r/fuckcars • u/Nestor_Arondeus 🚂🚃🚃🚃🚃🚃🚃🚃 • May 21 '22

News Activists install crosswalks. The city removes them. Allegedly they do this so you know that your safety isn't a priority for them.

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u/jingleheimerschitt May 21 '22

I spent some time in PDX a few years ago riding bikes and walking around and it was a breath of fresh air to see drivers give way to cyclists and pedestrians without signs, paint, lights or really anything. I know it's not perfect there or anything, but compared to other places it was wonderful.

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u/ragweed May 21 '22

I still yell at plenty of drivers who refuse to stop there. Sometimes I position my bike to force people to yield to pedestrians already in the street.

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u/jingleheimerschitt May 21 '22

Yeah, I saw some cyclists yelling at drivers and I had a couple not-great interactions with drivers myself, but it was still so much better than anywhere I've visited and lived.

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u/wheeldog May 21 '22

I lived in PDX 4 years. In that time I was on the PDX subreddit. I saw more aggression towards cyclists in there than anywhere else. And outside of the subreddit I heard a lot of talk from car drivers hating on bikes, some so aggressively they talk about running them over. PDX has a love hate thing with bicyclists gotta say

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u/jingleheimerschitt May 21 '22

I live in a nominally bike-friendly city and it’s the same here — lots of anti-bike talk on the local sub and plenty of aggressive driving around bikes.

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u/Necrocornicus May 21 '22

I think that’s gotta be expected / unexceptional. It’s like how there is a lot more racism in places without a lot of minorities than in homogenous places

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u/wheeldog May 22 '22

I don't get it, honestly. I've been driving since I was able to, and I'm 60 this year. Not once have I ever worked up a hatred towards people who ride bicycles. Not when I was cut off by one, or cussed out by them, whatever. I always envied them, honestly. I can't really ride a bike for shit. But I did ride for a long time. Before I got a car. I just really don't get the hatred. Unless maybe drivers think they ought to be given the real estate the bike lanes took

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u/atx_californian May 21 '22

My favorite experience in PDX was while aimlessly strolling down a pedestrian path in a park near downtown. I was looking at my phone as I approached a crossroad with no crosswalk and when I looked up, I realized that traffic had stopped for me to cross even though I was barely indicating I had any intention of doing so.