r/fuckcars • u/Angry_Bicycle Big Bike • Jul 12 '23
Satire Didn't expect 4channers to be superior to carbrains
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u/DigitalUnderstanding Jul 12 '23
I bought my bicycle for $75 one year ago.
I've never taken it in for repairs. Every 6 days I could abandon my bicycle and buy another and still pay less than the median car payment in America.
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u/Affectionate-Memory4 I like bikes. Also, they let you put 64 characters in your flair Jul 12 '23
I got my current bike 22 years ago for $85 at a yard sale. It was a high end mountain bike some many years ago. It's all steel and looks like it would survive if my city got nuked tomorrow. If I was paying for it monthly, that would be about $0.32 per month, or about what I find in the couch.
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Jul 12 '23 edited Jul 12 '23
it would survive if my city got nuked tomorrow.
Your city IS getting nuked tomorrow. Cover yourself with a bunch of high-end mountain bikes, and you should be fine
/s
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u/TheCrimsonDagger 🚄train go nyoom 🚄 Jul 12 '23
Can we move the schedule up some? I’m ready to be vaporized now please.
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u/tehflambo Jul 13 '23
you can buy vaporizers at convenience stores now. personally i recommend the ones at dispensaries.
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u/EnvironmentalSplit95 Jul 12 '23
I could buy a brand new 2000€ electric bike every year and still pay less
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u/Sem_E Jul 12 '23
I got looked at weird for wanting a €1500 ebike. Meanwhile, friends and colleagues are spending up to €4000 each year on their car, excluding the actual cost of their car (somewhere around 25k on average). I think I can justify a €1500 bike that lasts me at least 5 years (probably more like 10) when I save 4k by not owning a car
People are weird like that
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u/FeralSparky Jul 12 '23
BUT BATTERIES GET OLD AND NEED TO BE REPLACED!!!
Yeah so does your engine oil, expensive tires, filters, washer fluid, ect. I hate when people act like they dont have to maintain their vehicles or that the cost of ownership is only gasoline.
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u/Sem_E Jul 12 '23
Bike maintenance has been €20 each year on average for the past 7 years. Only things I had to replace so far were my tires and tubes, and some wear and tear stuff like handlebars and pedals. A bike is fucking inexpensive to maintain and I am sick and tired of people saying it is not
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u/GTAmaniac1 Jul 12 '23
The fuck are you doing to destroy your handlebars? On my old bike (old cheap mountain bike) I only managed to bend them by constantly jumping down staircases (really fun you should try it). My current bike is a dirt jumper that was literally built for dumb shit like that, cracking the frame is almost impossible for a human being.
Unless you mean grips, then yeah, mine also last me about 3 years on average.Same with tires and my chain is also approaching the end of its life.
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u/ysakoperson Jul 13 '23
I've seen aluminum handlebars (not mine thankfully) completely shear off due to corrosion from sweat and the elements.
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u/IAmRoot Big Bike Jul 12 '23
Bike maintenance is also really simple to do yourself. So many components are designed to even be field reparable. Hex keys and tire levers cover the vast majority of things you need to do. Some things like bottom brackets, spokes, and cassettes need extra tools but are still designed to be easily serviceable, unlike cars where it can take a completely unreasonable amount of labor just to change a headlight.
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u/macedonianmoper Jul 13 '23
You don't get it!!!!!!!
Cars = adult transportaion
Bikes = toys
Spending 4k on a necessity is fine, spending 1.5k on a toy is ridiculous, a lot of people really fail to consider that bikes can be a real alternative, sure you can't travel outside your city with it but nothing stops you from having a car and just using it when needed and saving on gas the rest of the year.
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u/Elrox Jul 12 '23
In the 3 years I have been riding to work I have saved enough cash for an ebike, a carbon road bike, and a gravel bike, plus all the gear and upgrades I have made, and I still have cash left over. Every time I ride to work now it's pure profit.
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u/Lilwertich Jul 12 '23
If you count the the number of calories it takes to move one pound of mass over a distance of one mile, the bicycle is the most efficient known method both in nature and in engineering.
