Comment by jwdunne | Hacker News Reader

Comment by jwdunne | Hacker News Reader

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Right, because you know my life well enough to make that kind of judgement.

It's a nice, clever cop out but ultimately a cop out. Bicyclist gets hit by a car. Loses his legs. Did he make poor life choices? I wouldn't say so. Say that same bicyclist has built a career as a great door to door sales man. Now he's on hard times. Did he still make poor life choices? Should we, then, all avoid bicycles and work in door to door sales, even if those two things happen to be things people enjoy and, on the whole, beneficial?

You can think of an unlimited number of scenarios where someone has fallen on hard times through no fault of their own. In fact, the most callous and unhelpful thing to say is "you made poor life choices bro" like you even know what you're taking about.

Are you kidding? Riding a bicycle in the street is the very definition of a poor life choice.

Haha I got downvoted, probably by people who ride bikes.

Hey I love bikes, bikes need their own lane. When I grew up the government told me I could not ride my bike on the sidewalk anymore, so I stopped riding bikes. People who ride bikes in the street get hit by cars all the time. You accept the risks of the activities you participate in. Don't whine about how unfair it is. If you aren't willing to accept those risks then you should not engage in risky behavior.

You don't need to ride a bike to get crippled by a car accident. You can choke on a piece of food while eating dinner. You can fall in the shower awkwardly and get paralyzed.

You can get any one of a number of infections.

You're getting downvoted, but your perspective about the bike is correct (not sure about the other sentiments)

The logic is as follows: if I'm riding a bike on a sidewalk, the damage I can do to a pedestrian is an order of magnitude less than the car can do in damage to me in the street.

Hence bicycles should be riding with the pedestrians (on a wider sidewalk), in a dedicated bike lane separated from the cars, or should be banned entirely (for the convenience of motorists).

Forcing bikes onto the street with the US driving etiquette is the equivalent to throwing someone in a piranha tank.

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