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Cycling in Belgium is different from cycling in the UK. From what I saw in Brugge, people just get on a bike to cycle to work, or the shops, on a regular sit up

Cycling in Belgium is different from cycling in the UK. From what I saw in Brugge, people just get on a bike to cycle to work, or the shops, on a regular sit up and beg type bike. They're just getting from place to place. They're not trying to set a new personal best. In the UK, it more tends to be packs of 10 or so middle aged men aggressively riding racing bikes delaying all the traffic for 100s of metres behind them.

tonyedgecombe 5y ago
- gadders 5y ago
  - llampx 5y ago
    So no one should jog or run on public roads either? No doing push-ups in a public park? Glad you're not the dictator of the world.
    - jseban 5y ago
      No people should not run on public roads, why would you do that? I've never ran on a public road. Parks are made for recreation, not transportation. You don't do pushups on a busy sidewalk where people are trying to walk
      - llampx 5y ago
        s/road/sidewalk Of course there are places (many of them in the US) where a road or street exists but no sidewalk so you have to walk, bicycle or run on it.
    - FeepingCreature 5y ago
      Of course nobody should jog or run on a road.
  - thinkharderdev 5y ago
    Where should they do it?
    - jseban 5y ago
      - thinkharderdev 5y ago
        Why not choose another route to drive where you are not endangering cyclists? Why not choose one of the many other ways to get where you are going so that you don't have to be in other people's way? Why not relax and realize that having to slow down your vehicle for 30 seconds in order to pass a group of cyclists safely is an incredibly minor inconvenience? I can keep going but I think you get the point. We live in a society where we share some resources with other people. Sometimes that causes contention. Sometimes when I'm walking on a sidewalk I'll come up on a parent pushing one of those double strollers slower than I am walking. I find it slightly annoying because they are in my way. But I am also an adult who realizes that the world does not in fact revolve around my desires, so I slow down and wait for an opportunity to walk around them, smiling politely while I do.
    - gadders 5y ago
      A velodrome? A park?
  - rollo 5y ago
    Roads don't belong to cars lol.
strogonoff 5y ago
For a while I lived in a city with overall car-centric culture but somewhat decent bicycling lane infrastructure (some in parks completely separate from roads), and as someone who never drove a car: racing cyclists can be a menace. Delivery couriers are nowhere near as disruptive as some of them (except delivery couriers on scooters, but those don’t go on bicycle lanes… generally). IMO if you use public bicycle lanes for what is pretty much sport (as opposed to getting where you need to go), there should be a dedicated park or track you could use instead. Imagine if racing motorcycle owners got in groups and maxed out speedometers on city streets…
- WkndTriathlete 5y ago
  Terrible analogy. Road cyclist time trial speed tops out around 32-33 mph, and the top cyclists can sustain that for about 30-45 minutes. "Oh no, those racing cyclists got in groups and maxed out their speedometers in the city center ... at the speed limit." See how silly that sounds?
  - strogonoff 5y ago
    It matters not in absolute but in relative terms. It is impossible to misunderstand that I am not talking about pedestrians and bicyclists on the roads with motorcyclists, but other drivers and riders. The analogy is imperfect, like all analogies, and the modicum of empathy required to understand the actual point behind it may be missing in those who shout at you, who dares to ride in a bicycle lane slowly, because they take bells off their bicycles to save on weight.

tonyedgecombe 5y ago

gadders 5y ago
- llampx 5y ago
  So no one should jog or run on public roads either? No doing push-ups in a public park? Glad you're not the dictator of the world.
  - jseban 5y ago
    No people should not run on public roads, why would you do that? I've never ran on a public road. Parks are made for recreation, not transportation. You don't do pushups on a busy sidewalk where people are trying to walk
    - llampx 5y ago
      s/road/sidewalk Of course there are places (many of them in the US) where a road or street exists but no sidewalk so you have to walk, bicycle or run on it.
  - FeepingCreature 5y ago
    Of course nobody should jog or run on a road.
- thinkharderdev 5y ago
  Where should they do it?
  - jseban 5y ago
    - thinkharderdev 5y ago
      Why not choose another route to drive where you are not endangering cyclists? Why not choose one of the many other ways to get where you are going so that you don't have to be in other people's way? Why not relax and realize that having to slow down your vehicle for 30 seconds in order to pass a group of cyclists safely is an incredibly minor inconvenience? I can keep going but I think you get the point. We live in a society where we share some resources with other people. Sometimes that causes contention. Sometimes when I'm walking on a sidewalk I'll come up on a parent pushing one of those double strollers slower than I am walking. I find it slightly annoying because they are in my way. But I am also an adult who realizes that the world does not in fact revolve around my desires, so I slow down and wait for an opportunity to walk around them, smiling politely while I do.
  - gadders 5y ago
    A velodrome? A park?
- rollo 5y ago
  Roads don't belong to cars lol.

strogonoff 5y ago

For a while I lived in a city with overall car-centric culture but somewhat decent bicycling lane infrastructure (some in parks completely separate from roads), and as someone who never drove a car: racing cyclists can be a menace. Delivery couriers are nowhere near as disruptive as some of them (except delivery couriers on scooters, but those don’t go on bicycle lanes… generally). IMO if you use public bicycle lanes for what is pretty much sport (as opposed to getting where you need to go), there should be a dedicated park or track you could use instead. Imagine if racing motorcycle owners got in groups and maxed out speedometers on city streets…

WkndTriathlete 5y ago
Terrible analogy. Road cyclist time trial speed tops out around 32-33 mph, and the top cyclists can sustain that for about 30-45 minutes. "Oh no, those racing cyclists got in groups and maxed out their speedometers in the city center ... at the speed limit." See how silly that sounds?
- strogonoff 5y ago
  It matters not in absolute but in relative terms. It is impossible to misunderstand that I am not talking about pedestrians and bicyclists on the roads with motorcyclists, but other drivers and riders. The analogy is imperfect, like all analogies, and the modicum of empathy required to understand the actual point behind it may be missing in those who shout at you, who dares to ride in a bicycle lane slowly, because they take bells off their bicycles to save on weight.