I stopped riding on the road by the time I was 15 because I had two incidents where cars intentionally swerved towards me.
Even just yesterday I'm out on a back local road, a temporary route I need to take between paths. Zero cars on the road, I'm just a few feet off the shoulder. Car comes whipping by damn near not further than 12 inches from my bike... to prove a point? Not sure what point, there was an entire empty lane, on a 30mph road, zero cars anywhere. He decides to buzz me going 35mph+ barely utilizing the empty lane.
I'm not sure how sponsored pros survive tbh, since most of their riding is on roads.
Everyone sees the cyclist going postal on someone in their sheer body suit, reflective glasses, and aerodynamic helmet, but no one sees the casually sociopathic vindictive chuds who drove them to it.
It's a shame others are so awful on them honestly. I think they're a good thing, but god do too many riders mash the worst parts of cyclists and drivers together.
Bad things can be worse than other bad things... In the case of assholes on motorized vehicles I am going to say the people that drive them like assholes on sidewalks(or other pedestrian paths) are worse.
A woman here in NYC is in a coma after being hit by an e-bike while jogging in Central Park. Tragic and avoidable. These need to be regulated, licensed, etc.
And if it were a regular bike, she’d be way less severely injured, if not completely fine.
I can't find any reliable sources on average pedal bike speed but according to Gemini an average bicyclist can get up to 18mph and skilled cyclists are known to get up to 20 or in some cases even 30 mph.
That would still cause pretty significant injury
What’s your point?
My point is that cars are far more dangerous and ebikes reduce car dependency.
I think it's partly bevause a bunch of pedestrians will yell at you for using it. I still use it, but jesus fuck, some people need anger management helpm
We live in a very bike friendly area and kids ride these on sidewalks and it’s enraging. I won’t take my kids to Burlington VT anymore it’s so bad they almost ran my kid over and nearly crashed into my stroller.
Love Burlington, but yeah the roads aren't safe to share with cars. Main St was one of my favorite places since it's a pedestrian-only street. If I were to design a town, I would have a pedestrian-only street right down the center
Watched a kid riding his scooter balls-to-the-wall speed down the covered walkway in front of my son's middle school last year. My son just shrugged and said yeah, thats what he does every morning. Why the fuck isn't this kid in the office?
I've only directly encountered people riding these twice, both adults. when they noticed my e-skate, one offered to race before speeding off at high speed, the other just blew by me in a show of speed. i think they're probably favored by adults why can't get the license or money together to become a douchebag sport cyclist
That is more a complaint on the lack of accessible SAFE bike lanes.
Riding anything on the aide of the road is a fucking nightmare. Hill billies will Roll coal at you. Some people will drive extremely close to you. Shit, people die constantly from it.
That is more a complaint on the lack of accessible SAFE bike lanes.
I live in an pretty bicycle friendly city. There's safe bike lanes pretty much everywhere and these kids (and adults) will still drive full speed on sidewalks with no regards to pedestrians.
all of the cyclists i know are capable enough riders to use bike lanes. they also have respect for other people, so they most definitely are not on the sidewalks. if you’re scared of bike lanes, maybe don’t choose a bike as your form of transportation.
i think you underestimate how much of a deathtrap some cities' "bike lanes" are. Cars going 50mph+ zooming past, changing lanes, and not giving a rat's ass about the faded lines nobody seems to use anyways. The world would sooner show me who's boss with a car crash than give me respect for following the rules nobody else does.
Too many close calls made me ride the sidewalk (and, FWIW, slow to a crawl near pedestrians). Life is worth living more, having to deal with a frustrated driver or frustrated pedestrian is nothing.
I don't drive and at the time I needed to bike to get to my job (I've moved somewhere walkable since). Even if I were careless - and I never got close - the chance of fatalities from a braking bike colliding with a dodging person is way way way lower than a car accident that comes out of nowhere.
That is more a complaint on the lack of accessible SAFE bike lanes.
No, you don't ride on sidewalks at dangerous speeds. You don't share a path with pedestrians riding at dangerous speeds. If you are around pedestrians or can be around pedestrians you have to ride at safe speeds. "There is no bike path" does not give you permission to make things more dangerous for other people. That is the absolute dumbest excuse ever.
