That courier is not long for this Earth.
1 Like
I’ve read that, and also read that the Mercedes angle was an elaborate hoax to somehow lessen the legal troubles that arose from the film (ahh, the internet, where all truths are open to debate). Personally I choose to believe it was a Ferrari because it just makes it sound so much damn cooler.
Or the small kid in a tricycle is moving slower, has less control, is more difficult to see, less experienced in safely moving around in public, prone to wander off etc.
And is otherwise totally unlike an adult doing adult things on a bike. So they are simultaneously more at risk in the road, and less of a danger to pedestrians.
We mandate back up cameras on cars almost exclusively because young children are physically too short to be seen in rear views and looking out the back. Which created a surprising number of tragic accidents annually.
I can’t say I’ve ever heard of a person ending up with a traumatic brain injury, broken bone, or stitches after colliding with a toddler biking on the side walk. I have friends and acquaintances who have dealt with all of those after being struck by full grown cyclists on urban side walks.
It’s not “children are precious”. There are very real differences in both the scale of the risks, and who is at risk between the two. So different approaches are required.
If you’re riding on the sidewalk where there’s any other people around, or where there’s a chance you just can’t see the other people around. You’re putting other people at risk for your own convenience.
If the road is too dangerous to bike on. Then the appropriate response is to not bike there, not to put others in danger. That sucks but it’s the way it is.
And I say that as a person who decided not to bike there.
2 Likes
I think these guys are idiotic.
I have been idiotic myself, but not in that similar a situation.
Some context - I have ridden a Suzuki 1200 Bandit at 160mph down a motorway at dawn on a dry day, six lanes to contend with, and have never felt safer. Firstly, at that speed, everything else is static. Secondly, everyone is travelling in the same direction, so mirrors are redundant at speed.
But I would not straddle a pushbike in these conditions: pedestrians walking in front of you, car pulling out, cutting across lights? Fuck that. Too many variables.
I am as pro-bike as they get, I am Dutch ffs, I was zipping around in traffic since I was 11 but…
What this guy does is idiotic and not even helping for bicycle advocacy, certainly not against the hate cyclist often get in traffic. What with punishment passes and malicious dooring still happening you don’t need a ^$*#^% like this giving people an actual reason.
8 Likes
like clockwork, 100 people flood the thread to complain about a “reckless” messenger; a man who uses the sidewalk-sized gaps between cars parked in gridlock to make money 9 to 5 monday through friday largely without incident.
this is more than the Trump outrage threads. y’all are really worked up.
well, here’s another video. I want to see at least 100 replies to this, because she might actually kill somebody:
37,461 US deaths by car.
14,542 US murders by firearm (counting suicide, the number exceeds the car deaths)
finding stats for pedestrian deaths from collision with a bike are really hard to find, because most bicycle death stats are just assumed to be bikes hit by cars.
the Guardian reports an average of 2.5 of 400 annual pedestrian deaths in the entire UK were hit by bikes.
the NY Post reports 7 pedestrians killed by cyclists in NYC since 2011
so, less than 1 person per year killed by a bike in the biggest cycling city in the US. it can be assumed more new yorkers died of food poisoning.
For raw numbers, there were 857 bicyclists killed in traffic crashes in the United States in 2018.
SO, how many of that number were “reckless asshole” cyclists who put themselves in harm’s way and how many were the victims of “reckless asshole” drivers? BETTER QUESTION: how many of the 857 dead cyclists were victims of drivers who were not paying attention while piloting their vehicular homicide machines?
I dunno.
BUT MY LARGER POINT IS why is this thread getting replies on par with gun law and mass shooting threads? let’s say ALL of the 857 were reckless and caused their own deaths. that’s 857 incidents of problematic cyclists making the world a worse place for all the innocent souls in this thread.
857
vs
14,542 gun murders
vs
37,461 automobile deaths
y’all’s outrage is extraordinarily misplaced and amounts to othering people for riding bikes.
not to mention there has never been a single thread dedicated to reckless, distracted asshole motorists who routinely murder more people than guns in the US. there’s videos of those guys, too. @andreajames how 'bout it? “Watch this automobile driver break nearly every traffic law?”
