Obligatory fuck cars
angry boomer noises
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 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
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.
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.
I see a common denominator in your story
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.
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.
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.
Yeah but as a fellow cyclist I still laughed
Narc ass snitch ass cop lover
Sarcasm right?
Never heard of her
Look at all the angry comments by cyclists (with upvotes) and you’ll have your answer!
As much as I am all for the de-car-ification of my country, cyclist really aren’t doing themselves any favors.
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
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.
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
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.
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.
A significant portion of accidents involving cyclists is from others not paying enough attention to them - which can be mitigated by proper bike infrastructure.
Unfortunately we cannot mitigate the recklessness of cyclists this way, another big contributor to the accident statistics.
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?
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.
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.
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.
I do occasionally see a kamikaze cyclist while driving. But damn am I more afraid on bike.
I don’t know if the drivers don’t see me from their phones or if they just don’t care even about their cars’ paint.
Many drivers don’t even notice a semi truck near them, you think they will notice a bike?
You have to remember, the average driver is a moron.
The kamikaze cyclists give all of us a really bad time. I’m honestly surprised at how some people behave in traffic, knowing that they’re an unprotected meat bag moving at speeds far higher than what the human body is built for.
Just yesterday I watched a teenager biking the wrong way on a 40mph road in the bike lane. They must’ve just learned how to ride because they were wobbling and swerving so far out of the lane that I was worried they’d smash into oncoming traffic.
Luckily it was a 4 lane road so cars could move over, but yeeeesh the kid had a death wish.
Living in Manhattan for decades, I only had 3 issues with cyclists. I’ve had dozens with drivers. I had no issues with skateboarders.
*Drivers: I have to be careful by not texting gibberish or not watching this entire 7 second TikTok clip
I live! I die! I live again!
Anyone driving a car has already made the decision that their minor convenience is worth the possible death of someone they don’t know and also worth the definite degradation of the shared environment everyone needs to live.
Expecting such a person to give any more of a fuck about the people around them than is necessary to avoid the “hassle” of hitting a pedestrian or cyclistsl is a laughable concept.
Good people don’t drive cars as personal transportation.
Honestly, this is such a fucking privileged take that it hurts. How do you expect people to get to work? I cannot bike 25 miles to work in 107F heat. I will literally die. I fully support making cities completely walkable, and making public transportation make more sense. I also can see that tons of GOOD people only own cars because they have to. Cyclists, however, always seem to have a stick up their ass while also unapologetically breaking every road rule as they cry about car people. I think at least half of the times I’ve collided with something while skateboarding, its been a bicycle. I dont automatically assume that every cyclist is a bad person, even though my anecdotal evidence seems to support it.
this is such a fucking privileged take that it hurts.
From where I’m sitting the privilege belongs to the people making zero changes to their daily lives in response to climate change. Why the fuck do think it’s ok to live 25 miles from work? Why not move? Bcs it would be inconvenient, got it.
People should not live in places where a car is required. Unless they are doing jobs that have to be done outside of the city. You wanna live like a modern hermit? Ok, but you need to get a job working on a farm, in a mine, or at a logging camp.
Otherwise, move your ass to a denser area with good transit or stop pretending that anything but selfishness and a desire to avoid inconvenience motivated you to stay in suburbia.
Good citizens don’t have such absolutist takes like this. I hope you see how this attitude is just as dumbed as someone who thinks cars are the only solution.
“People should just move.” 🤯🤯
My guy, the people I know that actually cycle, and are about that life, are either privileged enough to exist in a neighborhood that has enough tax funds to bother with any cycling infrastructure (see: privilege, biking is more convenient in these areas) or are so beaten down by the system they cannot purchase a vehicle, maintenance, insurance, and biking is their only option.
You are not only shifting the responsibility of climate change from the uber wealthy to the average citizen trying to not starve themselves or their families in this capitalist hellscape (that doesn’t disappear by the good feels of well meaning people), but are detached from reality while doing so.
I’m guessing you’re not part of any active revolution against your state to change things because it’s inconvenient and bitching about normal people gives you some comfort that you’re actually doing something… but even though the odds are against you, I recommend you go try and change the world from the top with those grandiose ideals, those slim odds are higher than whatever it is you’re doing.
Here in Missouri the bike lanes are just painted on existing car lanes. Sometimes right down the middle. I actually applaud whenever I see a cyclist acting safe. The performance of most cyclists I see is insane at best, deadly at worst. I don’t think most cyclists realize they can be run over and the cops would likely just rule it an accident, unless there’s pressure and evidence to suggest otherwise. If I hated cars so much I didn’t want to use one, the last thing I would do is pick fights with them on crowded streets. The best cyclist is the one that isn’t there.
When cyclists have to share space with pedestrians, it can be really scary when a fast bike passes you as a pedestrian. But the changes of actually being hit and hurt are really low, though it does happen anecdotally.
Imagine being a cyclist having to share space with 50kph faster, 2 ton machines. The chances to be hit are quite high and the chances of being hurt near 100%.
It’s almost as if faster vehicles need to be kept away from vulnerable travellers… Hmmm…
I don’t think it’s that important to keep biikes away from pedestrians. They can usually coexist fine and fear doesn’t actually hurt anyone.
It’s way more important to keep cars far away from humans of all types.
