Comment on Team Car!
mrgoosmoos@lemmy.ca 5 hours ago
my mindset when biking now is mostly to inconvenience bad drivers as much as possible and ensure that if they hit me it results in as much damage to their car as I can without harming myself.
I will aggressively take my right of way. one of the most common places is a bike crossing nearby where drivers routinely blow the stop line on their red light - I start up as quickly so that if they blow the stop and go into the crossing, I may not be able to stop before crashing into them. I don’t mind my shitty bike taking some damage if it leaves them with a dented door panel. another common occurrence is roundabouts - drivers vastly underestimate the speed at which a bike can navigate a tight roundabout, and they routinely cut me off. unfortunately, I’ve avoided collisions every time that a driver has nearly hit me, because my reaction is to not get hurt. but god damn did I ever want to slam into some of those cars and leave a lasting impression
Sirius006@sh.itjust.works 5 hours ago
I feel you but you only have one fragile body.
I spent months of horror and multiple hospitalisations because I brake too hard on my bike at low speed, didn’t fall but landed too hard on the saddle. My username comes from that horrendous experience.
Of course it was because a car ran a red light, that was hidden by a truck parked like an asshole.
There’s a shitload of studies showing that cars break far more rules than bikes everywhere it has been measured. You don’t have to put your body in the line to make a point.
Please just be safe for your own sake. You certainly deserve it.
mrgoosmoos@lemmy.ca 4 hours ago
thankfully my reflexes still prioritize my own safety, and most times I leave a near collision pissed off at the shitty driver and regretful that I couldn’t leave them a lasting mark. but when I get to the chance to, say, let my cargo bike basket scrape a car that pushed me into the curb, I’m gonna try to take it.
and thankfully (?) my health issues are unrelated to biking injuries (at least, unrelated to sharing the road with drivers — I’ve got a completely self-inflicted road injury from long ago and injuries from mountain biking lol).