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Comment by mdorazio | Hacker News Reader

Alright, I'm going to say it - this guy is just a dick and not helping. The majority of the videos on his channel are of him rolling up on stationary cars and giving himself a justice boner because he caught a driver using their phone. The equivalent to me as a frequent pedestrian would be to stand at a stop sign in the neighborhood and claim victory when I catch a cyclist failing to completely stop at the stop sign, or (frequently) failing to yield to pedestrians.

I'm all for cyclists recording video for actual safety issues since it's demonstrably a big problem, but this kind of behavior just makes cyclists look bad.

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I’m a cyclist and a pedestrian. I have been nearly killed by drivers using their phones several times. I have never had my life endangered by a cyclist rolling through a stop sign. They are not the same.

A cyclist slammed into an 8 year old kid at my neighborhood (through a stop sign no less!) and the kid had to go to the hospital. So......

Right, and see how you remember that? He had to go to the hospital. In the car situation, the kid is dead.

this is a really shite position to take. sure, i'm still threatening you with injury because i'm just too important to slow down or even stop for you, but try messing with the other guy!

Haha, I suppose I didn't think it would be interpreted that way. Car-ped collisions are frequent and deadly, cycle-ped injuries are rare and less deadly, but the attention devoted on this board is not in proportion. That's strange to me.

On the other hand, I've almost been seriously injured by cyclists speeding down the sidewalk. Someone a few years ago actually was killed: https://www.delawareonline.com/story/news/local/2016/03/24/s...

But to continue the comparison, how would it work if it was a car speeding down the sidewalk?

And people bike on sidewalks because the roads are unsafe. The roads are unsafe because cars are intrinsically unsafe machines.

Whereas with cars, the last sentence is "someone a few hours/minutes ago actually was killed". Nobody claimed that bicycles never cause bad accidents.

Actually no! A kid got hit at the same stop sign with a car. (everybody runs the stop sign in question in our neighborhood, it's fairly deep in the subdivision and no real way for a cop to stalk it without being noticed, and about 90 percent of the subdivision has to go through it to get anywhere) I remember stopping and waiting till his parents came, when i saw a kid crying on the road.

He didnt actually have to go to the hospital and went home that night (parents took him to urgent care and he had nothing broken and no concussion).

Kid who got hit with the bike had a hospital stay though.

I tell my own kids to stay the hell away from that stop sign now.

Haha! Well, I'm glad he's well!

Where I live it is illegal to not stop at a stop sign while riding a bike.

The law protects others as well as the person running the stop sign without stopping.

I find it fascinating how often I see cyclists with no helmet on traveling 15+ mph through a stop sign without stopping.

Don't worry about the helmet, it's not your problem.

As for "stopping", what you think of it depends on how you perceive laws should be taken. Are laws something that should be enforced "to the letter" each and every time a violation is spotted? Or are they a matter of judgement for enforcement officers?

In the vast majority of cases, they're a matter of judgement. This is why there is virtually NO RISK for me as a cyclist to proceed through a red light literally in front of police cars.

There are good reasons for cyclists to NOT stop at every intersection. One big reason is, actually, safety. Car-bike accidents almost always happen at intersections. In many cases, it's best for cyclists to get through the intersection before the mass of cars starts moving again. This way they can get through the intersection, position themselves safely, and gain enough speed so as not be an annoyance on the other side of the intersection. Sure, the cyclist has to fully aware of cross-traffic and if they get smacked, it's their fault. But the sense of outrage that some motorists feel when cyclists proceed through an intersection before them is akin to a toddler-tantrum IMHO.

I'm not worried about helmets or any of this: you're right, it's not my problem. I'm unlikely to injure a bicyclist.

I just find it interesting when I see someone choose not to wear a helmet. Reasonable people can disagree as to how dangerous it is to run a stop sign in a bicycle but the data is clear on helmets: it's far safer to wear one than not.

I have been hit by cyclists not stopping at a red light or riding bikes dangerously fast on the pavement too many times to have much love for them. Also, the environmental cost of providing shower facilities and water to those who think that riding a bike to work is an extension of Tour de France makes me question the environmental benefits of cycling. (I am not questioning health benefits).

The environmental cost of providing water? Are we going to start charging for water fountains now?

Great, let's charge people for the environmental cost and negative externalities that their method of transportation causes. A driver will be paying 1000x that of a cyclist.

Cyclists routinely go full speed downhill and blow through stop signs without caring about pedestrians at all. At least in Seattle.

How many pedestrians are killed by cyclists and motorists each year in Seattle?

Does it really matter? We're all inconvenienced by stop signs when we have places to go but that doesn't give us the excuse to run them.

I've been hit by a cyclist failing to yield in a crosswalk. I've been hit by zero stationary cars. How are they different?

I'm curious if you cycle a lot. I think those of us that do (much like the guy) are fed up with too many close calls (or actual collisions) and want to try and at least do something about it.

Were those collisions with stationary vehicles in standstill traffic?

Sort of? I've been sideswiped by a car stopped in bumper-to-bumper traffic. Driver yanked the wheel and hit the gas without looking or signaling. I was immediately adjacent to him in a green bike lane and got hit with no warning.

No ticket or warning was issued. I had a camera rolling.

I'm a regular cyclist, and I've never had a close call with a stationary car.

By all means complain about people using their phone when the car's moving. Worrying about stationary vehicles seems like crying wolf to me.

Used to cycle in London all the time. Driving around a lot in Scotland right now.

The problem isn't when the cars are stationary -- it's when they start moving.

When stationary at a traffic light etc there's a hella lot of situational information that's actually quite important. e.g. are there cyclists coming up from behind me? are they on my left or right?

Fiddling with a radio or phone for an entire red light can mean zero situational awareness when setting off.

I've had a very close call with a "stationary" car.

At a junction where the lights filter left, then ahead, then right. I know the sequence well, it's been my walk to work for 15 years. One car stopped in the 'ahead' lane, the lights are red. Roads are otherwise empty, it's 6am. The pedestrian signal has gone red, but I know it's still 'safe' because the left filter's next, and the left lane's empty.

I received a glancing blow from the car in the 'ahead' lane that went (ahead) when the left filter went green. They blew a red light, and nearly took a pedestrian with them.

Being distracted at a red light is an issue, because you look up from your phone, see the green, and have a small panic because you're "late" - and react to the green light, short-circuiting the sensible thought processes like .. is that green for my lane. is there someone in front of me. Is it actually safe to enter the junction. Just "oops, go".

(and yes, that was a legal cross for me, "jaywalking" doesn't exist here - humans have more rights than cars.)

I've watched quite a few of his videos and observed it myself. Endless people claiming they never do it while moving, but it's an outright lie. Besides, phone use while stationary creates congestion since it slows reaction to the traffic signal by several seconds for every driver doing it.

I used to cycle all the time, and the only times a stationary car endangered me was when the driver failed to check before opening their door. That's my problem here - this guy isn't catching drivers on phones while moving.

Both of the examples that you provided are generally way less dangerous. Distracted driving is a common cause of deadly accidents. So I’d argue your examples are hardy equivalent. Using your phone in a stationary queue likely correlates with use while moving, which is significantly harder to capture.

> Using your phone in a stationary queue likely correlates with use while moving

I don't agree with this statement whatsoever.

I Used to cycle 150km a week for 10 years from one end of Cambridge to the other in rush hour. I agree with everything you said. The biggest danger to me was usually other cyclists going either too slow or generally being unpredictable.

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