Where I'm at, they added a "bike lane" on the highway... Which is literally just the shoulder barely wide enough for a cyclist... on a very busy highway that sees lots of trucks and trailers and wide loads, in addition to people travelling at highway speeds. No divider, just a paint line.
That's not a bike lane, that's an accident about to happen.
We need real bike lanes, divided by something more than 2 inches of paint, to prevent traffic fatalities.
That only works if the traffic flow is terrible and constantly backed up. Where I'm at, traffic doesn't back up like that, so the whole mass of cars is always moving 55+
The cyclist should actually be in the middle of the lane or even slightly left of middle to avoid motorists trying to squeeze by them in the same lane, like in the comic, which creates a dangerous circumstance for the cyclist, having fast moving vehicles passing inches away.
It's funny how often you see drivers taking a right turn and they are terrified of scraping their tire on the curb, so they have a several foot gap. But we should trust them to know where the right side of their car is when squeezing past a cyclist? I admit they can see better in that situation, but the risk is all on the cyclist.
The safest circumstance for the cyclist is if there is a car behind them who is not passing. But most motorists like to go faster than a bicycle.
The motorist should pass the bicycle in the same way they'd pass any other slower moving vehicle, by using the oncoming lane in a passing zone.
Of course, that creates its own sort of danger because inattentive drivers may come up onto the bicycle too quickly and then they won't have a place to swerve to at the last moment.
And all of that is simply about the safety of the cyclist. Obviously, some places will have ridiculous laws that force cyclists into dangerous situations.
But realistically, with the attitudes and complete lack of driving skills of most drivers, cyclists are taking risks just by using roads like that.
In Spain drivers are required to leave 1.5m gap when overtaking a cyclist. In my experience 99% of them respect that. It's way more common for them to leave a gap and force the driver going in the other direction to slow down than to pass to close to me. Overall drivers suck here (worst in Spain) but this one rule they do obey.
In America, I think drivers don't know how to drive around cyclists, so quite a few will drive frighteningly close. I wouldn't care to guess about the percentage.
But even 1% is a lot of people. A bicycle even on a short trip will be passed by 10s of cars. So, if you bike everywhere, that might be 1 close call a day. So, I'm guessing that Spain is not actually as dangerous as 1% and you were just picking a large number.
I don't think about each time a driver passes me a closer than 1.5m as a "close call". Once I went off the road and fell right into 1.5m deep ditch. Now that was a close call... I still don't know how I didn't hurt myself. I did get fired next day but it was unrelated.
It's good they're respecting that. We have a similar law in Québec that requires drivers to leave 1,5m when overtaking on a fast road, and 1m in towns and urban environments. It's unfortunately not very respected.
I can't find the article back but some police forces bought tools to measure that, but they thought it was too dangerous to send police officers on bikes to use that tool and fine the drivers not respecting the law. They just gave up.
EDIT: Is the police enforcing this in Spain? I'm guessing there are fines?
EDIT: Is the police enforcing this in Spain? I’m guessing there are fines?
I ride mostly on secondary roads where you almost never see police so it's pretty much impossible for them to actually see someone breaking this law. No idea if they would stop someone passing dangerously close to a cyclist if they saw it. Honestly, I don't know why most drivers respect this rule. They don't care that much about other rules.
As others said, he does cartoons for the Onion. They're always ridiculous right wing parodies. If you've seen a meme with a guy wearing a shirt labeled "Sickos" saying "Ha ha ha, yes", that's one of his. Tyrannical cyclists are a frequent subject
If a vehicle goes over 25 kph in Germany it's a moped. You need a drivers license, insurance and registration. So, many imported E-bikes legally require moped rules, but all too few follow it.
But mopeds are limited to 45 km/h, so everything beyond counts as a regular motorcycle. Every once in a while the police stops people driving e-bikes with deactivated limiter that are able to go 70 or even 90 km/h.
