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Where do you live (where it is unsafe)? There are millions in my country (India) who safely use bicycles, mopeds, and motorbikes. The degree of safety depends u

Where do you live (where it is unsafe)? There are millions in my country (India) who safely use bicycles, mopeds, and motorbikes. The degree of safety depends upon the culture of the city as well as the road (highway, valley, etc).

dingo_bat 9y ago
I'm in Bangalore. And it's unsafe af. The millions who do it in India are forced by poverty, otherwise they'd love to drive cars.
jogjayr 9y ago
> There are millions in my country (India) who safely use bicycles, mopeds, and motorbikes. Every part of that statement is true except for the word "safely". I first got my driver's license in India, drove motorcycles and cars there, and then moved to the US. Based on my experience, as well as publicly available data, I can state as an objective fact that most drivers in India are terrible. You only have to look at the fatalities per million kilometers: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_traffic-related_death_rate https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_traffic-r... India is approximately 5x worse than the UK, which is near top of the list. Even taking into account the differences in quality of roads and emergency medical services, that's an _enormous_ difference. To a first approximation, any adult bicyclist in India cycles out of necessity (can't afford anything safer) not choice (again, first approximation; I have a retired uncle who cycles 40km every weekend for exercise). Motorbike and moped-riders are a bit of a mixed bag; some people who can't afford a car, others who prefer it for traffic and parking advantages. Whenever I visit India, it's astonishing to me the number of risks drivers (of cars, 2-wheelers and trucks alike) take with their own and other people's lives for very little gain. The concept of a lane is alien to most drivers, motorbikes speed like crazy and weave in and out of traffic (even I used to do it when I was younger and didn't know any better), no one ever yields to pedestrians, traffic signals don't work or aren't followed unless there's a cop standing there. I could go on and on. Lest you think I'm a total wuss, I love cycling in the US and it's my preferred mode of transportation for trips under 10 km. I've done plenty of cycling and motorbike riding in India also. But I would not dare ride a 2-wheeler on public roads in India on a consistent basis anymore. At least not until our driver training, licensing, testing, and enforcement regime becomes much stricter than it currently is.

dingo_bat 9y ago

I'm in Bangalore. And it's unsafe af. The millions who do it in India are forced by poverty, otherwise they'd love to drive cars.

jogjayr 9y ago

> There are millions in my country (India) who safely use bicycles, mopeds, and motorbikes. Every part of that statement is true except for the word "safely". I first got my driver's license in India, drove motorcycles and cars there, and then moved to the US. Based on my experience, as well as publicly available data, I can state as an objective fact that most drivers in India are terrible. You only have to look at the fatalities per million kilometers: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_traffic-related_death_rate https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_traffic-r... India is approximately 5x worse than the UK, which is near top of the list. Even taking into account the differences in quality of roads and emergency medical services, that's an _enormous_ difference. To a first approximation, any adult bicyclist in India cycles out of necessity (can't afford anything safer) not choice (again, first approximation; I have a retired uncle who cycles 40km every weekend for exercise). Motorbike and moped-riders are a bit of a mixed bag; some people who can't afford a car, others who prefer it for traffic and parking advantages. Whenever I visit India, it's astonishing to me the number of risks drivers (of cars, 2-wheelers and trucks alike) take with their own and other people's lives for very little gain. The concept of a lane is alien to most drivers, motorbikes speed like crazy and weave in and out of traffic (even I used to do it when I was younger and didn't know any better), no one ever yields to pedestrians, traffic signals don't work or aren't followed unless there's a cop standing there. I could go on and on. Lest you think I'm a total wuss, I love cycling in the US and it's my preferred mode of transportation for trips under 10 km. I've done plenty of cycling and motorbike riding in India also. But I would not dare ride a 2-wheeler on public roads in India on a consistent basis anymore. At least not until our driver training, licensing, testing, and enforcement regime becomes much stricter than it currently is.