4 ms·

Ugly American here, bound to a vehicle because I live in the suburbs. > That there are complaints from car drivers about the number of people bringing their ch

Ugly American here, bound to a vehicle because I live in the suburbs. > That there are complaints from car drivers about the number of people bringing their children to school by bicycle. Whether the cyclists are willing to adapt. I can sympathize with this, or at least what I understand of it given it seems to be translated from Dutch. In the neighboring big city there are bike lanes (though sharing the same surface as the autos) for most of the major thoroughfares. Bicycling has become more and more popular over the past couple of decades, and I’m totally fine with that. I gladly yield to those paths and the cyclists using the where I can, and generally follow all the rules of the road. I’ve not had a traffic citation since 2004. However I’ve noticed over the past decade or so that that cyclists are becoming increasingly aggressive - disregarding the rules they must follow: cutting through traffic, ignoring lights and not yielding to pedestrians at pedestrian crossings. It’s gotten so bad that some of the optimal paths I could take to the office I don’t. More than once has a cyclist confronted me, one even smacked my vehicle with his backpack, because I blew the horn when they jumped off the curb and directly into traffic. I want to support more bike friendly initiatives because I like the health and environmental benefits, I just don’t want to be associated with the assholes come with the territory.

arp242 5y ago
The context here is that when I was at school, you were simple not allowed to bring your child to school in a car unless there was a specific reason. Actually, you weren't even allowed to cycle unless you lived more than ~1km away (due to lack of cycle racks). They were flexible about this of course (e.g. being picked up every once in a while was fine), but being dropped off/picked up every day was very rare. This was the case at both elementary schools I attended. In high school it was a non-issue since pretty much everyone cycled or walked anyway. With this context in mind, cars complaining about cycles is rather ... odd. > one even smacked my vehicle with his backpack, because I blew the horn when they jumped off the curb and directly into traffic. Cars horns are really loud, come across as very aggressive, and immediately send adrenaline levels up. It's a horrible communication method, especially to people who aren't in cars, that usually only provokes the wrong kind of responses in people.
- lovemenot 5y ago
  I recently bought an e-bike from China. The only thing I dislike is its horn which is scarily loud. I will buy one of the single ping bells that everyone here in Japan uses.
tonyedgecombe 5y ago
>However I’ve noticed over the past decade or so that that cyclists are becoming increasingly aggressive - disregarding the rules they must follow: cutting through traffic, ignoring lights and not yielding to pedestrians at pedestrian crossings. You might just be seeing more of them. The research says cyclists tend to obey the rules of the road more than car drivers: https://www.forbes.com/sites/carltonreid/2019/05/10/cyclists-break-far-fewer-road-rules-than-motorists-finds-new-video-study/?sh=580f50104bfa https://www.forbes.com/sites/carltonreid/2019/05/10/cyclists... https://usa.streetsblog.org/2018/01/03/study-cyclists-dont-break-traffic-laws-any-more-than-drivers-do/ https://usa.streetsblog.org/2018/01/03/study-cyclists-dont-b... >More than once has a cyclist confronted me, one even smacked my vehicle with his backpack, because I blew the horn when they jumped off the curb and directly into traffic. Yeah, I had someone give me some grief because I didn't put my hand out when stopping last week. He told me that next time he will run me over and it will be my fault.

arp242 5y ago

The context here is that when I was at school, you were simple not allowed to bring your child to school in a car unless there was a specific reason. Actually, you weren't even allowed to cycle unless you lived more than ~1km away (due to lack of cycle racks). They were flexible about this of course (e.g. being picked up every once in a while was fine), but being dropped off/picked up every day was very rare. This was the case at both elementary schools I attended. In high school it was a non-issue since pretty much everyone cycled or walked anyway. With this context in mind, cars complaining about cycles is rather ... odd. > one even smacked my vehicle with his backpack, because I blew the horn when they jumped off the curb and directly into traffic. Cars horns are really loud, come across as very aggressive, and immediately send adrenaline levels up. It's a horrible communication method, especially to people who aren't in cars, that usually only provokes the wrong kind of responses in people.

lovemenot 5y ago
I recently bought an e-bike from China. The only thing I dislike is its horn which is scarily loud. I will buy one of the single ping bells that everyone here in Japan uses.

tonyedgecombe 5y ago

>However I’ve noticed over the past decade or so that that cyclists are becoming increasingly aggressive - disregarding the rules they must follow: cutting through traffic, ignoring lights and not yielding to pedestrians at pedestrian crossings. You might just be seeing more of them. The research says cyclists tend to obey the rules of the road more than car drivers: https://www.forbes.com/sites/carltonreid/2019/05/10/cyclists-break-far-fewer-road-rules-than-motorists-finds-new-video-study/?sh=580f50104bfa https://www.forbes.com/sites/carltonreid/2019/05/10/cyclists... https://usa.streetsblog.org/2018/01/03/study-cyclists-dont-break-traffic-laws-any-more-than-drivers-do/ https://usa.streetsblog.org/2018/01/03/study-cyclists-dont-b... >More than once has a cyclist confronted me, one even smacked my vehicle with his backpack, because I blew the horn when they jumped off the curb and directly into traffic. Yeah, I had someone give me some grief because I didn't put my hand out when stopping last week. He told me that next time he will run me over and it will be my fault.