Closer to home, the London Times also has this, about bikes in Britain: "My day on the super e-bikes fuelling the phone-snatching epidemic/Small, speedy and silent, electric off-roaders are the criminals’ vehicle of choice and helping power an urban crime wave."
The bikes are small and nippy, so it’s no surprise that anyone with a vested interest in getting around London quickly finds them appealing. Their off-road tyres and lean build allow them to use pavements and alleyways where other vehicles simply can’t follow.
But the real allure for phone snatchers is that they operate almost silently, giving pedestrians little warning of their approach.... [O]nly 1.07 per cent of reported thefts in 2023 resulted in a charge. Some bike criminals are clearly of the view that it’s all still far too easy.
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36 కామెంట్లు:
Bicyclists are a menace:
https://notanothercyclingforum.net/bikereader/contributors/misc/menace.html
Karen's of the World, United!
I would add the electric scooters to this list, they are fast and heavy and people feel absolutely free to use them on sidewalks, menacing pedestrians.
bicycles in the USA are given ALL the rights of being a vehicle with NONE of the responsibilities..
AND bicycles are given ALL the privileges of being pedestrians.
NOW, ebikes are treated like bicycles... WHY?
faster.. heavier.. bad for the planet.. WHY?
Have Parisians declared war on reckless bike riders, or have they just realized that riders have been at war with them for control of the streets?
E-bikes aren’t bikes. They are motorcycles with electric motors. As a certified, by BMW, 100,000 mile MC rider, I support making them subject to laws governing motorcycles, such as helmets, I never, ever, got on a bike without one; age restrictions; and banning from sidewalks.
So Howard is now openly pro-mugging. Good to know, though unsurprising.
"Nine out of ten cyclists (88 per cent) admitted to having broken traffic rules..." And all the others are lying. But you can say the same thing about drivers too.
It's not about never breaking laws, the problem is when vehicles act in unpredictable ways or show up in unexpected places. Drivers don't blow through stop signs/red lights nearly as frequently as cyclists do. And they rarely drive their cars on the sidewalk or the wrong side of the street.
Being motorized changes everything. I understand and accept bicycles coasting through stops when it's safe, because it takes a lot of work to stop and get back up to speed just for a sign or light when you can clearly see no coming traffic, but if you do it, you take full responsibility .
Anything with a throttle is a motor vehicle and should treated as such in any rules or regulations.
We need directed portable EMP devices.
Another argument for roundabouts, which I love. The song is good too.
Class 1 e bikes are pedal assist and top out at 20 mph. If they're 20 in wheels, they won't even go that fast. All bikes should be on the right side of the road, not on sidewalks, and should have front and back flashing lights. Any motorized vehicle, e bike or otherwise, should be on the street and not the sidewalk. A throttled e bike should require a license. Here's a good rule of thumb: If you see a guy coming up the left side of the road on a cheap bike, no helmet, and over 25, he lost his license.
"Another argument for roundabouts, which I love. The song is good too." They're communist. And budget busters.
"They're communist. And budget busters."
Once upon a time, but I don't buy albums anymore I listen on Spotify, and they're included in the price.
Sure, I'll share the road with you, and I'll be as considerate as you are, either way. It's a big truck though, and with a sturdy brush guard. My ride weighs about 3 tons. What about you, Mr. Roulette?
It's not all of them, but most regular bike riders are really obnoxious people when they ride. They never follow traffic laws, repeatedly cut off vehicles and act like you're the asshole if you point that out to them. They blow through stop signs and red lights, change lanes without warning, ride on the sidewalks, obstruck traffic and ride on the wrong side of the streets. And, thanks to these new, really fast, Ebikes, many of them go excessively fast. (And most of us have seen that video of that senior-citizen cyclist who thought that a young man in a car got too close to him and called the cops and wouldn't let the young man leave to join his friends until the cop showed up. And we find out later that the young man had a video that proved that the cyclist was wrong. )
It doesn't have to be a group event hogging the entire lane to cause annoyance. When I lived in Iowa County I was driving the back road to work, which has numerous turns and hills. I came over a hill at the speed limit and a family of four on bikes had STOPPED in the middle of the road to enjoy the scenery. Yeah, I blew my horn as I slammed on the brakes. Geesh.
