tossme68 t1_ivgs9id wrote
Reply to comment by 1live4downvotes in Honda Electric Moped Coming - Step-through electric likely to be announced this year. by speckz
Very few people on bikes, e or otherwise pay attention to stop signs or traffic lights. I'm totally fine with treating stops signs as yields (like they do in the Netherlands) but stop lights are a different story. I've been biking in a city for 35+ years and spent some time as a bike messenger so I know how to ride in traffic and blowing through a light at 20+mph on your ebike is a quick way to go to the hospital.
I think we are reaching critical mass as far as e-vehicle regulation. Call them e-whatever they are still motorized vehicles and need to be treated as such, I love the idea of ebikes, they are a great alternative to a car and I will likely buy one in the next year or two but the execution has just been a free for all.
1live4downvotes t1_ivgyjn2 wrote
> blowing through a light at 20+mph on your ebike is a quick way to go to the hospital.
Whenever people ask me how I ride in a city, I just tell them I have 3 rules.
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Wear a helmet
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Assume no one can see your, and if they can they are actively trying to hit you.
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BE PREDICTIBLE! This means stopping or at least yielding at stop signs/red lights. Biking with traffic (I cannot tell you how many idiots bike against traffic... even when there is a bike lane on the correct side of the street). Not salmoning through traffic (I know this is a thing a lot of people do, but I don't do it because no one is expecting a bike to zoom past them when waiting in a line of cars at a red light). etc. etc.
Far-Employment-1192 t1_ivh4w2k wrote
My area the local bicycle riders always run the red lights. They’ll keep going and a few times flip off drivers who were merely just going on a green light.
tossme68 t1_ivh6n6m wrote
totally. As I said I was a messenger way back when so I don't have a lot of love for people in cars, they don't like to share the road and don't take a lot of responsibility for driving a 4000lb piece of steel. Every messenger I knew had at least one bad wreck, I went through 2 windshields in my short career and neither was my fault -both drivers excuse was "they didn't see me"....when they drove into me. The thing is there are enough assholes to go around on both sides, but the guy on the bike is always going to lose. I do think part of the issue is that cops just ignore the guy on the bike unless he's being a complete ass and they are "clamping down" or "making an example" -they just need to enforce the law, if some bozo blows through a light write them a ticket, it's not hard. Both sides need to learn to respect the other side and both sides needs to take some more responsibility for their actions.
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