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the fundamental problem with your position is in pinning the culpability on cyclists. cyclists and pedestrians don't kill cyclists, cars do. and by extension tr

the fundamental problem with your position is in pinning the culpability on cyclists. cyclists and pedestrians don't kill cyclists, cars do. and by extension traffic engineers.

asdff 4y ago
I as a cyclist know how dangerous it is on the road when you do something irregular. At the end of the day human reaction time is what it is, the laws of physics are what they are, and doing something reckless on a 45mph road is going to lead to your death pretty easily on a bike. Defensive driving courses for example are effective because if you start practicing defensive driving, your odds of even being in a situation that might result in an accident go way down. Biking is the same way. No one is taught how to ride a bike on the road, unlike cars where you need to pass an exam with a government official sitting in the car showing you aren't wholly incompetent. People with bikes just go out and do it. That's why I see people biking the wrong way on major arterials all the time, biking at night without any lights, ignoring intersections, and generally not looking around, and people who have lights and mirrors and helmets are much more rare. The people who know how to take a dutch left turn on a bike are also unicorns, I've never see anyone else do it. As a cyclist I see car traffic as like a constant source of death, like a rushing river leading into a waterfall, or a big grizzly bear. It must be treated with care, but with sufficient knowledge it can be made to be nearly totally safe. When I see statistics like 10 deaths a year in a city of 4 million, of course I will assume that a lot of that has to do with the fact that most bike riders have zero education on using the road with a bike and there was probably some recklessness involved with where they were choosing to ride a bike, and that the cases e.g. of people getting killed while riding in a bike lane or on a residential street with a speed limit of 25 mph are so exceedingly rare in comparison that I may as well not worry about them personally ever happening to me, much like I ignore the low scale risk of death with just about anything one does in life.
- andbberger 4y ago
  you are the ghost of john forester. i don't have much else to say other than that you're wrong and also in a morally compromised position. knowledge can't save you from the rushing river of 2 ton deathmobiles, traffic engineering (ie dutch cycling infrastructure) can.
  - andbberger 4y ago
    also: https://twitter.com/Wash_cycle/status/1551667761310482432 https://twitter.com/Wash_cycle/status/1551667761310482432

the fundamental problem with your position is in pinning the culpability on cyclists. cyclists and pedestrians don't kill cyclists, cars do. and by extension traffic engineers.

asdff 4y ago

I as a cyclist know how dangerous it is on the road when you do something irregular. At the end of the day human reaction time is what it is, the laws of physics are what they are, and doing something reckless on a 45mph road is going to lead to your death pretty easily on a bike. Defensive driving courses for example are effective because if you start practicing defensive driving, your odds of even being in a situation that might result in an accident go way down. Biking is the same way. No one is taught how to ride a bike on the road, unlike cars where you need to pass an exam with a government official sitting in the car showing you aren't wholly incompetent. People with bikes just go out and do it. That's why I see people biking the wrong way on major arterials all the time, biking at night without any lights, ignoring intersections, and generally not looking around, and people who have lights and mirrors and helmets are much more rare. The people who know how to take a dutch left turn on a bike are also unicorns, I've never see anyone else do it. As a cyclist I see car traffic as like a constant source of death, like a rushing river leading into a waterfall, or a big grizzly bear. It must be treated with care, but with sufficient knowledge it can be made to be nearly totally safe. When I see statistics like 10 deaths a year in a city of 4 million, of course I will assume that a lot of that has to do with the fact that most bike riders have zero education on using the road with a bike and there was probably some recklessness involved with where they were choosing to ride a bike, and that the cases e.g. of people getting killed while riding in a bike lane or on a residential street with a speed limit of 25 mph are so exceedingly rare in comparison that I may as well not worry about them personally ever happening to me, much like I ignore the low scale risk of death with just about anything one does in life.

andbberger 4y ago
you are the ghost of john forester. i don't have much else to say other than that you're wrong and also in a morally compromised position. knowledge can't save you from the rushing river of 2 ton deathmobiles, traffic engineering (ie dutch cycling infrastructure) can.
- andbberger 4y ago
  also: https://twitter.com/Wash_cycle/status/1551667761310482432 https://twitter.com/Wash_cycle/status/1551667761310482432