Skip Navigation
19 comments

  • I don't drive. I'm sure I could even if I'm afraid to do it, but I don't like cars and society forcing us to drive partly for this reason. People drive lethal metal boxes everywhere without really thinking about it.

    Cars are one of the most deadly things in a lot of countries and yet, they are totally normalised.

    In Canada alone, in one year, nearly 2000 people died from car collisions. And distracted driving accounts for about 20% of those.

    It's why I prefer to cycle, and on segregated paths if possible. Because when I cycle on the road, I always have this kind of thoughts in the back of my mind. What if the person driving a multi ton projectile coming behind me at speed, is day dreaming and "didn't see me", even if I'm dressed in bright orange?

    Sorry to be so serious about a meme but, yeaaah.

    • UK figures from 2022: Deaths: 1,695 Serious injury: 28,101

      https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reported_Road_Casualties_Great_Britain

      But it's so normalised. Rarely newsworthy, it's so acceptable. I'm seeing more and more SUVs (Chelsea tractors) in London, the most ridiculously huge emotional support vehicles. Standing at the bus stop watching the cars go by, nearly all of them have just a driver, no passengers. We have good public transport in London, and I get there will always be some people for whom buses or bikes aren't an option, but I wish there was more of a move away from cars.

      As a cyclist, some drivers (a minority, but even one is too much) will happily leave barely a few centimetres clearance when passing. Or get unnecessarily aggressive because there isn't room to overtake, even though there's a red light anyway, so why the rush? I swear, you stick someone in a car and suddenly other people's lives are expendable if it means shaving 3 seconds off their journey.

      (Morons on modded ebikes - effectively unlicenced motorbikes really - are another gripe for another day. Red lights apply to you too, you muppets. And get off the frickin pavement.)

    • You're totally right, kinda. But isn't your conclusion way more dangerous than actually driving the deadly metal-box yourself? Being a pedestrian or, even worse, cyclist, you're a highly vulnerable squishy flesh-thingy surrounded by deadly murder-boxes.

      The safest people out there are bus- and truckdrivers. I mean truck-trucks, not those murican abominations like the rams and f150s and the likes.

      Personally, I rarely drive faster than 80kmh (50mph). Even on the highway where people go totally bonkers all the time. We should have a speed-limit on highways....

      • But isn’t your conclusion way more dangerous than actually driving the deadly metal-box yourself? Being a pedestrian or, even worse, cyclist, you’re a highly vulnerable squishy flesh-thingy surrounded by deadly murder-boxes.

        Perhaps but it's counter productive to just get bigger and bigger vehicles in order to be "safer" and crush everything else around. It's a race to the bottom to which I do not wish to participate. At least where I live we are "lucky" enough to have multiple abandoned railways in the countryside that have been turned into bike trails, so I generally use these. I can cycle to my parents' using two bike trails, without cars, for 140 km. Otherwise I specifically moved in a city with good bike and transit infrastructure (Montreal) so that I don't need to drive a giant lethal metal box that pollutes and takes space.

        Anyway because I think cars are insane and avoid them at all costs, my chances of dying while I'm inside one are lower than someone using one daily. It's also one less deadly machine on the road. I'm not getting in a car to go to the grocery store or to go run errands. I'm not getting in a car every day to go to work. When I cycle it's usually on dedicated infrastructure, on in bike lanes.

        From my point of view, even if I have to mix with cars sometimes while cycling, even if I fear for my life and wish people driving cars would be more careful while passing, it's usually an exception, and I feel much safer at 20 km/h on "my" dedicated bike path than sitting in a car surrounded by other cars and trucks.

      • 80km/h is still very fast and dangerous

19 comments