this post was submitted on 28 Feb 2024
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[–] [email protected] 147 points 9 months ago (5 children)

Cyclists, some people just see red when they came across cyclist at the road.

[–] [email protected] 75 points 9 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 28 points 9 months ago (3 children)

Bike lanes are car infrastructure. We cyclists are perfectly within our rights to cycle in the middle of the lane at a speed comfortable for us. And it's safer for us to do that than hug the shoulder and risk getting clipped by an impatient driver. A bike lane gets us out of your way so you can drive the speed limit. It's for your benefit.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 9 months ago

That's why it's hate for no reason!

The same hatred from the same haters for public transport too: if everyone else is in public transport there more room for you on the road.

It's a bizarrely prevalent attitude from a bizarrely large portion of car users.

We had some nice mini-traffic island things separating a cycleway on a road, drivers kept hitting them and damaging their cars. They complained and the council removed them despite it being obvious to anyone that they were doing extremely what they were supposed to do: stopping those idiots from hitting actual cyclists!

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago
[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago (1 children)

I thought this as well but German drivers will dangerously swerve into oncoming traffic to overtake me sometimes when I block a lane. Even if there is a red stop light 50m down the road.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Well, it's less of them, and at least they're risking their own lives too. If there's an accident I want the person responsible coming with me to the hospital. That might not be rational, but it's how I feel.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago

Lol it's not rational but I know how you feel. Sometimes I daydream somebody hits me and wrecks my bike and then feels so bad that they give me loads of money in hopes of me not suing them, and then I use that to buy a better bike. And then I wonder wtf is going wrong in my brain

[–] [email protected] 40 points 9 months ago (1 children)

There's really no winning as a cyclist when most people are in cars. If you stop at all stop signs, and obey they right-of-way, people will yell at you and/or try to wave you through ahead of your turn dangerously. If you do an Idaho stop (which is the safest way to approach a stop, whether it's legal or not), people will honk and yell at you and possibly try to run you off the road.

I used to commute by bike a lot during rush hour. If there was a lineup of cars waiting at a red-light, and I just waited in line, people in cars behind me would honk at me as if me preventing them from being one cars-length further ahead in line would somehow affect them. If I filtered forward, like I should, people would actually edge their cars over to try and block me.

I think for the most part, it's misplaced anger from drivers who don't want to face the fact that they are the source of danger on roads. The worst bicycle collision is way less severe than a car crash. They also really hate when bicyclists can get anywhere faster than them, which is often the case because it shows them just how much time they waste being traffic.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 9 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 5 points 9 months ago (1 children)

If you are on a bike, you treat stop signs as yields, and red lights as stop signs. Iit has been shown to be safer.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 9 months ago (1 children)

If it were codified like this as law everywhere, people would accept it better. The rule breaking is what pisses a lot of people off. It would be much more predictable and safer too.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago

Yeah, the government needs to get behind it (and tell people about it). I've come up to stop signs before, and been nearly run over from behind by cars that didn't expect me to stop.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 9 months ago (1 children)

But not the cyclist as the cycle right through it.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Classic, I'm guilty of this. The best part about cycling in my small city is squeezing into the gaps and not waiting around in the wind for the lights to cycle.

[–] [email protected] -5 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

I see it as my reward for biking instead of driving to be both a pedestrian when I want (go through red lights when traffic is clear on safe streets) and a car when I want (take a lane to get around a delivery truck)

That and getting places faster!

[–] [email protected] 18 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Congratulations, you're one of the dickheads giving cyclists a bad name.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 9 months ago

Studies show all the things I do actually make it safer for me as a biker. Example: https://www.vox.com/2014/5/9/5691098/why-cyclists-should-be-able-to-roll-through-stop-signs-and-ride

When you are riding in and around drivers in 2 ton machines because your city doesn't have proper bike infrastructure, you take every single opportunity to avoid them. Call me a "bad cyclist" but I'm going to prioritize my safety over a law or someone's bad driving any day.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 9 months ago

Except Berliner cyclists. They scare me.