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Hyperbowleeeeeeeeeee t1_iuot9v3 wrote

Reply to comment by darkshaddow42 in Come join /r/camberville! by kjeovridnarn

I kind of agree with the mod. There's a high intensity bicycle argument on reddit that is really angry. These are obviously important things to figure out locally, but I don't understand how a sleepy topic like bike lanes turned into a culture war. It's intense.

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Lentamentalisk t1_iutggvo wrote

Careful spelling out the "b word" on this sub. It can get you banned.

I'd argue there isn't really a high intensity bcycle argument. There is a high intensity anti-bcycle argument. The conversation generally goes something like this:

  • Hi, I would like to get to work/school/grocery without getting smooshed plz
  • Ha ha lolz I fantasize about running over spandex clad [insert your slur of choice]
  • Can we not do the whole murder thing?
  • Aaaarg why are b*cyclists so mean to me! Help help, I'm being oppressed!

As to how it became a culture war, I'm not really sure. Most people riding their b*kes are just having a good time. I think to people like our beloved moderator, seeing that is an afront to their way of life. They're absolutely miserable in their cars, and angry that some people aren't. But who knows. I ride the forbidden mode of transit, so my opinion doesn't matter here 🙄

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EnjoyTheNonsense t1_iuulz8s wrote

Please tell us more about the nature of discussions in this sub. Oh wait, you live in San Francisco and only have been commenting here since you found out about the mod’s post.

Edit: of course they blocked me for calling them out for brigading and not being from Cambridge.

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Lentamentalisk t1_iuuur0u wrote

Correct, I moved for work recently. Good sleuthing. Cambridge was one of my all time favorite places to live. I miss that shitty walkup with 6' ceilings.

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EnjoyTheNonsense t1_iuyfq98 wrote

You mean you moved recently from Charleston? Not from Cambridge. I am not sure why you do not understand that your post history is available to others. I also notice you posted a thread with the aim of starting a brigade and as such people with recent histories in places as far away as Adelaide posted in the sub.

I find it amazingly hard to believe that you are so passionate about bike lanes and bicycle safety, but passively read posts in this sub where the car people were the toxic ones, and sat silently without comment. Yet here you are claiming to have knowledge of how bicycle discourse in this sub was going.

I am calling bullshit.

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Hyperbowleeeeeeeeeee t1_iuv3m4x wrote

It sounds like both you and the mod are having real life conflicts with people that you want to moan about passive aggressively on the internet. And both are shocked to find that there are people who respond negatively/counterproductively to that. As for your description of the people with whom you have conflicts, online or offline, I guess it sounds a lot like you want this to be a culture war since you believe you know exactly what's in the minds of others. You're really bringing this ugliness on yourself, in that respect, which puts you in a pretty bad spot to then complain about it.

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ExpressiveLemur t1_iuvkduq wrote

It's because people who ride bikes are tired of getting injured and killed and watching silently as others are injured and killed by people driving cars all while being told they don't deserve safer infrastructure and that they are entitled whiners when the meager infrastructure they have is occupied by parked vehicles.

Most people who bike are asking for safety. That's it. The refusal to back down is being falsely painted as a culture war by people who'd prefer the status quo where people on bikes should not expect safety.

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Hyperbowleeeeeeeeeee t1_iuvlwtl wrote

Expectation of safety is an interesting point. There are definitely generational differences here. When I was growing up, there was really an expectation that I was responsible for my own safety on a bike, but it was still a pretty clearly dangerous way to get around town. It was just down to situational awareness, helmets, and deference pretty much. We had no bike lanes, which are now really well built out over the last 10 years. So that seems to be improving a lot. It is still not a very safe activity fundamentally. There are no safety features on a bicycle whatsoever, so I guess I personally have some expectation when I get on the bike that there's some risk that's a bit higher than, for example, taking the T.

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ExpressiveLemur t1_iv4y6vq wrote

There are so many people driving and so many who don't drive safely even for other drivers, much less for people not in cars, that statistically it's impossible to avoid not running into a dangerous situation in the places where cars interact with people running, walking, or wheeling.

We can try traffic calming and reducing city speed limits, but people driving will still speed (making collisions with cars and people more dangerous), run stop signs and lights and not yield or even look for pedestrians (making street crossing dangerous).

Since it seems impossible to change the minds and habits of every person driving, it seems more effective to reduce the number of interactions between people in cars and everyone else doing anything else. We have sidewalks for pedestrians (though they still get hurt and killed even in marked street crossings). We have "bike" lanes for people wheel (bikes, electric scooters, motorized wheelchairs, etc) though because of the way many are built and protected there's often still a lot of interaction between people driving and people wheeling.

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ClarkFable t1_iuowpjx wrote

It’s a small population of entitled jackasses that don’t understand why a car free Cambridge is not practical, but until the entire city is transformed to suit their interests, they’ll keep whining about it aggressively. A number of them don’t even live in Cambridge. Just look at some of the commenters here, accounts that are days old with no other comments. It’s probably a couple dudes with multiple sock puppets.

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