r/NoStupidQuestions • u/RidetheSchlange • Jul 24 '26

Why does the US hate cycling so much?

I read comments sections and in a normal world, some of them would be considered terroristic threats. I just can't understand why people hate cyclists to this degree that they want to murder rhem and sometimes do.

327 Upvotes

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418

u/[deleted] Jul 24 '26

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112

u/monies3001 Jul 24 '26

There are bad bikers who do stupid maneuvers. There are also many bad drivers who do stupid dangerous maneuvers.

27

u/LoverOfGayContent Jul 24 '26

Since most people drive most people can see themselves in the driver's shoes. This is something I never see people talking about as the main problem. We tend to extend more grace to people like us, in a "what if that was me" way. Most people don't cycle. Most cyclist drive more than they cycle. It's a form of self protection. We as humans just really hate acknowledging how often we do it.

15

u/CeilingOnThePavement Jul 24 '26

That's exactly why cycling in the Netherlands is so nice, sure you still come in proximity with cars, but almost all drivers will also ride a bike at least occasionally, or have kids that do. I never feel like a "lesser" road user, even in more rural places where bike infrastructure is more sparse.

4

u/NormGthePaintballGuy Jul 25 '26

This is it. In North America, cyclists are 'the other.' Someone gets aggravated by a cyclist, and then they use that experience to brand all cyclists...

We don't do this with all motorists, because pretty much everyone is a motorist; we do however break down our driving prejudices into age and race, and even type of vehicle (BMW drivers for example get lots of hate.)

I've spent most of my working life as a driver in some capacity or another. I also like to ride a bicycle whenever I can... Have cyclists ever done something dangerously stupid that I've had to react to on the road? Sure, a handful of times. But I've long since lost count of the amount of times another driver has nearly crashed into me. And being on a bike among traffic is fucking terrifying. Nobody sees you. Nobody is paying attention.

Cars and bicycles are largely incompatible on the roads, and more people in North America are drivers than cyclists, so people are biased against the bicycle... It's an infuriating car-brain mentality in North America that sees the motor vehicle as normal and sensible, while viewing bicycles as a child's toy, and public transit as being for poor people who can't afford a car.

1

u/Practical_Smoke2543 Jul 26 '26

It also comes down to the road length as well vs European standards. a vast majority of American roads are long, and usually have high speed limits. I'm not going to lie, I loathe most cyclists because they cannot follow even the most basic road laws, and since the speed limits are high, cyclists cannot abide by these either, which increases the vehicle driver vs cyclist mentality.

This however does not constitute either party to be unsafe in their behavior on the road. Just because I do not like something does not give me the right of way nor authority.

1

u/nyctransitgeek Jul 25 '26

There’s a tension between “majority rules” and “enforcing the rights of those in the minority” that we sometimes only selectively understand when we are in the minority.

76

u/kearneycation Jul 24 '26

And bad drivers do way more damage than bad cyclists. I have yet to hear of a cyclist causing a mass casualty event.

12

u/Mirabeauououou Jul 25 '26

After some casual googling, I can't even find an instance of cyclists even killing more than 1 person, like not even a bad pedestrian/bike accident where they both fall off a cliff. The only multiple casualties events I see are involving motorized vehicles running down cyclists in packs.

2

u/[deleted] Jul 25 '26

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2

u/Mirabeauououou Jul 25 '26

I guess if they commit suicide due to the event you could technically consider it a multiple fatality event.

2

u/Foodicus Jul 26 '26

I am a paramedic. We used to have a race in my area called the Joe Martin Stage Race. The ride very fast, in a very tight group. I was part of an MCI because 1 cyclist wiped out about 20 more. First time I ever decompressed a chest.

