A place to discuss problems of car centric infrastructure or how it hurts us all. Let's explore the bad world of Cars!
1. Be Civil
You may not agree on ideas, but please do not be needlessly rude or insulting to other people in this community.
2. No hate speech
Don't discriminate or disparage people on the basis of sex, gender, race, ethnicity, nationality, religion, or sexuality.
3. Don't harass people
Don't follow people you disagree with into multiple threads or into PMs to insult, disparage, or otherwise attack them. And certainly don't doxx any non-public figures.
4. Stay on topic
This community is about cars, their externalities in society, car-dependency, and solutions to these.
5. No reposts
Do not repost content that has already been posted in this community.
Moderator discretion will be used to judge reports with regard to the above rules.
In the absence of a flair system on lemmy yet, let’s try to make it easier to scan through posts by type in here by using tags:
People on bikes may be rude and may not follow the rules, but can't be aggressive.
When a man with a .45 meets a man with a rifle, the man with a pistol will be a dead man.
Original stripe from the Onion: https://www.theonion.com/bum-rush-hour-1846606314
Cross-posted from: https://mastodon.uno/users/rivoluzioneurbanamobilita/statuses/113615912203015089
Well. There are some really dumb bicyclists out there.
I have a real world example from just over an hour ago. I work overnights. I have to travel to different locations during my shift on certain nights. Tonight was one of those nights. I'm headed up to a location on a city street, 40mph speed limit, when I catch sight of a cyclist in my lane when I'm maybe 20ft from him. He's peddling for his life but only doing 12-15mph or so.
Why didn't I see him until he was that close to me? Was I playing on my phone? Tired because I work overnights? No. He is a black guy, wearing a black hoodie with black sweat pants, on a bike with no reflectors on it. Riding down a city street in the middle of the night. I'm pretty sure this is the second time I've encountered this guy too (same ninja cosplay both times). The first time was at least half a year ago. Honestly I'm surprised he's still alive, or at least uncrippled to the point that he can bike.
That's why your car has lights. If someone could have spray painted a garbage can black, filled it with bricks, and put it in the street, would you have smashed into it and damaged your bumper? If the answer is yes, then you were going too fast. Drivers have a responsibility to drive to the conditions. You're the one operating the deadly machinery.
Could he have benefitted from putting on reflectors? Sure, yes he could have. But that is a decision for his own benefit, it doesn't affect you. If he's an idiot, then he's only being an idiot to himself. If a car driver is an idiot, then someone else could die. That's why idiots should all be on bicycles.
At what speed should a car travel at night in a 40mph zone?
The textbook answer, the one you have to learn when you take drivers education around here at least, is that traffic should travel at a speed that is safe in the current situation (taking into account the environmental conditions, the condition of the road etc) but not exceeding the maximum velocity.
Poor visibility is one of the main reasons to reduce speed. As is things that affect handling, like snow or wet conditions.
So, “At what speed should a car travel at night in a 40mph zone?”
I don’t know. But if you almost ran someone over, you probably took a risk you shouldn’t have.