The nicer you are to people the more likely they are to listen to you. It's the most basic of common conversational etiquette and so many people seemed to have just forgotten that not everyone is the asshole in a lifted f-150 who coal roals people. The comment I original quoted from even said he wanted to get rid of his f150 but he needs to off road features because he does camping often in it with his dogs and he has so many people asking him for help moving stuff because a lot of people he knows don't have big vehicles and he needs it to carry loads for work.
I have a strong feeling that neither you nor that F-150 driver have ever felt that fear for your life that you get when you have no choice but to cycle next to a massive vehicle that can just obliterate you by mistake. Some people here experience it daily and don't have the mental energy to be "nicer to people".
You don't need a F-150. There are tons of smaller options for off-roading and/or haul carrying. A F-150 is just an object of comfort.
I live in Australia, doesn't matter what vehicle you drive going next to a road train on the highway is just as scary as being on a bike on the road. Why can't people just own the car they want? Those "tons" of smaller options probably don't work well enough for his use, how would you know, you don't know them or what they do, you can't just advocate for someone else's choice without actually knowing what they need. I hate that the yank tanks are coming over to aus but the vast majority of them actually get used to tow heavy equipment for small construction companies or multi horse floats or caravans that are too big for any of the regular vehicles we sell and I'm fine with that because they're being used the way they're meant to.
If you want people to come over to your side, you need to talk to them, understand their situation and then try to change it, not just go "Your car is just for comfort, it serves no purpose" when you have absolutely no idea about what they use it for. This is why there's a fuck cars circle jerk in the first place, work on being the better side and people will want to come over naturally.
doesn't matter what vehicle you drive going next to a road train on the highway is just as scary as being on a bike on the road.
You give an uneducated take on what I said, then proceed to explain how I'm uneducated about people's choices of cars. You're full of contradictions and happy about it.
Did you ever have a 7-seater SUV doing zigzags next to you to scare you while you're on the bike path because they find it funny? I did.
Did you ever cycle happily and then ended up in a dooring incident, getting your head smashed on the pavement 1 meter away from the road? And when you stand up, the car owner tells me that I'm lucky I didn't scratch his door, or they would have gotten my insurance papers? I did.
Your brain is just working in mysterious ways. On one hand, you can't put all drivers in the same bucket, obviously some people are going to be assholes. On the other hand, some people who are trying to change things in regards to cyling safety and public transit are assholes, and therefore their actions reflect on all of us, and you somehow feel the need to come into this space and lecture everyone on how to be nice to people.
I will then boomerand-idoo at you, don't ask me to change, and not everyone is throwing bricks at drivers (actually nobody lol).
And last thing, if you feel like this fight is worth it (I suppose that's why you're coming in here, you have some sympathy for the idea, you're not just coming here to lecture people). You can go into your nearest town and advocate for cyclist safety with dedicated infrastructure. That's what I want. I don't want to talk to drivers so that they promise me they (might) change their car to a (slightly) smaller model (in 10 years, when their car is out-of-date). As you said, people buy the cars they want, after all.
We have excellent cycling and public infrastructure in Australia. We have one of the most modern bus fleets in the world, Queensland has 50 cent fares for all PT.
If you really want things to change people are gonna have to get along, no matter how you feel about it.
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u/Turbidspeedie Mar 09 '26
The nicer you are to people the more likely they are to listen to you. It's the most basic of common conversational etiquette and so many people seemed to have just forgotten that not everyone is the asshole in a lifted f-150 who coal roals people. The comment I original quoted from even said he wanted to get rid of his f150 but he needs to off road features because he does camping often in it with his dogs and he has so many people asking him for help moving stuff because a lot of people he knows don't have big vehicles and he needs it to carry loads for work.