How can you stand the lopsided car infrastructure?

I rode my bike home in late April, a nine mile commute that I do four days a week, when a car suddenly turned right, only a few yards ahead of me, crossing the bicycle lane. There was no time. I pushed my brakes so hard that I flipped forward over my front wheel and crashed on the street with my jaw and arm. I had a black eye from where the goggles smashed into my face, chipped a tooth (that I would later learn had a cavity), missed a week of work because I could barely use my arm in the first two days and had lingering pain, and the height of my chin is now uneven. I hide it under a beard, and I'm not fond of beards. After thousands of dollars in medical bills that the taxpayers ended up paying, there is a scar on my chin where hair no longer grows. It required six stitches. Why would a driver look over their right shoulder before turning if they are already on the rightmost lane? They train themselves to look out for other cars, not cyclists. Cars and bicycles never should have been mixed as they are now. Though I was pissed off at the driver and still am for avoiding my lawyer and likely not having insurance, when I sat there with blood gushing from my chin, unable to rise easily because my brain had just been jostled, I was even more furious about this car infrastructure that I had been criticizing for years. I felt defeated by it. The paramedic whom I refused to take a ride with for fear of being charged thousands of dollars* told me that I wasn't wearing a helmet. Why tell me this? The doctors also wrote that I wasn't wearing a helmet. I landed on my jaw, not my skull! Helmets are just things that make drivers feel better about the awful state of American cities. It's cope. At the time, I wore 3M over-the-ear muffs to reduce the noise of cars. Now I do wear a helmet again.

*When I heard the sirens, I got up and rode my broken bike away. The fire truck cut me off so that they could speak to me. I lay on their stretcher before finally deciding not to go with them and signing an electronic form acknowledging that they informed me that if I did not go with them my injuries could get worse, potentially resulting in death. Thirty minutes later, I went to the hospital on a tram and my own two feet.

Buses and especially trains move far more people than cars. Drivers should WANT better transit, because it removes cars from the road and gives them less traffic to contend with. Almost nobody in America takes transit because it's always done so half-heartedly. Infrequent stops, almost nothing at night, no service on Sundays in many places, unreliable drivers. The few good lines we do have are always in danger of having their funding reduced by politicians who never have to fight for anything in the long term and are only looking out for their next positions as they appease car-brained voters who feel threatened any time there are plans to improve walkability and transit.

This lopsided car infrastructure isolates us, both as pedestrians and as commuters. You need to work far harder to overcome it, meaning go to places you normally wouldn't to meet people, since everyone is in their motorized cage until the last small stretch of their destination. Everything is zoned separately because the expectation is that everyone will drive, which stretches everything out far more and of course also hampers public transit. Your friend might not even want to come to your home because it's so time-consuming and expensive.

Remember all those people who froze to death in their cars in the northeast early last year trying to get essentials in that big storm. That's single use zoning for you. They could have had smaller stores in their communities, places to walk to that wouldn't need so much parking because they would serve smaller communities. Or residents could run shops in their own homes (which was legal in many places before the car boom). Instead, everything is separated by zones and the streets are designed to move as many cars as quickly as possible, which only increases traffic by way of induced demand and lets superstores dominate. The big chain stores that can afford the huge parking lots dominate and the little guys struggle and go under because they are usually not even seen by motorists. Nearly every business is in a single story building, again because the expectation is that everyone will drive. The amount of land that we use could be significantly reduced and thereby commuting made easier if businesses shared buildings with multiple stories, maybe two or three businesses per floor. You could place the stairwells and elevators at the front of the building so that shoppers or workers wouldn't spend as much time walking to the businesses as in malls.

This obviously also adds to obesity. What is America at now, almost half percent obese and 2/3 overweight? That's insane. I don't think it's just because it's so difficult and often dangerous to walk anywhere, but also because the single use zoning and the great distances made by all the parking and roads and lawn requirements places supermarkets so far away that most people don't buy enough fruits and vegetables. They eat those vegetables and fruits in the first few days and buy more frozen foods and non-perishables that will stay good before their next expensive drive to the supermarket. If they are lucky, they have a store on their way home from work. But maybe they don't want to go shopping after working for nine hours. I understand that as a cyclist. (My backpack doesn't even have that much room when I go to work.) Obviously, grain and fiber being removed from foods (requiring people to eat more before they are full) and sugar being added is a big factor, but that's another story.

