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This kind of driver is the same that would accelerate towards you as you (legally) cross a road only to stop at a red light 50m behind you – a red light was cle

• kevingadd 4y ago
  Just this morning I was walking down the street on a sidewalk and as I crossed in front of a driveway - having checked first - a car pulled out of the garage right up against my leg and stopped, and when I stepped away they started moving again to get close. The stuff people do in cars when they don't have right of way is absolutely deranged sometimes.
  • grecy 4y ago
    A lot of people have no idea of the destructive power of the three ton death machine they are in command of. For that reason I think it should be mandatory to volunteer in a crash recovery ward at a hospital for 100 hours before getting a drivers license.
    • dazc 4y ago
      These people never consider the possibility they will actually hit something, their driving skills being so above average and all..
      • spaetzleesser 4y ago
        Personally I think they don't think about this. They want to feel safe and that's where the thinking ends.
      • grecy 4y ago
        Which is why we should force them to see the reality of what happens when people do. And they'll talk to those people who are severely injured, who will say "it was never going to happen to me either". I'd bet the number of licensed drivers would drop, people wouldn't want a license after seeing the harsh reality.
    • throwaway0a5e 4y ago
      How do you square the "three ton death machine" with the whole "recreationally gallivanting across Africa in a Jeep and blogging about it for internet points" thing? Your words say a car usage should be minimized. Your actions say another thing. It comes across a lot like taking your private jet to a climate summit. I'm genuinely curious how you reconcile this apparent conflict.
      • jtvjan 4y ago
        I think that there is less traffic in Africa, and therefore, there is less chance of a dangerous collision.
      • woodruffw 4y ago
        There are two answers to this: 1. The person you're responding to is clearly aware of the responsibility required when driving a large car (their comment says this explicitly); 2. An outbacking trip through Africa is not meaningfully comparable to daily automotive commuting. It's probably safe to assume that the GP practiced outsized caution, given the logistical and legal complexity of such a trip.
    • kuschku 4y ago
      I’ve had a few bike accidents (usually me vs a trash can that suddenly rolled onto the bike lane, or similar obstructions of the road) where I had to go to the ER. I obviously had to wait a few hours, because while I may have a concussion and broken some bones, there are people with far worse injuries in the ER. One time I had to wait 12 hours because a major car accident had happened, and I saw them move the victims of that into the ER. I was instantly reminded of the difference in danger, and very glad that my injuries happened with a 20 kg vehicle at 20 km/h, and not a 2000 kg vehicle at 100 km/h.
    • spaetzleesser 4y ago
      A lot of people buy these three ton machines to feel "safe". In turn they don't feel the need to protect others from that machine. In my LA neighborhood I saw a lot of moms barreling through the neighborhood in their big SUVs with their kids while talking on the phone or texting. I have had several occasions where I had to jump out of the way to not getting run over. I don't think the drivers even noticed me. when I had my motorcycle most near misses were also with SUV drivers not paying attention when changing lanes. The more expensive the SUV the more dangerous.
      • HarryHirsch 4y ago
        And the worst thing is: when they do run someone over the DA won't prosecute because they want to be re-elected, and when it does end up in criminal court the jury won't convict because they know it might have easily been them.
  • Stratoscope 4y ago
    Yesterday I was at the four way stop in the parking lot next to the corner of the Costco building in Mountain View, after coming down the driveway from Rengstorff. As usual, many people were crossing the far side of that intersection as they left Costco, and of course I waited for them. After I'd been there 30 seconds or so, a big SUV pulled up to the stop sign on my left. He was wanting to make a left turn toward Total Wine. Obviously, I had the right of way over him, and the pedestrians pushing their grocery carts out of Costco had the right of way over both of us. After another 30 seconds, the SUV driver had had enough. He barreled through his left turn as shoppers were still crossing the driveway, barely missing one of them by a foot or two.
    • dimva 4y ago
      For some reason, driving a car causes a strong desire to move forward quickly in most people. Even for me, a person who hasn't owned a car in over a decade and always bikes or walks everywhere, whenever I get behind the wheel of a car, I get incredibly anxious when I'm stopped waiting for something, and I have to consciously tell myself it's OK if I wait for 30 seconds. I have no idea what causes this, but I've noticed it in many others. Maybe because if you do wait a bit, some drivers behind you will get irritated and honk, flash their lights, tailgate, and pass you via some dangerous maneuver? That might be enough to associate waiting with anxiety for people who'd normally be ok with waiting.
      • soco 4y ago
        You could be on something, as I must tell my wife all the time that she should focus on what's in front of her, not on what is behind her. She'd do silly things otherwise, like speed if she thinks the driver behind is too close, or miss turns to not bother... why??? For me it's the other way around - I was once stopped by a police barrage because a patrol followed me half the town with their lights on to tell me a stoplight was broken and I ignored them (didn't look back once)
        • Toutouxc 4y ago
          Please try more actively not to be a bad driver and don't encourage others to be bad drivers too. You should always be aware of what's going on behind you. It could be the police or it could be an ambulance that you haven't heard because of the radio, it could be a tailgating driver ready to smash you into pieces unless you drive extremely defensively until they leave the road, it could be someone in an emergency, a truck with malfunctioning brakes hurling down the street and many more. The road is a place when generally incompetent people are forced to operate heavy machinery and no one is really safe there, even inside a car.
• dazc 4y ago
  I see this nearly everyday and wonder how it took billions of years to produce a species which is so dumb?
  • heresie-dabord 4y ago
    Unlike other species, we have optimised our ability to create losing conditions for some.
  • koolba 4y ago
    A lot of the genetic evolutions for individual survival do not perform well in a group setting. It’s kind of like how our love for sugar once, it’s abundantly available, turns us into a diabetes machine.
