Michael Kranish wrote the book The World's Fastest Man: The Extraordinary Life of Cyclist Major Taylor, America's First Black Sports Hero. Major Marshall Taylor lived and rode 🚲 as life in the USA went from pedestrians and horses, to maybe 20 years of 🚲 supremacy, and then a lot of professional 🚲 riders helped bring in the 🚗 supremacy era we live in now.
"You have to build it before the behavior comes" isn't true, sadly. Amsterdam has excellent cycling infrastructure and a strong cycling culture. Silicon Valley has excellent cycling infrastructure and a weak cycling culture. Japan has almost no cycling infrastructure and a strong cycling culture. The cyclist deaths in Amsterdam and Japan are about the same. Silicon Valley has far more cycling deaths per citizen than Amsterdam and Japan. It's the cycling culture that must be changed not the cycling infrastructure. Changing cycling culture is effectively impossible so we just try to spend money to change the cycling infrastructure. Extremely sad. I have no real solutions. 😢 😢😢😢
Nobody is forcing anyone into the middle of the road, the average bonehead driver decides to do that!!! If you come up behind a cyclist you slow down and wait until it is absolutely safe to pass and NOT any other time, it really is quite simple!
Get stuck behind a bike for a couple of minutes and people lose their minds, sit in traffic for hours on end and its seen as acceptable because it can't be helped.
I've got to admit, after two decades of effectively 100% commute by bike to work, over the last few years I've begun wondering exactly this. Looking at everyone in cars during 'rush hour' thinking 'when did it become the cultural norm to use 1 or 2 tons of metal and glass just to get your ass to work' -- for everyone, every day. Weird isn't it?
Yeah, imagine the people without their cars, one or two people taking up that much space on the road just to get somewhere. Also, walking / cycling is healthier aswell. I had a sport teacher who travelled with the bike everywhere, he didnt even own a car, only his wife did. It was only because he once had something with his legs and needed to build muscle by cycling, it saved his legs but he continued to do so and still does. For years now. And he doesnt live around the corner, he lived in a city that was so far away I didnt even know its name, wich is the reason why I also dont remember it. He told us stories of how he raced with motorcyclists or how he got stuck in winter 5 kilometers on the way to shool because his bike literally froze, so he had to walk back the 5 kilometers and get his other bike to drive to shool. Was a great teacher and person, havent seen him in years. But he is the living proof that cycling is not only viable, but also healthy, he had some strong calves!
I’m in the US and my bike is my main transportation. It is very dangerous where I live in dc to ride my bike during rush hr. It’s like the drivers don’t care and everyone is in a rush. In most of the city we have dedicated bike lanes but cars park in them🤦🏾♂️ forcing us to have to move into the traffic. I’m very observant as I almost died recently; coincidentally riding in the bike lane. I got blamed for it. Flip side to that is even when on the sidewalk at very low speed people are either not paying attention to where they are walking or giving me funny looks as if I shouldn’t be riding on the sidewalk . But I keep up with laws and in Washington DC, you can ride on the sidewalk everywhere except the central business district or what we call “Downtown” where the White House is located.
@@IamKingFace1 Exactly that's the only reason speaking against bikes: Our city's aren't made for bikes but for cars, and cars rule currently. That's why this needs to change.
Re "the norm" I used to cycle to work, my company built a new set of offices and provided 1800 car spaces, and one bike rack with 15 spaces and then boasted how "green" their new building was ! In addition I should add that the cars were in a secure, barrier controlled basement; the bikes open, insecure and subject to the weather.
When I see him thumbing through a dog-eared copy of John Forrester's "Effective Cycling", I'll know the cyclist advocacy Kool-Aid barrel has been drained to its dregs.
I was raised in The Netherlands. I have never heard of bikes being dangerous compared to cars. Biking is so much more efficient, faster, healthy, and fun here. Cars are expensive and get stuck in traffic everywhere. It's politics, influenced by the car lobby, and not facts, that lead public opinion in the UK.
I visit The Hague regularly for work and it blows my mind that two countries so close to each other can have such different attitudes. It's literally across the water.
