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Yeah I think it's largely a psychological issue. I'm a slightly larger than average man - imagine how much of a nut job people would see me as if I did that al
by LAC-Tech 4y ago
Yeah I think it's largely a psychological issue.
I'm a slightly larger than average man - imagine how much of a nut job people would see me as if I did that all that because a little old lady was slowing me down in a narrow supermarket aisle.
But somehow this behaviour is acceptable from inside a giant vehicle.
It's also not an "I'm being slowed down" issue - roads here all single lane and often used by farm tractors, I've never heard a single person go into a rage fantasy about that.
- avalys 4y ago
- hdjdjyvuv 4y ago
- daveguy 4y agoI'm curious. Do you drive a truck or other large vehicle while you're getting annoyed at those nasty hobbyists?
- avianlyric 4y agoGood thing GP is using their bike to commute then. Unless commuting is now considered a hobby?
- avalys 4y ago
- engineerDave 4y agohe just came up with a whataboutism that fits his narrative. commuting/recreation it doesn't matter. The bike inconveniences the motorists for a short time where as the car can end the cyclists life.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- sidpatil 4y agoIdeally cities and townships would build physically-segregated dedicated bike paths and related infrastructure. This would keep cyclists safer and motorists faster.
- eVeechu7 4y agoIs it really an inconvenience at all? Learn some patience.
- LAC-Tech 4y agoI find bicycles very easy to manoeuvre around. They're slow and narrow. If I have to slow down to 15mph it's for literally 30 seconds or so. As for other "recreational" travellers like people in camper vans/motorhomes - you can be stuck behind them for the better part of an hour. At least the cyclist is getting fit! But really - we should all strive (myself included) to take the road as it comes. Conditions may vary, etc etc, there's no point stressing about what you can't control.
- ianai 4y agoCouldn’t agree more! “Leave the ego behind when getting behind the wheel.” Is a sort of mantra I often repeat. Having said that though, I wish we were discussing how to incentivize smaller vehicles or less mixing of huge differences in size. Feels like the arms race of vehicle size has reached a breaking point.
- HWR_14 4y agoWhy is it better for someone to inconvenience people because it's their job as opposed to because it's their hobby? If it's their hobby, at least it makes sense that they block roads during the day. If it's their job, they can move heavy machinery at night when fewer people are around - like how road work is done.
- asdff 4y agoMerging around slow traffic is part of driving
- rob74 4y agoYeah, but most of the times it's not that - most of the time the motorists make risky maneuvers to overtake you just to get to the next red light a few seconds sooner...
- lobochrome 4y ago10% incline 15mph?! Why don’t you just lay back and enjoy the sight of a TdF rider?
- atoav 4y agoI have been riding to my jobs and education nearly every day for the past 20 years. I also tend to use my bike when I go somewhere in my spare time. The amount of times I do the hobbyist thing (driving around just for the sake of it) makes up less than 1% of the time I spent on my bicycle. Get over yourself. Either you can cope with being in traffic like an adult, or you shouldn't be allowed to drive. Consider that they are public roads for a reason and people like me are not in a fight with you, we just want to get on with our lives.
- avalys 4y agoI'm realizing I may just be an impatient SOB. I get annoyed at slow people in all sorts of circumstances - grocery stores, airports, etc. but in those cases it is usually easy to just step around them and it doesn't last long enough to get actually frustrating. On the other hand, if I were in a grocery store and I found the aisle I wanted blocked for 60 seconds by a middle-aged man wearing a spandex uniform who had decided to barricade the entire aisle while he does a calisthenics routine - I would get quite frustrated. Especially if I eventually got past him only to find another such person doing the same thing in the next aisle over. I feel this is more analogous to the situation I regularly encounter with bicyclists. My frustration would be oriented around the thought "Can't you do this at home instead of selfishly inconveniencing everyone else?"
- Nursie 4y agoHave you thought that perhaps your need to barrel through the streets at high speed in a 1-3 ton metal box might be an inconvenience to others?
- aikinai 4y agoI don't own a car and cycle everyday (in a country/city where I'm faster than any car rather than slowing them down), and I thought this was a hilarious analogy for the relationship between motorists and cyclist in the US at least.
- Doctor_Fegg 4y agoYou’re contributing to global heating, local air pollution, and streets that are unsafe for anyone not in a big metal box. The cyclist is not. I’d reconsider who is really “selfishly inconveniencing everyone else” in this scenario.
- dvzk 4y agoJust so no one gets the wrong idea: the vast majority of competitive and enthusiast cyclists and mountain bikers within the US own and use vehicles. Nearly every group affiliated cyclist I know routinely transports bikes to trails, meetups, and events. Our average carbon footprint is likely higher. Cyclists without cars are rarely met and usually the butt of jokes.
- veltas 4y agoI don't engage in road rage, but I do get properly irritated by farm vehicles that choose to drive their max speed 10mph straight through town in the middle of rush hour. I honestly think there should be regulations about when you're allowed to drive slow vehicles like this on most roads. There is probably an environmental impact just from causing this mass of cars to slow down.
- Xylakant 4y agoThe farmers are working. They don‘t choose to do that, they have places to be and need their machines to get there. Do you honestly believe they‘re doing that for the lulz? What should they be doing?
- veltas 4y agoI don't really fault the farmers individually but I wouldn't mind rules to stop them.
- Xylakant 4y agoSo you want to find rules to inconvenience the people working long hours, so you can save a couple of minutes. How about realizing that you just need to plan a few minutes more for your commute and chill out. You‘re sitting comfortably in your car, likely with aircon running.
- veltas 4y agoIt's not saving a couple of minutes, it's saving literally days of people's time if you add it all together.
- ht_th 4y agoI don't know about common city/village planning in the USA, but where I am from, farm machines can almost always go around the village using secondary and tertiary roads. They don't need to go through the center or use the ring road. In this situation using these primary roads during traffic and driving way under the speed limit isn't the best choice from a communal point of view. Besides, given the width of their machines, driving through heavy traffic is more unsafe than going by a back road. Of course, using the back roads often also means taking the "long road", albeit just by a couple of kilometers. I understand the urge to take the shortest route, but I think people should think of others on the road too.