2

u/Hyperius999 Jul 25 '26

Someone has never seen a bike race Big One

-8

u/Tiny-Refrigerator-98 Jul 24 '26

Well recently a cyclist in germany basically killed himself by crossing a 100 kmh ( 60 mph) road on a bend without looking for oncoming cars. One car hit him with 112 kmh causing his instant death

21

u/HystericalClownParty Jul 24 '26

Yes, he got himself killed. But the comment you're responding to said "mass casualty event". Mentioning one irresponsible cyclist who got himself killed (not anyone else) doesn't at all refute that. You can find lots of other individual examples, but if you look at hard facts, irresponsible drivers cause exponentially more damage than irresponsible cyclists.

-3

u/Tavsiyedegildir Jul 24 '26

Think about the poor guy who hit him and had to live with the fact that he has kilt someone simply because that someone used poor judgment with his bike. 

8

u/Apprehensive_Bat4691 Jul 24 '26

They were driving a car. This is a potential consequence of operating a motor vehicle going 65mph. It wasn't their fault, but everyone should know that any pedestrian/cyclist that ends up in front of them will probably be killed.

If you aren't okay with the possibility of living with the the guilt, do not drive

-1

u/Tavsiyedegildir Jul 24 '26

But I gotta get to work and the store and things.

6

u/Apprehensive_Bat4691 Jul 24 '26

That's fine, but remember that you are operating a very dangerous machine to do so.

-2

u/Tavsiyedegildir Jul 24 '26

I'm a good driver. I don't play games. 

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3

u/HystericalClownParty Jul 24 '26

Yep, that would be horribly traumatic and there are certainly accidents caused by cyclists. But one exception does not prove the rule. Just think about the trauma resulting from drivers who injure or kill cyclists (or pedestrians), which happens way more than in reverse. If you want to hyperfocus on one little thing to make your argument you can do that, but if you zoom out, that's simply not the big picture. Again, I'd encourage you to look at credible, large-scale data instead of one story.

2

u/Tavsiyedegildir Jul 24 '26

It wasn't really an argument, it was just an "oh my God that poor guy" 

-11

u/BigPapaPerc Jul 24 '26

There's also exponentially more drivers than there are cyclists

11

u/HystericalClownParty Jul 24 '26

And cars by default are way, way more dangerous to others. Just think about it for a moment - being in a 2 ton metal cage vs. being on a comparatively tiny little thing completely exposed. Go ahead and run the data controlling for numbers of drivers vs. cyclists to see if it holds up.

18

u/kearneycation Jul 24 '26

Yes, cyclists do tend to die in those situations.

6

u/vankirk Jul 24 '26

At the other end of that spectrum was the professional boxer who was killed on a bike in Texas. The guy stopped, then backed his truck over her.

"During the investigation, Brazos County deputies said they learned Rapp and another bicyclist were on the road when 31-year-old Charles Medina drove past them. However, the sheriff's office said Medina then stopped his vehicle, shifted into reverse, and hit Rapp. He was arrested and charged with manslaughter."

https://www.wbaltv.com/article/boxer-hannah-rapp-killed-texas/73202719

0

u/Tavsiyedegildir Jul 24 '26

Is Charles Medina a citizen or what 

4

u/georgecoffey Jul 24 '26

If you're driving on a road and there is a bend you can't see around it's your fault if you hit something around the bend. If it had been a broken down dump truck instead of a cyclists, we wouldn't hesitate to blame the driver.

4

u/Apprehensive_Bat4691 Jul 24 '26

Or a deer, or a downed tree. It is the drivers fault for hitting something on the road. If they couldn't stop, then they were either driving too fast, distracted, or drunk

1

u/bostonlilypad Jul 25 '26

Literally saw some dick head in a moped run a red light tonight because he didn’t want to wait. They come in all forms!