IMO, GCN being more of a "Global cycling network" instead of "competitive road cycling network" is a good change. This is the best journalism & content in general I've seen from the channel in a very long time.
It's really poor, pretty much propaganda. The guy doesn't understand basic road junctions. Bike brain....a person who refuses to accept they do wrong and see themselves as the victim in all situations
Always great to see videos like this. Being Dutch and living in The Netherlands, I always feel very privileged with how bike and pedestrian friendly our infrastructure has been made since the 70s.
But where are Europe's biggest motorways mate? If everyone in the Netherlands cycle, why are your motorways so huge? The A2 from Amsterdam to Utrecht is 5 lanes each way widened in the 2010's! It appears that the A9 is about to become another one of these mega highways! I guess most cyclists hate me because I'm little awkward - it's called fact checking! I cycled when I was young and would hate to go back to that - it's very stressful.
@@RedKnight-fn6jr Because the party that has been in charge for the last 14 years is stupid, and hence nicknamed the "vroom vroom" party, so they're very pro-car, and quite anti-transit.
@@RedKnight-fn6jr You are right. Even with all the great cycle infrastructure we have here in the Netherlands, there is still a lot of room for improvement. Even so, I have lived in England and am now back in the Netherlands and I am struck by how much has changed here regarding cycle infrastructure over the last 15-20 years. Things don't change overnight, but it's far better and safer to cycle here than in the UK.
@@catlady356 Good for you, but as long as you don't ram bicycles down the necks of us in the english speaking world - people like me just don't want to know. Cars are faster, even at 50kph, and there's no denying that!
@@RedKnight-fn6jr Within cities cars will hardly ever be faster. Outside of cities, the Netherlands is as 'car brained' as any other country. The difference is found in the number of deaths per kilometer cycled. It is way lower in the Netherlands, because of the great cycling infrastructure both in cities and outside cities. Every person in a car driving the A9 could CHOOSE to safely cycle their trip on a cycle path.
@gcn shame that the Active Travel Commissioner is on a tax funded jolly to Paris. Had such hopes, only to be dashed. Where there is a will, there is a way. Such a shame those with the power, don't have the will.
@@jon_underscore I don't think it's a shame at all that Chris Boardman has gone to Paris, if that's the case. Paris and Mayor Hidalgo have been making great strides in recent months and years in improving the cycling provision of the city, and it's actually probably a better example than the Netherlands as the change is recent and has been rapid, which is what we need both in London and across the UK. If he can learn from what they have done and it helps them implement it back home, money well spent.
If any video was bound to make me angry....The unjustified anger towards cyclists in the UK is insane. Imagine thinking someone on a bike is more dangerous than a car.
I commute everyday, yet cyclists seem to have a very low regard to road traffic laws, being seen and in general riding with consideration. Does the actions of one group negate responsibility of another? Of course not. Before shouting about cars maybe we should all look at our own riding first.
@@phil_d all the research on this topic does not support your claim (from California to Denmark). Cyclists tend to be way more rule abiding than motorists. Most motorists only notice cyclists who inconvinence them, and are appolagetic to other drivers, who bend traffic laws, as it is just a small thing, nobody got hurt, I would do the same... that's why some think cyclists never abide traffic laws (and of course some actually break the rules).
NotJustBikes, CityNerd, Streetcraft, Climate Towns, Global Cycling Network. Love these channels so much for opening my mind and other minds to alternatives beyond cars. They’re doing God’s work!
Nationwide in France, Finland, and Italy, 70% drive to work. Cars are here to stay. I have no car but I feel the temptation like rest of idiots.. Cars are sooo here to stay till you beat sense into idiot public, who are idiots. People like lazy zooming fast and seeming cool, people are and will remains idiots.. 70%.
Whenever I describe the time I was hit by an SUV, on my bicycle, whilst on the greenway/bike path, with our greenway light green and the road light being red, (pedestrians and cyclist’s right of way)… and every time, I am asked back, “Why were you out there where you could get hit by a car? You must have been out on the road.” Yes, the assumption is always, it was my fault. Even when talking to a local journalist.
