Today, while I had the green light, had another car blatantly run a red light and almost hit me. I turned left to catch up with him, pounded on his window and told him he was a jackass. When he rolled his window down I recognized him as a state assembly member. Hoping he doesn’t recognize me when he eventually calls the HR office because he’s at the dentists office and doesn’t have his insurance card because he’s a fucking spoiled man-child.
my mindset when biking now is mostly to inconvenience bad drivers as much as possible and ensure that if they hit me it results in as much damage to their car as I can without harming myself.
I will aggressively take my right of way. one of the most common places is a bike crossing nearby where drivers routinely blow the stop line on their red light - I start up quickly so that if they blow the stop and go into the crossing, I may not be able to stop before crashing into them (you often can’t see them approaching the stop line because they are behind traffic in the middle lane). I don’t mind my shitty bike taking some damage if it leaves them with a dented door panel. another common occurrence is roundabouts - drivers vastly underestimate the speed at which a bike can navigate a tight roundabout, and they routinely cut me off. unfortunately, I’ve avoided collisions every time that a driver has nearly hit me, because my reaction is to not get hurt. but god damn did I ever want to slam into some of those cars and leave a lasting impression
I feel you but you only have only one fragile body.
I spent months of horror and multiple hospitalisations because I braked too hard on my bike at low speed, didn’t fall but landed too hard on the saddle. My username comes from that horrendous experience.
Of course it was because a car ran a red light, that was hidden to the inattentive car driver by a truck parked like an asshole.
There’s a shitload of studies showing that cars break far more rules than bikes everywhere it has been measured. You don’t have to put your body in the line to make a point.
Please just be safe for your own sake. You certainly deserve it.
Cyclists: every pavement is a shared space if you’re going fast enough.
This is me but only bc I’m bad at biking lmaoooo
I’ve had two bicyclists run a red light right in front of me as I was pulling out on a green.
One was horrified and apologic.
The other yelled at me for almost hitting him.
Pedestrians don’t even look up from their fucking phones when they cross the road. I even saw a dude doing it while pushing a pram once.
why would I need to?
my crossing signal turned green and I glanced both ways before stepping out. there’s no need for me to be constantly aware as I cross, nobody should be driving at me.
Idunno pedestrians in my city just walk with the confidence that law says cars have to stop.
yeah, I do that. because I have right of way when I do it.
I had a driver yell at me once because in her incorrect opinion I had not checked for cross traffic. I was approaching a pedestrian crossing at a roundabout that is signed that drivers must yield to pedestrians. I knew she was approaching from my left, I heard her slowing down, and I quickly glanced to confirm that she was stopping. I did this without obviously turning my head. I stepped into the crosswalk without slowing down, and she took the time to roll her window down and yell at me that I need to look around or something, and then nearly hit something as she proceeded through the roundabout trying to roll her window back up.
I did everything just fine, she was just mad that she was too observant to notice me checking for traffic
Obligatory fuck cars
I’ve cycled to work and back 59 times this year, and reported 36 drivers (with video evidence from my bike) to the police, with them taking “positive action” in 34 of those cases. But yeah, it’s the cyclists who are dangerous.
Where do you live that the police do more than file the report?
Where I am they don’t do anything if a car hits you unless the damage is beyond a cost threshold or someone is killed.
I see a common denominator in your story
Yeah, I must be able to make them drive like arseholes bad enough that they get prosecuted. It’s magic or something. It can’t be that there’s a lot of people driving cars really badly, can it?
Very apt that an anagram of your name is “scapegoat”.
Yeah I think the main problem isn’t the cyclists themselves, it’s that cyclists don’t have a safe place ride without getting ran over. Cyclists shouldn’t be a problem to drivers in the first place if they had their own lane or space. I’m lucky to live somewhere that has bike lanes and sidewalks on most streets. America strangely lacks basic infrastructure in a vast majority of their country. It really sucks ass if you have a fear of driving :(
Agreed. My bike is egregiously visible. I put over a hundred reflectors on her (no that’s not hyperbole, there are a hundred spokeys and then some) and then lights and a flag, and it’s all very bright.
