submitted 15 hours ago by simpletailor@hexbear.net to c/urbanism@hexbear.net

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Recently had a very shitty day's worth of biking and need to vent.

Got harassed on a low-traffic back road by a driver who was mad he had to pass me while I was at 5 below the speed limit.
Got harassed by a driver in a jacked up americamobile who was stopped fully inside the bike box at an intersection when I set up to make my left turn.
Got aggressively honked at by a driver on a low-speed neighborhood road that has signs and paint marking it as a bikeway and reminding drivers that the law allows people on bikes to use the full lane.
an entire block worth of bike lane was covered in parked cars.
Got aggressively passed with less than 1ft clearance multiple times by drivers going 30-40mph

All in one day was just too much for me. This is a "bike friendly" city and this was several different neighborhoods with varying levels of infrastructure.

Obviously infrastructure needs to be in place before it would be an equitable or popular policy, but more people need their licenses suspended and/or revoked for aggressive driving. Make people retake driving exams every year. Make it a multi-hour exam instead of a 10-minute multiple choice quiz on what a stop sign means. Require CDLs for these monstrous trucks and SUVs. Lifetime driving ban for using a cell phone while driving. Get rid of "right on red" turns.

All this shit literally kills people daily, and the entitlement from American drivers to flout the safety of others to save themselves 10 seconds is disgusting. How do you convince these people to care about human lives? How do you have a conversation about speed limits with someone who thinks it's fine to run stop signs and go 40mph in a 25mph residential zone? How do you talk about anything with someone whose attention span is so fucked that they need to scroll their algorithms at a stoplight? Just revoke their licenses and ban them from driving ever, before they kill or maim someone.

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[-] Infamousblt@hexbear.net 12 points 14 hours ago

I have posted about this before but many many years ago in a pilot magazine I read an editorial about how pilots should be given a golden gun with one bullet alongside their license. They only get one ever. The gun will automatically hit anyone they shoot at. They can only use the gun in the context of flying. Every single pilot flying around knows that every other pilot has this gun and could use it at any time against them for any reason. The thought experiment basically being "every decision you make while flying could kill someone."

I think about this a lot. Imagine a world where drivers all had to fear bikers with their golden gun. Imagine a world where e-bikers had to fear pedestrians with their golden gun. Imagine a world where CEOs had to fear employees with their golden gun.

Imagine a world where people considered that their actions may impact others.

I think about it a lot when I'm on my bike and someone is actively trying to murder me because they know that their car will keep them safe. Imagine how they would act if every time they put me in danger, they were putting themselves in danger too.

[-] Shortstack@reddthat.com 6 points 13 hours ago

I’m not the idea guy for this but I think you’re looking for the pedestrian crossing ‘grab a brick to cross safely’ stations. Once you figure out what that is for cyclists you can start to swing the pendulum to mutual respect on the road

[-] Eco@hexbear.net 8 points 13 hours ago

[-] Abracadaniel@hexbear.net 5 points 12 hours ago

See this is why society is safer and more polite when everyone is concealed carrying a handgun

[-] culpritus@hexbear.net 9 points 13 hours ago

meow-hug

It really sucks how much car brain has become normalized in car-centric societies.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motonormativity

The narrative trope of the tragic "car accident" is so common in media, and it is often just some random or inevitable moment without any contextual or materialist relevance about how fucked up it is that it's "just the way things are".

And it's even worse in the context of pedestrians and cyclists and other more vulnerable road users. Cars and capitalism are so emblematic of the culture of death. Power and wealth are the most consequential factors in the public space, and it's been like this from the beginning while continuously shaping the infrastructure of transportation and social norms.