Post a controversial opinion

yeah its completely fear-based and not moral for me too. im slightly better as a driver than a passenger though.

I love being driven – I get my reading done!

i drove for like four years of my life and it never stopped freaking me out

I only like trains. All other mass transportation is mind numbingingly boring and constrictive.

otm, trains >>>>

drivings great

tho i got rid of the car last month tbf

I just get freaked out on the highway when everyone is driving 2-ton SUVs like 88 mph through mountains. Normal speeds, I feel fine about. Maybe if cars could only go up to, say, 60 mph?

Many US cities also 'require' driving bcz shit mass transit.

otm. my six mile commute requires a car because the bus route necessitates two transfers and takes nearly two hours. oh, it also doesn't begin until 8am, and work starts an hour earlier.

Six miles? Get a bike!

Men who call children or their adult friends "buddy" sound a little molestery.

Hug for u little buddy @kanyewest

— Jose Canseco (@JoseCanseco) May 22, 2018

lol

xxp

never come to canada -- fair warning

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pbdVNYsGSTU

Six miles? Get a bike!

― THERE IS NO PHIL D. THERE IS ONLY LIZ (Phil D.), Tuesday, 22 May 2018 11:52 (eight hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

rain though

Snow. And interstate highway bisecting, tbh. Biking not an option :(

I bike 7,5 miles to work and I live in Denmark and it snows until April. But I would probably not have done it in the US, no.

i’m massively new to cycling and haven’t worked out how people ride in the rain/snow like it’s nothing

Raincoats... In all honesty, a light drizzle is great biking weather, you don't sweat as much. I was much more drenched today, and smelled worse too.
The worst thing is the wind, we had that Siberia frost wind for weeks earlier this year, and I couldn't bike. I could bike to work, but I couldn't get back home again, it was just too hard. Luckily I could bike to a train station, then. Still, not fun.

what about legs/shoes? (i’m sure there’s a really simple solution to this, but all i saw locally today was wet shoes)

Rain pants. Change your shoes at work.

I just used winter boots, no problem there, really. But in general, a good bicycle bag is a life saver, you can bring a clean shirt, smart work shoes, etc, and then just change.

thank you both

In my years of bike commuting I wore normal shoes and pants, and used small office-supply binder clips to keep my right trouser-leg out of the way of chain grease.

I irrationally hate "bike clothing." I generally just wore a t-shirt and brought a dress shirt and changed in the men's room, though I'm aware there are some unbelievably posh offices that have showers and lockers and all that.

Personally I enjoyed it, and tolerated the difficulties even when not forced by necessity. I got rained on a lot, snowed on a lot, honked at a lot, sweated a lot, had several bikes and parts stolen.

That said, I dislike the moralizing tone of some bike-commuting advocates who start from the position that you ought to be biking, and that you need to justify and defend NOT doing so. Biking to work is not for everyone, not for every commute, and not for every day and weather condition. Props to you if you're that hardy soul who does it in heat waves and blizzards - but smugly shaming those who don't is NAGL.

how can you enjoy anything if you can't smugly shame those who don't?

not controversial btw

I didn't drive for twenty years and was terrified of the prospect of ever returning to it but now I'm driving again semi-regularly and it's basically NBD generally speaking (nb I even live in the Chicagoland area). The secret is doing everything in my power to maintain a wide berth between myself and other drivers, because a lot of those motherfuckers are crazy. Passively suicidal, at the very least.

Drive as if you're walking across a floor strewn with newborns. Gingerly and with great care.

many XPs but here in Cleveland where rain is a constant menace in the spring and fall, shoe covers are a minor miracle. But I have the luxury of a full locker room w/showers in my building, so I can get all sweaty and nasty biking in, then shower and change before work. I know not everyone has that.

If u bike enough miles in heavy traffic, even safely, with core-correct gear, something bad will eventually happen for you.

Hunt3r OTM.

I've put in circa 35 years of regular-but-not-hardcore bicycling (including lots of commutes and many/most errands).

Whenever I am in a bike lane that has a parking lane to its right (USian), I reflect on how somebody's eventually going to open a car door that swings outward into the bike lane, and I am going to have to figure out how to deal with that. Hasn't happened yet, but I refuse to get complacent about it.

Six miles? Get a bike!

― THERE IS NO PHIL D. THERE IS ONLY LIZ (Phil D.)

lol at the idea that i could ever learn to balance on a bicycle without falling off

I am not even going to start on ableist privilege itt

I haven't done much regular biking (maybe like a year cumulatively of using a bicycle to regularly get around) and I have been hit by a car on a bike. In the bike lane, no less.

It's fun! Boston had lots of narrow 2-way street with cars parked on both sides, plus people constantly double parking. You get used to it quickly or die trying.

