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FWIW, I live in one of the least right-wing cities in the US (Baltimore), and cyclists here report that aggressive driving towards them is common. A few have r

FWIW, I live in one of the least right-wing cities in the US (Baltimore), and cyclists here report that aggressive driving towards them is common. A few have reported that pedestrian aggression towards them is common, too.

wpietri 4y ago
It doesn't take a lot of people for aggression to feel common to cyclists. Just as a proxy measure of right-wing-ness, 11% of people in Balitmore city voted for Trump, and 35% in Baltimore County. But I think the aggression is part of dominance assertion, a behavior that is more approved of on the right, but you still see plenty of on the left.
- neutronicus 4y ago
  Just as a note, the County and City have a somewhat antagonistic relationship, although County residents probably make up a decent number of drivers within City Limits.
  - wpietri 4y ago
    Yes, that was my thinking. A lot of urban core drivers come in from the suburbs. I'd be willing to bet that people from outside the city are behind a disproportionate share of aggressive incidents.
    - neutronicus 4y ago
      Yeah, as a resident I doubt that. We have a pretty aggressive driving culture and I don't think we can blame it on Trumpers driving in from the Burbs to cause trouble.
- DonHopkins 4y ago
  Rolling coal on cyclists, and proudly posting videos of it on youtube, and plowing trucks through the bicyclists, and writing articles portraying the perpetrators as heroes, is a hell of a lot worse than the common everyday "aggression" that American cyclists experience. They're absolutely not equivalent. Can you link to hundreds videos of left wingers with Biden bumper stickers rolling coal on anti-environmentalists, smashing their scooters and pickup trucks with Priuses, Biden supporters murdering right wing protesters with their cars just like a Nazi Trump supporter murdered Heather Heyer, and articles glorifying those attackers as left wing "heroes" and "man of the year"? Or are you just trying to make another tired and dishonest false equivalence to justify and carry the water for right wing violence and aggression that is no way reflected on "both sides"? And rolling coal is only a drop in the bucket of the mainstream right wing violence that's happening today. I can't recall anyone on the left wing rioting and breaking into the capitol, hanging a noose to murder the vice president, proudly marching and waving Confederate flags and flagpoles with spear tips, vandalizing and defecating through the halls of the Capitol, or shooting a nail gun at FBI agents as revenge for Mar-a-Lago then getting killed in a shootout with automatic weapons by the FBI. (Or do you agree with Trump that was a false flag operation? What's your evidence?) Did I simply miss all those news stories about left wingers rolling coal and executing insurrections and attacking the FBI, just because of the left-wing media bubble I live in, and if so, can you please provide a link to them to prove that "you still see plenty of it on the left"? Or are you just ignoring the whole point and moving the goalposts a few football field lengths to make a false equivalence?
  - wpietri 4y ago
    You seem to be arguing with something I didn't say. So much so that I'm wondering if you meant to reply to something else. If you're really trying to reply to me, could you please connect what you're asking of me with what you said?
  - neutronicus 4y ago
    I mean cyclists here talk about getting "bricked" (what it sounds like, getting a brick chucked at them)
the_gastropod 4y ago
Yea. I lived in Brooklyn, NY for many years, and definitely experienced aggressive driving there, too. Often times, the offenders would complain that the bike lanes were new and bicyclists were guilty of gentrifying the neighborhood. Now I live in Virginia, and it's usually huge trucks or SUV's with Trump stickers that tend to be the most aggressive. Anti-cycling sentiment seems to be one area where the "both sides" argument has at least a hint of truth to it.

wpietri 4y ago

It doesn't take a lot of people for aggression to feel common to cyclists. Just as a proxy measure of right-wing-ness, 11% of people in Balitmore city voted for Trump, and 35% in Baltimore County. But I think the aggression is part of dominance assertion, a behavior that is more approved of on the right, but you still see plenty of on the left.

neutronicus 4y ago
Just as a note, the County and City have a somewhat antagonistic relationship, although County residents probably make up a decent number of drivers within City Limits.
- wpietri 4y ago
  Yes, that was my thinking. A lot of urban core drivers come in from the suburbs. I'd be willing to bet that people from outside the city are behind a disproportionate share of aggressive incidents.
  - neutronicus 4y ago
    Yeah, as a resident I doubt that. We have a pretty aggressive driving culture and I don't think we can blame it on Trumpers driving in from the Burbs to cause trouble.
DonHopkins 4y ago
Rolling coal on cyclists, and proudly posting videos of it on youtube, and plowing trucks through the bicyclists, and writing articles portraying the perpetrators as heroes, is a hell of a lot worse than the common everyday "aggression" that American cyclists experience. They're absolutely not equivalent. Can you link to hundreds videos of left wingers with Biden bumper stickers rolling coal on anti-environmentalists, smashing their scooters and pickup trucks with Priuses, Biden supporters murdering right wing protesters with their cars just like a Nazi Trump supporter murdered Heather Heyer, and articles glorifying those attackers as left wing "heroes" and "man of the year"? Or are you just trying to make another tired and dishonest false equivalence to justify and carry the water for right wing violence and aggression that is no way reflected on "both sides"? And rolling coal is only a drop in the bucket of the mainstream right wing violence that's happening today. I can't recall anyone on the left wing rioting and breaking into the capitol, hanging a noose to murder the vice president, proudly marching and waving Confederate flags and flagpoles with spear tips, vandalizing and defecating through the halls of the Capitol, or shooting a nail gun at FBI agents as revenge for Mar-a-Lago then getting killed in a shootout with automatic weapons by the FBI. (Or do you agree with Trump that was a false flag operation? What's your evidence?) Did I simply miss all those news stories about left wingers rolling coal and executing insurrections and attacking the FBI, just because of the left-wing media bubble I live in, and if so, can you please provide a link to them to prove that "you still see plenty of it on the left"? Or are you just ignoring the whole point and moving the goalposts a few football field lengths to make a false equivalence?
- wpietri 4y ago
  You seem to be arguing with something I didn't say. So much so that I'm wondering if you meant to reply to something else. If you're really trying to reply to me, could you please connect what you're asking of me with what you said?
- neutronicus 4y ago
  I mean cyclists here talk about getting "bricked" (what it sounds like, getting a brick chucked at them)

the_gastropod 4y ago

Yea. I lived in Brooklyn, NY for many years, and definitely experienced aggressive driving there, too. Often times, the offenders would complain that the bike lanes were new and bicyclists were guilty of gentrifying the neighborhood. Now I live in Virginia, and it's usually huge trucks or SUV's with Trump stickers that tend to be the most aggressive. Anti-cycling sentiment seems to be one area where the "both sides" argument has at least a hint of truth to it.