Ah yes because every driver obeys every law all the time. It’s only the cyclists that break laws! No driver would ever consider speeding, rolling through a stop sign, or being aggressive!
Your point is well taken, but whataboutism aside, EVERYONE should be obeying ALL the traffic laws. I cycle on public roads myself and I do see other cyclists not stopping at red lights. A bicycle IS a vehicle - it doesn’t come with pedestrian rights.
Or we can just keep escalating finger pointing and law-breaking until the traffic laws are meaningless everyone is dead.
That’s fair… I didn’t mean to single you out. There were a LOT of posts, and I suppose the emphatic and sarcastic nature of yours drew my attention.
That said, I meant this as a general statement to all the commenters of this nature, and your comment is just where it happened to land. I don’t have any personal grudge.
So, why are you asking me to deescalate? Have you asked everyone else in this post and the author of the comic itself? Why pick me?
can’t speak for the other commenter, but i will assume it was because of the whataboutism.
no one disputes that car drivers break a rules, but most of them at least know they are breaking the rules. cyclists really confidently act like the rules don’t exist (even that may depend on where you are).
few years back, some non-profit group advocating for bicycles in my city made a presentation for a media, where they showed a video how much faster a cyclist is going through some specific route during the working-day traffic jam than the car.
and then you saw the cyclist ignoring lights, driving on a sidewalk where he had no business to be and so on. he broke like a billion traffic rules during his 15 minute trip and they really acted like they didn’t even know that some rules applied to him.
Dude, come ride in my car sometime. Practically every driver out there thinks the rules don’t apply to them, either. I’d record them on a dash cam, but I don’t want to spend my life editing videos for YouTube. It’s a fucking jungle out there. As a practical matter, what’s the difference between not knowing the law (an assertion I reject) and ignoring it?
But car brains only get mad at cyclists for it. A car running a stop sign or rolling right on red is treated as business as usual. I see cops doing it.
I had to laugh at the links to deaths caused by cyclists. Two, world wide. Death from drivers doing stupid shit are so common, they don’t even bother writing articles about it. It’s not newsworthy. Cars do a lot more damage when they hit something.
And I say this as a cyclist that does follow the laws, aside from occasionally rolling a stop sign, when it’s safe (Idaho stop, but it’s not legal in my state).
I’m going to assume that you’re so blinded by your prejudice against “carbrains” that you haven’t seen all the posts bemoaning speeding, passing in the wrong lane, riding people’s bumpers, “when a car swerves around you at mach 3 just to get stuck at the same light” to paraphrase a meme I saw on lemmy like last week, etc, and it’s everywhere not just lemmy.
You are probably just such a bikebrained chaincel that you haven’t noticed it, but it’s there.
As a practical matter, what’s the difference between not knowing the law (an assertion I reject) and ignoring it?
as a practical matter, there is no difference. but if one side is acting like a hypocrite pretending it is only the other party breaking the rules, it is worth pointing out.
But car brains only get mad at cyclists for it.
i am pretty sure people complain about other drivers all the time.
Death from drivers doing stupid shit are so common, they don’t even bother writing articles about it. It’s not newsworthy. Cars do a lot more damage when they hit something.
yes, this is true. but should that mean that cyclists should ignore the traffic rules, or what is the point?
I haven’t noticed anything like that in college towns apart from late at night when it’s cold, there’s barely anyone around and the lights sometimes just don’t change for bicycles because they are too light. (The most common possibly illegal thing I’ve seen is bicycles overtaking cars stopped at lights to get to to the bike spots on a bicycle road where in some cases the cars aren’t even supposed to be.)
Meanwhile drivers almost all seem better but I am also aware that most
I live somewhere where half the traffic lights don’t have buttons and don’t respond to cyclists. So when there are no cars to trigger the light I just check if it’s safe and go. Meanwhile I have been nearly overrun by cars speeding through red because it was orange 3 seconds ago and see a car going >50kph in my 30kph street almost daily. A bicycle is not a vehicle (at least in france in collisions we are classified as pedestrians). We are way more vulnerable and less harmful and the roads are often not made for us, so we have to adapt our riding to be most safe. Sometimes that means taking a pedestrian green instead of a car green light because it is safer too.
The point is that while cyclists often get pissed off about the lack of safe driving by cars, there are many that similarly seem to ignore the rules of the road as applied to them. That may result in a collision with a vehicle whose driver is driving with proper care - with the cyclist tending to be on the losing end -but also other cyclists, pedestrians, etc.