I very nearly got hit by a that run a stop sign. When I pointed that out the driver was quite angry and declared it was my responsability not to get run over
I hate how journalists often report that a cyclist has been in a collision with a car. To me this sounds as though the bike drove into the car when no doubt the opposite was true.
@@grahamaustin9085agree. Also the language indicates that the ‘accident’ was between a person ‘cyclist’ and a machine ‘car’, inferring the driver of said car has no level of responsibility.
Fucking ridiculous. Hope you've recovered. Our society is built around capitalism and keeping us sick. Cycling goes against that: Easily repairable, cheap, fun, great for your health. How dare we!
I got hit by a SUV turning left across a cycle lane. Police asked me if i had lights on 9am in August on a bright cloudless day...hey now i always use lights have to protect the blind ...pedestrians should probably also have lights in the summer too. On the plus side the Epolice insisted i got checked at A&E and after the report of my injuriesi was way more bruised than i thought i was they were way more concerned
This was probably the best video from GCN. Riding on super expensive bikes in colorful lycra is fun, and exciting. But as cyclists we need space in urban commuting settings first. There are many channels out there who are promoting it, and i am glad that GCN puts its weight behind it, too.
'Regular' GCN is great, with the fun (ridiculous?) challenges, tests of endurance, equipment reviews, etc. This video feels like a new beast entirely, cycling journalism, and I am all for it.
In the Netherlands there's now a government radio ad encouraging people to cycle more because it's cheaper, greener and healthier. No idea if it's effective, but it is at least a clear message from the government.
As a highways engineer and keen cyclists in the UK, thank you for posting this video! The amount of car-centric thinking in my industry is insane with both colleagues and policy makers. I deal with it on daily basis. I will be sharing this video around because it is so powerful to show what needs to change within our society, culture, and the way we design our transport infrastructure and built environment. Thank you!
As a middle aged woman on an upright bike, thank you! We are in dire need of your expertise. If it ever feels like a thankless task remember I’m cheering you on 👏👏👏
@@FHRider-o1m You're worse off in this situation too. None of the infrastructure in the UK is built for upright bikes. I used to live in Stockholm. The women looked so elegant, being able to cycle around town without breaking a sweat.. Even if cycling is encouraged in the UK, it's only more aggressive forms of cycling..
I was going to post something very similar. Civil engineer here. I think the industry is a bit split, we have transport planners and active travel designers who get this problem and you have 80 years of accumulated design experience that says make driving easier and that's still largely the case in highways design. Also in my experience many politicians are not evidence based but go on gut feeling. I have had discussions where I try and explain that resurrecting the design and route of a new road from the 70s is not a good idea will just induce traffic and won't relieve the gridlock they are complaining about
Agree, I've been involved in Transport Planning for 20 years, though there has been improvements, everything is still prioritising the car, despite certain paragraphs of national policy stating schemes should prioritise the most vulnerable travel groups first. Particularly challenging when I've been refused designs of schemes by Highway Authorities who say they are unsafe because they restrict cars etc. too much, or to scale back a scheme for pedestrians/people cycling as it is too comprehensive and too expensive to maintain over time.
im 44 never had a license. I tried driving in my early 20's, without a license of course, and whiles its faster, the amount of stuff you have to do just to legally be able to drive it is wild. I love the freedom my bike gives me, I learned to travel by bicycle and never looked back. It's been years since i've even been in a car.
I highly recommend ruclips.net/user/notjustbikes for issues around town and road planning and how cars affect health and the quality of our living spaces.
38 seconds in and I already lost it!!! Did this lady just say that people are being pushed into the car lane because they are trying to get out of the way of cyclist?!?! ‼️😡
People think they have the right to overtake a cyclist at any time they feel like. I was cycling through road works this evening, the speed limit with road works is 30kph and I was doing exactly 30, as a kind gesture to the cars following me. The lane was narrow with road cones either side, and the car behind me still felt the need to overtake... I should have been more assertive in taking the lane, but I also don't want to cause any frustration to the cars behind me, even though I'm well within my rights. What I'm really saying is that I ride my bike carefully so that I don't trigger any snowflakes in their cars.
