agents as revenge for Mar-a-Lago then getting killed in a shootout with automatic weapons by the FBI. (Or do you agree with Trump that was a false flag operation? What's your evidence?)

Did I simply miss all those news stories about left wingers rolling coal and executing insurrections and attacking the FBI, just because of the left-wing media bubble I live in, and if so, can you please provide a link to them to prove that "you still see plenty of it on the left"?

Or are you just ignoring the whole point and moving the goalposts a few football field lengths to make a false equivalence?

Re: Things people blamed on bicycles

#808

Post by bertil »

speedgoose wrote: post #789
bertil wrote: post #786

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That’s 30 min of light exercise, five times a week — less if you are using electric assist. It’s the minimum requirement to not be considered sedentary, which would triple your health risks. If you think that’s too much and you don’t have a serious physical handicap, you are about likely to have one.

I assume you don’t have small kids and you live in a flat sunny part of France with good road infrastructures for biking.

I don’t live in France anymore (too many taxis were trying to kill me, and the Police said they were powerless to help after ending up at the hospital multiple times), but my family still does.

Nine nephews and nieces, tenth on the way. The house is on a sharp hill (12% gradient) and the nearest train station is… 93 km away.

Re: Things people blamed on bicycles

#809

Post by kuschku »

speedgoose wrote: post #805
kuschku wrote: post #803

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I used to live in a hilly, rainy part of Germany. I cycled that exact distance every day. It's not an issue. If you've got children, get a cargo bike with child seats or a bicycle trailer with child seats. Works fine, many parents did that.

You need very convincing arguments to convince people to downgrade their quality of life that much. Biking on the rain uphill with a bike trailer is not fun compared to driving a car. That’s my point, I personally enjoy biking.

If you've got dedicated bicycle lanes, then “it costs 10x less and you save 2x the time because you're not stuck in traffic” quickly becomes a winning proposition.

Re: Things people blamed on bicycles

#810

Post by DonHopkins »

Gigachad wrote: post #35
Raed667 wrote: post #23

And somehow this translates to some drivers deciding that it is OK to kill cyclists because they will be 20 seconds late to the next red light stop.

There is something about driving that seems to trigger mass mental illness. It’s such a deeply unnatural activity that makes otherwise normal people violent. And there are plenty of studies showing car commute times directly link to mental and physical health decline.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JKobmM2OnDc

>I think a lot about this kind of stuff. I do my best thinkin' on the bus. That's how come I don't drive, see?

>You don't even know how to drive.

>I don't wanna know how. I don't wanna learn, see? The more you drive, the less intelligent you are.

Post reply on HN