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this post was submitted on 27 Oct 2023
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Fuck Cars
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This will turn into a car versus bikers thread unfortunately. But from my experience, commuting by bicycle has been one of the best decisions I've made.
I started out in the suburbs, commuting by car 50 minutes each way. Over the years I kept moving closer and closer to the city and my job...which is pretty much the opposite of what Americans tend to do. Eventually I ditched the car commute for public transit, and finally ditched public transit for a bike.
Being in a car sucks. You are isolated, stuck in a behemoth monster of a machine in a sea of other machines. Your isolation makes you feel anonymous, and anonymity gives you the freedom to seethe and yell at other drivers who dare to go slower than you, faster than you, or God forbid, try to get in front of you.
On a bike you are out in the open, feeling the weather and the wind and the change of seasons and daylight. You interact with people way more, and on much friendlier terms...after all, you're no longer protected behind your locked metal box. You actually have to act like a normal, decent human.
Now yes, there are the Lycra ads-on-butts boys that pretend they're in a race, but jerks abound everywhere in every activity.
Lycra ads-on-butts people are the BMW of bikers.
Maybe we shouldn't generalize the entire sport of road cycling based on a few finance d-bags who took it up.
That's true! I have lots of friends that do competitive cycling and they're all nice people. When they train, they avoid cities.
The problematic ones are those who run red lights, who cut and curse at recreationsl cyclists in city bike laces while going 50km/h. They almost always wear skin tight shorts and an expensive-looking helmet.
That being said, I think we can agree that every generalization is bad!
Let's not generalize, perhaps some generalizations are good! /s
Comparing Lycra cyclists to BMW drivers is only an insult if you generalize all BMW drivers to be assholes.
I'll have you know some of them probably aren't!
I used to drive a mini, which is basically a BMW, and I wasn't an asshole... Oh wait, no, I am an asshole. But it wasn't because of the car.
i have never heard sports cyclists be complained about here in sweden, so this seems to be a country-specific problem and probably is to do with the culture of drivers, as it's also perfectly normal to see rural people out with their babies in strollers on the roads.
These are some of the reasons I prefer my motorcycle.
Yes, even the “interact with others” part. Motorcyclists have an unwritten code that we acknowledge each other on the road. It’s surprisingly friendly.
I commute 14 miles one way. Spandex saves a lot of energy. Plus safer because you're faster. Faster means less cars pass you per minute. The number of cars passing you is important because the odds of getting rear ended by a distracted driver is proportional to the number of cars we are exposed to. The effect is greatest if you can make a yellow light. For context I commute in Phoenix on 45mph roads. It's also much safer in crosswinds because you swerve less. You can buy used cycling clothing for $25 on eBay. The first mistake I made was to buy regular cycling gear. I should have invested in triathlon year which is much easier to walk in.