I live in an American suburb and I have ridden a bicycle all my adult life. Sometimes just for exercise and recreation, but also to do shopping and errands and for a short time, commuting. I am older now and live on a steep hill so I have started riding an ebike. I find I can load it up in a way I could never load up a bicycle so I do quite a bit of shopping and errands on it. In the quest to get to my destination and get home alive I have found that one of the most important tools I have is careful route planning. I do not see this discussed very much but it really should be. If you simply rely on printed city bicycle route maps or anymore, on navigation programs on your phone using the bicycle option, they will rarely plan the same route I would. They rarely include routes through suburban subdivisions but routes usually exist. You will probably need to study a map to pick them out, and they will not be as direct, but they are safe! On the other hand, navigation programs will often send you to a bike gutter, a painted line along a stroad that disappears at every intersection. These things are deadly as all of us who ride know very well. Strangely enough, roads in the industrial parts of cities are often safer than roads in commercial districts. These roads usually have less traffic, many of the vehicles are very large and moving quite slowly. The fact that they are large is much less important than the fact that they are easy to see and avoid. Of course, these places may not be convenient to the places you are traveling to and from but when I visit relatives in Missoula Montana this is a really useful hack for route planning. Every city is unique but there is usually a way if you study all the resources at your disposal for route planning, do some exploration (sometimes Google earth street view is helpful to see what a route is REALLY like) and get creative. I could go on and on. There is lots of material here to explore: The differences in navigating cities vs suburbs vs country roads, you could make many videos about this. Some of it would be different from country to country but there would be a lot of commonalities. Just a thought, have a nice day.
But why should we as bicyclists have to do this? Why should children riding to school have to go through long circuitous routes just to be safe from being killed by an SUV that has blind spots big enough to miss small children??
I'm a cyclist in Brazil and it amazes me to see how much of this culture can be 'universal'. Many of the main arguments are almost exactly the same...it really just confirms that we live in this 'car dictatorship', where cars are symbols of power, wealth and status. Thanks a lot for sharing this, Si, it really takes some guts to expose this to the internet.
Yup. Thanks usa for this plaque too! It's not the only disease they let loose but one of the worst ones. I think the absolute worst is neoliberalism or libertarian as they call themselves.
I have a global study on this "cyclists are a bigger danger than drivers" nonsense and Brasil actually has the lowest numbers for this - even lower than the Netherlands, where basically everybody bikes. The highest (by far) are from Japan.
Just got honked at while I was cycling home with my 9 and 7 year old by an obese guy in a huge 4x4 because we dared to slightly impede his journey on a narrow suburban road. It’s a shame this brilliant video won’t be seen by him.
That was my school run with kids before high school. Mind blowing that they’d beep little kids on the road who were cycling in line just not at their speed. Me blocking the road legally, cycling by their side would infuriate them. F O.
I've had people yell at me or throw things at me, and I only ride on residential side streets and trails, unless I have to cut through a downtown on 25 mph roads. I drive 50,000 miles a year for work, but am never rude to cyclists. I really enjoy biking in my free time, but I suppose so many people just don't have experience bike riding, so they don't know how difficult it is to get to your destination without using roads at times.
I had a guy in a big range rover drive into the side street I was crossing last night. Completely oblivious of the fact that pedestrians had right of way there.
A recent trip to The Netherlands was a massive eye opener. Proper cycling infrastructure making it much safer to cycle makes such a huge difference. The car has its place but for so many local journeys it makes little to no sense.
I only started to realise this when I came across a channel called "Not Just Bikes". This channel led to channels like "City Beautiful" and "CityNerd". These channels made me question the way our roads and cities are designed, and now I can't unsee the preferential treatment given to cars, along with all the negative side effects they cause (traffic jams, safety risks, (noise) pollution, etc.).
Great channels. Add "Climate Town" to that list and you pretty much can see how cities are built around the world and issues that arose from the decisions.