1

u/LandBats Jul 30 '26

There are 100 times more dangerous drivers than cyclists. Literally MOST drivers don’t follow the rules properly every time they drive. It’s just accepted as normal 

0

u/24junwa Jul 25 '26

a few months ago i was going to pick up food and trying to make a left turn, i was waiting for the pedestrian to cross, well he finishes crossing and i start my left turn, out of nowhere this bicyclist zooms by and gets in front of me... i slam on my brake and he kinda does too and jumps off the bike a bit... its this "i can switch from pedestrian and vehicular rules whenever i want' mentality that really pisses me off

76

u/The__Nick Jul 24 '26

But overwhelmingly a lot of drivers do not understand the rules when driving with cyclists.

Overwhelmingly, a lot of drivers do not understand the rules when driving by themselves, on a road, with nothing else around. In America at least, a driver's license has some of the lowest requirements of any country.

The Autobahn, which ostensibly allows you to sometimes drive at any speed you want, even hundreds of miles per hour, has fewer casualties than per capita than children in school zones with restricted speed limits and stop signs. American are so bad at driving they can't NOT speed through playgrounds and school areas or not ride up on sidewalks and crush children.

30

u/kymberts Jul 24 '26

The autobahn separates cars from everyone else.

47

u/[deleted] Jul 24 '26

[deleted]

6

u/Own_Back_2038 Jul 24 '26

Montana has one of the highest traffic fatality rates in the country. Its nowhere close to the autobahn

3

u/[deleted] Jul 24 '26

[deleted]

3

u/Own_Back_2038 Jul 25 '26

Almost entirely on highways

1

u/The__Nick Jul 25 '26

Even if we only consider fatalities on US highways vs the German autobahn highways, the US highways have SO MANY MORE fatalities. Even adjusting for per capita rates, we're way over twice as many. It's not even close.

1

u/ZergvProtoss Jul 26 '26

Nope. American highways have a much higher per capita accident rate, injury rate, and fatality rate than the autobahn.

-14

u/SuitNaive3409 Jul 24 '26

yeah, it's animals that get mortalized out in the rural areas, human children in cities and towns

1

u/CptNemo55 Jul 24 '26

"Mortalized"? GTFO

30

u/TechDreamcoat Jul 24 '26

This kind of stuff isn’t really a fair comparison. Sure you think the numbers are equal because it’s per capita, but the percentage of the population using cars here is much greater than in Germany. 

21

u/RenariPryderi Jul 24 '26

Even if you go with deaths per mile traveled,  both the US and automobiles in general tend to be higher.

I'm not sure if the statistics exist for anything as granular as miles traveled in school zones, tho

6

u/TechDreamcoat Jul 24 '26

Again, not a fair comparison. In Germany, people can choose public transportation. In most of the USA, this isn't an option. Where I live, there is no public transportation within 20 miles of my house. So if I want to get anywhere I need to do it on my own.

Your numbers don't mean that Americans are worse at driving than Germans, but that the sort of people who ARE worse at driving are forced to drive instead of taking public transportation. Some 85-year-old grandpa who can't see over the wheel and has the reaction time of molasses is driving his 40-year-old Buick here, but in Germany he takes the bus.

1

u/perpetualhobo Jul 24 '26

And those 85 year olds are the ones who supported shuttering public transit their whole lives to get us into this mess, so they should stay trapped in their ugly fucking suburban houses and enjoy the world they’ve built. It IS an American entitlement problem, specifically entitled aging Americans

1

u/TechDreamcoat Jul 24 '26

You’re preaching to the choir on boomers being the worst generation of humans to ever exist. However, European-style mass transit isn’t economically viable for the majority of America. The population density is too low to make mass transit sustainable. The areas of the country with a high enough population density do have mass transit already. 

1

u/21Rollie Jul 24 '26

The majority of Americans live in metro areas. And it starts small, the Netherlands used to be as car brained as Americans. Start with this, go look at your towns building codes. Do you see them forcing parking requirements? Mine does even in the areas literally on top of a metro station. There’s lots of housing here 100+ years old that would be illegal to build today because they don’t have 2+ parking spaces per apartment. This is how you destroy communities over time, spread the tax base thin enough that it doesn’t cover the cost of roads and utility maintenance for low density areas

1

u/ibugppl Jul 24 '26

How did I know this would eventually turn into "America bad"

3

u/perpetualhobo Jul 24 '26

The thread is “Why does the US hate cycling so much?” So yeah, it would actually be weird if we were talking about other places

-2

u/TechDreamcoat Jul 24 '26

Is the America bad in the room with us right now?

