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Comment by Trasmatta | Hacker News Reader

On the other side, I live in NYC, and as a pedestrian I've actually had way more bad experiences with cyclists than drivers. Especially now with the advent of e-bikes. They move so fast, and most ignore all lights and traffic laws. I've nearly been barreled over by cyclists probably a dozen times, and feel like getting hit eventually is almost inevitable.

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Obviously there are reckless cyclists, but I see that NYC helpfully posts public (and up to date!) data about collisions[1] which shows that cars and trucks are far more dangerous to pedestrians (presumably even that too-fast e-bike and rider don't have much mass compared to an SUV...)

1: https://www1.nyc.gov/site/nypd/stats/traffic-data/traffic-da...

I've seen videos of traffic in NYC. Pretty much, everybody is breaking every conceivable law -- drivers, cyclists, pedestrians -- constrained only by the laws of physics and human / machine performance. Naturally this is coming from a non resident, so I can't speak from experience whether there are local customs involved that keep people safe.

It's not qualitatively different in my town, just less crowding so that people have less of a reason to break the rules. But still, for each modality, the rules broken are based solely on opportunity, convenience, and in some cases self preservation. For instance, cars can exceed the speed limit but bikes can't. Bikes can blow through stop signs because they can. Getting out of intersections quickly reduces the chances of getting hit. Pedestrians walk in the bike and traffic lanes when convenient to do so. Enforcement is triggered by enough people complaining, or a preponderance of accidents.

This. Totally this. And I think it applies to basically all human beings all over the world. We just cluster by transport type and hate the other TT person because they are in a different TT.

I think we also tend to adapt ourselves to the rules that we routinely break, but are surprised when we see others break their own rules. Driving a car in traffic becomes our baseline for what we think is safe.

It might feel dangerous but actual fatalities are very rare. So keep your eyes on the cars!

https://www1.nyc.gov/html/dot/downloads/pdf/nycdot-pedestria...

I'm not concerned about being killed by a cyclist, just getting knocked over. Which could range from being an annoyance to mild or moderate physical injury.

This doesn't have much to do with cyclists but with planning: taking the vast majority of available street area and designating it to cars while letting cyclists and pedestrians share what little remains naturally causes conflict between the two. If you want this to get better demand better, fully separated cycling infrastructure and vote accordingly. (still look out for those bikes until then though, take care!)

If the Netherlands are anything to go off of, thats just due to lack of infrastructure that trains people and helps prevent mixed traffic and conflicts caused by mixed traffic.

Yup, use mixed trails at the park. Cyclists are the worst. I actually have to stop myself from extrapolating that bias and just hating cyclists generally (most are cool).

Not only do they hog the whole road for cars, but then they want to wiz by walkers. I've been yelled at. There was almost a fight once. This boomer jerk could see me for miles ahead, but decided he didn't want to moderate his speed and yell at me instead.

Many cyclists have the attitude that they can do anything, drive at any speed anywhere, and the whole world should just move out of the way for them. It's super infuriating. I do think the park could use some bike only trails, but that's not what they went with.

Also, I repeatedly get annoying comments about walking/running on "the wrong side of the road", however that's simply good pedestrian etiquette (walkers go against the faster traffic). I do make an exception for hills, because that seems much safer; what kind of idiot crashes their bike going UP hill :)

Maybe I'm out of the loop and there's different rules at the park. I know I do listen to music constantly, which can be problematic, and am more careful now... but I see oblivious cyclists on the road all the time. It's annoying, but I never considered that I should just be able to drive however I please, run them off the road, and yell at them.

I just slow down and scoot by them when it's safe. Cyclists should do the same. Get over yourself.

Which park?

I walk with a hiking pole. When not needed (mostly on sidewalks and paved paths) I tuck it under my arm so it pokes behind and to one side at cyclist eye level.

It really incentivises cyclists coming up behind to pass with a safe distance.

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