It ruins the children. When I was a little kid, I went outside without adults all the time. My brother and sometimes my friend and I played soccer in the neighborhood, explored the forest, rollerbladed, dug big holes in the playground, sneaked into a school construction site, chased each other, one time drew with my mother's art chalk all over the sidewalks until she got pissed, walked to each other's apartment buildings... All of that changed after we came to America when I was nine. The amount of time my brother and I spent outside instantly changed and then rapidly declined farther. The noisy streets and parking lots are so unwelcoming. It's like that with kids in this country all over. Parents don't want their kids to be outside on their own because they are afraid they will be hit by a car. It makes sense when you consider how children play and their lack of experience. Parents drive their kids to schools that are just a mile away. I can't remember the numbers, but the decline of kids walking to school from the 1950s when car infrastructure was not so lopsided to now is gigantic. What do you think always being inside, having their parents drive them to the few places of safe activity, having no autonomy, does to their minds?

I understand that some of you consider driving to be freedom. The problem is that there is no balance with other modes of transportation and there is almost no walkability, which makes your travel more congested and miserable as well. I don't know how you can look at these ugly places with almost no pedestrians all over the country, listen to the ceaseless noise and breathe in the fumes and think it's good. Why do I not go some place else? Because I'm poor and not that courageous.

After that crash, I started recording all my rides and wearing the fruity bicycle clothes. I go to the warehouse in a revealing bib and (normally regular) T-shirt. Always was afraid of donning that look, but now I do it proudly, almost as a statement. Even better if some driver is annoyed by my ass.

You're not wrong, but it'd take a lot more than paving roads with dedicated bike lanes (or having separate bike routes) to change our "car culture" in America.

In the mid-20th century, there were a lot more small businesses and corporations were smaller. People could generally work in the town they lived in, and could make a good living. But now many of us have to commute to cities from suburbs for 30+ minutes.

I am fortunate enough to live in a town I work and it's a 5-minute drive (maybe 15-20 minute bike ride?) to my job, but I wouldn't ride my bike if you paid me to just because a.) there's little infrastructure here and b.) many drivers, as you pointed out, don't know (or don't respect) the rules regarding cars and bikes on the road together.

@warm_gun: I got in the very same kind of accident. Managed to roll to safety. I've been told I should have got the cute driver's number. However, being physically fine, I decided not to. I'm not the smartest cookie in the book.

Nice to see you again, sorry to hear about your story.

Car dependancy is arguably the biggest mistake of post WW2 western civilization. It is financially unsustaianable, relies on us extracting ever dwindling resources (which in turn resulted in us messing up the middle east, and latin america), it props up dictators, they cause a LOT of accidents and injury, they destroy cities, they severely limit the independant mobility of senior citizens, children and disabled people, they are bad for business, keep poor people poor (potentially spending a third of their income on transportation) and keep us fat and unhealthy.

And that is before we even get into animal rights and environmental concerns, which oh boy, I could stay here all day if I would cover that.

As for your question. I think the core issue is that people are afraid of change, this is due to our inherent psychology. And why obstruction is easier than innovation. But things are changing, even in the US. More and more neighbourhoods and districts are experimenting with Pedestrianization, and the resutls are overwhelmingly postive. The US might be trailing behind europe or japan. But changes are being made, we likely wont see the car dependency gone from the US in our lifetimes, BUT we will do see a gradual shift happening as we speak. Earlier this year in stockholm (I am swedish), cars were banned in some districts.

Another issue is the culture of victim blaming, or as we like to mock it over here "Pershunell Rhespunshibility".

