Just witnessed a cyclist hit by a car

[highland145]

This is why I would not drive a bike or even a motorbike or little vehicle as the Smart car. Too many "absent minded" (to put it nicely) drivers around here.

This am, 2020 Camry crossed the line and hit a dump truck, head on at 60mph. The truck driver had minor injuries.

 

[JulesMaximus]

This am, 2020 Camry crossed the line and hit a dump truck, head on at 60mph. The truck driver had minor injuries.

So, we should all drive dump trucks?

 

[BoomerD]

So, we should all drive dump trucks?

Especially if you're hunting bicyclists...

 

[brianmanahan]

Not funny. Would calling it what it is, an asshole comment, be an issue? If so I'll edit that.

like half the people around here are psychopaths when it comes to bike riders

posting the ever-popular pic of 15 cyclists getting hit and one getting killed

i don't get it

 

[MrSquished]

like half the people around here are psychopaths when it comes to bike riders

posting the ever-popular pic of 15 cyclists getting hit and one getting killed

i don't get it

It's nuts. If you live in a city bicyclists are an essential part of the transportation network. In a lot of other areas they are either just kids getting around or people working out. How terrible. I like to cycle and I also own a car and use it regularly.

Sure some cyclists ride like assholes. But why celebrate malicious attacks on cyclists? A lot of drivers drive like assholes, but you don't see me celebrating as a cyclist when someone in a car gets maliciously hit and seriously hurt or killed.

 

[brianmanahan]

It's nuts. If you live in a city bicyclists are an essential part of the transportation network. In a lot of other areas they are either just kids getting around or people working out. How terrible. I like to cycle and I also own a car and use it regularly.

Sure some cyclists ride like assholes. But why celebrate malicious attacks on cyclists? A lot of drivers drive like assholes, but you don't see me celebrating as a cyclist when someone in a car gets maliciously hit and seriously hurt or killed.

yeah, i've seen about 100 times more careless and/or insane drivers than cyclists in my life

yet there's this sizeable subset of people (both here and on other sites like reddit) that seem to revel in the injury and death of bike riders

and imho it's pretty messed up, even as a "joke"

i love driving but sometimes i've gone months or years where bike was the only way i could get around

 

[ch33zw1z]

like half the people around here are psychopaths when it comes to bike riders

posting the ever-popular pic of 15 cyclists getting hit and one getting killed

i don't get it

Point at the doll where the bad bike touched you.

Seriously, car drivers are worse, no contest.

 

[BoomerD]

All you have to do is get caught in this shit once or twice to develop a hate for bicyclists on the roadways...

I think MOST people are fine with bicyclist sharing the roads...as long as they pay attention and obey the laws. (Yes, that applies to drivers as well...but in an automobile vs. bike encounter...the auto usually wins)

 

[K1052]

I think MOST people are fine with bicyclist sharing the roads...as long as they pay attention and obey the laws. (Yes, that applies to drivers as well...but in an automobile vs. bike encounter...the auto usually wins)

Personally I think we should give them entirely separated paths from both drivers and pedestrians.

I don't cycle FWIW.

 

[BoomerD]

Personally I think we should give them entirely separated paths from both drivers and pedestrians.

I don't cycle FWIW.

I'd be fine with that...as long as the bicycle industry and cyclists pay the bulk of the costs...like drivers do with roadways.

 

[K1052]

I'd be fine with that...as long as the bicycle industry and cyclists pay the bulk of the costs...like drivers do with roadways.

Right after they get the money out of Big Pedestrian for sidewalks.

 

[BoomerD]

Right after they get the money out of Big Pedestrian for sidewalks.

I live in a town without sidewalks...so...

besides, MOST sidewalks are paid for by the property owner...in one way or another.

 

[snoopy7548]

Road cycling around here can be dangerous. With the winters we have, the roads are pretty much always in crappy shape, so cyclists have to ride more towards the center of the lane in order to avoid all the potholes along the side.

 

[K1052]

I live in a town without sidewalks...so...

besides, MOST sidewalks are paid for by the property owner...in one way or another.

My point is we have strange arbitrary opinions on who should pay for what and how instead of just building the shit we need. I use sidewalks but didn't pay anything directly to walk down them.

 

[MrSquished]

I'd be fine with that...as long as the bicycle industry and cyclists pay the bulk of the costs...like drivers do with roadways.

Gas taxes pay a lesser and lesser share of the road construction in this country, and most cycling takes place on local streets which are paid for mostly by property and other local taxes, not federal and state gas taxes. Cyclists take up a fraction of the space parked cars and running cars take up, they also contribute much less wear and tear on said streets. Bicycles are also far more efficient - I don't know how many times I've ridden in the city and passed car after car taking up all that space with one single passenger in them. A lot of cyclists also drive, like me, why should I get double taxed. Or they may take cabs or ubers, which subsidize the roads as well.

 

[Craig234]

I'd be fine with that...as long as the bicycle industry and cyclists pay the bulk of the costs...like drivers do with roadways.

Cyclists don't pay for roadways? Yes, they do, and so motorists can pay for cycle paths.

 

[Red Squirrel]

All you have to do is get caught in this shit once or twice to develop a hate for bicyclists on the roadways...

