And what of the trucks and people texting? I straight up saw someone doing a FaceTime while driving 2 weeks ago. I’d be hesitant to drive a small car, let alone a bike.
Avoid the busy roads and do a mixture of aggressive and defensive cycling. Take the lane if it’s not safe for others to pass, and take side streets instead of busy roads. Your goal is to be seen and avoid the angry drivers.
I bike commuted every day for years and had no problems. I just changed jobs and it’s too far away now, but I really miss cycling to work.
Statistically, utility cyclists live longer than drivers. Although I can’t find the study itself to be sure, I believe that’s considering all factors including car crashes.
Statistically, you are twice as likely to die riding a bike vs driving.
And you’re way, way more likely to die due to complications of a sedentary lifestyle (due to driving instead of cycling), which blows that difference out of the water.
On top of that, the more people bike, the safer it becomes (both because of more/better bicycle infrastructure, and fewer drivers). Statistically, I’m making myself safer by trying to persuade people to try it.
I’m at 5.8 miles walking a day so far this year. You can be not sedentary and also alive.
On an unrelated note. What you’re doing is not making people more likely to ride a bike.
What I’m saying, and what I said, is not going to be the deciding factor of whether people ride a bike. This is what’s wrong with the internet. Well meaning people believe other people aren’t intelligent enough to decide for themselves. I believe the technical term is “white knighting”.
In a way, it’s similar to the “woke” controversy. You’re afraid once people read what I wrote about dying on a bike, they won’t be able to decide for themselves if a bike is for them, just like conservatives think seeing a same-sex embrace will turn their child gay.
The truth is, human behavior is a lot more behind the scenes than it’s probably comfortable for you to imagine. It feels right to point to one moment as the moment you decided to ride or not ride a bicycle, but it’s absolutely not true unless that one moment was deeply traumatizing. Stop treating strangers’ words like trauma, we don’t agree for reasons we may or may not be aware of. Neither of us is as important as you’re imagining.
Those stories of one person changing the world? Convenient and wrong. It was movements of lots of people. Movements built offline of people who spent face time planning real things they actually were going to do and then executing those plans.
So I appreciate you believing I have the power to dissuade people from riding bikes by telling my absolutely true story of almost dying on a bike, but it’s as big a waste of your time as me typing this thing you won’t fully understand (see what I did there?)
And what of the trucks and people texting? I straight up saw someone doing a FaceTime while driving 2 weeks ago. I’d be hesitant to drive a small car, let alone a bike.
Avoid the busy roads and do a mixture of aggressive and defensive cycling. Take the lane if it’s not safe for others to pass, and take side streets instead of busy roads. Your goal is to be seen and avoid the angry drivers.
I bike commuted every day for years and had no problems. I just changed jobs and it’s too far away now, but I really miss cycling to work.
I carry a large chain and swing it aggressively. Cars pay a lot more attention to you when their property is at risk.
Same with crossing a street, try carrying a brick and see how much more space cars give you.
They threaten me with their giant car, I threaten them back
¯\_(ツ)_/¯ We’re not cowards, I guess?
Statistically, utility cyclists live longer than drivers. Although I can’t find the study itself to be sure, I believe that’s considering all factors including car crashes.
Statistically, you are twice as likely to die riding a bike vs driving.
I’m glad you are not a coward, I heard only cowards can die riding a bicycle.
https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm6431a1.htm
And you’re way, way more likely to die due to complications of a sedentary lifestyle (due to driving instead of cycling), which blows that difference out of the water.
On top of that, the more people bike, the safer it becomes (both because of more/better bicycle infrastructure, and fewer drivers). Statistically, I’m making myself safer by trying to persuade people to try it.
I’m at 5.8 miles walking a day so far this year. You can be not sedentary and also alive.
On an unrelated note. What you’re doing is not making people more likely to ride a bike.
What I’m saying, and what I said, is not going to be the deciding factor of whether people ride a bike. This is what’s wrong with the internet. Well meaning people believe other people aren’t intelligent enough to decide for themselves. I believe the technical term is “white knighting”.
In a way, it’s similar to the “woke” controversy. You’re afraid once people read what I wrote about dying on a bike, they won’t be able to decide for themselves if a bike is for them, just like conservatives think seeing a same-sex embrace will turn their child gay.
The truth is, human behavior is a lot more behind the scenes than it’s probably comfortable for you to imagine. It feels right to point to one moment as the moment you decided to ride or not ride a bicycle, but it’s absolutely not true unless that one moment was deeply traumatizing. Stop treating strangers’ words like trauma, we don’t agree for reasons we may or may not be aware of. Neither of us is as important as you’re imagining.
Those stories of one person changing the world? Convenient and wrong. It was movements of lots of people. Movements built offline of people who spent face time planning real things they actually were going to do and then executing those plans.
So I appreciate you believing I have the power to dissuade people from riding bikes by telling my absolutely true story of almost dying on a bike, but it’s as big a waste of your time as me typing this thing you won’t fully understand (see what I did there?)
Let Darwin handle this one fam. Their blood will help write proper biking infrastructure bills.