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I'm betting you aren't a bicyclist. If you ride regularly you quickly realize that it's not a visibility problem, but that some drivers feel like bikes don't b
by sliken 9y ago
I'm betting you aren't a bicyclist. If you ride regularly you quickly realize that it's not a visibility problem, but that some drivers feel like bikes don't belong on the road.
I was raced on road and off, was a bicycle messenger, and used it as my primary transportation. Often cars were openly aggressive, I had a brick thrown at me, various cars would try to run me off the road. It's fairly common to be on a long distance ride and have one issue or another with a motorist that believes the bikes shouldn't be there. I've had numerous things yelled me along the lines of "bikes are for kids" and "bikes don't belong on the road". Threatening by swerving, passing way to close to be safe, revving the engine, "rolling coal", etc.
Fortunately cell phones have helped quite a bit, pictures and videos have lead to convictions. There's even boards where locals share info about hazardous drivers. The cyclist death tolls are definitely non-trivial, I've ridden by quite a few memorials. For some reason hitting a pedestrian is often considered manslaughter, but hitting a bicyclist is often called an "accident", as if it was an act of god, not a driver not paying enough attention.
- FireBeyond 9y ago> I had a brick thrown at me Apropos of the validity of your story I feel that one, well, who carries a brick in their car, and two, the kind of psychopath who /does/ carry a brick in their car for the purpose of throwing at anyone or anything, not just a cyclist, is not the kind of person to be dissuaded by any of this.
- shiftpgdn 9y agoGo to your local ice cream/coffee social cycling ride in any major city and ask around about having things thrown at you. Nearly every person there will have a story.
- FireBeyond 9y agoOh, I'm not disputing the validity of his story. I'm just saying that anyone willing to do this is already breaking the law, regardless of "presumption of guilt as applied to car vs bicycle incidents".
- RugnirViking 9y agowhat is an > ice cream/coffee social cycling ride? sounds fun
- jdavis703 9y agoThey probably already had a brick in their car. As someone who's had people verbally threaten to run me over this story doesn't sound outside the realm of possibility.
- peatmoss 9y agoThere's a lot of aggressive behavior that, while criminally dangerous, isn't as blatant as a brick. Aggression toward bicyclists is a continuum, and if you habituate the careless drivers to being careful, and you dissuade the thoughtlessly agressive, then the sociopaths may not feel like they're part of some larger body of "acceptable" behavior.
- weberc2 9y agoYeah, I'm not a cyclist, but I live in a busy city with lots of cyclists. Most close calls I witness are related to a bike riding in a blindspot or in between lanes or occasionally running a red, but the problems you cite are definitely not technical and I think something should be done about them. But I'm not convinced that assuming guilty a priori is the answer to that problem either.