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jwz

Read this at my funeral.

For nearly all of my life, I've known how I was going to die. Not from cancer, or diet, or drink, but by being crushed under a car. I will be mangled and bleed out painfully. The driver, distracted on their phone, will say that I "came out of nowhere". The police and the DA will call it an "accident". There will be no consequences of any kind. Except for my death, of course. [...]
jwz.org/b/ykV3

79 comments
Shawn Medero

@jwz went to my local city's traffic and transportation meeting last night to comment (positively) on a complete streets project and some bozo was there telling the council that they should spend the money instead on educating pedestrians and cyclists on how to avoid getting hit by a car. the entitlement of some folks who drive cars is so depressing.

Shawn Medero

@jwz additional context as this is getting boosted: Pedestrians (particularly those using mobility accommodations like a knee-walker, wheelchair, etc) are the most vulnerable users of a traffic system. We have no airbag or exterior frame that will protect us in a collision. Further the infrastructure in America often works against us. Cyclists don't fair much better. The onus of safety responsibility should be on policy makers, traffic engineers, & the people who are operating multi-ton vehicles

T Chu 朱

@soypunk @jwz

When I first moved into my hood, there was a community meeting about the local park. I am not kidding a man stood up and objected to some structures meant for either quiet reading or outdoor play depending on how you want to interact with it. He said "I live right across the street and I will have to listen to children playing all day"

Not sure why he bought a house across from a park but the entitlement isn't just drivers.

jwz

@chu Let me tell you about the people who buy condos across the street from nightclubs.

Reticent Turnip

@jwz @chu One time my band played A COLLEGE TOWN BAR WITH A STAGE and a guy from upstairs came down to tell us we were too loud

Earth Notes

@ReticentTurnip @jwz @chu People moved in across the road from a relative's farm yard and spent several decades complaining that it was smelly and noisy and had animals...

Esteban K�ber :rust:

@jwz non-cyclists that are confused by activism think that activists are attracted to cycling, when the reality is that becoming a cyclist very quickly radicalizes one into becoming an activist. Nothing crystallizes strong opinions as being frequently threatened with death by at best indifferent and at worst aggressive and antagonistic people.

Sven S. Svensson

@ekuber @jwz this is what happened to me. i started cycling again and thought to myself, "this is fucked. how can this be allowed?"

i've only become more radicalized since.

Cainmark 🚲

@ekuber @jwz

I just wanted to bicycle back and forth from work. Resent that I pretty much had to become an activist because I was being hassled by police for bicycling legally and they kept making up their on laws I was supposedly breaking. Opened my eyes to a lot of other problems that I didn't ignore, but my privileges kept me unaware of.

Cainmark 🚲

@marcprecipice @ekuber @jwz

I really, really don't understand the mindset of people who choose to block bike lanes.

Semitones

@cainmark @marcprecipice @ekuber @jwz The one bike lane in my neighborhood has three parking spaces right next to it, but twice now I've seen all three empty with a car blocking the bike lane just ahead of them... I guess the car driver didn't want to walk across the bike lane...? I wonder if they can get tickets or if they face zero consequences for needlessly blocking traffic

jwz

@semitones I see this constantly with delivery trucks -- pulling over into an available parking space right in front of them is too much of a hardship. @jef posts examples of this kind of thing all the time.

Jef Poskanzer :batman:

@jwz @semitones I wish more people in this country understood "can't be arsed" because that's an exact description of their thought process.

Semitones

@jef @jwz the one near me the cars have to literally drive past the open spots in order to block the bike lane. Can't be arsed indeed! I'll need to take a picture next time I see it... except usually I can't be arsed either :p

Semitones

@jwz @jef Yeah exactly. Thanks for linking to Jeff's account -- this picture is almost exactly what I'm talking about (but with passenger cars) flic.kr/p/2pWTh31

Pedestriansfirst

@ekuber @jwz Get them out of their cars and they might be human.

AntiThesisToRule

@ekuber @jwz

People wonder why I wear so much armor when I ride my bike. Partially for cars and collisions, partially for defense.

People are like allergic to bikes out here. I purposely got an ebike that looks like a motorcycle just because it does so well in the snow and because cars don't bat an eye at it.

Playing chicken with lifted Ram trucks isn't very fun. Neither is "stray" bullets on rural back roads. By the way, those people shoot like stormtroopers.

