Fuck Cars
A place to discuss problems of car centric infrastructure or how it hurts us all. Let's explore the bad world of Cars!
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I see so many inexperienced or uneducated cyclists in my city, I almost want to make some sort of "safe cycling" video tutorial. Stuff like not riding on sidewalks (especially on stroads), Idaho stops, how to navigate intersections safely, when to take the lane, how to find routes that are safer for cycling rather than just using the route you'd take in a car, etc.
I actually feel safer on my bike than as a pedestrian in my city, but people don't know the basics of safe cycling and get frightened by all the close calls they get when/if they try cycling. They then proceed to never cycle again because it's "dangerous", when really most of the danger can be avoided with smart, conscious riding.
I think that anyone who bicycles around motor vehicles is going to have a frightening moment or close call at some point. Riding on roads where one feels most comfortable will hopefully help keep them riding, and when they feel comfortable and experienced enough, move to more “active” roads.
There’s a road where I live that’s 25mph speed limit, very busy with cars, pedestrians, shops, intersections, crosswalks, and lots of people looking for on street parking. I’ve been cycling for years and that road still requires ALL of my attention and lightning reflexes to navigate safely.
I've been cycling on the road for a good 25+ years at this point... and sorry but, you're full of shit. No matter what I do to "cycle safely", I still get close passed, cut off, left hooked, raged at for taking the lane (as is safe to do so)... The issue isn't my cycling, its the cars and the idiots driving them.
Yep, was at a 4 way stop the other day, let 2 cars go through the intersection, go myself and nearly get run over and the driver tried to tell me to wait my turn. Old fuck never even looked. I'm 6'0" on a fat tire ebike wearing a safety jacket and was standing the entire time
I guess I didn't express myself properly, because I did not in any way want to suggest that safe cycling practices would necessarily protect you from the hoards of ignorant and inattentive drivers on the roads. IMO the best advice for cycling is ride as if everyone in a car is actively trying to hurt you.
That being said, I do see a lot of cyclists in my city do stuff which puts them in risky situations more often than they need to be, which is what I was trying (and apparently failed, judging from the downvotes) to get at. No amount of safe cycling practices will make up for improper infrastructure or lack of proper driver training, that much I'm sure we agree on.But I'd hope you'll agree that one's not putting the odds in their favour if they're, for example, riding down the wrong side of the road on the sidewalk at night without lights. If you've been cycling for 25+ years, I've no doubt you already follow most if not all of the safe cycling practices I wish I could share with my fellow cyclists, the intent of my comment was not to victim-blame cyclists but rather expressing my wish to help educate noobie cyclists to reach the level of knowledge and comfort on the road that more experienced cyclists like us take for granted.
Of course you'll still face road conflicts no matter what, the majority of drivers are a menace to public safety. It's not a matter of eliminating risk, it's about minimizing points of potential conflict in order to minimize risk.
Fair enough, I don't think you're entirely wrong. There's definitely something to acknowledging that we're cycling in an imperfect environment and that there's things we can do to make it safer - its just a really awkward line to toe especially because such videos (that do already exist, and some are even put out by cycling-related government agencies) usually start with "don't forget your helmet and your hi-viz and your £500 lights" before they even get into the roadcraft side of things, as though any of those things actually do anything to stop drivers being dicks.
Unfortunately, an individual cyclist cannot enact laws, build infrastructure, or change a culture of dangerous driving by oneself.
What we can do is take precautions and cycle cautiously.
That's for individuals though, any political entity focusing on cyclists' behaviour instead of the behaviour of drivers is missing the mark so badly.
As for the existence of such "safety" videos, the ones I've seen have all been jokes because the insist heavily on following the law, especially government-funded videos. Breaking road laws written for motor vehicles is, in many situations as a cyclist, the safest course of action, but I've yet to see any safety video address this.
Yeah, I think we're in agreement for the most part here too. I've even seen "cycling safety" videos put out by car companies and you can imagine the sort of nonsense they come out with!
Obviously it depends entirely where you live and what laws you have, but where I am most of the rules we're supposed to follow as cyclists do make sense and are relatively safe guidelines. The issues come because drivers think the rules don't say what they do (common example: there's nothing stopping cyclists in a bunch riding however many abreast they can, and nothing stopping a single cyclist from taking the lane rather than hugging the curb, but many drivers feel that this is illegally holding up traffic/being unsafe). I wish we had things like Idaho Stop laws, I've ridden in states that allow this and it really does help a lot of situations.
If you've been doing it this long you know that you're the outlier. Bicyclists are terrifying to be near.
I guess every single person I know who also cycles in my area who says the same thing are outliers too.