Cyclists are dying on our roads at an alarming rate - why don't we care?
One cyclist was killed and another left with serious injuries in two collisions in Birmingham this week
In general it’s crazy how people view each other as basically ‘non-human’ entities while driving.
It’s not just cyclists, drivers do it to each other and people on motorbikes.
I never experience that when cycling in Europe, only in the UK but then Europeans don't have that culture war bullshit of "the war on motorists" that's leaned into heavily by the right wing press.
An Italian (not me) has entered the chat...
What I've seen in Italy has made me 100% to never go cycling in Italy, ever. Only if it's a dedicated cycling path.
Never have I seen such obscene behaviour as in Italy.
In Germany there was some agitation against these kids who glue their but to the street so yes it is a culture war thing here as well.
We may have better bike paths here but not great.
I think its only drivers. Cyclists are usually respectful about not running over others.
Cyclists can most certainly go into a blind rage as well, acting like drivers aren’t people.
I cycle myself and there are 100% times it’s warranted, but let’s stop with the idea that cyclists are enlightened beings that can never do wrong.
Some people cycle around and break the rules of the road like idiots, and put themselves in danger at times.
https://jalopnik.com/study-finds-cyclists-are-better-people-than-drivers-1850964103
(That's not actually about road courteousness; it's about things like civic engagement in general. Still...)
Even if I'm just out for a walk, on side residential roads with no sidewalks but no traffic, people will swerve toward you instead of around you. At an intersection by the interstate and a Greenaway, I get cussed out about twice a month while crossing on the pedestrian signal cause it holds them up for 10 seconds I guess.
On a scooter, drivers flat out play chicken and try to spook you into wrecking.
When you get into a car, everyone nearby becomes, at best, a competitor. Often, an enemy.
It's an embodiment of The Rat Race and of atomization.
@li10 @mondoman712 All the driving video games made driving feel like playing a video game. I grew up playing games like Simpsons Road Rage and Crazy Taxi because I wasn’t allowed to have first person shooter games. All that did was normalize violence of a kind a kid raised by middle class suburban liberals was a lot more likely to commit.
I ran over people all the time in simpsons hit and run, never once did I feel like I'd want to do it in real life. Never did it make news about accidents less shocking because "yellow man in game bounce off car".
Driving a car is a license to kill... Same with the gun.
Somehow these two things remove any personal responsibility from the perps.
There is a lesson in there about race btw
If that's the case, I dunno from which third world hellhole you come from. In civilized countries, you're facing big boy penalties if you injure someone while driving.
In Germany we say "If you want to murder someone, do it with a car". It's infuriating how car drivers get away with it or get incredibly light sentences for maiming or killing people by using a car here.
The United States is a first-world hellhole, thankyouverymuch!
And it will 100% remain so no matter what happens, except maybe if Trump takes over -- not because of him fucking up the country, but because of him withdrawing us from NATO.
"accident"... Like just a little woops a daisy
Aren't car drivers dying at a higher rate tho? I mean we don't care because the society accepts high risk for the convenience.
Its the same reason you have a shitty password on your phone.
This whole community is about reducing the overall dependance on cars and changing the rules around them. No one here is advocating for more driver deaths, we are advocationg for safer streets that reduce deaths everywhere, drivers, cyclists, pedestrians, kids walking to school, we all deserve safe streets.
There is no convenience in car dependency. It's a pathetic, unhealthy, wasteful lifestyle.
People accept being murdered by cars because we're raised in a death cult that's literally destroying the planet so a few rich bros can have yachts.