I think MOST people are fine with bicyclist sharing the roads...as long as they pay attention and obey the laws. (Yes, that applies to drivers as well...but in an automobile vs. bike encounter...the auto usually wins)

Holy crap that's nuts lol.

 

[Red Squirrel]

I do think bike lanes should be standard imo. They could be for any form of vehicle that is slower than a car but faster than a pedestrian. Scooters etc, even things like hoverboards could use them.

Also, get rid of the gas tax completely, we already pay enough taxes in other forms, use those taxes for roads. When EVs start to take over they will probably try to find a way to tax electricity more or try to tax by mileage by wanting to put trackers in our cars. It's bound to happen. There are already places that tax solar.

 

[WelshBloke]

All you have to do is get caught in this shit once or twice to develop a hate for bicyclists on the roadways...

Car drivers must be used to that. Replace the bikes with cars and that's the rush hour traffic they are normally happy to sit in, suddenly because its bikes they get all butt hurt!

Edit: Bloody spammers necroing threads! *shouts at clouds*

 

[pmv]

I'd be fine with that...as long as the bicycle industry and cyclists pay the bulk of the costs...like drivers do with roadways.

Is that how it is in the US? It's a refrain one hears repeatedly over here, but here at least it isn't true - roads are paid for out of general taxation, and particularly out of council tax. Drivers are subsidized, when you set the income from VED against the expenditure they impose on society as a whole. They don't even pay a commercial 'rent' for the near-exclusive use they get of roads.

Meh, necro, and one I've already posted on!

 

[MtnMan]

Let the bicyclist hate circlejerk begin...

I actually saw two bicyclist stop for a red light yesterday. It's such an unusual sight, I almost hit the car in front of me.

There is an intersection just below the house, one road is flat and very popular with cyclist, as there is very little traffic, and it's a nice ride on the side of the mountain. That road has the stop signs, and the other road which goes up the mountain is steep, but no stop signs. I've seen and heard many cyclists yell at cars which had the right of way to a bicycle, when the bicyclist ran the stop sign.

 

[Brainonska511]

I actually saw two bicyclist stop for a red light yesterday. It's such an unusual sight, I almost hit the car in front of me.

There is an intersection just below the house, one road is flat and very popular with cyclist, as there is very little traffic, and it's a nice ride on the side of the mountain. That road has the stop signs, and the other road which goes up the mountain is steep, but no stop signs. I've seen and heard many cyclists yell at cars which had the right of way to a bicycle, when the bicyclist ran the stop sign.

I can't go one day without seeing someone run a red light with their automobile, or blatantly speed, or not yield to people looking to cross at a crosswalk.

People cry and cry about bicycles, but it's not bicycles doing even close to the majority of running people over, leaving a trail of death and destruction in their wake.

It would help a lot if places had more complete streets: ones that don't only cater to cars. Creating more predictable flows for non-car users can help to alleviate some of the pain points that induce people on bikes to break laws geared for automobiles, and make cars slow down to safer speeds.

 

[MtnMan]

I can't go one day without seeing someone run a red light with their automobile, or blatantly speed, or not yield to people looking to cross at a crosswalk.

People cry and cry about bicycles, but it's not bicycles doing even close to the majority of running people over, leaving a trail of death and destruction in their wake.

It would help a lot if places had more complete streets: ones that don't only cater to cars. Creating more predictable flows for non-car users can help to alleviate some of the pain points that induce people on bikes to break laws geared for automobiles, and make cars slow down to safer speeds.

Yes, I occasionally see people in cars actually try and beat the light and end up entering the intersection under red. Most are never stopped or ticketed.

I go many days and never see a bicyclist stop or even slow for a traffic light, and it is not because they are trying to beat the light when the amber light comes on, they just blow through, and if a cop is present, they just watch.

Nor do they stop or even slow for a stop sign.

 

[Captante]

Ever wonder what the "necro-bots" search for when they pull these random threads from the bitter dregs of OT history?

 

[Brainonska511]

Yes, I occasionally see people in cars actually try and beat the light and end up entering the intersection under red. Most are never stopped or ticketed.

I go many days and never see a bicyclist stop or even slow for a traffic light, and it is not because they are trying to beat the light when the amber light comes on, they just blow through, and if a cop is present, they just watch.

Nor do they stop or even slow for a stop sign.

The issue is not about "who does it more?", the issue is "who's action is more dangerous to everyone else when they do some action?" I'm pretty sure, just on physics alone, bicycles running red lights are orders of magnitude less dangerous to everyone compared to automobiles.

And in my experience, the automobiles I see running red lights aren't just people trying to "beat the light" (which is almost always coupled with dangerous speeding), but also just general reckless driving or absolutely absentmindedness while operating a vehicle weighing several thousand pounds. Just a few days ago, I was waiting at a crosswalk an additional amount of time because some dipshit following too closely to a truck that ran a red light thought that he could also go through the red light. And these experiences are just in my own tiny slivers of watching an intersection. If I had the time, I bet I'd see a ton of vehicles run red lights every day at a single intersection if I just popped open a lawn chair and grabbed a counter.