Re:Paris is seeing a new kind of road rage: Bike-lane traffi...
by senkora on Friday September 29, 2023 @01:22PM
(#37707388)
I didn’t see the original comment before it was flagged, but I think I agree with you. My experience with urban cycling in NYC is also that people are routinely awful to each other.
It does seem to be much worse for my girlfriend, when she bikes alone. Men on bicycles (and only men on bicycles) frequently insult her for her weight or imply that she is promiscuous, and then ride off.
It shouldn’t be important, but I will also mention that she is a highly experienced cyclist who primarily moves around the city on her bike. She is a competent and careful road user who knows how to get around without getting in people’s way.
My personal theory is that riding a bicycle in the city puts people into an unusual hyperalert, competitive, euphoric, and persecution-complex-y mindset that causes some of them to feel comfortable being loudly obnoxious to strangers. And of course, it’s easy for them to ride away quickly and avoid any consequences.
It’s deeply frustrating to me, because I have to explain to friends who are interested in cycling in the city, that one of the biggest downsides is that you will be repeatedly verbally harassed by strangers pretty much irrespective of your cycling skill.
And of course, it is totally possible that European cyclists don’t exhibit this behavior, or that it is less common for whatever reason, but it is a real thing in NYC.
Re:Paris is seeing a new kind of road rage: Bike-lane traffi...
by dagurp on Friday September 29, 2023 @02:57AM
(#37700192)
I'm not a fan of this headline. It could just as well say that all the new bikelanes have become so popular that they can't meet demand.
Many cities start off by doing "bike highways" which means that all bike traffic converges and creates this problem. Like one person mentions in this video, you need to create a network of bike lanes so that people can choose alternative routes and I'm sure that Paris is planning on doing that.
Re:Paris is seeing a new kind of road rage: Bike-lane traffi...
by mjoin on Friday September 29, 2023 @03:24AM
(#37700366)
i live in Paris (born there) and travel almost exclusively by bike, sometimes 15km to cross the entire town. i can testify that this headline is utterly exaggerated: the situation is really fine here. yeah there are many cyclists but we're doing good.
Hang out at a lap pool sometime... people are awful to each other, especially newbies.
It does seem to be much worse for my girlfriend, when she bikes alone. Men on bicycles (and only men on bicycles) frequently insult her for her weight or imply that she is promiscuous, and then ride off.
It shouldn’t be important, but I will also mention that she is a highly experienced cyclist who primarily moves around the city on her bike. She is a competent and careful road user who knows how to get around without getting in people’s way.
My personal theory is that riding a bicycle in the city puts people into an unusual hyperalert, competitive, euphoric, and persecution-complex-y mindset that causes some of them to feel comfortable being loudly obnoxious to strangers. And of course, it’s easy for them to ride away quickly and avoid any consequences.
It’s deeply frustrating to me, because I have to explain to friends who are interested in cycling in the city, that one of the biggest downsides is that you will be repeatedly verbally harassed by strangers pretty much irrespective of your cycling skill.
And of course, it is totally possible that European cyclists don’t exhibit this behavior, or that it is less common for whatever reason, but it is a real thing in NYC.