If I remember correctly, in the US an ebike must be limited to 28mph, anything faster requires a driver's license with a motorcycle endorsement, or in some states a scooter endorsement
Misinformation conflating illegal unlicensed e-motocycles is a huge problem that is resulting in legal e-bikes getting unfairly blamed and sometimes even confiscated and destroyed. This community will not contribute to it.
You can either accept that, have a conversation about how the specific jurisdiction you're talking about is behind the curve on regulation so that we can productively discuss ways to help fix the problem in that jurisdiction (because that's a different problem than other places have with existing rules not getting enforced correctly), or leave. In no scenario will you be allowed to use this community to spread FUD and lies.
There are higher level county/perish/state/territory/national laws that apply, there was never a need to wait for every little town to pass their own boutique laws.
Shit, I once had someone tell me with a straight face that it's not a trucker's fault if they run over cyclists when turning around corners. Not because of dead angles but because they can't be expected to check their mirror every time they make a turn; they're too busy fiddling with their GPS and getting the freight papers sorted.
While making turns. Apparently they're too busy to do that when the vehicle's stopped or at the very least while they're driving straight and thus they should be exempt from having to obey traffic rules.
I don't doubt you've seen those things, but you seem to be implying a) it's not just a small minority and b) when bikes do those things, they're just as dangerous as any bad driver. Neither of which are true.
When cars were new, Wisconsin law required a flagman to walk ahead of the vehicle as it traveled, to warn other people and ensure that the way was clear. I'd love to see that return, in analogous locations. That is, a passenger has to get out and walk the car through.
I wouldn't expect drivers to follow that law, because you can barely count on them to follow any traffic laws, but still.
@Ariselas And they NEVER yield right-of-way to those who have it. Unless they have the right-of-way, then they'll stop the flow of traffic to force it on somebody else as a (very dangerous) "courtesy", and get angry when vulnerable road users don't take it. They just don't understand right-of-way at all.
You mean the ones that drive so close to you on the highway, that there wouldn't be enough space to put a smart car between you were you parallel parked?
I always try to be responsible and cautious when riding a bike. The thing is, often the road layout is so hostile to cyclists, there is just no way to follow the rules and be safe. Having said that, of course traffic rules should also be enforced on cyclists and some people are just irredeemable idiots. But the main problems are bad cycling infrastructure and inconsiderate or distracted drivers. I'd rather have the irredeemable idiots ride a bike than drive a three ton truck.
Biking on sidewalks is perfectly legal where I’m at, the only exception I can think of is when the sidewalk abuts a building, and usually where that occurs I’m mostly comfortable with on road biking
59 replies
(Had to.)
Accurate depiction of drivers in my city
In what way?
It feels like drivers think that bikes are A threat and they put bikers in danger often
Honestly I’m not mad at them, the infrastructure is very anti-bike around here
Thanks
Can you see the image?
Yeah. It's satire I was wondering how well it matched.
Where I'm at, they added a "bike lane" on the highway... Which is literally just the shoulder barely wide enough for a cyclist... on a very busy highway that sees lots of trucks and trailers and wide loads, in addition to people travelling at highway speeds. No divider, just a paint line.
That's not a bike lane, that's an accident about to happen.
We need real bike lanes, divided by something more than 2 inches of paint, to prevent traffic fatalities.
Heh, heh, heh!
That only works if the traffic flow is terrible and constantly backed up. Where I'm at, traffic doesn't back up like that, so the whole mass of cars is always moving 55+
Where I'm at, we call those "murder strips". They are all being replaced by full worthy bike lanes with hard dividers. It's a slow process though
God I fucking wish
What a hell's up with the kami-computer-kaze dude in the middle of the road?
That's the author/artist self insert he always puts himself in the corner somewhere with commentary about the illustration.
otherwise the meaning might be unclear.
This depicts a two lane road with no bike lane.
The cyclist should actually be in the middle of the lane or even slightly left of middle to avoid motorists trying to squeeze by them in the same lane, like in the comic, which creates a dangerous circumstance for the cyclist, having fast moving vehicles passing inches away.