Everything you said is spot on.

Joshua M. Clulow

@ekuber @jwz distantly similar to being a tenant renting in the bay area

Martijn Faassen

@ekuber

@jwz

Here in the Netherlands activism isn't associated with cycling because the activists won long ago. I see cyclists abroad on roads full of cars and I feel intense fear.

michiel

@faassen @ekuber activists "won", but the modal share of cars kept increasing, while the modal share of bicycles has been declining pretty steadily in the Netherlands since that time.

I think it's more truthful to say that car mobility didn't manage to completely extinguish cycling here.

xmlns="Dan"

@ekuber @jwz unevenearth.org/2018/08/the-so

This essay crystallized it in my head. People who buy cars believe they are buying the right to go faster than anyone else. When stuck behind in vehicle traffic they don't mind, those people bought the promise too after all, but a cyclist is sabotaging the promise the motorist paid tens of thousands for.

Though they would deny it if asked, all motorists see cyclists merely existing as an act of aggression and act accordingly.

@ekuber @jwz unevenearth.org/2018/08/the-so

This essay crystallized it in my head. People who buy cars believe they are buying the right to go faster than anyone else. When stuck behind in vehicle traffic they don't mind, those people bought the promise too after all, but a cyclist is sabotaging the promise the motorist paid tens of thousands for.

David S

@divclassbutton @ekuber @jwz like rice screaming at water for getting through the sieve first

DELETED

@ekuber @jwz think this + an education in automobile capital's relationships to the axis in WWII would crystallize car culture as a culture of death in many for once

aaaa bbbb

@ekuber @jwz @temptoetiam
Well, with that being said, most of cyclists aren't radicals enough.

How many do have spikes and others hazardous equipments on their bicycle(s) ?

How many are happy with stupidly made cycling ways because « at least, they did one » ?

Gaëtan Duchaussois

@ekuber @jwz i was confirmed in this by a coworker who dress very like a conservative and have conservative stakes explaining at lunch time how to break car mirrors

DELETED

@gduchaussois @ekuber @jwz This is why I always kept my bike lock in my belt loop. I broke *many* car mirrors off in the bay.

Actually did one on the way to my first anger management group meeting and gave the guys a chuckle. There were 8 of us, 4 were cyclists.

Isaac

@ekuber @jwz Even just being a pedestrian in NYC is radicalizing. When I get on a bike it's the same but on steroids given the contempt and recklessness car drivers show you.

ideogram

@ekuber
This is very correct. I only get angry on the road when someone comes close to nearly killing me, which is incredibly infrequent when I'm driving, but about monthly on a bike.
@jwz @jessta

John Gordon

@ekuber @jwz That used to be true but where I live cyclists have a very different experience. Car trauma is unusual. Separated trails and quiet streets allow me to go almost everywhere I want to go. (MSP)

g135

@jgordon @ekuber @jwz This is why I really like the MSP metropolitan area! I like how being able to bike to every part of the whole metropolitan area is mostly pretty decent. The ability to do that makes it where I don't only survive but thrive without a car. I don't feel hemmed into the pocket of the city I live in. I had jobs in the past ask if I wanted to move to a couple of other places and the added expense of a car and housing wouldn't offset the increased pay so I declined.

John Gordon

@g135

And then there are all our parks. MSP is a pretty amazing place thanks to some visionary city planners back in the 19th century.

St Paul has lagged MPLS but recently we are coming on strong. MPLS is #1 nationally but #4 ain't bad.

Santiago

@ekuber @jwz amen to this!! by the second time a van almost hit me on my way to work, the local government already knew who I was because of my many complaints

Kozalin

@ekuber @jwz may i use your words and spread them? I think of different variations concerning the term "cyclist" because in my opinion they are true for the most types oft activism, including political and ecologic ones.

Dave Winer ☕️

@ekuber @jwz

amen!

they have bumpers on their vehicles

our bodies are our bumpers.

Christof Damian 💙💛

@jwz
We all know how we are going to die, and apparently it's our fault.

youtu.be/yQO4Dnlwcg0

Jessamyn

@jwz People make fun of my NEON ORANGE sneakers (I walk a lot of places and am frequently crossing the street at poorly-marked intersections) but for me it's just one more chance to talk about road safety and how much dicier it's getting for all but the car and truck drivers.

daedalouseros

@jwz@mastodon.social I've got a lot of gripes with my father. But one thing I really appreciate about him is that he's incredibly aware of pedestrians anytime he's driving anywhere someone could be on foot. Especially in neighborhoods.