No one sensible wants to hit you when you’re out riding, so when you make yourself easy to see, they react accordingly. I’ve only had a couple shitass drivers who tried to kill me while out driving in the last year. Maybe it’s my locale, maybe it’s my loud bike, maybe I’m lucky and the local gangs are looking out for me as a favor for keeping my mouth shut that one time (I asked that they keep my bike and my friends’ bikes from being stolen as my favor and bikes stopped getting stolen in town). idk.
Cyclists aren’t a “problem” any more than traffic lights or stop signs are. Drivers should be able to deal with having to slow down a bit for a few seconds without getting upset about it. If you saw a driver shouting out of his window at a traffic light you’d think they were insane.
Yeah and not believing that cyclists have no right to space and should be squeezing to the side to let them by.
It has become wildly better here in Bordeaux though, in the city there are basically no incivilities any more, but they have done a tremendous job to get there. Get outside of the city (in the suburbs) and it’s still drive as fast as you can without thinking like before.
To be fair, if I saw a driver shouting out their window at a bicyclist, I’d also think they were insane (and a monumental asshole).
I had a traffic light swerve into the second lane as I was passing. I totally almost killed it.
Only “vehicular” cyclists are an issue, but TBH even other cyclists hate them.
If I’m on a bike, notice a car coming up behind me, and don’t think it’s safe for them to pass, I will put myself in the middle of the road to block them.
If they try some stupid and dangerous passing, I’m the one getting pulped. Putting yourself in the middle of the road is a very effective way of communicating “don’t even try to squeeze past me, there’s not enough space.” The most dangerous situations I’ve been in on a bike have been due to cars trying to squeeze past me when there isn’t enough space, it’s terrifying.
What’s a vehicular cyclist?
A vehicular cyclist is a cyclist riding as if they were a car, so in the middle of the lane etc. It’s the adviced way of cycling when there is no proper infrastructure, as sticking to the side makes you less visible and more likely to be dangerously overtaken. It depends on the context of the road whether it is the best way, but I would not call them the problem, just a bad solution to a problem that should be solved by infrastructure.
Yeah I think the main problem isn’t the cyclists themselves, it’s that cyclists don’t have a safe place ride without getting ran over.
Meaning that, as usual, cars are the problem.
I bike or walk pretty much everywhere I go, so my take on roads and traffic is that they’re usually far too car-centric (Norway). Even when I drive, I’m so used to thinking like a cyclist that I become very aware of how poorly roads are often designed around biking.
With that said… The amount of cyclists with an apparent death wish is just staggering. Just two days ago I passed a cyclist in an 80 km/h zone. No issue there. Just around the next turn, I caught up to a second cyclist that I couldn’t immediately pass due to oncoming traffic. I’m behind this second cyclist, going downhill at maybe 50 km/h, with oncoming traffic on a relatively narrow road, when I notice that the first cyclist has caught up to us. Instead of placing himself behind me, he decided it was a brilliant idea to squeeze himself into the ≈ 1.5 m gap between me (a 6m long, 2-ton car going at 50 km/h) and the guard rail. At this point, I’m just sitting here terrified that I’ll end up accidentally squeezing him into the guard rail and killing him if I happen to move a couple centimeters too close to the edge of the road. I’m seriously afraid of breaking to let him in front of me, because I’m afraid he could hit my side-view mirror if I break unexpectedly (for him). There’s oncoming traffic, so I can’t move over to give him more space.
To be honest, even when I’m biking myself I far too often find other cyclists to be absolute assholes with no respect for traffic rules. Of course, this doesn’t apply to everyone (by a long shot), but man those people cause the rest of us a lot of stress by being a danger to themselves and others.
A lot of Cyclists seem to have car brain when biking, but don’t realize they are on a bike.
I have almost hit several cyclists that run red lights going 20+ MPH. Good thing I was paying attention…
When I lived in a walking friendly area, I used to keep a metal multitool in my hand to hit cars with when they tried to run me over.
When they have their own lane and space cars still just use it. They park on the bike lanes, move into them if somebody’s passing on their left, or try and pass cars on their right if they find space during slow traffic.
