Comment by Pxtl | Hacker News Reader

Comment by Pxtl | Hacker News Reader

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> The biggest possible problem is that as the auto driver you become responsible for any bike rider you come into contact with because they are unprotected regardless of the circumstances of the contact. I didn't ask them to get on the road with me, but I'll sure as hell be held responsible for their decision if something happens.

If there were only cyclists on the road, the worst accident would be a few broken bones. You chose to bring a potentially lethal device onto the roads, of course it's your responsibility. If I juggle chainsaws in a crowded plaza, I don't get to blame the guy who bumped into me for flinging chainsaws into people.

> More importantly, as a tax payer, I've helped fund literally dozens of miles of really nice dedicated paved and marked bike only trails, complete with parking and overpasses, tunnels and signals at busy intersections. There is literally no excuse for them to play "Tour de France" on the same road I'm trying to get to work on.

Try it. You might be surprised that these bike lanes have dead ends or obstacles or just astonishingly crappy terrain.

And don't give me the "taxpayer" line, an astronomical amount of cash is spent on roadways and expressways over and above any gas taxes or fees. Complaining about the small amount spent on bikes just makes you seem extremely petty.

> If I juggle chainsaws in a crowded plaza

That's a terrible analogy. The correct one is if I choose to juggle chainsaws in the chainsaw juggling room. And some people think it would be a good idea to come in there with me and start doing cartwheels. Then when one of them gets hit with a saw complains about all the chain saw jugglers.

All the chainsaw jugglers have accepted the risk of their activities and are even doing it in a purpose built room just for them. While the cart wheelers just want to coopt and use somebody else's space without accepting the dangers of it and despite it being purpose built for somebody else.

You keep making the same mistake - you keep saying that roads are only for motorised vehicles.

You repeat this mistake despite being shown an example US law that explicitly states that roads are not just for motorised vehicles.

No, you keep making the same two mistakes.

1) You don't actually know what the law is. You've cherry picked laws that allow bikes to share roads without having even a breath's familiarity with the responsibilities that also come with road usage and the laws that lay out those responsibilities.

2) You equate "being legal" with "being wise". It's perfectly legal for me to go on a diet of all broken glass. But it's a stupid idea. It's perfectly legal, and even specifically enshrined in law for me to go grocery shopping with a loaded shotgun and a backpack full of dynamite, but it's also idiotic.

I think to save cyclists from themselves they should have protected, dedicated bikeways that are not meant for pedestrians or cars but bikes and transportation devices of similar speed and weight (roller skates to Segways). I think that this is a fantastic idea and should be the norm everywhere. I'm not retarded, a psychopath, or ignorant of what the law says. But I do have to share the road with cyclists who are and to save them from themselves I wholly support the above engineering and planning ideas and would even be willing to sacrifice my own income to make this a reality in the form of higher, purpose designated taxes.

If you have a problem with my attitude fine, but you're doing absolutely nothing to dissuade me from my preconceived notions that the community of cyclists I deal with every week is made up mostly of entitled assholes with a death wish.

Anybody who looks at a 40+ mph undivided two lane road with poor visibility and double yellow no passing lane markings and says "I'm going ride my bike there" is perfectly legal to do so. But they're also idiotic morons.

And when they complain that that journey wasn't safe, not because there isn't a good bike lane, but because of all the cars on that purpose built automotive surface driving exactly as they were supposed to, they can go fuck themselves. Because I'm not responsible for their stupidity.

Find any law that probibits bicycles from general use roads - there are none. But Cyclists are probibited from a small number of roads. The obvious conclusion is that some roads are too dangerous for cyclists and the rest are not. At least, not until self stupid cunts who are just bad drivers and who think they own the fucking road get behind the wheel.

Your entire point seems to be "I am a selfish and bad driver, so fuck everyone else".

That's mistake 2 again. It's like you're on auto reply.

You guys have carried this disagreement all over this post. I think bane's point is that even though it's perfectly legal to ride a bike wherever a car can go (which is not true in some cases like highways and visa-versa like biketrails), it may just not be a good idea.

I know when I ride I purposely try to avoid roads that have poor space for bikes. I don't feel safe and I don't want a distracted driver running me off the road. It took a couple near misses for me to learn that lesson, but I follow it and my rides are much more pleasant as a result.

> I think bane's point is that even though it's perfectly legal to ride a bike wherever a car can go (which is not true in some cases like highways and visa-versa like biketrails), it may just not be a good idea.

Basically. But DanBC obviously wants to push some kind of agenda to the point of absurdity.

Well you're also not being particularly pleasant in the exchange. Maybe you should go cool off or ride a bike or something to see things from his perspective.

I get where you're coming from and what you're advocating, but your presentation needs a lot of work.

>Try it. You might be surprised that these bike lanes have dead ends or obstacles or just astonishingly crappy terrain.

So much this. We have some fantastic bike trails in my area, but one of the primary arteries just suddenly ends about two miles from the downtown core. The official, city-endorsed route the rest of the way runs on normal surface streets.

Coincidentally, the closest I've come to being involved in a serious accident on my bike was through that section when some jackass behind me decided I shouldn't be on the road and tried to force me into a gutter. The kicker being I had just pushed off from a red light and was actually moving faster than the car in the left lane beside me at that point.

Sometimes bikes don't have any choice but to be on the road, and sometimes they're even told to by the local government.

Also fun is when the bike lane doesn't take parked cars into account, leaving it either completely obstructed or entirely in the door zone - at which point the only safe options are take the lane or walk your bike. You see that less in new construction, these days, thankfully.

Yeah, the section of road this happened on is marked with sharrows.... which are quite possibly the most useless thing in existence to a cyclist.

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