I recall him saying "I always drive slower than the speed limit in neighborhoods. At any moment, a ball could bounce out into the street, and a child could run out chasing it and you won't have much time to stop." That stuck with me. A person's life is worth infinitely more to him than shaving off .2 seconds from his total trip time. I wish more drivers were like him.

@jwz@mastodon.social I've got a lot of gripes with my father. But one thing I really appreciate about him is that he's incredibly aware of pedestrians anytime he's driving anywhere someone could be on foot. Especially in neighborhoods.

I recall him saying "I always drive slower than the speed limit in neighborhoods. At any moment, a ball could bounce out into the street, and a child could run out chasing it and you won't have much time to stop." That stuck with me. A person's life is worth infinitely...

Jörg Battermann

@jwz This one cuts deep. Years in I still get anxious & super nervous on windy days "just" because my worst cycling accident - a hit'n'run full-on @ full speed from the side - happend to occur on a windy day & it haunts me to this day. Not consciously, I was back on my bike with chipped bones, blood seeping out of my body covered in bruises as soon as I could, but my base stress and adrenaline is dialed up to 11 whenever I hear & feel wind on my skin and memories of life leaving my body creep in

PirateRo

@jwz I sorry to hear it. Can I have your car? Or your house?

Cheradenine Zakalwe

@jwz@mastodon.social I used to be a Freenode staffer. I still remember the day I got an early-morning call that turned out to be one of the senior admins asking what to do because lilo, Rob Levin, had just been killed in Houston by a hit-and-run driver while cycling. To the best of my knowledge, the driver who killed him was never found.

Orb 2069

@jwz
...let me tell you about that time I was almost ran over by an SUV with an escaped parrot flapping around in the cab...

jwz

@Orb2069 Would have been safer to just let the parrot drive.

Orb 2069

@jwz
I'm not certain it wasn't trying.

10+yr bike commuter, that was the funniest close call, but it was far far from the only one.

UnlikelyLass

@jwz Glad you’re still with us — we had a close friend get actually hit (concussion, broken bones, PT needed, trashed bike) and she’s also thankfully still with us.

DELETED

@jwz I've heard this story before. I hope you've set up some safeguards to prevent your organization from being taken over by a Korean prince after you die.

U.Lancier

Nicht nur #natenom – jede*r von uns. Sogar als Fußgänger*in.
Weltweit, außer vielleicht in NL, Paris und ein paar – viel zu wenigen – anderen Orten.

OCR Bot

@Roadkill2b
Read this at my funeral

For nearly all of my life, I've known how I was going to die.
Not from cancer, or diet, or drink, but by being crushed
under a car. I will be mangled and bleed out painfully. The
driver, distracted on their phone, will say that I "came out
of nowhere". The police and the DA will call it an
“accident”. There will be no consequences of any kind.
Except for my death, of course.

It almost happened again yesterday. A driver blew through
a red light at 30 miles per hour, finally slamming on their
brakes 18 inches from my body. I would not have stood a
chance. He would have had, at worst, a bad day.

Previously, previously, previously, previously, previously, previously, previously, previously,
previously, previously, previously, previously, previously, previously, previously, previously,
previously, previously, previously.

Tane>- hiya danmand firctnoarcan cf enraial

@Roadkill2b
Read this at my funeral

For nearly all of my life, I've known how I was going to die.
Not from cancer, or diet, or drink, but by being crushed
under a car. I will be mangled and bleed out painfully. The
driver, distracted on their phone, will say that I "came out
of nowhere". The police and the DA will call it an
“accident”. There will be no consequences of any kind.
Except for my death, of course.

Not Just Bikes 🇳🇱

@jwz this was exactly our reality when we lived in Toronto, but once our kids became old enough to ride a bike it was too much for us.

This was one of the top reasons we left Canada and moved to the Netherlands.

I've talked about this in several videos, in particular this one:

youtu.be/vMed1qceJ_Q

John Gordon

@notjustbikes @jwz

Toronto is shockingly bad. Then there's Montreal -- among the best cities in North America.

Toronto's crash from a livable city in the 90s to the current state is a good cautionary tale. I think it was because the city swallowed up too many suburbs, tilting elections towards suburban priorities.

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