    • bombcar 4y ago
      And if you're in a position of power (on top of your massive SUV throne) evolutionarily you'd do better to run down your competitors. So evolutionarily we should see men on SUVs riding down other men and rounding up women, I suppose.
  • wpietri 4y ago
    For humans, a lot of the "dumb" stuff is rooted in our evolutionary history as primates, for whom dominance hierarchies are a big part of their evolutionary environment. For our nearest ancestors, chimps, being a dominant male has a lot of value in terms of reproductive success. So it's not shock to me that humans males are prone to the same sort of dominance assertion and performance of being highly placed that chimps are. I read this sort of behavior as the driver asserting his "superiority", putting "lesser" people in "their place". If you're interested, de Waal's "Chimpanzee Politics" was a real eye-opener for me. There was a big chunk of human behavior that went from "what is wrong with him" to "ah, ok, primates gonna prime".
    • atoav 4y ago
      When cars were first introduced to US streets there were pedestrian clubs who wanted them regulated as much as possible. Sure, one could argue this was because it wasn't that common to own a car back then and therefore those who didn't liked to "stick it" to those who did. However I think it is hard (and unwise) to ignore the role which (car) culture has played in this. Before car culture streets were a thing one shared with pedestrians, horses, carriages and cars. If you change that culture and priorize other things in your public spending for a decade you can end up somewhere entirely else [queue pictures of Amsterdam in the 70s vs today]. This influences culture and therefore the way motorists will treat cyclists. I am not saying that the nature-side of the nature vs. nurture debate isn't existing. It is quite clear that both sides exist from what we can observe. Thr nature side is much harder and riskier to change in our favour than the culture side. The way it worked in the Netherlands is a good example. If your bicycle infrastructure is good enough, more people will bicycle. If more people bicycle, more motorists bicycle. This means more motorists understand what it feels like as someone cycling. This in turn means there is less conflict for both sides.
• cinntaile 4y ago
  I don't think I have ever seen this behaviour? This must be a cultural thing?
  • DonHopkins 4y ago
    [flagged]
    • ch_sm 4y ago
      This article is so insane, it just has to be some sort of outrage-bait (that actually worked for me, although my blood typically has a pretty high boiling point).
      • sokoloff 4y ago
        Seems a satirical essay akin to a Modest Proposal: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Modest_Proposal https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Modest_Proposal
        • DFHippie 4y ago
          "A Modest Proposal" is meant to make the rich think twice about their treatment of the poor. Do you think the Free Beacon wants its readers to feel worse about rolling coal and abusing cyclists?
      • anjbe 4y ago
        It seemed obvious satire to me (not funny or sophisticated, but satire nonetheless). Felt like my suspicion was confirmed after seeing that other “Men of the Year” articles in the Free Beacon include “The Brothers Cuomo” (https://freebeacon.com/men-of-the-year/2021-men-of-the-year-the-brothers-cuomo/ https://freebeacon.com/men-of-the-year/2021-men-of-the-year-...) and “Dem Who Spent Campaign Cash at Strip Club” (https://freebeacon.com/men-of-the-year/2021-man-of-the-year-dem-who-spent-campaign-cash-at-strip-club/ https://freebeacon.com/men-of-the-year/2021-man-of-the-year-...). In this case the cyclist is the primary butt of the joke, not the driver. But the grandparent’s description of the article as “pure incitement to violence” is ludicrous hysteria.
• pessimizer 4y ago
  Drivers go out of their way to pass me on a motorscooter, I guess because I remind them of a bicycle. My scooter accelerates from 0-60 before you can say "zero to sixty" and tops out at 80mph. Sometimes they're driving so dangerously that I slow down to let them pass both because they might hurt someone, and because I don't want somebody so crazy behind me. I find it bizarre how much some drivers feel like they're imposed upon by other people who dare to be outside.
  • ClumsyPilot 4y ago
    I was on an ebike doing 32km/h in a 30 zone and cars keep overtaking me The entitlement of car drivers in unbelievable, they feel like they own the ourdoor space, park on sidewalk, and the only reason we havent paved every forest and ocean is their mercy
    • aendruk 4y ago
      Around here you’d be passed by the majority of traffic regardless of vehicle for going “only” two over the limit.
    • franky47 4y ago
      I keep wondering if this can be directly related to car advertising. Most car ads always show the car as alone on the road or street, as a symbol of ultimate freedom ("own the road" often comes back as a catchphrase). Yet this can't be further from the actual reality of driving. Maybe the cognitive dissonance is what drives (pun intended) driver entitlement and anger when challenged.
• walls 4y ago
  I like that you had to specify 'legally' because riders in America basically never follow traffic laws.
  • matheusmoreira 4y ago
    Where I live I don't think cyclists even know the traffic laws.
    • kuschku 4y ago
      According to a study by the ADAC (German auto club), cyclists have a better understanding of the StVO (German traffic regulations) than motorists, on average.
• matheusmoreira 4y ago
  > People like that should have their driving license taken away Cyclists shouldn't even be allowed on the road without a license. It's unbelievable the amount of crap I have to deal with on a daily basis because of people on bikes and motorcycles. Cyclists going the wrong way and against traffic, on the side walk, blowing past pedestrians at high speed even on pedestrian crossings, running red lights, failing to signal turns, travelling at obnoxiously slow speed, a whole group of them travelling side by side talking while blocking half a dozen vehicles behind them, travelling in between the traffic lanes, weaving through traffic, colliding and destroying car side mirrors even stationary parked cars, driving extremely aggressively in general, doing wheelies near me... It goes on and on, and any number of these behaviors can combine into something new. Every day cyclists invent new stupid shit for me to deal with. It takes serious effort not to accidentally kill someone on a bike.