The tables on the road were only there for the inauguration day, but bike lane is here to stay.
this post was submitted on 19 Jun 2025
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Bet there's some kind of psychological trick you can play on cyclists, distracting them with pictures of people walking in bicycle paths.
Everyone else in that scene could be raw-fucking mid-sized Gumby sex dolls and I'd still be like "Get out the damn bike lane!"
I think many cyclists refuse to acknowledge how much they carry over from car brains. Minor inconveniences should be common and expected. Some bikers react to someone jogging on a bike path as if their life were threatened. Save the anger for legitimately dangerous situations like sprinting into the lane without looking or excessive speed.
I'm not sure if you ever used a bike lane, or watch the countless videos of people riding on them, but it's very VERY rare to have unobstructed bike lanes. So... sure, one grandma who isn't paying attention, who cares, ok a truck that has to do deliveries and forcing you to go on the car lane, not going to kill you... then again, and again, and 2 cars parked there, another delivery... usually before you finish your trip you even wonder if there was a bike lane in the first place.
The real bike lane was the detours we made along the way.
And each and every one of these obstructions forces you to waste energy into your breaks and you physically have to push to get the speed back up.
If you'd have to pedal cars, people would also drive very differently.
Great point. I mostly focused on the power that cars give to people, revving the engine isn't a random gesture, it's a show of power when most people usually have... pen, papers, keyboards... few have power tools but even then, it's not very powerful. A car or a truck though that's typically what the average human can exert the most raw power. Nothing psychological or economical. It's not like having a fancy house that cost a lot of money or showing of, no it's being in control of a powerful machine. I do assume it is rewiring the brain of drivers... but now that you mention it, it is also coupled with effortlessness. It's not like being strong when you go to the gym, here it's entirely decoupled from your strength. This must rewire drivers even more than I initially imagined. Thanks for the hindsight!
Totally on your side with your arguments, just wanted to add what annoys me most with these obstacles on bike lanes.
Being against people walking on the highway has nothing to do with "car brain"
It's common sense
Or... just spitballing here, people could walk on the sidewalk. The one beside the bike lane. For walking.
Sure, inconvenience is a part of life, but common sense tells you not to shit in someone's sink.
Sure, but if you choose to be reactionary rather than understanding you'll often be in the wrong. My city has some new bike paths where it's easy to accidentally wind up walking on the bike paths. We are still in a state where many conflicts are due to infrastructure. Are we trying to build better streets for everyone or are we just gonna shift from cars to cyclists owning the streets? When I bike my first thought after safety is being considerate and understanding, not demanding.
The entire reason for doing things like this, is that everyone gets their own space for traveling. Cars have their space, bikes have their space and pedestrians have their space. In countries where this kind of city planning is a thing, people rely on their mode of transportation to get from a to b in time. If there's some dick blocking the bicycle lane, then it is more than an inconvenience.
This. Biking is a form of commute, not a hobby. Every obstruction means you waste your speed and energy into your break pads and you have to physically push to get the speed back up.
I get your point. People walking in bike lanes are annoying but they're honestly the least of my problems while cycling in the city. And 90% of the time the crappy infrastructure is at fault. I've unintentionally walked in bike lanes before as well. It happens, people can be inattentive and make mistakes - I'd much rather have them make mistakes as pedestrians than as drivers.
Yes, my comment about a Gumby orgy was a serious, reactionary statement about people walking in bike lanes. And somehow an argument for giving cyclists priority on all streets when cars are no more. And a disregard for poor infrastructure.
People should walk where it's safe to walk. Sometimes they don't, which is less safe. There should be safe places for people to walk.
I'm still gonna yell at people who walk in the damn bike lane.
Not everyone's experience is the same. We live off a shared use paved trail that runs for 5.8 miles through our city. It's part of the 600 mile U.S. Bicycle Route (USBR) 45/45A and it's not safe to walk because of cyclists.
Cyclists regularly come from the rear at high speeds without announcing their presence. Often while people are walking their dogs on the part of the path that deviates through the park and along the river.
The world would be a nicer place if people showed a little more tolerance and patience toward each other.
Edit- list of fragile brigaders:
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Brother, you seem to be terminally online. Please go for one of those walks you are blathering on about.
If something I wrote is upsetting when taken out of context, you might want to put it back in. World might be a nicer place.
"There should be safe places for people to walk."
There should be safe places for people to walk, however my example is of such a place (like the bike path in the picture) being made unsafe for people walking by bicycles (the inverse of what's pictured).
In normal communities on Lemmy this could spark discussion but on FuckCars you're all so fragile you have to brigade anyone who doesn't fall in line with your specific viewpoint.
Clearly my mistake for not blocking this community when I created this alt.
People here legit agreeing there should be safe and equitable access to public infrastructure.
You're off on the sidelines complaining that there isn't safe and equitable access to public infrastructure.
People aren't downvoting your opinion, just your reading comprehension.
If I understand you correctly:
There's a picture of a place that used to be a road, but is now an area where people can walk (on both left and right sides), sit, and bike. Someone complained about a pedestrian on the bike lane, and you responded by describing a situation in a completely different place. When people disliked your response, you then complained about their reactions.
Honestly, I find this confusing and not very helpful, as it doesn't contribute meaningfully to the discussion about the original picture. Did I miss something? I'm a bit tired right now, so please let me know if that's the case.
We are trying to build a better infrastructure, where pedestrians enjoy safe and pleasant walk, cyclist enjoy safe and pleasant ride, commuters do commute, etc. In order to achieve that, it's important that the spaces are predictable. If you're in a shared space, you expect a bicycle, if you're in a pedestrian area you shouldn't be on a lookout for fast things. Same goes the other way, if you're on a bike in a shared space, you should expect pedestrians be everywhere and should always be on a lookout, but if you're riding a designated bike road, you should be able to enjoy the ride, not crawling with pedestrian speed dodging around.
If this rule doesn't work, the infrastructure doesn't work. You can't expect people using cycling infrastructure for commute if they can't be sure infrastructure is usable, so they wouldn't, so everyone is riding cars and we're back to square one.
Non shared bike paths are set up for everyone's safety. People who ignore that don't just put themselves in an unsafe situation, they do it to everyone else.
When I'm riding a bike fast and someone's in the path, I have to brake, and then get back up to speed after them. In a car that's just pressing a pedal, but on a bike it takes work. It makes me sweat and huff. Making me sweat and huff is mean.
Get out of the road greg