Getting creamed by a cyclist (or scooter, or skateboarder) going at speed down the sidewalk - or one blowing through an intersection against the lights - is not going to be a minor injury, and I’ve narrowly avoided having myself, my kids, and once my dog get taken out in this manner.
Lately it’s been the battery-powered speakers scooters that are the worst culprits, but the cyclists who often bitch the most about cars are often the ones who seem to ride the least safely around here.
So yeah, not every driver obeys every lease every time, but similarly ignoring laws and being an assist is a good way to increase your own odds of having a bad encounter with one of those drivers, or one of the many others who share the streets and sidewalks.
A driver buzzed me and my dog a few days ago. In my own neighborhood, with snow and ice on the roads, and roads narrowed by snow on the sides (we don’t have sidewalks). Probably going 40 mph in a 25 zone. Less than three feet away from me. Idiocy.
Where are the comics about those drivers? Why are you so willing to accept drivers doing illegal things, while getting so bent out of shape about cyclists going illegal things?
Cars are way more dangerous than any cyclist will ever be. I know if I had to pick a vehicle to run into me, it’ll be the cyclist every time.
Cars run red lights all the time.
Also, ignoring train infra, traffic lights are car/motorized traffic infrastructure. I’m not abiding by rules that only needed to be made up to stop feeble car brains from killing each other.
LOL I see way more cars running red lights and stop signs that I ever see bicycles doing it. And cars do a fuckton more damage when they hit something.
Also ignoring that while the impact of a car versus cyclist or heavily in favor of the car, a cyclist can still cause major harm to another person, pet or even another cyclist
Ah yes because every driver obeys every law all the time. It’s only the cyclists that break laws! No driver would ever consider speeding, rolling through a stop sign, or being aggressive!
Won’t someone think of the poor drivers!!
Your point is well taken, but whataboutism aside, EVERYONE should be obeying ALL the traffic laws. I cycle on public roads myself and I do see other cyclists not stopping at red lights. A bicycle IS a vehicle - it doesn’t come with pedestrian rights.
Or we can just keep escalating finger pointing and law-breaking until the traffic laws are meaningless everyone is dead.
I cycle thousands of miles each year, and I haven’t seen a cyclist run a red in years. Depends on where we’re riding, I guess.
So, why are you asking me to deescalate? Have you asked everyone else in this post and the author of the comic itself? Why pick me?
That’s fair… I didn’t mean to single you out. There were a LOT of posts, and I suppose the emphatic and sarcastic nature of yours drew my attention.
That said, I meant this as a general statement to all the commenters of this nature, and your comment is just where it happened to land. I don’t have any personal grudge.
can’t speak for the other commenter, but i will assume it was because of the whataboutism.
no one disputes that car drivers break a rules, but most of them at least know they are breaking the rules. cyclists really confidently act like the rules don’t exist (even that may depend on where you are).
few years back, some non-profit group advocating for bicycles in my city made a presentation for a media, where they showed a video how much faster a cyclist is going through some specific route during the working-day traffic jam than the car.
and then you saw the cyclist ignoring lights, driving on a sidewalk where he had no business to be and so on. he broke like a billion traffic rules during his 15 minute trip and they really acted like they didn’t even know that some rules applied to him.
Dude, come ride in my car sometime. Practically every driver out there thinks the rules don’t apply to them, either. I’d record them on a dash cam, but I don’t want to spend my life editing videos for YouTube. It’s a fucking jungle out there. As a practical matter, what’s the difference between not knowing the law (an assertion I reject) and ignoring it?
But car brains only get mad at cyclists for it. A car running a stop sign or rolling right on red is treated as business as usual. I see cops doing it.
I had to laugh at the links to deaths caused by cyclists. Two, world wide. Death from drivers doing stupid shit are so common, they don’t even bother writing articles about it. It’s not newsworthy. Cars do a lot more damage when they hit something.
And I say this as a cyclist that does follow the laws, aside from occasionally rolling a stop sign, when it’s safe (Idaho stop, but it’s not legal in my state).
I’m going to assume that you’re so blinded by your prejudice against “carbrains” that you haven’t seen all the posts bemoaning speeding, passing in the wrong lane, riding people’s bumpers, “when a car swerves around you at mach 3 just to get stuck at the same light” to paraphrase a meme I saw on lemmy like last week, etc, and it’s everywhere not just lemmy.