Absolutely needed but people in cars will still cause issues and when they cause issues, it’s a multi ton vehical hitting some aluminium and flesh.
You live in a country where the police actually does something on these cases?
Luckily, yes. There’s a web page where you fill in the details, you upload the footage and then they actually do something about it. Options for “positive action” are:
- Letter - which has the same status as a police warning, i.e. no action taken at the time but it can be used against you later if you go to court for something similar
- Points and fine with the option of taking a driving education course instead
- Points and a fine with no alternative
- Sent to court
All these can be appealed. Interestingly, I once spoke to one of the people who processes the cases. He said that the drivers don’t get to see the video footage unless they say they want to appeal. Then they see the footage and almost all of them drop it.
Narc ass snitch ass cop lover
Sarcasm right?
Never heard of her
Yeah but as a fellow cyclist I still laughed
Living in a big Dutch city. Cyclists just be like: I have to be careful not to hit any more dumb suicidal tourists. For fuck sake, I have had to repair my bike twice this week already.
And in these modern times everyone needs to be careful of young kids on fat bikes.
What about fat kids on young bikes?
Fat kid is child abuse (unless medical condition) and the young bike needs to be rated for the weight otherwise it’s also child abuse (/jk). But older bikes usually have steel wheels while younger bikes have aluminium bikes, so the weight capacity is larger with older bikes (not that it matters for kids though, but it does matter when having someone on your luggage carrier).
What do you have against bikes with fat tires?
In the Netherlands Fat Bikes are not those mountain bikes with fat tires, they are just electric motorcycles disguised as a bicycle because it has barely functioning pedals. Kids are a menace on those bikes, they go way too fast. Not to mention Dutch kids are getting fatter and unhealthier because they barely exercise and putting kids on motorized vehicles instead of bicycles doesn’t help.
Get them the fuck out of towns
Fuckin’ tourists. Get off the fietspad! And I wish they would just say no e-bikes for under-16.
Yeah, plus no fat bikes at all!
Why no fat tires? I’m thinking about getting some just because they look easier to maintain
Then get one at the black market because then you pay what they are worth. Also, they are perfect if you like to maintain your bike, as you have to do it often. They break down often, especially breaks. Easy to maintain? No. Lots of sensor errors, software issues, etc. It’s fancy looking (well, I find them ugly AF) Chinese junk which have increased accidents exponentially since they arrived on the market. Next to that they are getting banned now, with Amsterdam as a first banning them at certain places. They also want to change regulations to make helmets mandatory for them and raise the minimum age.
Want an electric bike? Get a non-smart one. No Vanmoof or anything like that. They are junk (I had one, they are awful and insanely overpriced).
Best advice I can give you is a Gazelle or similar brand, with a Bosch middle motor (so not in the wheels, as they suck). They are easy to maintain, don’t have weird electronics hidden in impossible places, no smart mullshit which requires an app or the bike won’t work, normal commercial off the shelf parts you can get anywhere.
They aren’t easier to maintain at all, the exact opposite is true. Most bicycle shops refuse to even service them because they are of such bad quality and the parts are not available. They are very unsafe (brakes failing, things like that).
why would they be easier to maintain?
Because they should get fewer flats. Larger surface area and all that.
That mKes it more likely to get flats though.
Meaning more surface area to hit something sharp. Yeah the larger area means lower pressure on the contact surface but I don’t think that’s the deciding factor in whether something punctures your tire. Best way to prevent punctures is tougher tires rather than larger ones. The lower pressure just helps with stuff like loose gravel or sand.
There are also puncture self repairing tires now. They have a gel like layer on the inside which gets pushed out into the hole sealing it. I have them and haven’t had a flat in over 5 years.
angry boomer noises
It’s a shitpost, obviously.
Look at all the angry comments by cyclists (with upvotes) and you’ll have your answer!
Gosh, almost as if cyclists need safe spaces to ride. How about we just drastically reduce the number of 2 ton deathmachines on the roads.
Why
Seriously, go look at a notjustbikes video
Can’t
I see you’re also very restricted in key presses, my condolences
Thank
As much as I am all for the de-car-ification of my country, cyclist really aren’t doing themselves any favors.
no less so than drivers are, so it’s kind of an irrelevant point
Bullshit. Cyclists obey the rules of the road at greater rates than drivers. It’s just that you expect drivers to behave like entitled dipshits, so their lawbreaking is less visible.
