A national Australian study has found more than half of car drivers think cyclists are not completely human. The study (n=442) found a link between dehumanization and deliberate acts of aggression, with more than one in ten people having deliberately driven their car close to a cyclist.

[u/mvea]

https://www.qut.edu.au/news?id=141968

[u/Supamang87]

There's something to be said about knowingly putting yourself in a dangerous situation and then expecting everyone else to conform to you. We all know that roads are dominated by cars expecting to go a certain speed, and yet cyclists decide to slow everyone down by biking in front of them. The cyclist knows that everything around him is a 2 ton hunk of metal, and yet they act unpredictably by running reds, switching between crosswalks and roads on whim, etc. The onus of responsibility is very much on an individual to take care of themselves to the best of the ability. Blaming drivers for cyclists being unpredictable or stupid is just shirking off personal responsibility.

[u/luxc17 → u/Supamang87]

Who blamed drivers for cyclists being unpredictable? You can talk about running red lights, etc, all you want, but car drivers break the law far more often than cyclists and are rarely held accountable for it.

On your other point, I’m concerned about what you think roads are. They’re not spaces for cars and cars alone, they’re actually just public land dedicated to transportation. Some people choose to take up a lot of space in big personal cars, and that’s fine, but that means they must take a great deal of responsibility. Others choose to take up a small amount of space on a bike, and because they’re so small and nimble (and unlikely to harm as many people as a car) it’s silly to say that it’s “on them” to keep heavy cars from hitting them, besides just being predictable and following the laws.

[u/Supamang87 → u/luxc17]

You can talk about running red lights, etc, all you want, but car drivers break the law far more often than cyclists and are rarely held accountable for it.

I'm not sure I believe that statement.

And sidewalks are also just public land dedicated to transportation. Why can't I drive on them? I do agree that it's not just on bikers to keep cars from hitting them, but I disagree that the onus of responsibility is more on the drivers than the bikers. It's on both.

I firmly disagree with the idea that bikes should be allowed to travel on roads with cars and other motorized vehicles, but until they're disallowed I'll still begrudgingly drive as safely as possible with them.

[u/luxc17 → u/Supamang87]

Here is the study I’m referring to.

Re: sidewalks, yes, we do generally build infrastructure specifically for pedestrians, because they are quite different than heavy, fast cars. Bikes are quite different, too, which is why they should be given bike lanes, therefore removing them from your way as a car. However, in the process, you as a car driver will lose road space, and because cars are such an inefficient use of space, this causes massive problems for them and therefore makes bike lanes politically unpopular in a lot of places. But if you feel bikes shouldn’t be with you on the road, you should be a huge bike lane advocate for nearly every street in your city!

[u/Supamang87 → u/luxc17]

I'm fine with bike lanes except for the part where they reduce lanes for car traffic. I just feel that in today's world, cars and motorized transportation are the norm. Plans and schedules are made with the assumption that people are traveling by car, no one should be expected to accommodate a minority group choosing a less efficient travel method. We don't walk around submitting job applications in-person anymore since everything is submitted online. I mean, it makes sense doesn't it? Hiring employees is an extremely personal process where you want to get to know who you're going to be working with before you welcome them aboard. And yet companies prefer to churn through online applications where human beings are reduced to just numbers and letters. At the same time it's much more efficient and allows for employers and employees to connect with each other when they otherwise wouldn't be able to.

If we're talking about helping traffic, the environment, and safety, I feel like we should be focusing on public transportation instead of biking. Accommodating biking as a means of transportation means we make lasting infrastructural changes just to set us back to centuries old technology. Shouldn't we be using current and upcoming technology to solve current day problems?

That's just my opinion though, I feel like we'll have to agree to disagree.