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points by delecti 3 days ago | 0 comments

> This is why both drivers and pedestrians hate bikers

Drivers and pedestrians hate each other too. Everyone gripes about any minor impediment to their own travel, particularly other modalities, but also their own. I mean, drivers universally complain about being "stuck in traffic", but they are traffic.

[–] nick_ 3 days ago

Cars turn people into psychopaths. They're the only mode of transport that essentially wishes other people simply didn't exist.

[–] Zopieux 3 days ago

I consider myself a pretty chill, calm person. I couldn't believe how angry and annoyed sitting in my car would make me. Cars really do something weird to your brain, in no time at all.

I'm very glad I'm in a city with superb public transportation.

[–] hobo123 2 days ago

I'm pretty chill, regardless of I'm on a bike or in a car driving, but some/many people in cars are simply lunatics, stick to your tail, look at their phone while on the middle lane on a highway going maybe 100km/h or less and other insane things with no regard for human life.

If you drive longer, is inevitably stressful.

[–] kristjank 3 days ago

> Drivers and pedestrians hate each other too

I think there are some scales of magnitude to this issue. I also feel like you're a bit dishonest by omitting them.

I never care a lot about cars when commuting on foot, and I don't have a problem stopping for pedestrians when driving. Pedestrians are very predictable unless they're a small child running after a ball into the street or something similar. Those problems are solved with 30-zones and street planning in most settlements. Most of the time it's just looking left and right before crossing, and in case of busy crossings, waiting for someone to safely stop for you.

Most of the hate towards cyclists stems from them having the right of way while also behaving incredibly unpredictably. In the European city I live in, most cyclists signal less often than BMW drivers, which leads to a lot of ambiguity, which kills. As such, traffic education places immense responsibility onto drivers to basically track and predict every cyclist around their vehicle, such that they avoid potential accidents.

[–] jrowen 2 days ago

I think it depends a lot on the nature of the city, its population, and the infrastructure choices they've made. People that have lived different experiences may be talking past each other. Most people don't have extensive experience in a wide swath of cities.

In NYC, it's an absolute melee and all modes are in the way of each other. Places like Amsterdam have a proud biking heritage. In a more suburban US city, it's pretty much all car on car, in a lot of situations being a pedestrian is crazy and unsafe, but bikes can coexist on the large open roads fairly well.

IMO prioritizing cars has had overall disastrous and dehumanizing effects. I think it's right for places to be pushing safer, more accessible, and less energy-intensive modes of transport, but there's a huge amount of inertia to fight at this point.

[–] delecti 3 days ago

You're probably right that I inaccurately obscured the magnitude of the issue by understating the animosity between cyclists and drivers, but I don't think pedestrians and cyclists care very much about each other. I also think the most animosity is between drivers and other drivers. Drivers hate the other drivers on the road.

And yes, I do agree that many cyclists are almost suicidally bad at acting predictably, but many drivers are almost homicidally unconcerned with anything outside their tanks.

[–] unpleasurable 3 days ago

Sorry I'm late, I was being traffic. Toot toot.