I’ve never once seen a cyclist stop at a stop sign. Even into oncoming traffic they just ignore them and hope for the best.
Are cyclists supposed to stop at stop signs there? Here they aren’t. They are supposed to treat them as yield signs
In my state they are expected to follow the rules of the road and stop at stop signs and traffic lights.
It varies by state.
Edit: if I recall correctly, bicyclists in PA are supposed to obey all the same traffic laws as car drivers except they aren’t required to maintain the same minimum speed, and they are allowed to ride on the shoulder.
However, it’s been some time since I looked into it.
I stop at stop at stop signs, and see others do, too. So it happens. Probably as often as drivers stop at stop signs.
So much to dissect here
First: drive(cycle) predictively, not politely.
Second: I just left a comment about not liking car culture(go on, check my profile. I’m not lying.)
Third:I don’t expect anything! I get into the other lane if there is a cyclist. But go on, tell me more about myself.
Oh, I did do that, didn’t I? Crap. I meant it in the general-you sense. But still, cyclists obey the law more often than drivers when researchers do objective counts.
cyclists obey the last more often than drivers
Yeah. My limited experience in addition to statistics, says you’re correct.
Didn’t mean to start an argument, and I’ll apologize for it.
I’m sorry.
Now kiss!
slams 2 dolls together
Don’t tempt me with a good time!
No, my apologies! It’s even a personal rule of mine to not tell people what they believe and experience.
My issue is if you want to bike in the streetlike a car, then you have to obey car rules. Like stopping at stop lights and stop signs. If you want to ride on the sidewalk then you have to obey pedestrian rules, like crossing at the correct times. Thr number of cyclists I’ve seen blow through stop signs and stop lights is staggering.
to be fair, it’s not like fewer cyclists are following the rules than drivers
You say that, but drivers would lose their minds bicyclists followed the same rules. Example: Taking the whole lane.
I wish bikes just took the whole lane like a car. Half assing it either way is really the problem.
I don’t disagree, but the reason we don’t is because of the intense road rage it causes in drivers.
I’m aware
It’s called vehicular cycling and it’s a safer way to cycle.
Also often called “taking the primary position”. It’s often done to prevent close passes by forcing drivers who want to overtake to wait for a gap in the next lane
I first found John Forester’s book in the library in the 90s, and it felt like a tome of secret, special knowledge. Then, I read more of it, and it did not match my experiences.
Jason Slaughter has now done a very extensive takedown video on his Not Just Bikes channel, which is far more congruent with what I have seen. Taking the lane is effective when there’s no other choice, when it’s too narrow for cars to pass, but drivers will try anyway.
Otherwise, there’s very little that’s safe about it.
Thanks for shouting it out! I’ve been putting off watching that video for weeks but I’ll give it a go based on the recommendation here.
Man, it’s almost as if we need a third thing. A sort of, road for bicycles (or long, skinny concentration camp, if you prefer) which is suited to bicycling without getting in the way. Get those bloody cyclists off our roads and footpaths, those are for us!
How would you implement this? Are they going to have bridges over every traffic light?
Toronto has a pretty sweet setup with bike lanes that have their own bike street lamps. Seems to work very well for a city of millions.
The Netherlands would like a word.
Granted. But they were originally built with cyclists in mind. I would love their infrastructure!
The Netherlands was as car-brained as most other countries. Then, they changed course after the Stop de Kindermoord (Stop Murdering Children) protests, and started to build for people outside of cars. The process of rebuilding is still underway, now, in 2026.
The difference is not that the Netherlands was originally built for bicycles. It was not. The difference is that Americans don’t give two shits about the lives of children.
Extensive unlit tunnels five feet tall and two and a half feet wide. Entry and exit is by vertical shaft only.
I’m so down for this!
Dutch people: “both of those are dumb and dangerous”
Some places you don’t have to. Here, a stop sign is a yield for bikes, and a red light is a stop sign, legally. It works really well imo.
