Fuck Cars

This will turn into a car versus bikers thread unfortunately. But from my experience, commuting by bicycle has been one of the best decisions I've made.

I started out in the suburbs, commuting by car 50 minutes each way. Over the years I kept moving closer and closer to the city and my job...which is pretty much the opposite of what Americans tend to do. Eventually I ditched the car commute for public transit, and finally ditched public transit for a bike.

Being in a car sucks. You are isolated, stuck in a behemoth monster of a machine in a sea of other machines. Your isolation makes you feel anonymous, and anonymity gives you the freedom to seethe and yell at other drivers who dare to go slower than you, faster than you, or God forbid, try to get in front of you.

On a bike you are out in the open, feeling the weather and the wind and the change of seasons and daylight. You interact with people way more, and on much friendlier terms...after all, you're no longer protected behind your locked metal box. You actually have to act like a normal, decent human.

Now yes, there are the Lycra ads-on-butts boys that pretend they're in a race, but jerks abound everywhere in every activity.

I mean, really the problem is people that exclusively drive.

Fixed headline:

Study Finds People Who Drive and Cycle Are Better People than Those Who Exclusively Drive

I always felt it but now I know it. I just am a better person than all these drivers.

Driving turns mild mannered people into raging assholes.

Lmao at the number of downvotes on this one

Lol... "Study shows what we want it to show"

It's a comparison between drivers and riders using four cherry picked criteria that would most likely generate the predetermined narrative. It's science for hire.

Drivers run the gamut from tree huggy beetle driver to Ford f950 with the extra black smoke package and factory standard swastika paint job, and cyclists, while on a narrower scale (you'll never see mr super smoker on a Schwinn...), still have a similar scale and can absolutely be assholes.

The dissociation part is accurate, but it's not a matter of vehicle type or size, because commercial drivers are commonly on the same end of the awareness scale as motorcyclists. It's not about personality, it's about risk.

Further thoughts: This reminded me of something I read a while back about assuming that people who have one virtue also have all the others. Like, why should we assume that someone who is (e.g.) honest is also generous?

I think that has some applications here. Okay, so cyclists are, it seems, more community-minded. Does that mean they possess all the other virtues? Are cyclists also less likely to steal or to cheat on their partners? We don't know and this study doesn't tell us.

I mean, just ask any cyclist for directions to a nearby place. Generally if they know they will be willing to help you out with it.

People in cars are too busy, scared, frustrated, unaware of the areas they drive through outside the main road/whatever that they're in my experience less willing to stop and help others out.

It's true. The amount of fragile, impotent people I encounter on my daily commute is astounding. There's really no point in wasting space on private cars inside a city.

@frankPodmore the facts are in! Drivers are big mad!

Empathy is more difficult than sympathy. If you havent faced a problem yourself, understanding other with the same or similar problems takes a lot more work.

Good thing they cycle then