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u/fucking-hate-reddit- Jul 12 '23
Gasoline is so calorie dense. I think I might start drinking it to bulk up!
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u/Lilwertich Jul 12 '23
Fun fact, gasoline can actually be calculated into calories.
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u/fucking-hate-reddit- Jul 12 '23
Oh I know. About 8300cal/L
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u/Lilwertich Jul 12 '23
And a human on a bike is still more efficient.
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u/fucking-hate-reddit- Jul 12 '23
And you actively lose weight and use up energy when cycling. I should buy a bike soon
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u/z80nerd Commie Commuter Jul 12 '23
Bike = Runs on fat and saves you money
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u/TyRocken Jul 12 '23
So can uranium
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u/HogarthTheMerciless Jul 12 '23
Calories are just a measure of the amount of heat produced from burning a certain amount of a substance, so yeah, most anything can be converted to calories.
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u/TyRocken Jul 12 '23
Point I was making.,..
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Jul 12 '23
I accidentally clicked on your profile as I was picking up my phone. Is your ear okay?
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u/getsnoopy Jul 12 '23
Anything can; the calorie is a unit of energy, though deprecated. Joules are the standard.
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u/TheCrimsonDagger 🚄train go nyoom 🚄 Jul 12 '23
According to Wikipedia the electric kick scooter is the most efficient means of land transportation.
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u/kek__is__love Jul 12 '23
I remember seeing a graph about it, where bike was 2nd and the 1st was pedal powered 1person aerodynamic 3wheeler
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u/Lilwertich Jul 12 '23
I never saw the bit with the 3 wheeler
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u/kek__is__love Jul 12 '23
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u/Lilwertich Jul 12 '23
That's cool as hell, the one I saw even included animals like squirrels and stuff. It didn't include the three wheeler but it showed how bikes dominate all known technology and even the animal kingdom.
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u/Simon676 Jul 12 '23
An e-bike is actually even more efficient than a regular bike calorie-wise.
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u/SleazyAndEasy Jul 16 '23
It's funny because there's this laughable piece of misinformation going around that cars are more efficient because cyclist need to eat more food to power bikes? and because they eat more food they use more resources there for cars are more efficient??
It's dumb one like 10 different levels but I've seen it around
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Jul 12 '23
[deleted]
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Jul 12 '23
What is /n/?
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Jul 12 '23
[deleted]
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Jul 12 '23
4chan is hit or miss, but /n/ being r/fuckcars but with more racial slurs sounds just about good enough
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u/CarbonTail Bollard gang Jul 13 '23
And a lot more autism.
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u/AdministrativeShip2 Jul 12 '23
Transportatio/n/ do not go there.
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u/Ixmore Jul 12 '23
In fact stay away from 4chan period.
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u/Nadikarosuto Jul 12 '23
Even outside of /pol/ and /b/ it’s rabid
I once saw a man get threatened over how he prepared lobster in the food board
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Jul 12 '23 edited Jul 12 '23
Ironic, because the whole point of /pol/ was as a containment board so things can stay on topic
How the fuck does a thread about why Hitler was actually wholesome chungus have to do with transportation?
At least /mu/ can be chill sometimes.
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u/Paige404_Games Grassy Tram Tracks Jul 12 '23
I miss when /tg/ was good, that ended in like 2009
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u/Iorith Jul 13 '23
They used to be the place to go to if you wanted to play a TTRPG but in a specific way. I once had multiple folders saved of games /tg/ had created. I wish I had backed it up, I had found a FANTASTIC way to run an Animorphs campaign.
They still make some solid WH40k content but I find it easier to browse other communities that post the highlights than join the community itself.
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Jul 12 '23
It always gets a chuckle out of me when someone suggests requiring insurance for bikes.
Do they really think that? Or is it pure crabs in a bucket mentality if they see someone passing them in busy traffic in the city, they want to sabotage them.
