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Comment by hahamrfunnyguy | Hacker News Reader

Sidecars are alive and well. You see a ton of them in Southeast Asia. They are frequently used by street vendors selling various kinds of food. I've also seen them used for hauling cargo and people.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Ice_cream_street_vendor_-...

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Yeah, the article is looking at things from a "western" perspective. I would say sidecars were (or still are) for people who use a motorcycle for practical reasons. In countries where motorcycles are mostly a "lifestyle accessory" or a hobby rather than a practical means of transport, sidecars have vanished.

I’ve lived in Colombia and Peru about a year total. I’ve seen countless motorcycles and not one sidecar. I think it’s more of an Asia thing.

> I would say sidecars were (or still are) for people who use a motorcycle for practical reasons.

One major advantage of motorcycles/scooters that it's very easy to do filtering and lane splitting, which helps in more crowded urban streets:

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lane_splitting

With a sidecar you'd lost that ability and be stuck in traffic just like a car.

Sure but lane splitting has been or still is illegal in most of the US (CA being a notable exception)

I think you’ll have a hard time finding cops who don’t find the idea of enforcing such laws utterly preposterous. Most wouldn’t even try to stop a motorcycle.

Many things that are hard to prevent are still dangerous and wrong.

In the US what would stop me is people aren't expecting lane splitting, so they're not looking for it. The chance of getting pancaked is much higher.

Regardless you almost never see people do it in Oregon and I'm pretty certain the cops there would absolutely pull you over for it.

I don't have enough experience to speak for other states where it is also illegal.

Also among the popular forms of transportation in the Philippines, where they are known as "tricycles". Sometimes to the point of ridiculous overloading, such as this pic: https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Tricycle_overloade...

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