I would add 'the war on cars'. Opens eyes. Sometimes I wished I could go back to when I was brick-faced and car-industry-brainwashed, like all my friends are and basically everyone. Instead of suddenly seeing all of those major issues with our anti-person city planning.
ruclips.net/user/notjustbikes is an excellent channel. The reporter there says "cars vs bikes" is a false dichotomy, a phoney war to shift blame and distract from the real issue which is "how much longer can societies tolerate the dominance of cars".
@@brabrabarabra agree, they’ve opened my eyes too. Love the podcasts on YT by Not Just Bikes called ‘Urbanist Agenda’ including one with Mrs NJB, and the War On Cars, great listening.
I am writing this from a convalescent hospital in Castro Valley California, 12 days after being hit by a car riding my bike to the grocery store. I Have 3 fractured vertebrae and 8 fractured ribs. The cop interviewed me while I was lying in excruciating pain on the road. Somehow both the driver and an Independent witness “saw” me riding 19:24 in the opposite direction that I was, so I was found to be at fault for riding on the wrong side of the street! Cars can do no wrong. Somehow all accidents MUST be the cyclist’s fault. ( Doesn’t really matter as the driver that hit me was uninsured) . I have a long road to recovery and don’t know if I’ll ever be able to ride again. CARS SUCK!
That story seems pretty sus. Im not quite sure in which country that happened to you, but everywhere that i know of, the car driver will ALWAYS get at least some percentage of fault when in an accident with a cyclist or pedestrian, since the one sitting in a deadly weapon e.g. a car, has to always watch out for others (which can be pretty unfair in many cases). Now if an independent witness also saw you riding against traffic you are either very unlucky or not telling the truth. So, if this actually happened like you tell it, best wishes and a speedy recovery, otherwise, well yeah.
As a wheelchair user traffic crossings are a massive danger for the reasons you pointed out, but also because I’m lower and less visible than a walking pedestrian. And as a hand cyclist, drivers get even more frustrated than they do with able bodied cyclists when I have the audacity to use their precious roads for my filthy exercise. I do so wish we lived in a post enlightenment world… but alas.
It doesn't take a wheelchair, any parent pushing their kid in a cart faces the same, though lesser, hurdles because those motorist make their own problem (parking) everyone's problem. If only local politicians and those working in the local govt traffic department would be forced to use a wheelchair for just one day every year, that might get a lot of small details get sorted quickly. I had to use a recumbent trike a few years ago after they had to bolt my hip back together after an accident, I did park in what motorists would consider "their" parking spaces. Fun times 🙂
Many years ago i used to see a guy in a wheelchair every morning on my way to work, going right down the middle of the right lane on 16th street into the center of DC. It was impossible then to travel on the sidewalk / pavement, as they had not yet started to lower the curbs at crosswalks, and were only just starting to mandate access to buildings. So he evidently decided to take things into his own hands and assert his rights, and so he took the lane on his way to work in the morning.
@@TomK32 Worse, I have seen some drivers treat parents with kid strollers worse than regular pedestrians. I am both cyclist and driver, but first of all a human being and it seems to me like somebody with a baby stroller has higher priority on the road than Mr. God hisself. To mistreat somebody disadvantaged is to choose to be less human.
I really notice the ramps at all intersections in the US are typically angled out into the traffic (because they don't want to build two ramps but rather just one to serve both directions). Of course most of the ramps are basically trash and impossible to use after a year or two...and I'd be scared as hell in a wheelchair or mobility scooter or whatever to try to navigate them with cars flying by going in excess of 20-30 mph OVER the 40 mph speed limit.
Here's the hard facts on pedestrian deaths in the UK www.gov.uk/government/statistics/reported-road-casualties-great-britain-pedestrian-factsheet-2022/reported-road-casualties-in-great-britain-pedestrian-factsheet-2022 The numbers go down, though I find it interesting that the number of accidents where they blame the pedestrian is quite high. Maybe it's just easier to blame the dead pedestrian... Any further research is welcome, I know one on the accident cause "speeding" and the verdict was: It depends on the police officer at the scene what cause is logged.
It is called social conditioning. I think it is funny that they complain about the price of fuel but are unwilling to walk a km to go to the shops, always having to drive their cars there, only to get frustrated finding a place to park the car.