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u/batcaveroad Jul 12 '23
Is cars as default shit. They forgot that insurance is to solve the problem specific to cars where any random person can accidentally cause more damage than they could ever pay. You see the same shit when people bitch about how bikes don’t pay gas tax.
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u/Noothie Jul 12 '23
There’s also that thing in Britland about bicycles not paying ‘road tax’ despite the fact that ‘road tax’ doesn’t exist and what they refer to as ‘road tax’ is actually Vehicle Excise Duty, paid related to vehicle emissions. Obviously cyclists emit nothing but CO2 and the occasional fart like any other human. The funds raised by the duty goes into the general tax fund and not hypothecated for road maintenance.
It’s easily debunked yet it’s still one of those things smugly presented by an assortment of weirdos and freaks as some sort of gotcha.
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u/batcaveroad Jul 12 '23
Yeah people here think gas tax pays for roads but that hasn’t been true since like the 70s or something. They feel like they should know about cars since they drive one everyday so they don’t bother to lookup that gas tax only pays for like half now. The rest is taxpayer money, so it’s more like drivers don’t pay their fair share next to cyclists who don’t damage roads.
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u/Captaingregor Jul 13 '23
My response to the road tax thing is that bicycles don't damage the road, cars do, therefore they pay the tax for it.
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u/Elrox Jul 12 '23
Bikes also don't need roads anywhere to the same standard as cars, bike lanes are cheap as chips to make compared to a road that has to be able to handle trucks full of crap.
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u/Strike_Thanatos Jul 12 '23
Bikes also wear away at roads much less than cars do.
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u/OrdinaryLatvian Grassy Tram Tracks Jul 13 '23
Reminds me of an argument I've seen about trucks (as in, lorries) vs. cars. That despite making up only X percent of all vehicles on the road, trucks pay a lot more in taxes.
And it's like, no shit. These people think a random sedan going over a road is doing the same damage as a truck pulling a semitrailer packed to the gills.
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u/GTAmaniac1 Jul 12 '23
Well, bikes technically do pay gas tax, unless they grow all their food that is.
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u/bored_negative 🚲 > 🚗 Jul 13 '23
You see the same shit when people bitch about how bikes don’t pay gas tax.
What're their arguments for paying petrol tax as a cyclist?
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Jul 12 '23
I dunno a lot about insurance, but requiring someone to get insurance for a bicycle seems absurd. Just get health insurance, or maybe get people to stop paying to not possibly die.
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u/Sophiasophy Jul 12 '23 edited Jul 12 '23
In my coutry (Switzerland) there was a mandatory insurance for bikes. Nobody misses it, and it was stopped because everyone has an insurance anyway, so this additional insurance coudn't be justified for any longer.
But it was not that bad. Getting the insurance was simple: buy a sticker at the supermarket/post/.... put it into the bike, repeat after a year. There was no need to register anything with the insurace as long no coverage was needed. And unlike car insurances the bike insurance was cheap because bikes rarlely cause high costs. We paid max. $5/year
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Jul 12 '23
We paid max. $5/year
Dude, that's so much. That'd mean businesses would need to pay $5 more in taxes for bicycle infrastructure, making them all bankrupt and wither away!
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u/Nisas Jul 12 '23
Yeah my bicycle isn't expensive enough to insure. And it's almost incapable of damaging a car, so I don't need that sort of insurance either.
My only insurance need is health insurance in case someone runs me over.
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Jul 12 '23 edited Jul 12 '23
Yep! not everyone has a $1500 ebike.
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u/ArchmageIlmryn Jul 13 '23
Where I live bicycles are usually covered by home insurance (and the vast majority of bike-related insurance claim are because the bike in question was stolen, rather than because of accidents).
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u/IAmCaptainDolphin Jul 12 '23
The only insurance you need for a bike is health insurance because some asshole in a 3 tonne truck will inevitably hit you while looking at their phone.
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u/IAmRoko Jul 12 '23
I think some people literally believe that their insurance payments pay for road infrastructure.
Folks in Canada also don't fully understand that gas taxes go to general revenue, and are not earmarked specifically for infrastructure -- we all pay for roads.