You are probably just such a bikebrained chaincel that you haven’t noticed it, but it’s there.
as a practical matter, there is no difference. but if one side is acting like a hypocrite pretending it is only the other party breaking the rules, it is worth pointing out.
i am pretty sure people complain about other drivers all the time.
yes, this is true. but should that mean that cyclists should ignore the traffic rules, or what is the point?
On that I agree. Drivers regularly complain about cyclists as though they aren’t doing similar shit. Where are the comics about that?
Show me the comics. Show me the online vitriol. Show me the death threats drivers get online every time a video is posted.
The point is that people in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones.
They only get mad at cyclists because it’s an “other” group they can see.
sometimes one facepalm is just not enough.
Let me put it this way. If that comic had a truck driven by a guy wearing a turban, everyone would be rightly calling it out as racist and bigoted.
Why is bigotry against cyclists not only okay, but also funny?
Been in a college town recently? College kids are basically the cyclist in the comic.
They’re also the most dangerous drivers too…
Maybe we should just make everyone walk till the age of 25.
I haven’t noticed anything like that in college towns apart from late at night when it’s cold, there’s barely anyone around and the lights sometimes just don’t change for bicycles because they are too light. (The most common possibly illegal thing I’ve seen is bicycles overtaking cars stopped at lights to get to to the bike spots on a bicycle road where in some cases the cars aren’t even supposed to be.)
Meanwhile drivers almost all seem better but I am also aware that most
Laws are a social agreement, not divine. Breaking stupid laws is not bad, and does not imply that all laws should be broken.
Stupid laws like “stop at a red light even if you’re wearing lycra in public.”
I live somewhere where half the traffic lights don’t have buttons and don’t respond to cyclists. So when there are no cars to trigger the light I just check if it’s safe and go. Meanwhile I have been nearly overrun by cars speeding through red because it was orange 3 seconds ago and see a car going >50kph in my 30kph street almost daily. A bicycle is not a vehicle (at least in france in collisions we are classified as pedestrians). We are way more vulnerable and less harmful and the roads are often not made for us, so we have to adapt our riding to be most safe. Sometimes that means taking a pedestrian green instead of a car green light because it is safer too.
Whatabout, whatabout, whatabout.
The point is that while cyclists often get pissed off about the lack of safe driving by cars, there are many that similarly seem to ignore the rules of the road as applied to them. That may result in a collision with a vehicle whose driver is driving with proper care - with the cyclist tending to be on the losing end -but also other cyclists, pedestrians, etc.
Getting creamed by a cyclist (or scooter, or skateboarder) going at speed down the sidewalk - or one blowing through an intersection against the lights - is not going to be a minor injury, and I’ve narrowly avoided having myself, my kids, and once my dog get taken out in this manner.
Lately it’s been the battery-powered speakers scooters that are the worst culprits, but the cyclists who often bitch the most about cars are often the ones who seem to ride the least safely around here.
So yeah, not every driver obeys every lease every time, but similarly ignoring laws and being an assist is a good way to increase your own odds of having a bad encounter with one of those drivers, or one of the many others who share the streets and sidewalks.
Safe driving != law abiding. There’s overlap, but they are not the same thing.
A driver buzzed me and my dog a few days ago. In my own neighborhood, with snow and ice on the roads, and roads narrowed by snow on the sides (we don’t have sidewalks). Probably going 40 mph in a 25 zone. Less than three feet away from me. Idiocy.
Where are the comics about those drivers? Why are you so willing to accept drivers doing illegal things, while getting so bent out of shape about cyclists going illegal things?
Cars are way more dangerous than any cyclist will ever be. I know if I had to pick a vehicle to run into me, it’ll be the cyclist every time.
Anyone who runs a red light is a stupid cunt.
Anecdotally, in my lived experience, there are more stupid cunts on bicycles than in cars.
That is all.
Cars run red lights all the time. Also, ignoring train infra, traffic lights are car/motorized traffic infrastructure. I’m not abiding by rules that only needed to be made up to stop feeble car brains from killing each other.
LOL I see way more cars running red lights and stop signs that I ever see bicycles doing it. And cars do a fuckton more damage when they hit something.
When a cyclist runs over a driver I’ll give a shit about bicycles running stop signs.
I don’t understand. You’re saying bikes should be allowed to run the red lights because when cars inevitable t-bone them they’ll die?
That seems pretty sick.
Also ignoring that while the impact of a car versus cyclist or heavily in favor of the car, a cyclist can still cause major harm to another person, pet or even another cyclist
Per capita? Really? Where do you live?