Re:Things people blamed on bicycles
by ar_turnbull on Wednesday August 24, 2022 @03:58PM
(#32584947)
Friendly heads up but you may want to check your bias here -- it's been studied and cyclists don't break the law anymore than cars do [1]. In fact, motorists break the law more frequently and they do it's to save time whereas cyclists most frequently do it for personal safety or the type of thing that's unlikely to cause harm to others. [2]
Perhaps you don't see it anymore because it's so common but cars break rules all the time -- rolling stop, speeding, illegal u-turns, running reds, etc.
[1] https://usa.streetsblog.org/2018/01/03/study-cyclists-dont-b...
[2] https://www.forbes.com/sites/carltonreid/2020/09/18/motorist...
You have definitely seen cyclists following the rules, you just don't notice them.
The "rules of the road" were made for cars, not bikes. Bikes are inherently different and should have different rules. Cars and bikes should not be riding side by side in cities.
There's a big difference in responsibility. A driver will kill somebody else when they're distracted, a cyclist will get killed themselves. That's why I find it so spiritually ugly when drivers blame pedestrians or cyclists for getting killed or injured after getting run over, it's kicking down. The bigger the car, the bigger the responsibility. We need to act and judge accordingly.
- Red light, move to the other side and cross on the side-walk and back on the road - Stop sign - funny... - Yield sign - funny... - Get a ticket from officer - funny...
I bike a lot and when I bike I always yell at drivers etc but I also ride the bike like a cowboy as well, most rules do not apply.
I think if cyclists generally obeyed traffic laws when they are riding on the roads things be different in terms of how drivers are treating them... How much different is another story but I think significantly!