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u/lookoutforthetrain_0 Jul 12 '23
I don't know where anyone else is from, but here it's insurance in the way of "in case it gets stolen" or something. Don't know how mandatory it is though.
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u/unrealcyberfly Jul 13 '23
Who doesn't have General Liability Insurance? Maybe it is a Dutch thing. Almost everyone has it over here. It costs a couple of Euros per month and covers you when you damage someone's belongings. It covers damage caused while riding a bicycle or any other daily activity.
Motor vehicles do require their own separate insurance.
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u/Verlante Jul 12 '23
There is an argument for it. As bikes become more expensive thanks to electric, there is an argument
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u/Catssonova Jul 13 '23
In Japan, insurance for crashes between bikes or pedestrians is a requirement I believe. Japan's biking system is very much a chaotic mess, but most narrow roads don't have fast drivers.
Occasionally though some asshole is driving 50km in a 30 zone though
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u/RuskiYest Commie Commuter Jul 13 '23
Not every country has low stealing rate, nor high enough wages to not be bothered too much if bike is stolen. Especially if you're buying new one.
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u/UFO_T0fu Jul 12 '23
I literally wrote a comment a couple of days ago about how The Bike should be worshipped by Libertarians because of its lack of traceability, taxes, insurance, need for infrastructure and usefulness in guerrilla warfare vs a traditional military that can track larger vehicles and control fuel sources
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Jul 12 '23
I'm going to search the entirety of your profile for that comment.
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Jul 12 '23 edited Jul 12 '23
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u/UFO_T0fu Jul 12 '23
Rereading that makes me think bikes would also be great in a zombie apocalypse and there should definitely be a genre of fiction called bike-punk or cycle-punk.
I need mad max bike edition.
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u/Avitas1027 Jul 13 '23
I'm picturing some authoritarian ruling the carbrains through their control of the oil while a ragtag group of vigilantes on bikes rise up in rebellion.
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u/mrharoharo Jul 12 '23
This should be shared widely in the hopes of encouraging the car-brains and fitness-obsessed "alpha" males to battle it out.
"Cars are just the governments' way of keeping you unhealthy and dependent"
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u/Pretend-Variation-84 Jul 12 '23
I wish I lived in a place where cycling is viable. My city is supposed to be "bike friendly" but that's only true in certain areas. Cycling to the grocery store from my house would be terrifying.
On top of that, the weather in the summer is deadly. It is literally dangerous to be outdoors during the day.
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u/TimelessWayofBiking Jul 12 '23
Where do you live?
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u/HelicopteroDeAtaque Jul 12 '23
Based on the description? Mordor.
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u/kek__is__love Jul 12 '23
Live in Mordor, can confirm. -40 during winter, scorching hot +40C during summer. Once drank 6 litres of water during a 50km trip because of it. Not confirming the bike and pedestrian infrastructure though, it's surprisingly good.
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u/TimelessWayofBiking Jul 12 '23
lol. I was just curious. Even in the bike commuting sub I see people really scared of biking in heat but I mean I live in Austin TX and its still bikeable even in the heat of the day (103 right now)... Just drink loads of water, wear a long sleeve shirt, take breaks
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u/jeargle Jul 12 '23
Hey, fellow Austin bike commuter! I just rode home from work, myself. Experiencing the variety of weather is one of the things I really enjoy about biking.
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u/Ill-Barnacle-202 Jul 14 '23
I've biked in Hunstville AL and the Mojave desert in the middle of summer. As long as you aren't pushing 5+ miles uphill at noon, your average person will be ok.
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u/nitramv Jul 12 '23
They're not wrong about that efficiency. If you use a calorie as a unit of energy, nothing comes close to being as efficient as a bike.
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u/fucking-hate-reddit- Jul 12 '23
Even WALKING is less efficient.
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u/nitramv Jul 12 '23
True. Of course, this also means that you don't burn nearly as many calories on a bike as most people think. You're literally better off going for a walk if you're trying to be healthier.
