3 ms·

Unfortunately, it doesn’t matter whether it was a moment of distraction or purposeful bad driving. The reason it didn’t cause harm is just luck. I ride a bicycl

by kaikai 7y ago

Unfortunately, it doesn’t matter whether it was a moment of distraction or purposeful bad driving. The reason it didn’t cause harm is just luck. I ride a bicycle and a motorcycle, and have had more close calls due to distracted drivers than I can count. I DO NOT CARE if it’s because you’re stressed out, you have screaming kids in the backseat, or it was just a “complete brain fart.” If you hit me with your giant metal vehicle, you will probably kill me. Just because you don’t kill someone every time you drift through a lane on a corner or don’t stop at a light doesn’t mean that you never will.

laumars 7y ago
I've been a cyclist for 30 years and have had my fair share of accidents too. So I've seen both sides of the argument. However as a motorist I have never ever hit another driver, cyclist nor pedestrian; anything in fact. In fact the vast majority of motorists haven't despite the fact that literally every driver will have made a minor traffic offence on a semi-regular basis (even if that's just forgetting to indicate when changing lane on a motorway). I also don't agree it's exclusively a matter of luck whether human error results in an accident. It's usually experience and good reactions whether you're able to recover from human error fast and safely enough to prevent an accident. Much like how cyclists have to learn to read the road and pedestrians have to learn how to safely cross busy roads, motorists should learn how to handle shitty situations. Please remember that sometimes those situations happen for reasons outside of the motorists control such as jaywalkers, animals in the road, other motorists making mistakes or even cyclists not following the rules of the road. This absolutely means motorists have a significant responsibility to drive safely but also means that it's not just a matter of luck whether someone forgetting to indicate results in fatality; that's simply not the reality of things. I agree there is a possibility but it's not even common likelihood (for the reasons I described above). I also agree (as I've also said above) that drivers do have a significantly greater responsibility to drive safely and I'm absolutely in favour of penalising people who have caused accidents....however penalising everyone for every minor mishap doesn't help improve road safety. It effectively just becomes another road tax. If you want to penalise bad drivers then go after bad drivers; but let's not throw the baby out with the bath water.
perl4ever 7y ago
I have a motorcycle license, but when I see someone who thinks it would be fun to stand up on their seat while riding along in front of me, I would feel hostility towards anyone haranguing me that I'm responsible for keeping them safe. Of course I don't want them to crash right now and involve me; that would be inconvenient. But it would be nice if something prevented them from continuing to do what they're doing. I don't have a principled argument why someone else shouldn't regard all riders the same way. It's arbitrary where you draw the line between risks that are reasonable to take because you feel like it and risks that aren't.

by kaikai 7y ago

laumars 7y ago

I've been a cyclist for 30 years and have had my fair share of accidents too. So I've seen both sides of the argument. However as a motorist I have never ever hit another driver, cyclist nor pedestrian; anything in fact. In fact the vast majority of motorists haven't despite the fact that literally every driver will have made a minor traffic offence on a semi-regular basis (even if that's just forgetting to indicate when changing lane on a motorway). I also don't agree it's exclusively a matter of luck whether human error results in an accident. It's usually experience and good reactions whether you're able to recover from human error fast and safely enough to prevent an accident. Much like how cyclists have to learn to read the road and pedestrians have to learn how to safely cross busy roads, motorists should learn how to handle shitty situations. Please remember that sometimes those situations happen for reasons outside of the motorists control such as jaywalkers, animals in the road, other motorists making mistakes or even cyclists not following the rules of the road. This absolutely means motorists have a significant responsibility to drive safely but also means that it's not just a matter of luck whether someone forgetting to indicate results in fatality; that's simply not the reality of things. I agree there is a possibility but it's not even common likelihood (for the reasons I described above). I also agree (as I've also said above) that drivers do have a significantly greater responsibility to drive safely and I'm absolutely in favour of penalising people who have caused accidents....however penalising everyone for every minor mishap doesn't help improve road safety. It effectively just becomes another road tax. If you want to penalise bad drivers then go after bad drivers; but let's not throw the baby out with the bath water.

perl4ever 7y ago

I have a motorcycle license, but when I see someone who thinks it would be fun to stand up on their seat while riding along in front of me, I would feel hostility towards anyone haranguing me that I'm responsible for keeping them safe. Of course I don't want them to crash right now and involve me; that would be inconvenient. But it would be nice if something prevented them from continuing to do what they're doing. I don't have a principled argument why someone else shouldn't regard all riders the same way. It's arbitrary where you draw the line between risks that are reasonable to take because you feel like it and risks that aren't.