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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: July 30th, 2023

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  • Riding a bike doesn’t necessarily mean owning a bike.

    Places like Toronto or London have bicycle sharing programs where for a small monthly fee you can go to one of many stations around the city, pick a bike and leave it at any of the stations near to your destination. The maintenance staff ensures that all stations have some bikes available and that the bikes remain in working condition.


  • Vehicle safety needs to expand to the other side of the windshield.

    I would take it further and day that regulations should prioritize the safety of the people outside the vehicle over the people inside, for the simple reason that the people buying the vehicle already have a strong incentive to maximize their own safety, while they currently have zero concerns about the safety of pedestrians.

    Pedestrians, on the other hand, don’t have the freedom to choose which vehicle runs them over, so it is up to regulations to advocate for them because nobody else will.






  • I’m willing to bet a big chunk of those deaths were cyclists either blasting though the light, riding against the flow of traffic, or both.

    If you look at some real-world collision statistics, like I did because I wanted to know how I was most likely to get killed, you will find that you would have lost that bet. Your municipality probably publishes a report on those stats every few years. Look it up and learn something new.



  • frostbiker@lemmy.catoFuck Cars@lemmy.mlIt's Past Time To Ban Right-On-Red
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    1 year ago

    Cars making right turns on red are a major source for both pedestrian and cyclist deaths. The driver making a right turn is focused on the incoming traffic on their left and are thus less likely to notice a cyclist or pedestrian on their right.

    All the time I run into inconsiderate drivers who enter an intersection without stopping and/or creep towards pedestrians when the light is red, ignoring the danger they force upon unprotected people.

    We can reduce these deaths by disallowing right turns on red, following most of the developed world.


  • The problem is there’s a lot of people that want to push that lifestyle on every single human being

    I suspect you misunderstand what these people want. Let’s use myself as an example, I am as opposed to suburbs as they come. Does it mean I am opposed to you living in a suburb? No. I am opposed to:

    • Zoning laws forcing large residential developments to contain only single-family homes, rather than allowing mixed-use medium density communities. You wouldn’t want your preferred type of development to be banned, either.
    • Our streets where we live being designed with the primary goal of maximizing the number of cars passing through them, like they are today. You wouldn’t want heavy car traffic in front of your home, either.
    • My children wasting 100 minutes of time every day commuting to school because our city planners did a terrible job, when their school should be within a safe 15 minute bicycle ride. You wouldn’t want your kids to be wasting their life in traffic, either.

    We largely want the same things. The main difference I see is that I’m looking for ways to improve my lifestyle in a way that doesn’t automatically decrease the quality of life of other people, such as driving my car in front of their homes at all times of the day or making their neighborhoods unwalkable.

    Car-dependent city planning is causing all these problems.



  • He watched a pedestrian cross the road on a green pedestrian light, and complained about the pedestrian not looking

    On the one hand, the pedestrian would be safer if they made sure it is safe before crossing. As a pedestrian and a cyclist I’m constantly looking around.

    On the other hand, the only reason there is danger in the first place is because of motor vehicles driving fast around pedestrians.

    We don’t blame women who get assaulted for “not being careful”, we blame the people who have assaulted them. The burden of safety should be placed first and foremost on the people who put others in danger.

    Thoughts?