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Because being 30 seconds slower to your destination requires a billion dollars of infrastructure to fix, rather than sharing a public road. Nice attitude. I'm

Because being 30 seconds slower to your destination requires a billion dollars of infrastructure to fix, rather than sharing a public road. Nice attitude. I'm one of those annoying cyclists that head to the middle of the road when its narrow or has poor visibility. Its not to deliberately annoy anybody, it's to discourage impatient drivers from squeezing me into the barriers, the curbs or ditches. I love it when somebody honks their horn and yells insults at the dire inconvenience of having to slow down for 100m, because it means I have been seen and said driver didn't kill me. Its nothing to do with apathy and greed and everything to do with the insufferable entitlement of people who take knobs like Jeremy Clarkson seriously.

seer 5y ago
The "Not Just Bikes" channel in YouTube makes the awesome observation that building infrastructure for cyclists actually improves driving times for a car drivers, and may be actually cheaper to implement, certainly much cheaper to maintain. The calculation for car-saturated cities is that each drive takes as long as fastest alternative mode, and no faster. Which kinda makes sense to me - as you build more infra people chose to not drive, making driving a lot more fun for the die-hards and the ones where that's not an option.
cinntaile 5y ago
It's a safety thing as well. And those bike roads last a very long time compared to car roads. It would likely cause less polarization too!
CalRobert 5y ago
a billion dollars can get you a LOT of bike infra. Or comparatively little road infra. And "infra" can be planter boxes and moving paint, for a start. This thread was a reminder that even in the Netherlands, when you design roads for higher speeds and try to change that by plopping down a sign, it doesn't work. https://www.reddit.com/r/Netherlands/comments/ss3t0u/whats_up_with_all_the_speeding_drivers_highway/ https://www.reddit.com/r/Netherlands/comments/ss3t0u/whats_u...
charcircuit 5y ago
If you can't go the speed limit, you should get off the road and let cars pass.
- newsclues 5y ago
  Funnily enough I’ve had cars cut me off in an unsafe manner to turn right in front of me so fast I had to slam my bicycle breaks… while I was going the speed limit. Cars feel impatient behind bikes even when travelling the speed limit. Also, if cars that aren’t able or willing to travel the speed limit are not forced to pull over for faster traffic… you’ve never been stuck behind a truck, old person or tractor?
  - charcircuit 5y ago
    I would not like to be stuck behind a car either. It's even against the law where I live to impede traffic with a motor vehicle.
    - deleted 5y ago
      [deleted]
  - smackeyacky 5y ago
    Its interesting to listen to truckies on the UHF when confronted with impatient drivers. They have many of the same frustrations that cyclists do when an impatient driver does something stupid or dangerous, only it usually ends badly for the motorist.
  - maccard 5y ago
    > I’ve had cars cut me off in an unsafe manner to turn right in front of me so fast I had to slam my bicycle breaks… while I was going the speed limit. To be fair, I've had this as a driver too. Everyone has seen the driver in an outside lane cut across two lanes of traffic to take a turn that they were in the wrong lane for.
- smackeyacky 5y ago
  Its a speed limit, not a minimum speed. I would recommend getting a bike and trying it out. It makes you a better driver, because being considerate of other road users is its own reward.
sasaf5 5y ago
This "speed entitlement" is something that bothers me even when I am also a motorist. I get honked out of my boots if I do not accelerate towards a red light. Drivers feel entitled to move forward as fast as possible, regardless of others, physics or logic.
throwawaaaay981 5y ago
Your comment made me chuckle; and not because I mean to minimize what you said. I drive a 7,500 lb diesel pickup truck as my weekend “I’m going to the boonies to play with my man toys” vehicle. It’s a big and imposing vehicle that I operate responsibly. On longer highway trips I tend to lay in the speed limit into my cruise control and simply cruise (fitting eh?) in the middle lane of a 3-lane road or the right lane of a 2-lane road. Guess what? I get honked at for driving too slowly even when I’m traveling at 70 mph that also happens to be the speed limit. Just yesterday an especially irate specimen became upset when I was using the left lane to pass at 70 mph (otherwise known as the speed limit) to go past a very large truck that was using the right lane at 60 mph. Someone honked at me, flashed their headlights, then eventually passed me, got in front of me, and performed a brake check on me. Imagine how upset this wheeled menace gets when they see a cyclist taking the entirety of a narrow road! Sigh.
newrotik 5y ago
From the perspective of the 20 drivers behind you, you are the inconsiderate person.
pfortuny 5y ago
At least in Spain there is a minimum speed at which you can legally drive (half the max)…
corney91 5y ago
I also take the lane a lot to avoid dangerous passes and don't like the entitlement of needing to drive at least the speed limit. However I do think more infrastructure's required, but mainly for a reason not mentioned here: safer infrastructure for cyclists will encourage more people to cycle, reducing the car traffic and making things more pleasant for all travelers. I know a lot of people who'd cycle more if they could do it without feeling like they might be killed every time someone else was in a rush. (I'm in the UK where cycling on the pavement's not allowed, unless it's a marked cycle or shared lane, not sure if that's different in other countries).

