• Jake Farm@sopuli.xyz
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    17
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    5 days ago

    Drivers have such an irrational disregard to the point of hatred for bicyclists. I don’t get it.

    • TubularTittyFrog@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      8
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      5 days ago

      you are different. you are bad. you are a threat.

      it’s that simple and ape-brained.

      they also have a irrational disregard and hatred of each other, often based on vehicle make and model.

      or just the fact you are in front of them and therefore in their way and you are slowing them down.

      • Jake Farm@sopuli.xyz
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        3
        ·
        5 days ago

        I sometimes experience that with reckless drivers but I have never been one to have road rage.

        • TubularTittyFrog@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          4
          arrow-down
          1
          ·
          5 days ago

          cyclists and peds have rage too. it’s not exclusive to drivers. it’s just that there are more drivers so they are more statistically significant.

          the issue is people being entitled and full of rage at random strangers, not the method by which they transit.

          i live in a city where i can drive, bike, walk, or take the subway to work. i have been harassed and had crazy irrational folks of any transit method come at me in screaming rages because of my ‘offense’ at them. and they never see themselves as the problem. it was me, because I made them angry for existing in a moment and space in time which they did not think I should have existed and it was VERY UPSETTING for them. plus I was like ‘slowing them down’ or ‘in their way’ or somesuch.

    • SirEDCaLot@lemmy.today
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      1
      arrow-down
      3
      ·
      5 days ago

      As someone who’s been on both sides of this, a lot of cyclists really don’t hold one single fuck about traffic laws. I love cycling and it’s a great way to get around a city and we need more of it and need it to be safer. There are a lot of bikers who basically act like a motor vehicle with the rights of a pedestrian, blow through stop signs, take up the road, etc. It’s not a majority but it’s enough to give riders a bad reputation.

      So for the driver, they see the biker riding like an asshole and doing dangerous stuff and they know if they run the guy over they’re going to get blamed for it. That’s where the resentment comes from.

      Also, a lot of drivers are just flat out idiots and assholes. That’s part of it too.

      • teft@piefed.social
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        3
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        4 days ago

        It’s unsafe for a cyclist to stop at a stop sign. That’s where most bike fatalities happen. I don’t have blind spots so for me to roll through a stop sign it isn’t dangerous. You seem like someone who would benefit from actually riding a bike in an urban environment to see the differences.

        • SirEDCaLot@lemmy.today
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          1
          arrow-down
          1
          ·
          4 days ago

          Can you explain the mechanism of action there that makes it more dangerous?

          From where I sit- if I’m coming to an intersection that’s a 4 way stop I expect all vehicles to stop. So I go through it and suddenly there’s a biker on my hood who didn’t stop.

          This is especially true in urban environments where the bike lane will be behind a line of cars that have stopped for their stop sign.

          • teft@piefed.social
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            1
            ·
            4 days ago

            Why It’s Safer: It takes a lot of physical energy and time for a cyclist to regain momentum from a dead stop. By rolling through, the cyclist clears the intersection much faster. This reduces traffic backups and gets the cyclist out of the “danger zone” (the intersection) where most blind-spot collisions occur. The cyclist can see you just fine. He’s probably not suicidal so he’s probably not going to blow through the sign into your car. Imagine if every stop sign was a yield. You have to see what’s coming before continuing. Same on my bike. I don’t blow through a stop sign if i see a driver near or in the intersection that doesn’t give me eye contact because i’m not suicidal but i’ll roll through anything that I can merge into without causing disruption. But i live in a big city where the cars respect the motos and cyclists so your mileage may vary.

            • SirEDCaLot@lemmy.today
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              2
              ·
              4 days ago

              I respect any other user of the road, as a human being I have no desire to injure another fellow human, and as someone who likes both bikes and motorcycles I’ve got good feelings for almost anybody on two wheels. I also strongly recognize the value of ‘third mode’ transportation in urban areas, and I want to see more of it- bikes, scooters, powered skateboards, etc. Every person on one of those things is a person not in a car. My point is not to virtue signal but but rather just to frame this so you understand where I’m coming from.

              One of the reasons we have traffic controls is to ensure that there is a commonly understood set of rules that apply to everybody. I’m not even talking about bikes I’m talking between multiple cars. There are plenty of bad drivers out there and those rules are necessary for responsibility.

              You say you know the car is coming and I believe you, because you sound like an intelligent person. However I have encountered plenty of bikers that are absolutely doing reckless things with no regard in for the vehicles around them. And perhaps this is why my experience is different than yours. But I have seen a number of bikers blast through stop signs and there is an obvious car coming and said car has to slam on the brakes.

              So for me with my experience, the place where my mind immediately goes is ‘are we creating a situation where bikers can ignore the rules but the car driver will still get in trouble for hitting them?’