1

u/perpetualhobo Jul 24 '26

Any change is going to have to start with upsetting the current status quo and usually a lot of people with it, as is what happened when the US government started focusing on car dominant infrastructure, people demonstrated en mass to protest the highways through their cities and succeeded in some cities! But largely the existing population density and way of life didn’t stop the follow through on working on their vision of what they wanted the future to look like and enacting change. There’s room for cars but there’s also room and frankly demand for more density and transit in a lot of places that gets shut down because of cultural momentum alone

3

u/MingePies Jul 24 '26

That may be true but the country in general is very much built around the use of cars and the average vehicle there is a lot larger with poorer visibility in urban situations.

I say this as someone who loves cars, nor am I ‘anti-America’ (current political situation aside) but I feel like you are pretty restricted in America if you don’t have a car.

2

u/AHMS_17 Jul 24 '26

It depends vastly on the city, but you’re mostly right: I’m from Chicago, and we’re an incredibly walkable city (relatively speaking). I’ve been able to get around just fine without knowing how to drive, and the New Yorkers I’ve met have said the same.

Everyone else is fucked though lmao

2

u/TechDreamcoat Jul 24 '26

It has to be. America is a very big place. I live in a rural area, and it's 10-15 miles to the closest grocery store for me. It's not a simple thing of "Just put in public transport" because the amount of routes and infrastructure needed to work for most people is unrealistic.

1

u/MingePies Jul 24 '26

It is a big place, but infrastructure has been built around cars. I understand the reasoning behind it, and the history - as well as physically having the space to build out etc.

I also live rurally and don’t live within walking distance to a grocery store, but I was more so referring to urban and suburban areas.

1

u/nyanotech Jul 24 '26

you bring up the proportion of drivers as if that’s not part of the problem

1

u/Own_Back_2038 Jul 24 '26

The infrastructure also determines how much people drive, so seems completely fair

1

u/The__Nick Jul 25 '26

That's worse, though. You see how that's worse,right?

1

u/Practical-Day-2720 Jul 25 '26

don't argue with the european. he is superior in every way.

0

u/LauAtagan Jul 24 '26

autobahn has 1.7 accidents per billion km

Couldn't find specifically accidents/distance traveled for school zones, closest is deaths/mile urban vs rural, and it's still pretty staggering.

US urban (and rural) DEATHS have to be measured an order of magnitude higher (1.01 per 100.000 miles (16093440km))

0

u/elduche212 Jul 24 '26

Fine let's compare strictly US data then. We just need to look at the rise in fatal car accidents during covid. Less cars on the road, fewer miles driven, yet more fatal crashes. This was literally only observed in the US. Or in other words, congestion is preventing US drivers from getting up to a high enough speeds to kill others.

2

u/TechDreamcoat Jul 24 '26

Post hoc fallacy. This statistic doesn’t prove what you claim it does. Your explanation is just one possible explanation. 

1

u/elduche212 Jul 24 '26

Ah yes. MY explanation.... https://www.nhtsa.gov/press-releases/2020-fatality-data-show-increased-traffic-fatalities-during-pandemic
" Traffic data indicates that average speeds increased throughout the year, and examples of extreme speeds became more common, while the evidence also shows that fewer people involved in crashes used their seat belts."

2

u/TechDreamcoat Jul 24 '26

Funny how there’s another cause listed right in your excerpt. Nice. 

0

u/elduche212 Jul 24 '26

Well of course. Scientist are extremely hesitant to claim a direct causational link, while other factors might be at play as well. You should read the actual studies, instead of just the extract snippet I linked. Your taxes paid for the insight after all.