Big agree. When i was a child my parents drove me everywhere, but we mostly went To a mall and a park that were both 5km away from our appartment. It was only at 18 I realized the absurdity, also going to the grocery store 2.5km away by car while there is literally 5 shops including a pretty big supermarket within 500m. 😂
@@hadtopicausername or if you don't want to walk, take a bike. you can have bags on that you add to the back of the bike, or use a bakfiets. or even use one of those carts that you pull with your bike, the type you often see with a dog in them. if they are able to carry a 30kg Labrador they would be able to carry a load of groceries too. added benefit, parking a bike only takes seconds.
One thing is driving to shops. Another thing is people driving 1 km to the gym to run on the treadmill! I know people who do it! It’s in Norway so it’s not because of safety. It’s just normalized car use for everything.
Some of that is from pure laziness, and some of that is a status thing. They have to be B.M.O.C. for appearances. Being identified by the car is part of their ego. Perhaps that's more of a man's thing I'd allow. Women have different things and instinctive things driving them.
One thing I've observed is when there is a pedestrian crossing (without traffic lights), and someone is waiting to cross and a car stops to give way, then some people hurry over the road with apologetic body language, as if it was the pedestrian creating an inconvenient situation.
Yes, it is the "cars literally own the road" mindset. Whenever a pedestrians want to leave their island of pavement and cross the property of cars, they must feel ashamed of themselves. They are inconveniencing the gods, basically. In some developed places (e.g., the Netherlands), the "offshoots" at intersections from the main road are actually raised to the pavement level and not the other way around. This creates a nice balance, giving the main road to the cars but indicating that the side streets belong to people and the car is a guest. I think that's pretty sensible
@@benedictearlson9044 Sometimes you are in a hurry. Especially if the light took 120 seconds + 3 seconds of yellow + 1 second of red in all directions. Considering writing my councilor and asking that the wait times for pedestrians be reduced to match the wait cyclist get when they go over a sensor in the new bike routes. Got thinking about it after seeing a pedestrian at one of those crossings and thinking: "it I was on my bike the light would have changed for me already."
I liked cars as a kid, but as I got older I came to see them for the bad smells of pollution, the constant roaring noise of roads you can hear almost wherever you go, and the sheer area of space taken up by cars, cutting apart wild forests and residential areas alike, making them dangerous and unpleasant to walk in. Its now one of the main issues on my mind these days.
Excellent, excellent segment! My recurring discussion when in a car passing a bicycle: "Bicycles are dangerous on these roads." --"Are you afraid of being harmed by one?" "No, but they may get hit." --"So, you are the one that is dangerous and harmful."
The one that always gets me is when people say that bike lanes/cyclists hold up emergency services, weaponising blue lights against cycling infrastructure. I'm an NHS paramedic, I can count on the fingers of one elbow how many times I've been held up by a cyclist in my career: 0. Meanwhile I'm held up by cars a dozen times a job, literally hundreds of times a shift. The negative externalities associated with cars are enormous, and yet most people would sooner surrender their health than their driving licence. It's fucked.
Such a daft argument. Again just something peddled by the press. In Europe on motorways it’s obligatory to move to the side leaving a free lane in the middle during a big traffic jam for emergency services. That doesn’t happen here but do the drivers care then? No, do they fcuk. Hard shoulders are being removed now for bs smart motorways but do they complain?
I think it would be a great service if you could find a way to set up a dash cam and show a compilation of your interactions with the people in traffic around you.
Wow, such useful insight against what now obviously seems like a ridiculous arguement. Thank you. I wonder, are there paramedics on bikes? Would that work having a paramedic with a saddle bag medical kit that may be able to respond quicker and stabilise a person while waiting for an ambulance to fight through traffic?
@@RBradenG unfortunately I cannot access the dash cam footage without my manager's permission, but a guy called Chris Martin (not from Coldplay) makes great videos of his blue light runs on RUclips, and he discusses the decision making behind his driving.