Edit: Due to car dependancy over here in southern sweden (I really should move to stockholm), and the lack of infrastructure supporting bikes, my bike got blown over by the wind and got badly damaged. I cannot ride my bike until it gets fixed in about 3 weeks. And now I am just looking forward to playing Cities Skylines 2, where I will make a city where cars are banned.

What they teach in driving schools is basics, then you start driving and really learn it from experience, just like when you start working. So the more cyclists there are the safer they will be, as drivers get used to them and learn how to share the road with them. That's not just theory it's been proven. Of course educational campaigns if done right help a great deal. But I'm not sure if there will ever be enough cyclists in America to make that critical mass, cuz the distances are long and not everyone can even make it on a bicycle.

I've been commuting on a bicycle for more than 10 years now and in my city in particular it's steadily getting worse, but it's a different situation. Apartment buildings are replacing houses rapidly without proper infrastructure to support more people, there's not enough parking space and there's other problems, too. But I'm not giving up cycling, in fact I got so sick of cars I think I'd rather ride a donkey then drive a car.

I actually low key love being a part of car culture, but I take a broad view of community. I drive all over the place.

Sucks you went through that.

I agree with this so much. I cannot stand cyclists on the road, especially on highways. Not in single line, but in a group not sharing the road.

I hate dealing with cyclists. They don't follow traffic laws and swerve in front of cars.

Sorry to hear about your accident. Similar things can be said ( albeit less so ) about motorcycles as well. Drivers are mostly tuned into looking out for other cars / trucks and not smaller things. I love driving but don't love the constant need to drive everywhere, which in a suburban setting, is a necessity. Suburban towns just don't have the population density to sustain a useful mass transit system. People aren't going to walk a mile to then catch a bus to a store and only buy the small amount of things they can cart home on the bus just to have to do it again a day later because they couldn't carry everything they needed in the first place. They're going to drive their car because it's 10x easier. Rather make one trip a week than 5. The sheer amount of time wasted by trying to bike or utilize public transportation ( if it exists ) isn't worth it for many.

One of the reasons I do enjoy car centric suburban living though is you actually do have less cars around just because there are less people around. My kids can and do play outside with our neighbors all the time and we have little to no fear of interference from autos ( home on a dead-end street ).

This is true, the drivers are often not entirely to blame.

I've always sort of admired cyclists for braving the road and being in shape enough to bike miles upon miles, but at the same time they often seem entitled to bend the rules or just ignore them entirely.

The amount of times I've seen a cyclist just blow through a four-way stop is beyond count at this point. And why? Because they have momentum and don't want to stop?

Let me know how it goes 😀

Outside of the performance issues (which we were warned about), I've been enjoying it.

Looking forward to getting deeper into the game. I like most of the changes they made, haven't seen too much under the hood as far as policy and micromanaging the city goes yet.

I don't always follow all the traffic laws because my bike and I have many times less mass than a car. If I hit someone, I will do far less damage than a driver. Even police understand this, which is why they will so often ignore cyclists breaking the same laws that they ticket drivers for, or let them go with a warning. It's also harder for a cyclist to start peddling again after they have stopped, especially if they are carrying groceries.

I'm sorry that happened to you.

I've almost been hit a few times just walking, and I know someone who has been hit and lost the use of their legs. I've seen memorials on roadsides where people have been hit.

I'm thankful cars have alert systems that are becoming more sophisticated, and specific bike lanes and paths are becoming more numerous especially in busy areas.

I don't know what else to do, it sucks. I try to practice self preservation and sometimes that means avoiding the situation, but it isn't ideal. I caution my kids too because I never want anything to happen to them.

Drivers are more likely to break traffic rules than people riding bikes.

https://www.outsideonline.com/outdoor-adventure/biking/cyclists-comply-traffic-laws-more-drivers/

But I do agree with the notion that we need far more bicycle and pedestrian paths. Sharing the road with these death machines and breathing in their pollutants is not a very pleasant experience. I also do not enjoy having to take several detours. Which ultimately results in me having to cross the road several times in order to get to my destination.

Car infrastructure sucks. And society is paying the price for it.