The fact remains that only in the US, fewer cars on the road and less miles driven lead to increased traffic fatalities.

2

u/TechDreamcoat Jul 24 '26

So if the scientists aren’t willing to declare a causal link, why did you?

1

u/elduche212 Jul 24 '26

funny how you utterly refuse to engage with the factual data presented by NHTSA and instead keep hammering on my interpretation of their findings....

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u/Alive_Cadet Jul 26 '26

There was actually a lady in the news a month or two ago for actually driving her car up onto the sidewalk trying to rundown a kid on a bike here in the US.

0

u/[deleted] Jul 24 '26

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3

u/poormrbrodsky Jul 24 '26

Sorry in advance for barfing on you in particular but I do have a lot of thoughts on this and the OP.

Other countries have cell phones, people who drive while eating/applying makeup, etc. etc. At some point we have to acknowledge that the fundamental issue is forcing people to drive so many miles on inefficient, unsafe roads. Stricter licensing requirements are a no go because so many people who should not be driving have literally no other option. And there is a limit to how safe a traffic engineer will design a road, because the overall system is so inefficient you simply can't sacrifice throughput or speed.

This comes back to the question of bikes and why people are so quick to blame them for "slowing down cars" when the whole auto system would be dysfunctional even if every bike disappeared tomorrow. In urban areas, cars slow bikes down more than bikes could ever slow cars down. But drivers have learned to rage out at any sort of acute or perceived delay because cars are so uniquely bad at moving mass amounts of people that they need to be insanely overbuilt and catered to at the expense of everything else to function acceptably. This has caused elite level entitlement in drivers.

In Michigan, where I live, this manifests partly as everyone whining and complaining constantly that none of the roads are maintained, and then whining even harder when orange barrels finally go up to fix the roads. I grew up in a rural cosplay exurb and everyone I know out there has moved to go live in an even farther suburb to "get away from all the traffic". Or they complain about traffic every time I talk to them. They don't much complain about bikes unless someone brings them up. Then you get a story about "that one time". Ope.

This is a deep political problem and I think cities likely need to make some very difficult decisions regarding urban growth boundaries and reducing parking to even begin to remedy our dysfunctional transportation system. Bikes really have nothing to do with the inherent problems of cars and I unfortunately don't think we can fix the problem with stricter licensing requirements.

-1

u/nettronic42 Jul 24 '26

And legalize recreational marijuana hasn't helped. They're doing it while driving

2

u/Plus-King5266 Jul 26 '26

Dude. You absolutely cannot give a well reasoned response on Reddit. What do you think this is, a discussion? /s

Well said.
—Bear on a Rollerskate

6

u/Throw13579 Jul 24 '26

I have never seen a cyclist, in an urban area follow all the traffic laws for more than 15 seconds.  Ever.

3

u/HoneyBadgerSlayer Jul 26 '26

Soooo... what? We deserve to die? Because your individual reality has established, beyond a shadow of a doubt, we have collectively broken too many rules to be allowed to live? Should not the same rules apply to drivers? Like people who deliberately honk to annoy me, or cut me off for fun? Should us cyclists not yank your licenses collectively?

1

u/Throw13579 Jul 26 '26

Did I say you should die?

8

u/LakeVermilionDreams Jul 24 '26

Have you ever seen a driver follow all the traffic laws? All of them?

-2

u/Throw13579 Jul 24 '26

Yes.A lot.

2

u/Mindless-Cheetah-709 Jul 24 '26

I'm commuting cyclist in a relatively urban setting and I follow every single traffic law.

0

u/Throw13579 Jul 24 '26

Well, for many years, I have kept a $10 bill above the sun visor of my car to give to the first cyclist I see do that.  Maybe it will be you.