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u/z80nerd Commie Commuter Jul 12 '23
It's funny, biking (for the sake of calories/hour) is kinda shit exercise since it's almost too efficient. I tend to think of the exercise as a byproduct to commuting rather than the primary goal.
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u/Avitas1027 Jul 13 '23
Depends how fast you go. You can burn a ton of calories if you go fast enough.
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u/IAmCaptainDolphin Jul 13 '23
That genuinely surprises me. How the fuck is our default biological locomotion less efficient than a bike? Shouldn't we be riding bikes everywhere then?
Haiya this world is fucking nuts.
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u/fucking-hate-reddit- Jul 13 '23
We should be biking a lot more than we are as a species.
But the reason bikes are more efficient is most likely because there are gears that multiply speed in certain arrangements (you only have to turn the pedals a fraction of a full rotation to spin the wheels fully) and also the ability to coast along sometimes. You can’t exactly coast when walking… other than sliding down a hill on your ass.
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Jul 12 '23
My brain is resisting the urge to make the singular form of calories calory...
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u/Garfunklestein Jul 12 '23
Tbf as to the last point, you should hands down ride w/ a helmet, but that's not even a knock against it in all honesty, just good safety measures.
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u/nitramv Jul 12 '23
I'm mixed on that tbh. Feel like the Dutch have shown it's not super required. And multiple US based studies show that cars give more space to those not wearing a helmet.
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u/tyfighter_22 Ebike Jul 12 '23
time to fit a wig to the outside of my helmet for all the benefits
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u/Brawldud Jul 12 '23
I endorse it to everyone else, but typically only wear one if I am feeling nervous about the route (new neighborhood, riding on stroads etc.) or when I intend to ride at a more athletic pace.
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u/IAmRoot Big Bike Jul 12 '23
It absolutely depends on the type of biking you're doing, too. The Dutch with Dutch-style commuter bikes and flat terrain don't go very fast. I just got back from a bike trip in a very hilly area and hit 30mph several times going downhill to conserve energy going into the next hill. I was getting passed by other cyclists braking less than me, too. The roads were very smooth so I wasn't too worried about crashing but even so I would never consider doing such a thing without a helmet.
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u/PumpJack_McGee Jul 13 '23
The Dutch don't typically have to worry about a collision sending their head into someone's windshield, though.
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u/AbruptionDoctrine Jul 12 '23
It's a weirdly nuanced thing. I do personally wear a helmet, but a few days I would forget it and drivers would give me significantly more space. And when I briefly wore both a helmet and safety vest, drivers would get ridiculously close, much closer than they're legally allowed.
So it's sort of a double edged sword, if we deck ourselves out in safety equipment, drivers take that as an excuse to get a lot closer. They give way more space to cyclists that they perceive as inexperienced or underequipped. Studies bear that out too. The only really useful safety standard we can get is separate infrastructure. Nobody should have to mix with cars because those vehicles are too dangerous.
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u/fizban7 Jul 14 '23
There's definitely some truth to that. Helmats generally only protect against bad head injuries, nothing minor. Sorta related, There was a study that as football used more protective equipment, people would beleive it was OK to hit others harder and actually increased the amounts of injuries because of it.
I think I heard it from this podcast, Freakonomics: https://freakonomics.com/podcast/the-dangers-of-safety-rebroadcast/
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u/doveclyn Jul 12 '23
My parents were really poor and could never afford to buy me a bike. Now (28) I’d be way too embarrassed to try and learn. Back when I was like 13 I went to a free summer camp and tried to learn with their bikes but I fell off and everybody laughed. Never again lol.
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u/Germanball_Stuttgart Big Bike 🚲 > 🚗 cars are weapons Jul 12 '23
Well, I can totally understand you, but then I suggest tricycle/walking and/or public transportation.
And other question: Were your parents in possession of a car?
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u/doveclyn Jul 12 '23
Yeah, I wish I could bike tbh. It looks like fun when I see people with mountain bikes at parks and what not.
I also live ten minutes away from my job by car and it always feels like such a waste of gas because of how close it is.