Was unplayable until I toned the graphics down to minimum, looks like a jaggy mess, but the game can run. I wont have to upgrade my 1070 still :D

Was struggling to get the tutorial to register something for me, but I am well on my way to build a city now :) The simulation is more in-depth, and picking renewables is no longer the obvious choice.

Thinking of just disabling the unlock system. It is really hard to plan around when I have to do things that go against my city vision, just so I can get points to unlock what I really want.

@Maroxad: "... I am just looking forward to playing Cities Skylines 2, where I will make a city where cars are banned."

Like totally banned? What if your citizens want to get out of town for a road trip or a cross-country vacation?

Poor citizens :-P

Choo-Choo!

I am enjoying it though. I am ruling my city with an iron fist.

• Cars banned citywide
• No Fossil Fuels 4 You. Couldnt build solar early on. so I just imported my electricity from a city that did. At the taxpayers expense.
• Some carnists tried setting up shop. Demolished their business and evicted them.
• Heavy Recycling programs. Our economy is circular by law.
• This is unironically the kind of city I would want to live in!

I remember it was only maybe middle school we had a textbook for our state history class that talked about the transition from aspiring from railway transportation to the automobile and putting rail in the rear view mirror, sounded exactly like this:

It's a mistake moving forward with renewable energy and things like electric vehicles to think we can replace our 20th century middle class lifestyles through innovating surrogate technologies. We need to go back to the drawing board of city design, transportation design, zoning laws, it needs to be a nationwide multi-generation aspiration that's 100% committed like it's a wartime new New Deal. We need to address the excessive waste of our lifestyles and promote long term sustainability goals. A fool's errand though, we live in a society that's so myopic they only think in terms of short term gratification, they let problems go ignored until their too big too ignore, rhen when they want to recognize problem they let the silver tongue grifter who promises the quick and easy solution the opportunity to add gasoline to a fire.

Let me know when the game stops being a power point presentation. Looking forward to play it but the initial reviews I've read presents it as a terribly optimized game.

@warm_gun: When you are on the road, you are a vehicle. If you are sharing a lane with a car, the car has the right-a-way. If a car is in the right lane, and goes to turn right, you are at fault if you occupy the shoulder.

That's the law.

Bicyclists are not entitled to special privilege, just like us motorcyclists aren't.

Zoning reform will be impossible politically and socially. Those with any wealth have it tied into their homes. Their personal wealth is tied into their home values which go up and up because housing nationwide hasn't kept up with demand and population growth. There's little incentive to make housing both affordable and available because it would cause the personal wealth of home owners to plummet. There'd be political and social upheaval if it were attempted, so as would ignoring the problem, and historically, the latter gets remedied in the most horrific ways.

Blame the Automobile Clubs of the early 20th century for pressing for laws prioritizing automobiles over pedestrians.

Also the automakers who bought up all the Public Transit lines and scrapped them, making sure people would have to purchase a car.

If you've ever seen 'Who framed Roger Rabbit", this is exactly what is going on during the story.

Drivers are required to yield to pedestrians and cyclists at all times because of the far greater mass and speed that they control. Even if the pedestrian or cyclist breaks the law, the driver must yield. The alternative is just running them over.

I time-stamped the approximate area where the driver ahead of me suddenly turned right without looking over his right shoulder or at his right mirror, but if Gamespot breaks it, it's at 25:50. There's a bicycle symbol painted there! Why are you just assuming?

At a smaller city size, the game runs reasonably on my 1070 at lower graphical settings.

But yeah the game is terribly optimized. Nice Catharsis after facing hundreds of swedish krona in damages from overly car focused infrastructure.

No they are not. You are either a vehicle or you are a pedestrian. Vehicles need to yield to pedestrians, not other vehicles. You can just google "do cars have to yield to bicycles"

Your comment is still totally off base. If a driver is in the center lane, he can't just cut across the right lane and turn into the parking lot as a car is coming up right behind him in the right lane. He has to check the right lane and give that driver in the right lane the right of way, just like this guy was required to check the bicycle lane before cutting across. You should be in the right lane before making that turn, but since the bicycle lane isn't for cars, he must check for cyclists while staying in his lane. What a weird response from you, that doesn't address what the real root cause of such accidents is.