@@tubularG there are paramedics on bikes, but generally only at events (marathons and parades are the most common ones) because the amount of kit we have to carry largely negates the value of a small and light vehicle like a bicycle, especially over the long distances we may have to travel. London paramedics use motorcycles too, which are apparently fantastic. The sad reality is that the ambulance service relies on cars and vans to do our job at the moment, but I'd like to see more trusts look into using alternative means of transport, especially in urban areas.
I used to be quiet and sometimes even slightly ashamed that I didn't own a car and cycled everywhere. Now, I make it clear that it's a choice I've made on purpose and that it brings me joy, and I'm boisterous and loud about it. Being open about being a normal guy on a bike, and open about the abuse and dehumanization that occurs at the hands of drivers, has led to people that I work with telling me that they're more careful drivers now after hearing just how often I almost get hit on the way to and from work.
Imagine you are waiting at queue to the till in Tesco. Somebody would shout at you to speed up or trying to jump in front of you or blocking the way so you can't put your groceries. That sounds mad but drivers are doing it every day.
Indeed, there was actually a video where actors in a grocery store acted like drivers and it was...hilarious and sad...and yet somehow it takes much more than that to "orange pill" folks.
I love how you managed to move GCN editorial choices towards more sustainability, urbanism, daily bike commuting, etc...topics. Rather than those boring consumerist cyclists topics. One of the greater contribution made on YT. Thanks!
I’ve watched GCN for over a decade. And can say this is one of the best pieces they have ever produced. From a personal side, I’ve lived in large cities across the US , Germany and France over the years, and feel like I’m the one taking crazy pills on my daily 5-10km bike commutes while hundreds and thousands of people sit in the same traffic, alone in their cars, for 3-4 times the amount of time it takes me to get to point A-B. What compounds the dangers for cyclists and pedestrians as well, is the mobile phone addiction sitting in the car with the person while they are in traffic. It’s been proven our digital lifes cause anxiety, depression and loneliness. The sadness, anger, rage and inattentive disposition of someone behind a 2-3 ton killing machine gets amplified 10 fold on a daily basis, and the odds of hurting or killing someone increases greatly each passing day. No one has the balls, or fortitude, to stop the cycle of madness. So we will just keep living in a twilight zone episode.
It's a depressing situation, yes. I think the crash at 1:47 in this video was caused by mobile phone distraction, if you watch the car on the right, unless it was a passenger holding it.
Excellent video. Love the term 'motonormativity' and as a keen cyclist-advocate and activist - and involved in the local 'Vision Zero' movement. I have attached the video link to a screenshot of the vid and shared it - should be seen by quite a lot more people. Mind you, you've already got over 500k views!
@@elliotwilliams7421 If you want, you could detail exactly what the 'propaganda' is. I was interested in the results of the psychology study. Maybe you missed that?
@@compostjohn the video is pure propaganda. Making up stories, lies, misdirection, etc. So you just agree with stuff, you don't research it? Why? The study? What about it? You seem to suffer confirmation bias
@compostjohn pretty much the whole thing is propaganda. Surely you done your own research? Or did you just believe what the man said as you agreed??? Asking folk about danger then talking about death. Lying about stats. Lying about how and why roads are designed. It's worrying that you are involved in this propaganda
@@compostjohn all you need to know is that the flared junction in the video predates the car, so to claim it's designed for cars to go faster, destroy any claim the man makes. He makes stuff up to suit his story. Pure propaganda
The amount of stupidity in the world today is absolutely staggering! I'm a truck driver in the good'ol US of A and it's literally idiot after idiot after idiot to infinity! People have absolutely lost control and have zero respect for one another! As a biker here I'm positively terrified to ride a shoulder anymore for fear of being targeted for hit and run! In Wisconsin where I live bike lanes are exhaustingly, slowly being introduced but people drive in them to protest! It's totally disgusting the amount of trumpability that occurs! People could care less for each other and even less for the biker. Thank you for making this!
@@Adventures4vida this. What kind of arsehole needs a 2t chariot to get them around, when they presumably weigh less than 100kg. Meanwhile 15t trucks roam our neighbourhoods carrying dozens of tons of cargo, and aren't even that efficient when compared to rolling stock or ships.