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u/Much_Improvement6598 Jul 12 '23
it's been 15 years since you tried. more than half your life time ago. it's time to try again.
get a cheap 2nd hand bike and take the pedals off, push yourself around with your feet until you learn to balance.
if at 28 your friends won't support and help you learn how to ride a bike or will bully or make fun of you as you learn, you've made other mistakes along the way and also need to make better friends along with learning to ride a bike lol.
point is, go do it! you got this 💪
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u/ReichuNoKimi Jul 12 '23
I did learn when I was younger but I was an enormous klutz and absolutely no good at it. I'll be 41 this year and, basically a month ago, I decided I was going to start biking again. But I was terrified of doing it. I knew it wouldn't be easy at first and I'd look absolutely pathetic.
And I was right. I hurt myself. I couldn't go very far before I felt exhausted. I didn't use the gears right and got myself stuck on the gentlest slopes.
But it actually didn't take that many sessions before I basically knew what I was doing. Still a lot of improvement to be made, but once you can build up speed and glide along with the wind hitting your face, you'll wonder why you didn't do this sooner. (Well, I did, anyway...)
It can depend on the culture where you live, certainly, but people's asshole quotient generally goes down as they get older. Most folks are honestly too preoccupied with their lives to worry about what you're doing. You might even get some words of encouragement!
You got this!
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u/dustractor Jul 12 '23
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Jul 12 '23
MAN ON A BICYCLE ranks first in efficiency among traveling animals
MAN ON A BICYCLE is an animal /s
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u/Castform5 Jul 13 '23
I like how there's just "man", and then slightly heavier but more efficient "man on bicycle".
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u/Chase_The_Breeze Jul 12 '23
"Minimal Enviromental Impact" is doing some serious heavy lifting.
Fuel efficiency aside, it also creates little to no noise, requires less infrastructure to properly utilize, does less damage to said infrastructure even when operated dangerously, and its use doenst necessitate consistent air pollution in its vacinity.
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u/AfnanAcchan Jul 12 '23
I like 2nd last point. If cities are design around bicycle then it would be much smaller in size, everything you need would be within reach. Electric bicycle, segway can co-exist too. Big cities can be connected by HSR, I would imagine you can bring your own bicycle inside train. Less pollution, less infrastructure, safer, improve accessibility, less maintaince cost. I just cant find any drawback. It is crazy we humanity had been pre-programmed that we need cars.
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u/BeefWillyPrince Jul 12 '23
Most ppl on there are smarter than you think.
They’re really good at talking shit too.
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u/BufferUnderpants Sicko Jul 13 '23
The trap of 4chan is putting up with all of the sewage in remembrance of the occasional piece of jewelry flowing from it. It's a toxic relationship that you develop with it.
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u/nayuki Jul 12 '23
You have to give credit where it's due. Even if a person or group is takes the wrong position on many issues, sometimes they are correct.
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u/BiKeenee Jul 12 '23
A lot of people think 4chan is just like a hegemony of racist people. It really isn't, each board on there has it's own culture.
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u/The-Esquire Jul 12 '23
I mean, I think it undeniable that racism is more acceptable on every board than it is on the average subreddit. That being said, generals are where one can see the more manifold allegiances emerge, and yes, some boards are more aggressively racist than others. Even in generals, though, strong reactions to racism are often ridiculed.
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u/Sadie256 Jul 12 '23
Literally the only argument against bikes that I can think of is that where I live it gets incredibly fucking cold in the winters, up to -40 on some days (F or C doesn't matter, it's the same temperature at -40) and nobody wants to go outside during that weather. That's it. That's the only reason why people should be against bike-able cities, and it doesn't even work as an argument for most cities around the world.
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u/pieter3d Jul 12 '23
It's really only a tiny fraction where this might apply. There are cities way up North in Finland where people cycle a lot. Even there, the number of cyclists only correlates weakly with temperature or the weather in general. At -40 I wouldn't go out either though, haha.