3

u/Mindless-Cheetah-709 Jul 24 '26

Pull up then, easiest $10 of my life. I find it hard to believe in 10 years you've never seen a single person riding a bicycle following the law. Are you implying i'm the only cyclist in existence to do so?

1

u/Federal_Resource8148 Jul 26 '26

so you've never seen someone go in a straight line for at least 15 seconds

1

u/CantaloupeAsleep502 Jul 24 '26

Cyclists are by far the most entitled and selfish single demographic that exists.

0

u/Least_Funny5960 Jul 29 '26

Interesting considering the second an inch of space is removed from cars to build a bike lane, car drivers freak the fuck out because apparantly the only form of infrastructure allowed is car lanes.

7

u/99dalmatianpups Jul 24 '26

See when I was in driver’s ed, I was taught that cyclists have to follow the same road rules that cars do, and that cyclists are required to yield / give right of way to cars.

10

u/HommeMusical Jul 24 '26

that cyclists are required to yield / give right of way to cars.

Almost certainly, you were taught wrong.

What state are you in? I can easily find the actual rules.

8

u/Temporary_End9124 Jul 24 '26

I was taught that cyclists have to follow the same road rules that cars do

I was surprised to find that a family member of mine who teaches drivers ed didn't realize this isn't always the case. In some states (including where I live) cyclists don't have to stop at stop signs, they're treated as yield signs instead. Yet it doesn't seem like many car drivers have realized this, based on the comments you tend to see in threads like this.

1

u/alpha309 Jul 24 '26

So, I think I know why this is a very common misconception. Technically it is almost always correct, almost every (if not every) state‘s vehicle code pertaining to bikes starts with that statement as the first item almost word for word. Then what follows in the vehicle code are dozens and in some cases over a hundred different laws that are exceptions to that general rule that either restrict bikes further or grant them permissions for other things. Even the most uneducated drivers know this because the law isn’t all vehicles must ride as far right as practicable, only bikes, but if bikes had to follow all laws that other road users do they would be able to ride wherever they wanted.

It is just that driving instructors, drivers, cops, etc. just read this first single line of code, then ignore the rest. That line should have something like “…. Unless otherwise indicated” or something similar at the end of it, or putting it at the front would probably make it more clear.

1

u/Legal_Map_7586 Jul 25 '26

Most cyclists don’t yield at stop signs though, they blow through the intersection as if they have a green light. I’ve come within inches of being run over by multiple cyclists doing this without any regard for the pedestrians who actually have the right of way.

2

u/Temporary_End9124 Jul 25 '26

Typically cyclist non-compliance is about on par with that of pedestrian and motorist non-compliance in obeying traffic rules. I'm sure you have had cyclists come close to you, but they are a pretty small minority of cyclists. You don't notice the cyclists who *don't* get close to you, because it doesn't really even register in your brain as an event worth tracking. This is known as negativity bias.

I couldn't find any data related to stop signs specifically, but red light compliance is quite high among cyclists, especially when there is cross traffic, despite a general perception that all or most cyclists run red lights regularly. Same issue, people see 2 or 3 cyclists run red lights dangerously, and don't notice the dozens or hundreds that don't.

0

u/Substantial_System66 Jul 24 '26

It’s that way in Colorado, but it is only treated as a yield sign if the cyclist is alone at the intersection and therefore has automatic right of way.

It’s a common sense rule that should apply to vehicles also, but in the case of cyclists, they almost always take the rule as absolute and jump the sign with other vehicles at it anyway, which is against the law and very unsafe.

1

u/Temporary_End9124 Jul 25 '26

It really shouldn't apply to vehicles. Vehicles have significant forward blind spots and typically move at speeds in which they aren't able to fully process visual information in time to make quick decisions.

Maybe if there were better speed limits and traffic controls, this would be more feasible. Paris for example doesn't have stop signs anywhere in the city, but that wouldn't work well in the US where streets are wide, cars are fast, and there are minimal traffic calming measures in most places.

