You’re a Cyclist Who Was Just Struck by a Car Driver. Here’s Why It Was Your Fault - eviltoast
You were riding during rush hour. Why were you riding then? There are way too many cars on the road. If you were commuting, you should have contact...

McSweeney’s bringing some hard truths with this one. We could all be doing better.

You forgot to go back in time and tell people that subsidizing the oil industry might be a bad idea.
When the oil and auto industries teamed up to bend public policy to their will, making a system of roads and parking lots that now function as a continuous subsidy and magnificent symbol of the normalization of injury and pollution, you had a lot of options. You could have objected. You could have shifted public opinion. Instead, you weren’t even born yet. And, rather than go back in time, all you’ve been doing is riding to get groceries and occasionally saying, “Please stop killing us.” On the effort scale? 1/10.

  • WalrusDragonOnABike@kbin.social
    1·
    1 year ago

    still a good bit off from the traffic light, saw it was about to turn red

    It was about to turn red for the cyclist. Meaning it was red for the cars. Or it just turned green and they should still be going <20mph. If you can’t stop when someone runs a light that just turned red for them, then you’re not prepare for what cars regularly do, and they sometimes do it at 60mph, giving you even less reaction time.

    • Aesthesiaphilia@kbin.social
      1·
      1 year ago

      It was about to turn red for the cyclist. Meaning it was red for the cars.

      In most of the US, there’s no separate lights for cyclists.

      In any case, you’re missing that the cyclist did the equivalent of coming from an adjacent lane to cut off cars next to him. No car can anticipate that, from a cyclist or from another car.

      • WalrusDragonOnABike@kbin.social
        1·
        1 year ago

        In most of the US, there’s no separate lights for cyclists.

        Exactly. Which is why the light must have been red for the cars perpendicular to the cyclist if they light was yellow for the cyclist.

        In any case, you’re missing that the cyclist did the equivalent of coming from an adjacent lane to cut off cars next to him. No car can anticipate that, from a cyclist or from another car.

        Yes you can? How else would you drive without getting in a wreck most days? That’s happens to you at least on a weekly basis if you drive regularly here on the interstates. I’ve never hit them. Generally you can read when people want to get over if you pay attention. Cyclists are even easier to read since they’re not in a box with tinted windows. I’ve had a few times I’ve hit my breaks before one has even turned their head to avoid collisions (on my bike) because I could tell they were gonna suddenly turn. I would say without warning, but given I could tell they were, that wouldn’t be entirely accurate: they just gave no intentional signals and those not paying attention will easily miss the intent (unfortunately, the person right in front of me did collide with the person suddenly turning in front of them in one of those cases).

        If you can’t tell most of the time, you aren’t paying attention.

        • Aesthesiaphilia@kbin.social
          1·
          1 year ago

          How else would you drive without getting in a wreck most days?

          …what? Have you ever driven before? This behavior causes wrecks ALL THE TIME, it’s probably the #1 cause of wrecks. It’s definitely one of the most dangerous things a driver can do. Same applies to cyclists.