My driveway has great visibility of the road in both directions when I’m pulling out, but that’s ONLY after I’ve pulled forward enough that I’m blocking the sidewalk entirely but my front bumper is not yet in the road. That’s when I have clear visibility past the trees and mailbox. It’s perfectly safe for me, my car, and the other cars in the road.
But visibility is quite poor for me to check THE SIDEWALK before I block the sidewalk. Which wasn’t a problem when this house was built decades ago, because pedestrians walk 3 mph and can see my car in my driveway no problem, long before I can clearly see them. Even a bike at 6-12 mph can see me and stop, or ramp down into the very wide shoulder in the road. Even so, I try to always nose out very slowly and carefully because if a cyclist isn’t paying enough attention, or it’s a little kid with novice cycling skills, they might wreck if I appear unexpectedly and block their path.
And with the advent of e-bikes and e-scooters I’m absolutely terrified at injuring some kid, because I’ve seen them ripping down the sidewalk at 20+ mph, not being able to stop. I’m trimming the hedges, changing the landscaping, etc. But I also have teenagers driving and they might forget. I’m just worried that the high speeds of those e-scooters takes alllllll of the margin of error out of the situation.
Yeah a couple kids nearly ran down me and my toddler as we were walking in the park. They didn't slow down at all as they passed us at like 30 mph. I had to grab my kid and just let the stroller roll away down the slope (she was walking next to it).
I pass by an elementary school on the way to work. Every weekday, I would see a kid zooming on the sidewalk with their escoot. Never wearing any protective gear, including a helmet.
One day, I witnessed something chilling.
Kid proceeds to not even slow down before entering the crosswalk. Kid didnt see the car in the intersection as they began to cross. Driver nearly hits the kid because the kid saw the car right when they were in the path of the car and hit the brakes. Luckily the driver reacted in time and didn't hit the kid.
No, my argument is that anyone complaining about the danger of ebikes while continuing to ignore the 10,000x bigger danger of cars is missing the forest
thats their argument only if you are dumb carbrain person. You should try putting your standards for ebikes/escooters to cars as well...oh wait that will make clear your double standards .......once you address the cars killing someone every 10 minutes , then you can talk . I will give you a big hint, its infrastructure problem, if you focus too much on cars the others dont have spaces and are unsafe to be used because of the overwhelming focus on death metal machines all around them .
Not even supposed to be on sidewalks with a regular bike also lol. Walking path depends but I’m always courteous and leave lots of room and slow down around people.
I walk through my and nearby neighborhoods almost exclusively off the main road, so there's basically no reason for these kids to be on the sidewalks, but there they are, and there they go, fucking zooming past you. I'll walk an hour+ and only see maybe 10-20 cars moving, so it's not like they're competing for space.
While I walk, I wear bone conduction headphones so my ears are wide open and I still don't hear the scooters until they're right up on my ass, and those kids don't say a god damn thing. I try to walk on the edge of the sidewalks because I never know when one will zoom past me out of nowhere.
In fact the only non-walkers that are even remotely courteous to me while I walk are normal bikers, and even that's 50/50 at best. Thankfully most of them use the road.
We almost got hit by someone riding one last summer. We were in a field/clearing with a barely there path just from people walking in a freaking forested park. They came around the corner so fucking fast and with almost no noise, had to slam on their brakes and dumped the stupid bike to avoid hitting me and my husband.
Every time I go for a walk I'm scared of getting run over by one! They come up behind you so fast, no noise and they don't even move over. It makes me jump out of my skin when they zoom past.
Not to mention the unpredictablity of young kids and dogs. It's a tragic accident waiting to happen.
Why don’t you Google how many pedestrians have been killed by micro mobility versus cars near you. Been a few years since I checked, but 10 years ago there was about one pedestrian killed by cyclists a year in the entire UK.
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u/MadeForTeaVea Jul 19 '26
They’re extremely dangerous for pedestrians as well. They ride on sidewalks & walking paths at full speed. Shit pisses me off.