― Mario Meatwagon (Moodles), Monday, May 21, 2018 2:37 PM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I would not exactly call driving in this gd city "fun" but it's definitely a learning experience.

I love driving.

I had/have two practical philosophies on commuting:

1. If you are, even irregularly, having hostile interactions, youre...probly doing it wrong.

2. Even if you do it right, if u do it enuf, one day you will have something bad.

i got hit waiting to turn left in left turn lane. Circumstantially i was without helmet. Severe tbi, coma, fracture, all that. Ive broken not fewer than 4 helmets (once in multi pieces, others w dents and real cracks), got a few ringers. Never broke my skull before tho.

Wearing a helmet is hot and inconveeeenient, i highly recommend em tho. i turn around and go back for em.

Which opinion is controversial- that lots of bike commuting is ultimately dangerous, or that helmets should be mandatory?

Yeah, that was a bit confusing. I meant driving is fun in general, and having driven for years in Boston, I don't get particularly nervous when on narrow 2-way streets. But I don't really miss driving in Boston. Every time I visit, I'm reminded of how aggravating it can be to just do something simple like drive from one side of the river to the other.

xp

i love driving tbh even though I look back at my teenage years driving 100 mph on country roads and look at the car crash fates of my best friend from high school, my other best friend’s gf, the guy who sat in front of me in English class, and the homecoming queen and I feel I wasn’t skilled but lucky. Rural driving is terrifying, my mom every other week will offhandedly mention that a “fatal wreck” happened on one of the roads I used to peel down.

blasting music in a car with the windows open is really fun

music & driving just go well together.

cars can be really fucking cool too. all kinds of history, aesthetics, style, personality in them. i bought a new car in february and i love driving that thing. it is not even a fancy or special car by any means. a couple of my in-laws are really into classic cars and they've driven so many cool cars.

that said driving definitely scares me, especially after i got in two car accidents within six weeks this winter, now i am terrified every time i get in the car. hearing that awful sound of metal-on-metal crashing that immediately signals dread, hassle, and major expenses (at best, that's assuming no one got killed or injured) is such a terrible experience.

biking is sweet, i'd love to bike to work, i want to start doing it at least a few times a month. it'd be about 12 miles

even though i hate driving with all my heart i loved my car

some bike nerds will inveigh endlessly against helmet laws as discouraging bike riding and helmets themselves as unlikely to mitigate most of the ways you can get hurt on a bike…idk I don't really ride bikes these days because Seattle has hills and I'm not fit enough but y'know if there's a nonzero chance that a helmet will protect me from a head injury I don't mind the helmet.

Also people from mostly flat places (Netherlands, Illinois) criticizing people from hilly places (San Francisco, Albany) for not biking more = NAGL

I have intentions of riding my bike more often but I live on a hillside and I can barely get up it without thinking I'm going to have a heart attack.

I was always in awe of people who could commute via bike in London. I have no idea how it's possible to do that and a) not get killed and b) not arrive a complete sweaty mess. I know some offices have showers but that is not the norm in my experience.

I'm also supposed to be trying to learn to drive again because it might come in handy with my wife being ill. Think that may be futile to attempt given I failed the test 6 times when I was 21/22, it's supposed to get harder as you get older, and the test itself is supposed to be much harder than it was then. Tbh I have no idea how anyone passes their driving test in this country.

I am in awe of people who can commute regularly to work. I get so nervous on my bike that I end up walking it half the time because of erratic drivers.

To get back on track with controps: for large swathes of the workforce, going to work at all is a waste of time.

For professions that can be done remotely, telework should be the norm and commuting should be the exception. Employees should not be making the case to be "allowed" remote work; the burden of proof should be on employers to make the case why a job must be done onsite.

YES I am aware how much privilege is baked into that. YES I am aware of the extent to which white-collar knowledge work is telework-friendly and the extent to which service-sector and foodservice jobs must be done in person.

That acknowledgment of privilege does not change the fact that the whole world would be better off with fewer total people commuting (regardless of how they do it).

Xps what’s the point in mandating helmets when half the people I see wearing them have them on incorrectly and won’t be saved from head injury? So many ppl wearing them perched on the crown of their heads, loose straps.

I biked to work for awhile after I moved to the US, but the semi-regular harassment led to a lot of anxiety so I eventually stopped.

Xps what’s the point in mandating helmets when half the people I see wearing them have them on incorrectly and won’t be saved from head injury?

melbourne share bikes come with crappy helmets that never fit properly and feel like sellotaping an eski to your head, just so they can tick a legal box

Telework is pretty challenging in an apartment with small kids. Main reason I rarely work from home.