seer 5y ago

The "Not Just Bikes" channel in YouTube makes the awesome observation that building infrastructure for cyclists actually improves driving times for a car drivers, and may be actually cheaper to implement, certainly much cheaper to maintain. The calculation for car-saturated cities is that each drive takes as long as fastest alternative mode, and no faster. Which kinda makes sense to me - as you build more infra people chose to not drive, making driving a lot more fun for the die-hards and the ones where that's not an option.

cinntaile 5y ago

It's a safety thing as well. And those bike roads last a very long time compared to car roads. It would likely cause less polarization too!

CalRobert 5y ago

a billion dollars can get you a LOT of bike infra. Or comparatively little road infra. And "infra" can be planter boxes and moving paint, for a start. This thread was a reminder that even in the Netherlands, when you design roads for higher speeds and try to change that by plopping down a sign, it doesn't work. https://www.reddit.com/r/Netherlands/comments/ss3t0u/whats_up_with_all_the_speeding_drivers_highway/ https://www.reddit.com/r/Netherlands/comments/ss3t0u/whats_u...

charcircuit 5y ago

If you can't go the speed limit, you should get off the road and let cars pass.

newsclues 5y ago
Funnily enough I’ve had cars cut me off in an unsafe manner to turn right in front of me so fast I had to slam my bicycle breaks… while I was going the speed limit. Cars feel impatient behind bikes even when travelling the speed limit. Also, if cars that aren’t able or willing to travel the speed limit are not forced to pull over for faster traffic… you’ve never been stuck behind a truck, old person or tractor?
- charcircuit 5y ago
  I would not like to be stuck behind a car either. It's even against the law where I live to impede traffic with a motor vehicle.
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
- smackeyacky 5y ago
  Its interesting to listen to truckies on the UHF when confronted with impatient drivers. They have many of the same frustrations that cyclists do when an impatient driver does something stupid or dangerous, only it usually ends badly for the motorist.
- maccard 5y ago
  > I’ve had cars cut me off in an unsafe manner to turn right in front of me so fast I had to slam my bicycle breaks… while I was going the speed limit. To be fair, I've had this as a driver too. Everyone has seen the driver in an outside lane cut across two lanes of traffic to take a turn that they were in the wrong lane for.
smackeyacky 5y ago
Its a speed limit, not a minimum speed. I would recommend getting a bike and trying it out. It makes you a better driver, because being considerate of other road users is its own reward.

sasaf5 5y ago

This "speed entitlement" is something that bothers me even when I am also a motorist. I get honked out of my boots if I do not accelerate towards a red light. Drivers feel entitled to move forward as fast as possible, regardless of others, physics or logic.

throwawaaaay981 5y ago

Your comment made me chuckle; and not because I mean to minimize what you said. I drive a 7,500 lb diesel pickup truck as my weekend “I’m going to the boonies to play with my man toys” vehicle. It’s a big and imposing vehicle that I operate responsibly. On longer highway trips I tend to lay in the speed limit into my cruise control and simply cruise (fitting eh?) in the middle lane of a 3-lane road or the right lane of a 2-lane road. Guess what? I get honked at for driving too slowly even when I’m traveling at 70 mph that also happens to be the speed limit. Just yesterday an especially irate specimen became upset when I was using the left lane to pass at 70 mph (otherwise known as the speed limit) to go past a very large truck that was using the right lane at 60 mph. Someone honked at me, flashed their headlights, then eventually passed me, got in front of me, and performed a brake check on me. Imagine how upset this wheeled menace gets when they see a cyclist taking the entirety of a narrow road! Sigh.

newrotik 5y ago

From the perspective of the 20 drivers behind you, you are the inconsiderate person.

pfortuny 5y ago

At least in Spain there is a minimum speed at which you can legally drive (half the max)…

corney91 5y ago

I also take the lane a lot to avoid dangerous passes and don't like the entitlement of needing to drive at least the speed limit. However I do think more infrastructure's required, but mainly for a reason not mentioned here: safer infrastructure for cyclists will encourage more people to cycle, reducing the car traffic and making things more pleasant for all travelers. I know a lot of people who'd cycle more if they could do it without feeling like they might be killed every time someone else was in a rush. (I'm in the UK where cycling on the pavement's not allowed, unless it's a marked cycle or shared lane, not sure if that's different in other countries).