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Comment by dalanmiller | Hacker News Reader

A few critical problems in the US that you don't see as much in Europe (especially DACH + NE where bike culture / support is fantastic):

* is a clear respect for the fact you're in a 4,000 lbs vehicle and I'm on a bike. If you hit me, I die. Drivers in CH stop and wait meters away for bikers to pass the intersection. People in America ain't got time for that I guess. * Great intra-suburban bike lines that can support multiple commute speed bikers on electric assist or not. (Try riding from any south bay city to any other non-adjacent south bay city) * General conditioning to driving culture. You gotta get somewhere, you hop in your whip. Walking or other forms of transportation are looked down upon.

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is a clear respect for the fact you're in a 4,000 lbs vehicle

Completely unrelated, but it's interesting to me how deeply the "4000lb. vehicle" meme seems to have embedded itself. I can find plenty of articles backing it up and talking about how cars are so much heavier now, cars are getting heavier, etc.

But I notice a problem: they include SUVs, trucks and "luxury" land-yacht vehicles in that classification as representative of the "average car". Cars intended for broad segments of the market are usually much lighter than this. A Toyota Corolla, for example, weighs 2800lb., the (popular) Ford Fiesta is 2500lb., the Nissan Versa is 2300lb., and even hybrids like the Prius (2500lb.) come in way under the "4000lb." meme.

These are still much heavier than bicycles, of course, but it fascinates me how much people have decided that SUVs, trucks and gigantic luxury cars are "average" and built their memes of car weight around that.

CH = Switzerland? Definitely found it a safe place to bike, or to drive for that matter.

Also I guess DACH is Germany, Austria, Switzerland. Never seen that abbreviation before, but then I live in North America.

CH = Switzerland indeed (from "Confoederatio Helvetica").

About DACH, I think your interpretation is correct, but I had never seen it either.

My most frustrating commutes (in the US) are when I get unlucky enough to share a two-lane road with a peloton of bicycle commuters.

All the cars slow down and move over a lane to pass them, which slows down traffic enough that you get stopped at every traffic light. The bikes lane-split at full speed through the stopped cars and the red signal, which means you're playing hopscotch with them for miles and traveling at half the speed of a normal day.

If they bothered to obey the traffic laws, on the other hand, it wouldn't be a big deal -- you slow down, pass the slower vehicle, and move on.

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