It's funny how often you see drivers taking a right turn and they are terrified of scraping their tire on the curb, so they have a several foot gap. But we should trust them to know where the right side of their car is when squeezing past a cyclist? I admit they can see better in that situation, but the risk is all on the cyclist.
The safest circumstance for the cyclist is if there is a car behind them who is not passing. But most motorists like to go faster than a bicycle.
The motorist should pass the bicycle in the same way they'd pass any other slower moving vehicle, by using the oncoming lane in a passing zone.
Of course, that creates its own sort of danger because inattentive drivers may come up onto the bicycle too quickly and then they won't have a place to swerve to at the last moment.
And all of that is simply about the safety of the cyclist. Obviously, some places will have ridiculous laws that force cyclists into dangerous situations.
But realistically, with the attitudes and complete lack of driving skills of most drivers, cyclists are taking risks just by using roads like that.
In Spain drivers are required to leave 1.5m gap when overtaking a cyclist. In my experience 99% of them respect that. It's way more common for them to leave a gap and force the driver going in the other direction to slow down than to pass to close to me. Overall drivers suck here (worst in Spain) but this one rule they do obey.
Same rulein France. 1.5m on rural roads, 1m in town. However, in my experience, about half of drivers overtake with less than a 50cm gap.
Yep, they do the same everywhere. Pretty much everyone knows that French drivers are the worst.
So.. they're like Massachusetts' drivers then. Ooooo. Matched only by drivers from Maine who tend to be slower than the Second Coming of Christ.
In America, I think drivers don't know how to drive around cyclists, so quite a few will drive frighteningly close. I wouldn't care to guess about the percentage.
But even 1% is a lot of people. A bicycle even on a short trip will be passed by 10s of cars. So, if you bike everywhere, that might be 1 close call a day. So, I'm guessing that Spain is not actually as dangerous as 1% and you were just picking a large number.
I don't think about each time a driver passes me a closer than 1.5m as a "close call". Once I went off the road and fell right into 1.5m deep ditch. Now that was a close call... I still don't know how I didn't hurt myself. I did get fired next day but it was unrelated.
It's good they're respecting that. We have a similar law in Québec that requires drivers to leave 1,5m when overtaking on a fast road, and 1m in towns and urban environments. It's unfortunately not very respected.
I can't find the article back but some police forces bought tools to measure that, but they thought it was too dangerous to send police officers on bikes to use that tool and fine the drivers not respecting the law. They just gave up.
EDIT: Is the police enforcing this in Spain? I'm guessing there are fines?
I ride mostly on secondary roads where you almost never see police so it's pretty much impossible for them to actually see someone breaking this law. No idea if they would stop someone passing dangerously close to a cyclist if they saw it. Honestly, I don't know why most drivers respect this rule. They don't care that much about other rules.
That seems like a lot of effort to draw a man made of straw
I see you're unfamiliar with Kelly's work
I am, do they only draw comics from personal experience or something? I don't agree with the guy above btw, just curious.
He draws cartoons for The Onion. It's double satire.
They draw for The Onion. Their work is heavily satirical
As others said, he does cartoons for the Onion. They're always ridiculous right wing parodies. If you've seen a meme with a guy wearing a shirt labeled "Sickos" saying "Ha ha ha, yes", that's one of his. Tyrannical cyclists are a frequent subject
Edit: this one
Lotta words for nuh uh
As opposed to drivers, who never do any of those things, I'm sure.
Also
What
It may be on streets where speed is limited to either "walking pace" or ten-ish mph (20 km/h) or the bikers simply have strong legs.
It's pretty easy to break 30km/h speed limits when you are trained and on a bike that's made to go fast.
E-bikes
Vehicles that can go 60 MPH are motorcycles, not e-bikes. If you repeat that false claim it will be considered misinformation and removed.