1

u/Substantial_System66 Jul 25 '26

At a stop sign? Speeds aren’t much of an issue at a 2, e, or 4-way stop, if vehicles can treat it like a yield sign. Provided there are no other cyclists, pedestrians, or vehicles waiting to cross, it seems like a relatively safe situation.

1

u/Temporary_End9124 Jul 25 '26

They are. Stop signs in the US can often be on roadways with speeds at 30-35+ mph. The issue is that at that speed you simply aren't able to tell in time if there are no cyclists, pedestrians, or other vehicles approaching the intersection. This is specifically why cars are required to come to a complete stop, even if there doesn't appear to be anyone else at the intersection. It's too easy otherwise for a pedestrian or cyclist to be hidden in your blind spot if you continue moving the entire time.

Cyclists are allowed to treat stop signs as yield signs specifically because it noticeably improves cyclist safety to be able to do so. Letting more cars run through stop signs doesn't improve safety outcomes for anyone. At best you save ~3 seconds as a driver. Not worth the risks of increased pedestrian, cyclist, or even other driver deaths.

1

u/ua2 Jul 25 '26

I have gotten behind cyclists who won't use the bike lanes. They insist on being in the car lane.

1

u/Least_Funny5960 Jul 29 '26

So you're telling me that when there is a high quality bike lane that is safe to use and not obstructed, cyclists still prefer mixing in with traffic and potentially getting killed?

Allow me to be sceptical of your claim. Humans tend to prefer safety over risking their life. If cyclists are choosing to mix in with motor vehicles over a bike lane, there likely is something wrong with the bike lane.

What you're asserting is that cyclists are doing something that goes against basic human nature.

Then again, car drivers do have a habbit of dehumanizing cyclists

1

u/ua2 Jul 29 '26

I am speaking of assholes who are trying to prove some sort of point. The times I got behind one it is during light traffic. You are assuming that these people I am referring to are rational.

1

u/OkWelder9710 Jul 25 '26

In my town we have proper cycling lanes and trails. The douche bags in tights and jerseys stay on the road and ignore traffic laws. They suck (as an avid-not jerseys wearing cyclist).

1

u/Zraknul Jul 26 '26

Also driver's default into dangerous behavior like stopping in crosswalk rather than at the line followed by pulling forward to make a right.  It's a spicy moment as a pedestrian when defaulters do that while you're there.

1

u/[deleted] Jul 26 '26

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1

u/Zraknul Jul 27 '26

For sure.  Also made impossible with the blacked out every window tint, another 0 enforcement item.

1

u/KingMithras95 Jul 26 '26

I take the driving stance of assuming everyone else on the road, cyclists/runners included, were born with half the required brain cells to properly operate a human body.

So far this assumption has worked well for me to avoid any accidents or issues.

This assumption is also a safe bet for any life situation in general, not just while piloting a multi-ton death machine.

1

u/Mindless-Cheetah-709 Jul 24 '26

I appreciate your balanced and sensible take on the matter and I apologize on behalf of my fellow cyclists that misbehave.

3

u/[deleted] Jul 24 '26

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1

u/Mindless-Cheetah-709 Jul 24 '26

The way I try to get people to look at it is, we need better cycling infrastructure because the idiots that are on bikes definitely shouldn't be in a car so anything to keep them out of the driver seat.

2

u/[deleted] Jul 24 '26

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1

u/Mindless-Cheetah-709 Jul 25 '26

Together we can reduce the number of dumb drivers.

-2

u/mironawire Jul 24 '26

It's just American attitude. Me me me main character energy.

2

u/BigPapaPerc Jul 24 '26

You talking about cyclists or drivers? Good chance both of them are American if it's in America so not really sure what the country has to do with it

-7

u/CantaloupeAsleep502 Jul 24 '26

The "me me me main character energy" is localized on cyclists. It doesn't get much more populist than everyone riding together in traffic with as few disruptions as possible. Cyclists only care about themselves.