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The Economist has published an article (paywalled, sorry) on the state of cyclists in New York, which dropped the day I was leaving the city. It was the first time I had visited as an adult. I came away with some respect for it (loved the food, service, and how fast everyone walked). The point of the story is supposedly that cyclists are now being treated unfairly:
I’m a cycling nut, so the issue is close to my heart. In a T2 city, I feel like our role is that of a scapegoat. People fantasize about killing cyclists pretty regularly, and none of them understand the challenges and tradeoffs we have to deal with. At this point, I've just thrown up my hands in despair at this ever being better, so I just get on the road as little as possible.
The people on two wheels in NYC are a different breed. Each of the longtime residents I asked - 100% - are now more scared of cyclists than cars. My 3 day trip felt the same to me. Every car was attentive and respectful of me as a pedestrian. The cyclists were fast, heavy, and disregarded almost every crosswalk signal or red light, despite having their own lanes. What’s the quantitative danger?
Notice the sleight of hand here. What’s included are E-Bikes, scooters, and mopeds - each of these truly motorized vehicles. The number of people killed by analog cyclists nationwide has been, for many years, single digits. This is important. E-bikes allow users to achieve speeds and momentum totally beyond their skill, and are often part of poorly maintained machines that are part of sharing programs. My mind is blown that even 8 people have been killed - that's an enormous number even in a place as dense as NYC. It probably means a huge number of serious injuries as collateral damage.
Put simply, the fixie riders racing through the city are psychotic but not dangerous to pedestrians.
As you’d expect, the lede is buried, along with the Culture War. The cyclists zipping through the city on E-bikes are exclusively yapping in a foreign language on speakerphone, with DoorDash bags on the back of their cycles. Nothing should get in the way of private taxis for burritos.
To recap how insane this is:
It’s so similar to LA, albeit with fewer vehicle fires and bricks on heads. The fix just cannot be the obvious and correct one. Instead, it’s to hop on Reddit to “map police hotspots” or refuse to stop as a way to LARP civil disobedience.
Having done a lot of cycling over the years, including as a commute for many years in undisclosed European country, 1 in 5 cyclists are normal human beings, and the other 4 are CYCLISTS.
I have a theory that I derive from a great philosopher of our era, that in a contest between a weak and a strong horse, observers will naturally back the strong horse. However, caveat, in WEIRD society, there is also some sympathy for the weak horse, sometimes misplaced, but definitely there.
The horse that is really out of luck is the middle horse, and cyclists are the middle horse.
Motor vehicles are strong, confident, fast, going wherever they please with an inherent “Be wary of my power” statement accompanying them every where they go.
Pedestrians are frail and slow, but humanly so, and they have an inherent “Be cautious of my frailties, I am easily hurt” statement accompanying them wherever they go.
Cyclists are inhumanly fast, but also vehicularly slow. They can cause serious injury and possible death to a pedestrian, but are also prone to serious injury and death from vehicles. They are neither strong nor weak, but in the mushy middle.
This isn’t an insurmountable problem, until you run into the 4 out of 5 CYCLISTS who really, really want the rules written in such a way that they can push around and get mad at pedestrians in a way that even the strong horse motor vehicle users usually don’t want to treat pedestrians. While at the same time wanting to be treated as a weak horse that gets to both ride with the strong horses and be babied and given extra privileges like designated lanes, lane filtering, and bike boxes.
So I walk, cycle, and drive about equally whenever I’m going someplace, and I’d agree with you entirely.
As a driver, I get most annoyed with cyclists, then buses, then other cars, then pedestrians, in that order. Cyclists tend to weave in and out of traffic and go slowly enough to make it unsafe to be anywhere near them.
As a pedestrian, I get most annoyed by cyclists, then other pedestrians, then any vehicles. Cyclists jump up onto the sidewalk and speed by at what feels like breakneck speeds without giving me any space, and I’ve been struck by cyclists who don’t understand things like crosswalks numerous times.
As a cyclist, I am most annoyed by other cyclists, followed by vehicles, followed by pedestrians. Other cyclists will either be biking incredibly slowly (which is challenging to safely pass in a bike lane) or instead speed by me unsafely in said bike lane (I’ve actually been shoved over by a cyclist who forced me into the curb). I do recognize the irony in my complaints, to be fair.
It's a little counter-intuitive how cars are far more likely to kill us, but we get more angry at cyclists.
I think it is because most cars are relatively well-behaved and they respect my right-of-way at crosswalks and don't try to buzz me. It's just the 0.1% that is going to blow a stop sign or not yield that might kill me.
While with bikers it is a far greater number that don't respect the rules and will buzz dangerously close to myself and my kids on the sidewalk. They probably won't kill me, but they give me a sense of rule-breaking and fear.
Why is it counterintuitive? A car weights 175x the weight of a bicycle, of course it's more deadly.
Yes, that's what is counterintuitive: of course a car is deadlier, but we get more angry at cyclists anyway.
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