If a vehicle goes over 25 kph in Germany it's a moped. You need a drivers license, insurance and registration. So, many imported E-bikes legally require moped rules, but all too few follow it.
But mopeds are limited to 45 km/h, so everything beyond counts as a regular motorcycle. Every once in a while the police stops people driving e-bikes with deactivated limiter that are able to go 70 or even 90 km/h.
If I remember correctly, in the US an ebike must be limited to 28mph, anything faster requires a driver's license with a motorcycle endorsement, or in some states a scooter endorsement
If you wanted me to believe you based on your local laws, you should've cited them (or at least told us the jurisdiction you're talking about).
Misinformation conflating illegal unlicensed e-motocycles is a huge problem that is resulting in legal e-bikes getting unfairly blamed and sometimes even confiscated and destroyed. This community will not contribute to it.
You can either accept that, have a conversation about how the specific jurisdiction you're talking about is behind the curve on regulation so that we can productively discuss ways to help fix the problem in that jurisdiction (because that's a different problem than other places have with existing rules not getting enforced correctly), or leave. In no scenario will you be allowed to use this community to spread FUD and lies.
A lot of laws have been passed to limit bike speeds at this point, what are you talking about?
Ebikes aren't a new technology anymore.
There are higher level county/perish/state/territory/national laws that apply, there was never a need to wait for every little town to pass their own boutique laws.
Around here bike people:
Die because of distracted drivers.
Die because Trucks can't bother to properly check all their mirrors.
Die because drivers speeding.
I think bikes would be way better if you wouldn't risk getting killed by drivers any time you do it.
Shit, I once had someone tell me with a straight face that it's not a trucker's fault if they run over cyclists when turning around corners. Not because of dead angles but because they can't be expected to check their mirror every time they make a turn; they're too busy fiddling with their GPS and getting the freight papers sorted.
While making turns. Apparently they're too busy to do that when the vehicle's stopped or at the very least while they're driving straight and thus they should be exempt from having to obey traffic rules.
I don't doubt you've seen those things, but you seem to be implying a) it's not just a small minority and b) when bikes do those things, they're just as dangerous as any bad driver. Neither of which are true.
When cars were new, Wisconsin law required a flagman to walk ahead of the vehicle as it traveled, to warn other people and ensure that the way was clear. I'd love to see that return, in analogous locations. That is, a passenger has to get out and walk the car through.
I wouldn't expect drivers to follow that law, because you can barely count on them to follow any traffic laws, but still.
And in Alberta, car people:
Drive the wrong way into incoming traffic in the middle of the road.
Ignore all stoplights.
Ignore traffic lights.
Go over the speed limit.
Drive on the sidewalk.
@Ariselas And they NEVER yield right-of-way to those who have it. Unless they have the right-of-way, then they'll stop the flow of traffic to force it on somebody else as a (very dangerous) "courtesy", and get angry when vulnerable road users don't take it. They just don't understand right-of-way at all.
Don't even get me started on truck people!
You mean the ones that drive so close to you on the highway, that there wouldn't be enough space to put a smart car between you were you parallel parked?
I see you have also been on QE2!
I always try to be responsible and cautious when riding a bike. The thing is, often the road layout is so hostile to cyclists, there is just no way to follow the rules and be safe. Having said that, of course traffic rules should also be enforced on cyclists and some people are just irredeemable idiots. But the main problems are bad cycling infrastructure and inconsiderate or distracted drivers. I'd rather have the irredeemable idiots ride a bike than drive a three ton truck.
You also described many Tesla drivers in my city.
Those are just the cyclists you notice
There are plenty of places where you're allowed to bike on the sidewalks especially because biking on highways is illegal in the states
Biking on sidewalks is perfectly legal where I’m at, the only exception I can think of is when the sidewalk abuts a building, and usually where that occurs I’m mostly comfortable with on road biking
My dad would tell me tales of bikers held to the laws of the road, and even issued tickets, in the olden times...