I’m waiting.
1 Like
I dunno, it seems to me like “sure he’s breaking the law and endangering lives but that’s normal for a bike courier” is kind of like saying “sure he’s breaking the law and endangering lives but that’s normal for a cop.”
It may be true, but it’s not an acceptable excuse.
9 Likes
This is really a question of sidewalk vs sidewalk. I don’t suppose it matters whether the sidewalk is in a city or small town per se, but rather if the sidewalk is safer than the roadbed and/or whether you are endangering pedestrians. IMO, yes, children are too precious to ride in the street unless they’re in someplace like Amsterdam where there are not only bike lanes, but they are respected and enforced. I don’t really care if an adult uses the sidewalk as long as there are zero pedestrians. This is impossible in nearly every neighborhood in NYC, which is why no one should ride on sidewalks there.
One other qualifier; I have seen plenty of children riding on NYC sidewalks and would much rather get out of their way than have them endangered on the street. Make of that contradiction what you will. In the words of Marvin Gaye, “Saaave the babies!”
1 Like
From the Discovery channel promoting a programme about Canada’s worst drivers. Hardly objective journalism.
2 Likes
Alternate headline - “Look how badly roads are designed for cyclists, forcing this messenger to take risks and endanger their life”
1 Like
I’m perfectly happy to complain about shitty drivers, but that’s a completely different issue and not what we were talking about. It is in fact entirely possible to think that both shitty drivers and shitty cyclists are a problem.
(Shitty pedestrians, too, for that matter.)
10 Likes
my memory has failed me. I retract the bit you quoted.
2 Likes
She’s also a terrible driver (and according to comments on a show about Canada’s worst drivers?)
Nobody’s been complaining about the moving between sidewalk sized gaps in stagnant traffic, it’s been about nearly hitting pedestrians, running red lights into oncoming traffic, going in the wrong direction one-way paths, etc.
3 Likes
my point is he’s not a problem. neither in the video nor statistically. but the outrage heaped upon him is on par with threads from this community about actual problems. that was my entire thesis.
2 Likes
I saw a guy avoiding all those things.
1 Like
We also see drivers of cars behave like this, and we think they’re assholes as well. Many car accidents are chain reactions from someone braking due to avoid collision, who then gets rear-ended. Or the person behind them stops, but the third one in line misses it, and hits the second driver breaking and the second car hits the first one. By this time the biker is blocks away. A friend who is quite a graceful/fast/cautious biker just stopped because to many friends had falls or collisions resulting in head injuries, spinal injuries and a couple deaths. This guy may eventually kill or significantly injure someone else. He can do this in abandoned park or take up mountain biking if he wants the thrills and speed, no one else signed up to play with him, and it’s immoral to risk their lives based on his own opinion of his skills.
6 Likes
Hey! Don’t kill the messenger!
[couldn’t resist]
7 Likes
Because I like to bike, have many friends in the biking community, and hate to see someone take the safe, healthy, environmentally friendly bike and be a complete twat about it. It’d be great if cities have more bike lanes, if there were multiple lanes for people riding at multiple speeds so fast riders and slow ones could safely coexist. There’d be less car traffic, the city would be cleaner and everyone could get where they’re going faster. No one is going to remember 100 reasonable safe bikers on their commute if this guy jumps in front of your car and forces you to panic break, or nearly runs down the pedestrian in the crosswalk. Is encountering this clown going to make them better or worse of biking? If they think worse of bikes, do we get more bikes lanes or less?
6 Likes
Roads are often badly designed for cyclists, but 99% of city cyclists don’t drive as aggressively as this. It’s hard to safely drive or bike fast in congested areas city, so ride/drive a little more slowly and save the speed for less congested areas/bike lanes/paths/highways.
2 Likes
What you did there, I see it
3 Likes
