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Comment by JSHat | Hacker News Reader

I would love to bike to work everyday, but there are a few things that prevent me from doing so, none of which are the weather like another poster suggests.

1. Lack of showers in basically everywhere I’ve worked. I don’t mind making a 10+ mile trip each way twice a day, but not if it means I get to sit there at work smelly and gross the entire day.

2. The ingrained sense of “fuck bikers” that most people feel in the US. I mean, go on any public forum and ask people what they think of bicyclists riding their bikes on the road, where we are legally allowed to do. You will be met with so much vitriol. People will literally tell you they hope you get ran over and die because you deserve it.

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It's not the sweat that stinks, it's the bacteria living in your sweat, which takes hours to foment. If you take a shower and wash it off before you leave in the morning, the ride isn't going to make you smell. It's sitting around all day with damp pits that causes the smell.

I bike to work every day (10km each way) in Victoria BC, and people are dicks here. You're definitely a second class citizen as a biker. I had a guy that lives on my street that basically did everything except run me over less than 500 meters from my house. I see him regularly and he still did it.

Fuck (some) bikers.

I lived for a while in one of the most bike-friendly cities and have several occasions burned into my memory where I very nearly killed a cyclist not using courtesy, common sense, or most often following the law. A few examples: riding on the sidewalk crossing the street at high speed having not stopped at all, riding the wrong way down a one way street at night with no lights, passing me on the right when I'm stopped in a right turn lane with my signal on, and many many occasions of running red lights trusting cars with right of way will slow down enough to leave room.

There are lots of bikers who have much to say about traffic laws, but only the ones that empower them while breaking every law that might require more energy or delay. It is frustrating when traffic laws go largely unenforced (and very gratifying when they do).

While it was never a daily-commute I rather liked biking around the city myself, and I get that it's frustrating for both cars and bikes themselves to share the road. But with many on bikes with the attitude of "fuck you I have the legal right to be here AND the rules don't apply to me" acted out, the response isn't really all that unfair (and crazies taking it too far isn't unexpected).

It's hard to find anyone in a public forum focusing on the best way to share the road where sharing doesn't selfishly mean "you sharing with me".

Guess how many car drivers I've almost killed on my bike?

*note: it wasn't at all because they were following the rules of the road.

> The ingrained sense of “fuck bikers” that most people feel in the US.

As a child, I would regularly take 10-20 mile bike rides for fun. That continued up until I went off to college.

When I started driving a car, bikers didn't bother me, because we lived out in the countryside and they're easy to drive by, and even in nearby larger cities bikers were pretty rare, and sensible.

Then I moved to a large metro city. I'm tempted to say that's where my disdain of bikers began, but that's not right. It's not disdain at all, it's fear.

Compared to the car drivers around me, bikers are wildly unpredictable. Car drivers aren't totally predictable, that's how bad bikers are around here.

Riding through red lights "because it's too much work" to stop and start up again. Switching between riding on sidewalks and roads with no warning. Cutting across lanes and oncoming traffic with little to no warning. Swinging in and out of bike lanes with no warning. Riding between lanes of cars waiting at a traffic light.

Rules of the road exist for a reason, and bikers who stick to them are fine by me. I definitely don't believe anyone deserves to get hit, but it's hard to have the same amount of empathy for a group that collectively flouts the very things that are meant to keep them from getting hit.

> I mean, go on any public forum and ask people what they think of bicyclists riding their bikes on the road, where we are legally allowed to do.

To be fair, there just is no good way to share a 40mph thoroughfare between bikers and cars. Most of the Northern European countries get away with sharing by having MUCH slower roads.

Bikers need their own dedicated lanes that don't interact with automobile traffic.

Our town has put in several bike lanes, and they just seem like asking to get run over at intersections from people turning right. I would feel super uncomfortable riding in one I think. I know the sidewalk is technically not for biking on, but it feels much safer for everyone involved.

>the sidewalk is technically not for biking on

It's generally illegal to bike on the sidewalk, and less safe.

A family member got a fairly serious concussion being hit by a cyclist on a sidewalk.

> It's generally illegal to bike on the sidewalk, and less safe.

It has some safety issues, but the legality is a mixed bag; here's a summary for just the East Bay (of the SF Bay Area).

https://bikeeastbay.org/SidewalkCycling

The safest place to cycle, among 40 mph traffic, is in the middle of the lane where it is 100% obvious to everyone driving that you are there.

Now tell that to random people and they will get angry and upset and wish you harm.

It seems like the problem isn’t the lack of bicycle infrastructure, it’s the ingrained culture.

It's also a problem with people not being smart enough to pass someone on a bike, which causes everyone in cars anger. I can't wait for cars to be not operated by humans. It will be safer for everyone.

The "fuck bikers" depends a lot on what city you're in. In some places cars go out of their way to make room for cyclists. At times in Boulder I've thought that at times cars can be too polite towards cyclists.

Similar attitude to cyclists in Australia, especially in rural areas.

A shower is nice but unnecessary; a flannel is sufficient.

eBikes make a really big difference for #1

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