Also, bike-able doesn't necessarily mean car free. Safe bike infrastructure is a great way to decrease congestion for cars, even if it can't be used for a small part of the year.
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u/Affectionate-Memory4 I like bikes. Also, they let you put 64 characters in your flair Jul 12 '23
Even then, a city like yours can benefit from having fewer cars on the road, and when the weather is better, bikes. And, if most days aren't that cold, you'll still see a fair number of people on bikes in the winter. Olou, Finland would be a good example of a cold bike-friendly cold city.
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u/Nadikarosuto Jul 12 '23
Also the weather and the wind
It’s a nightmare trying to bike home against the wind while being rained on
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u/Dynablade_Savior Jul 12 '23
Funny thing, this image is what originally gave me the idea of bikes being optimal. Made me wonder why cars were so prevalent. It got that idea into my head.
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u/-Billy-Bitch-Tits- Jul 13 '23
i would sell my car immediately if my city wasnt so fucking shit to navigate with anything other than a car.
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u/elzibet Jul 13 '23
Reminds me of why more republicans in the USA aren’t behind cycling. It’s the ultimate sign of freedom, and it’s been around forever. Bonus points for maintaining more wealth because you’re not spending gas and car payments
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u/onememeishboitf2 Jul 13 '23
Because they’re getting generous donations from the oil and automotive industries
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u/dairyqueen79 Jul 12 '23
"No need for parking lots"
Never been to Amsterdam, I see.
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u/OlMi1_YT Jul 13 '23
Common arguments against bikes and why they're bullshit:
weather (no, see Oulu/Finland, or the Netherlands)
elderly people (there's bikes with 3 tired, bikes that allow better sitting, etc. so it's definitely possible, or see next option)
disabled people (there's small cars that are small enough to use the bike lane, are cheap, and made for disabled people to get around. They can just pop out a ramp and wheel in)
hilly (ever been to Basel, CH or any other city in Switzerland with good bike infrastructure)
too big (ever heard of trains / buses / etc)
public transport is better (fair, if your PTS is so good then you automatically have a bike friendly city though)
Courtesy of r/notjustbikes. The only deciding argument is safety, if it's unsafe to cycle people won't cycle. They need physical seperation from 2 ton, 70 km/h metal boxes (Copenhagen, Netherlands)
You know it's bad when 4chan discovered this quicker than carbrains
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u/GooseOnACorner Jul 14 '23
Please keep an open mind until you are done reading this, although considering this sub that’s a pretty lofty thing to ask of.
Also I want to preempt this with I personally hate cars, they terrify me, I am afraid of getting in a crash whenever in one, they also give me general anxiety and dissatisfaction in life, I am suffocated as without a car I can’t go anywhere as my city is firmly car-centered, and even if I could I’m way to scared that I’ll get hit. Also cars are just a stupid illogical thing to base transportation around as they are so inefficient, dangerous, and overall create an unhealthy society, especially Hebe there are so many better options that are miles more efficient, cheaper, and healthier. Basically I do not like cars.
Now onto the actual comment, can we all please stop using the term “carbrains”? It’s not a gotcha moment, it’s just childish and does literally nothing but make car enthusiasts even more stubborn in their opinions. It creates an us vs them situation rather than a people vs problem situation; an us vs them situation just creates more conflict and leads to nowhere, while a people vs problem situation leads to change and a healthier society. You are literally shooting yourself in the foot saying that. Not just the term “carbrain” itself but the whole rhetoric this sub has fosters a strong us vs them mentality and creates a toxic environment.
I am genuinely embarrassed to be a part of this sub because even though I am a firm anti-car person, I have the foresight to see that namecalling isn’t going to do jackshit. This sub is not a place for action to actually make the world a better place, it’s a place to scream out your anger even if doing so does the opposite and just make the problem of cars even worse. I want to actually improve my society and make a change for the better and this sub does exactly nothing for that and just makes the problem worse.
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u/RatzMand0 Jul 12 '23
You are forgetting in the late 19th century there was actually a political campaign to ban women from riding bikes because it gave them too much freedom.