I’ve been the car driver who nearly made jam out of the cyclist in the last panel. I’ve also been the cyclist hit by a car which was driving in the cycle lane.
Bad road users are everywhere and they use all sorts of transportation. Let’s stop with the division and generalisation.
one has a lot more power and uses a lot more space than the other
And we can still encourage both to obey the rules! Amazing!
rules aren’t neutral or grown out of the void. people with biases and maybe even ambitions create them for specific purposes
EDIT: To quote Anatole France: “The law, in its majestic equality, forbids rich and poor alike to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal their bread.”
Rules governing bike traffic are generally quite reasonable though. It’s not like the enlightened traffic planners in the Netherlands went “you know what, cyclists don’t have to obey red lights” for example. So I’m not seeing the biases you’re talking about, at least in this example.
Comparing running red lights to sleeping under bridges or steal for survival seems, at best, hyperbolic. In any case I don’t think that quote supports the view that the law is intentionally biased
The lights often automatically changes to cyclists priority in many places in the Netherlands, and often provide underpasses to avoid conflict points in the first place. It is not a comparable situation. Traffic laws and infrastructure in the USA, for instance, are incredibly biased in favor of cars, so their comment is absolutely relevant.
When I bike in the USA often the safest time for me to cross an intersection is unrelated to whether I have a green light, but more related to if anyone else at the intersection does. The safest time for me to go is when no one else at the light has a green light, not when I do.
Often they will, but what about the circumstances where they haven’t? We’re talking about a bike-first country which still does this.
My whole point here is that pro-cycling rule-makers will try to make cycling work in various ways, but those ways do NOT include letting cyclists ride across junctions when there is crossing vehicle traffic. The bias the person above is talking about is not about traffic light rules; it’s about missing other bits of bike infrastructure. And if that infrastructure is missing it does not make it sensible or reasonable to break other rules as some kind of counterbalance.
It is perfectly legal in many places in the world to run a red light on a motorcycle or bicycle, provided you wait a reasonable amount of time. So your example is complicated. Simply because the magnetic strips that detects cars don’t detect them. But if run a red light after waiting, I guarantee the average person will think I’m the same as the person that flys through the intersection without slowing down. In my experience the average car driver has no idea why bicycles make the decisions they make.
And it is perfectly reasonable to break rules, if breaking them is what is keeping me alive. I really could give a shit what the law is. I care about getting to work alive. And I will make decisions to that end first and the law second.
Your anecdotal evidence is noted.
Who can forget the time a cyclist ran a red light and killed sixteen people?
Fair but think about hitting and killing a cyclist who had run a stop sign or light. That doesn’t just go away. The person has to live with the trauma of killing another person potentially at no fault of their own.
The Telegraph and LBC are both right-wing propaganda mills.
Case in point:
In 2022, Hilda Griffiths, 81, died after Brian Fitzgerald, a Credit Suisse director and member of the Muswell Hill Peloton cycling club, collided with her while riding with other members at about 29mph in the 20mph zone.
Police could not prosecute Mr Fitzgerald because “there were no criminal Acts” which could be applied to cyclists who speed, the elderly lady’s inquest heard.
That’s pure horseshit.
Still lacking context here. Vision Zero says no one should get killed by vehicles.
When did a car run a red light and kill sixteen people?
I’m sure the parent whose kid or pet gets mowed down by a cyclist going full speed will appreciate that, hey at least it wasn’t more people who got hurt or killed!
Entitled assholes exist behind many modes of transportation. That cars can cause significantly more damage doesn’t make the others less dickish, like this guy:
(and yes, I drive AND cycle AND like to jog too, depending on what the task at- hand is).
That so many have come out screaming in the manner pretty much showcases the “rules for thee but not for me” attitude.
Give cyclists lanes, so they wouldn’t have to stand in a half metre gap between an 18-wheeler and a traffic barrier covered in mix of 19th century soot and souls of the damned. Then they’ll follow the rules, case in point: entire Denmark.
Live in denmark, can confirm.
I saw like hells angles waiting for the pedestrian light to go green before crossing, in the middle of the night on an empty street in denmark, so yes they seem to follow the rules there (it was a long time ago, but we don’t even did that in sweden, sweden where youd get hassled if you like didn’t have your not legally obliged bicycle helmet on).
Car drivers love to criticize cyclists, but they don’t realize they’re the real aggressors in traffic. They both do most of the bad behaviors, and have the greater damage potential
All of my worst driving, walking and biking stories are vs a vehicle. I commute in various ways a lot, with tons more opportunities for walkers and other cyclists to be the problem. It is unquestionably drivers in 90% of cases. Most drivers don’t deserve to drive.
Also, their existence necessitates the use of traffic lights/roundabouts at every intersection. Bikes don’t need that kind of infrastructure.
Video from BicycleDutch. Mind you, the video is now 8 years old, and the the traffic just got more.
I both bike and drive. I will say, at least in my town, both bicyclists and drivers are egregious traffic violators.
Bicyclists consistently ride on the sidewalk, go the wrong way down a one-way, and run red lights and stop signs. Drivers go way too fast, go the wrong way down a one-way, and run red lights and stop signs.
If bicyclists are going to be on the road, then they need to be licensed. Also, drivers should probably require re-testing when licenses are renewed.
There’s a time and a place. I used to live in the mountains and do a lot of mountain biking. There were a lot of really tight roads with no bike lanes or shoulder with blind turns and all it would take is someone just not automatically assuming there’s a cyclist on the other side of that turn going 15km/h on a road with a speed limit of 50+km/h to turn a nice bike ride into your last bike ride. I used to barrel down mountain trails and I could never stomach that risk guys would take on the roads.
Yeah the world have yo be car first, that why jaywalking is illegal to free space for car.
When crossing a bike lane in nyc it’s just common knowledge that the bikers will not stop for a red light. I’m usually walking with my small child, and while I am super aware, not everyone is
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Ah, when people take comic strips too seriously and infighting seems like the only path forward.
boomer ass take
That would be your mum’s standards.
Victim blaming is very cool. Laws do not ever treat cyclists like cars sometimes and pedestrians other times. This is a funny comic. /s
Build bicycle infrastructure.
It already exists even in burbs and is commonly referred to as a sidewalk.
No, that’s atrocious.
You don’t solve one endangerment by causing another.
The pavement is for pedestrians, the road is for cars. Between the road and the pavement you need to build a dedicated cycling path, at the expense of the road if necessary.
The Netherlands has shown how this infrastructure makes cities and towns safer and more livable.
There is no excuse.
This sort of attitude by cyclists is why we lack bike infrastructure in the US. Back in the 70s one weird asshole insisted that bikes be treated like cars and fought against it.
Personally I think it’s absolutely batshit insane that people ride their bicycles on the roads with cars, if I ride a bike I’m doing it on the fucking sidewalk.