When I was growing up we had to ride on the right side of the road and get off on the shoulder if any vehicle came up behind us. Vehicles had all the rights and we had none. When did this change?
Gradualism is good policy. Start by banning those stupid Spandex® cycling costumes and proceed from there.
As a biker I always considered traffic laws optional. On the other hand, I always considered that motor vehicles always had the right of way, regardless of the laws.
I never put myself in the position where a car could kill me.
Progressive processes.
bagoh2o,
Around here, very few roundabouts are lovable.
Among the ones that I encounter routinely, there's only one that's even neutral. The rest are all far too small in diameter, so they might as well be four way stops.
@Kirk Parker, "The rest are all far too small in diameter..." if I had to guess, I'd say that must be Ft. Worth. It would seem as if their highway department has all their complicated design work drafted by summer intern engineering students, and they're all incoming freshmen.
The biggest problem with bicycles on the road is that drivers think they are entitled to the road and it cheeses them off when they have to share it. There is no one more narcissistically entitled than a driver complaining about cyclists.
Aggie,
Nope, but I guess Ft Worth has something in common with Puget Sound country.
"...The biggest problem with bicycles on the road is that drivers think they are entitled to the road ..."
1. Tell us again about all the taxes that cyclists pay, when they fill up with gas.
2. Few people mind sharing the road with cyclists, and most will give them a wide berth whenever they can, in my experience where I live. It's not always possible on narrow roads, with oncoming traffic.
3. Cyclists could often do better when it comes to route planning. We've had a couple of tragic deaths in our town, and one of them was inexplicable - a wide 2-lane feeder with plenty of paved shoulder. But more often, I encounter them on narrow 2-way country roads with no shoulder and moderately heavy traffic.
4. Give us your take on cyclists who, in the interests of conversational cycling, ride 2 abreast at 20 mph in a 40 mph zone, and refuse to ride single file, but instead force the long line of steaming-mad drivers running late, to go 20 mph, behind them, never pulling over? Because I've been behind these more than once, and it kind of eliminates any slack I might be holding for them or for future encounters.
Cyclists sometimes don't share the road but hog it like they think they're entitled to it, and when they do, they shouldn't complain about rude drivers. They're the same as anyone who won't let others pass: They're road hogs, except they're poorly equipped to deal with a 2-ton objection, and sometimes seem to think they're protected by some powerful charm.
I like roundabouts and don't mind cyclists running stops when it's safe, because I'm resolutely anti-stop. Momentum is a miracle of physics, and is to be respected, cherished and conserved at all costs. We all have religious beliefs and this is mine. Nothing is sadder than losing all you've built just to start over from scratch because someone put up a sign. It's the ultimate in unfairness. Sometimes when I'm sitting at a stop light staring at all the other drivers like me waiting with nothing to wait for, my hand begins to creep toward my pistol and my mind dreams of heaven where the lights are green -yellow-green and people get where they are going in half the time.
Jeez, you people. I ride a lot, solo and in groups, and I rarely see the assholery you complain about. But then I rarely encounter the motorists trying to run us off the road, although that happens too. I avoid turning the occasional encounter into a diatribe against ‘all’ motorists, or wishing they would crash as they speed by.
We tend to be polite, as do the local motorists. It serves us both well. It does no good to engage in histrionics over the occasional encounter with jerks, whether in cars or on bikes.
And roundabouts: they are the greatest thing since canned beer and bottled whisky. They put 5 of them on the thoroughfare next to our neighborhood and our quality of life has increased immensely. No more 50 mph drivers, and no more stop - rev -go. Give the inventor a Nobel prize.
A Nobel prize or a bottle of whisky.
I like the idea of E Bikes. Around here we have an extensive system of bike trails that are the old railroad right of ways. We rarely get em riding on the highway unless there's a race or a touring group. I almost never hit one.
hawkeyedjb,
A bottle of whiskey and a loaded revolver in a locked room
hawkeyedjb said...
One of the first in the country was in Des Plaines at Wolf and Golf roads. If you lived there it was easy to navigate. The fun started when people had no idea what was going on.
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