It’s important for people to tackle the issues from many angles, including both zoning and dangerous vehicle design. I’d argue the real waste of our grass-roots energy is going after each other.
It’s important for people to tackle the issues from many angles, including both zoning and dangerous vehicle design. I’d argue the real waste of our grass-roots energy is going after each other.
This is a great way to do it too! Many streets even have a 40km/h speed limit but are built wide enough to accommodate 80km/h, so drivers often speed and increase fatalities.
There are some politicians that will listen, so consider joining a bicycle advocacy group if your town has one. Failing that, guerilla urbanism is an option.
Locking due to too many people raging and inciting violence against people riding bikes.
I fucking hate cyclists in the road
Well that’s too bad because the road is for everyone. Keep your road rage in check and be more constructive next time.
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That is heartbreaking.
Who is saying it’s OK to walk blind in front of a car? Nobody is claiming you shouldn’t be wary around vehicles because we all know how dangerous they can be. The point is that telling pedestrians to be careful is often a substitute for a complete lack of action on safe infrastructure.
You’d be shocked at how little traffic violence is treated as manslaughter. In Ontario, Canada, a lady only got a temporary driving suspension for driving through a group of girl guides at 120km/h in a school zone, killing one and injuring several others. The driver even denied responsibility in court.
The public dialog is still that pedestrians and cyclists need to be careful around cars with victim blaming when people are hit. When school starts, the kids better be careful. Where are all the signs and messaging around how drivers need to be careful? I constantly see drivers speeding and rolling stop signs in school zones but it’s completely normalized and shrugged off.
Some cities are car-centric because we designed and subsidised infrastructure to make it so. We induced a demand for cars by spending billions on building, expanding, and maintaining highways to the point that people hop in their car for a 2km trip. People now have no choice of transport other than a car, and that’s a problem. It’s literally killing us and our children whowith road violence, lung cancer from emissions, and via our climate.
Your steakhouse metaphor is akin to the entire city consisting almost exclusively of steakhouses. But why bother changing it, all cities are designed only for steakhouses. You don’t get a choice to eat other cuisines because it’s so inconvenient to go across town to the one Greek restaurant.
You’re right - I’ll stop feeding them.
Simple self preservation should lead you to the same conclusion. When it comes to safety, the squishiest one lose
Also, this is a dangerously devoid of any sense of responsibility. It sounds like what someone would say after blowing a red light and running someone over.
The stationary crane comparison doesn’t carry over to dangerous machines in the context of transport.
The only proven way to make cycling and walking safe is by separating motor traffic from other modes of transport, by way of cycleways along main roads, and filtering minor roads to restrict through-motor-traffic.
When you have no such safe infrastructure and the entire dialog is “be careful around those dangerous cars”, then there is clearly a problem.
The poster is alluding to other approaches to road safety. You can prevent fatal interactions through infrastructure and city design. Failing to do so and pinning it on everybody outside of a vehicle is absurd.
Of course, we all need to be mindful of dafety, no matter what form of transport. But our roads are designed and the dialog is set up so that all responsibility is focused on pedestrians and cyclists who aren’t the ones in control of a potentially deadly machine.
Bike lanes are proven to increase revenue for businesses in their vicinity. Car parking takes up valuable space in a city which could be used more productively.
Additionally, when you build driving to be the only feasible option then those who cannot drive cannot get around. This includes but is not limited to the elderly, children, and those with disabilities.
There are cycles available for almost every type of disability – it’s actually an inclusive mode of transport that will often act as a mobility aid for people who find walking difficult, people who can’t walk far and even those who cannot walk at all.
Evidence from the Netherlands (and increasingly from the UK, where new infrastructure has been built) shows that high quality cycling infrastructure is often shared with wheelchairs, mobility scooters and other assistive modes of transport.
And in general, cycling infrastructure should go hand-in-hand with other improvements to the physical environment too – like smooth, continuous footways across side roads, for example.
So in fact the truth is the opposite of the myth – cycling actually gives people with physical disabilities more transport options and independence, not less.
It’s not surprising when we’ve created an induced demand for driving through which infrastructure we build and subsidize. However, the numbers in Germany and China are changing as they push for non car-centric infrastructure. I can’t speak to the other countries.
Places like Copenhagen and Amsterdam used to be full of roads and parking lots. When they built public transit and safe bike infrastructure for shorter trips, they induced a demand and people ditched their cars for safer, cheaper, and more convenient alternatives.
Many communities have some number of jerks. I actually find that people constantly stereotype based on outliers they hear about online. I’ve met very few vegans who were normal, reasonable prople, yet I’ve met very many people who steteotype and hate on vegans despite knowing none.
Zoning is a very important topic, but if someone doesn’t have any passion for it, then it’s better for them to focus on vehicle design than nothing.
Try not to control how other people help - you may have more success posting and commenting about zoning issues and actions in your community to bring awareness and dialogue than discouraging others from focusing on truck-specific issues. 🙂