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“Cycling is so dangerous!”
This is what I hear a lot since my accident and it makes me fucking angry. It implies that I dared to do something risky, so it is okay to suffer the consequences of it.
It is not! Cycling is not dangerous, cars are dangerous! I did nothing wrong.
@diacritter Exactly. Meanwhile people think it’s fine to buy ever bigger heavier cars with higher fronts and they honestly have no clue that it increases everybody else’s risk of getting injured or killed. When the car has a high rating for safety, it means it’s only safe for the ones inside!
@twilwel @diacritter
And it's all an expensive, wasteful facade. There's no reason for all the extra metal and weight with the concomitant wind resistance and lower mileage. You pay extra for sluggish performance. An SUV is almost like an IQ test.
@Threadbane @twilwel @diacritter Cars in general but specifically giant trucks and SUVs are an IQ test and an empathy test, all wrapped into a city-crippling, environmental catastrophy.
@diacritter any tool in the wrong hands can be harmful. Cars are not an exception to this.
(Some) Drivers are dangerous. I live in a city with no bike infrastructure and it's not a common means of transportation, so cycling is *considered* really dangerous. 
@diacritter possibly unpopular opinion, but cycling is dangerous. cars and their drivers. crap roads. kangaroos deciding NOW is the time to cross the road. stupid boy riding when there was frost on the road. but... mainly drivers, either in motion, or parking their wankpanzers in cycle lanes, or simply glancing out of the side of their eye, not seeing a car shaped shape and pulling out.... oooooohhhhhh.... shiiiiiiit. even bloody pedestrians doing the same in towns. try avoiding fairground clown tourists in winchester!
anyway. all that aside. still great fun.
2. It is **your** responsibility to not put yourself in harms way. If you bike on a narrow road with hills, cars can't often see you until it's too late. So **don't bike there**.
I will agree that we have **way** to many bad drivers on the road today. But we can't get rid of them. So it's up to you to protect yourself.
@rlauzon @diacritter You make it sound as if bad drivers are a force of nature, and there’s nothing to be done about it. As if riding a bike around cars is like riding a bike through a hurricane. No one should accept this line of reasoning. If a cyclist has a choice whether to ride in a certain place (and that’s not always the case), a motorist has a choice whether to drive safely or recklessly.
@diacritter I have to respond to this.
Let me start by saying that I don't know your exact situation. But I do have some valid criticisms for cyclists.
1. You have the same rights on the road as cars. That means you have the same responsibilities and must follow the same laws. You have to stop for Stop signs and red lights too.
@rlauzon @diacritter Why? Those laws were designed by drivers for drivers, not for cyclists or pedestrians
@diacritter Absolutely!
@diacritter As I have often written, when drivers get into their cars, they should consider whether they can live with the fact that their behaviour could injure or even kill one or more other people.
I am not totally against cars, I know that some people really need them and there is no alternative. But their share of car drivers is very small.
@diacritter Yup. I’ve been saying the same for a long time.
@diacritter cycling isn't dangerous, the roads are because they make them terrible for cycling. Imagine periodically bombing peoples houses and then telling them it's not war that's dangerous it's houses that's the problem
