There is another type of driver, completely void of fear, a driver who has stared into the abyss and become the dragon. And that is the minivan driver. All hope is lost for the minivan driver. First of all, they're driving a minivan, speaks for itself. Second, we're talking about a 20 year old beater minivan held together with duct tape, driven not by fuel but by a sort of vacuum energy, the bleak desolation of it all, of life, nihilism on wheels. If such a vehicle is faced with a game of chicken, the driver won't blink but embrace the mortal transition to nirvana knowing their estate will only lose the market value of 1 beater minivan, about $20 and that death will be a sweet release from their miserable life
Or do you constantly break the law because you claim it's for your safety?
As an avid car and truck driver, I give bicycles the full lane like any other vehicle on the road, and I give them plenty of distance before switching lanes in front of them to mitigate turbulence. I almost never ride my bike on the street, so please let me know if there is anything else I can do to help.
But it's annoying to see every bicycle that I encounter at an intersection, breaking the law. I always wait instead of assuming they are going to stop, because I don't want them crashing into my vehicle.
This is a great example of an internal narrative which you could reframe (if you chose to).
Instead of framing the interaction as "breaking the law" and you protecting your property from the adversarial cyclist, you could instead see each of these as an opportunity for a friendly community gesture of allowing a cyclist to continue on without expending extra energy stopping and starting, plus helping them stay safer through movement (since most cyclists don't have a brake light to signal they are slowing or stopping and can't always use hand signals when navigating situations, and being rear ended is a real concern for bikes).
Either way you're doing the same thing, right? So you can internally decide to view it through a negative or a positive lens. But either way, I'm sure the cyclists you stop and wait for are grateful!
Instead of framing my comment as negative, you could choose to see the positive: I give all bicyclists extra room and ask how I can even do better. Everyone should strive to learn and be safe on the road like this guy!
Note I didn't say it was to protect my property like you assumed. I've seen pictures of nasty crashes and don't want that happening to any bicyclists. Dealing with my insurance is secondary.
Notice that OP tries to make me look bad in his other comment, rather than answering my question on how I can help him and other cyclists.
Yes, because my life depends on it.
Do you follow every single law when you drive? Probably not, because the consequences are far less mortal for you in a truck or car.
I also don't blame rape victims for wearing short skirts.
Thank you for trying to make me look bad instead of answering my question on how I can help bicyclists like you. Unless you think just trying to blindly criticize all car drivers is going to help you.
> blame rape victims
...
I didn't really have to try. You came out of the gate applying your stereotypes at me and your following questions riddled with spite were pretty obvious you don't really GAF. This isn't my first day on the internet.
Dude? I think your emotions are blinding you.
> pretty obvious you don't really GAF.
I tried to ask what I (and other people who drive cars) can do to help make your ride safer...
> This isn't my first day on the internet.
Looking at your username, is this your fourteenth HN account? Is that because your previous ones have been banned?
And as a motorist, motorcyclist, and bicyclist, it's annoying to see drivers break the law, which they statistically do more often than bicyclists per a Danish government study:
* https://politiken.dk/danmark/art7185605/Rygterne-om-cykliste...
* Via: https://electrek.co/2024/01/11/cars-or-bikes-surprising-resu...
Studies out of the UK and Florida have similar results: cyclists either follow the law at the same rate, or better. Motorists breaking the law has been so normalized that most people don't notice it.
I didn't see where the Electrek article mentioned any U.S./Florida study though. I'm inclined to believe that bicyclists still might be better overall compared to car drivers, but perhaps not at the same rate as Denmark.
* https://www.fdot.gov/docs/default-source/research/Completed-...
Do a search for "FDOT-BDV25-977-13" I guess. That study ("Naturalistic bicycling behavior pilot study") is referenced here:
* https://www.nhtsa.gov/sites/nhtsa.gov/files/2023-03/Bicyclis...
But as pickups make up 20ish percent of all passenger vehicles, it's obvious that not all pickup drivers are aggressive or traffic would probably never actually be moving.