True, but that is the law, regardless of what is in the right lane. However, if a car is legally in the right lane, and that vehicle wants to turn right, s/he only has to yield to pedestrians, not a bicyclist hugging the right shoulder.

Example: A lot of bicyclists think they can be the red arrow at a stop sign or light. But they cannot, they have to be the green arrow UNLESS they yield to the car.

@dabear: But you understand why I didn't want to go into the car lane and why many cyclists prefer to stay mostly on the gravel-covered shoulder, right? Because cars move much faster and we don't want to annoy by slowing traffic. Anyway, that picture above doesn't account for painted bicycle lanes, the lazy way of addressing the problem on roads with at least (*checks the video*) 30 mph speed limits. The root cause is utter imbalance in favor of cars.

True, but that is the law, regardless of what is in the right lane. However, if a car is legally in the right lane, and that vehicle wants to turn right, s/he only has to yield to pedestrians, not a bicyclist hugging the right shoulder.

Example: A lot of bicyclists think they can be the red arrow at a stop sign or light. But they cannot, they have to be the green arrow UNLESS they yield to the car.

You're missing the point here. There was no stop sign or traffic light, the driver was just reckless. He had to check the bicycle lane, and he had to be ahead of the cyclist and use the turn signal, keeping an eye on him. You can't just sweep cyclists like bowling pins and blame them for not yielding.

Yeah this issue this thread is discussing is the lack of cycling and pedestrian infrastrucure. Not blaming bikes or cars.

Not talking about dabear, but nothing gets done in America because everything is reduced into "us and them."

Another coworker asked me a few weeks ago why I cycle. I told him (among other reasons) that I think America was ruined by obsessive car infrastructure and I don't want to be a part of it. After I explained induced demand and said that I'm not judging and that I understand why he needs to drive, he started going off on this rant about climate change lies. Bitch, nothing I talked about had to do with climate change. Middle-aged white people can be so tribalistic. It was a friendly discussion, but it was shit. Realized I need to think about how I answer that question, because most drivers would never understand.

Polarization has ruined any discourse. People are too obsessed with trying to gotcha the other rather than actually having productive conversations.

You should read Strong Towns. The business is run and books are written by a Conservative. Who make a strong conservative case for Urbanism and pedestrianization. You can also look into european right wing politicians who have also advocated for these same things. Interestingly enough, despite Strong Towns being conservative. Their primary audience seems to be people on the left.

@Maroxad: Lol, my personal experience with strong towns confuses the hell out of me for the opposite reason.

Watched some political pundits talk about some school districts cancelling Halloween celebrations because some kids can't afford costumes. Towards the end, one of the pundits mentions the unfounded fear of poisoned candy every year and concludes by saying that the one way in which Halloween is dangerous to kids is in terms of car accidents. Implying (but of course not saying it) that kids are never outside because of the clownish car infrastructure. Lol. Yeah, that coupled with the wide distances is why so many Americans now do trunk-or-treating, such cope.

I'm really sorry to hear about your traumatic experience and the impact it has had on your life. It sounds like you've put a lot of thought into the broader issues of urban infrastructure and its effects on people's lives. I'm curious, have you been involved in any advocacy or community efforts to address these concerns and improve conditions for cyclists and pedestrians? If so, could you share more about what to do to make a positive impact?

I have not. I think America is a lost cause, to be honest. The same story keeps repeating.

Been cycling all the way to work almost every day again lately, in spite of the cold. But yesterday morning it rained rather heavily, so I decided to take the train and bus most of the way. I get free monthly passes through my apartment building. Some weirdo was yelling nonsense to no one. You know the type. I looked to see if the train was coming and then saw the man swing his fist into the big window that has the schedules and stuff, and the whole pane cracked loudly and shattered to the ground. Still say those people that ruin transit for so many are mostly harmless. They're like those stupid little dogs that yell loudly at you every day but then when the fence door is open they just stand there staring silently.