That's crazy! bike lanes benefit cars more than bikes. It seggregates bikes to allow cars to move faster but bike lanes are not as visible - reduced biker safety so cars can go faster.
If you asked any person with common sense which would be more dangerous - a 100kg object moving at a max of 30km/h or a 1500kg object moving at 50km/h, or to simplify even more, a light object moving slow or a heavy object moving fast - no one in their right mind would have guessed the bike. It really blows my mind how ridiculous that sounds if you break it down into simple physics.
It's good to discover that I'm not the only person looking at our streets thinking how much more pleasant our cities would be without all the noise, signals, signs, fumes, concrete and asphalt that go along with cars. My family think I'm a little looney when I ask them to stop for a moment and picture the street we're on with no car-related signs! That said I probably am a little looney, but for different reasons.
Yeah same here...sad stuff. Everyone gets so sad about their health problems and those of their families. Huge ol mess were in 😢 and even worse not many see it
Even as a cyclist, i understand why cars are an important and usefull tool for everyone, it's not that i want roads gone, but i do want people to respect me as another human being instead of raging at me for existing, there's plenty of people who actively disrespect our lanes and react like we're going to destroy the earth if we're seen literally going walking pace on the sidewalk. This is what they tell us "being a minority feels like" and yet i haven't seen someone insult or attack an african american for no reason, but i have seen plenty of people getting mad at cyclists for nothing, almosy running them over when they were suposed to yield and complaining about it along with plenty of other shitty behaviour. Most of us haven't done anything to deserve this other than tryng to enjoy a hobby.
@@Ferrari255GTO cars have a purpose, but most people use them to go around the block to go to the corner store. Gas should be very expensive for everyday drivers, Gas breaks given out to businesses that deliver goods, and special needs. We could easily do with 50 percent less cars on the road.
This makes me glad that I live in Copenhagen where bicycles are always given top priority. A few years back, they had to do maintenance on a split bike/car bridge, and instead of compromising the bike lanes or reroute the bikes, the bridge got closed off for cars for a couple of weeks, and the car-section of the bridge was converted to temporary bike lanes during the maintenance of the bike-part of the bridge, as it was more important to keep the bikes flowing than the cars.
Cycling in Denmark is a joy. Really great infrastructure, and I never saw any conflict between cyclists and drivers. Active travel is encouraged - you can take your bike on buses, trains, and the metro.
Strange last time I was in Denmark it felt that bike friendlynes stoped at the City limit of copenhagen. I did ride the direct road towards Rodby and exprienced a lot of very tight overtaking :/ That was one right in the top-ten of most anyoying roads for that cycling holiday. To be fair on another trip there I was impressed by this one bike traffic light detecting me an switiching with perfect timinig.
@@tobias3919 Whilst I haven’t biked on Lolland, it is true that the great bike infrastructure like that of Copenhagen is primarily found in and around the major cities and not as much out in the countryside. And while again, I haven’t biked on Lolland, I do know that more and more bike lanes are popping up across the country, though it is a bit of a bigger undertaking to build bike lanes next to all major roads, than focus on a single city, especially because of the safety regulations we’ve imposed on ourselves regarding bike lanes. Without going to deep into the rules, if you are building a bike lane next to a major road, it HAS to be physically separated from the road and with a buffer margin; this means that the roads I used to ride to school, not too dissimilar from the type of road you mention, today has a dual-directional bike lane next to it separated by a 1m buffer area, but it also means that adding such bike lanes can be a political nightmare, as most roads are too narrow to simply be converted to this, and thus they often require a couple of meters of widening, which rarely goes down well with the residences whose front yard or driveway will be reclaimed for this purpose…
I recently biked in Denmark, both in Copenhagen and outside of the city in the countryside, and I kind of agree. Often overtakes in the countryside was rather fast. I never felt in danger but I must say compared to Sweden I think the Danish drove faster. But the infrastructure for bikes are just so much better in Denmark. The absolute best thing is the amount of bike lanes and how they always are separated from pedestrians and the bike lanes are basically always one way so you usually have bike lanes on both sides of the road. In Sweden we often combine bike lanes and pedestrians and that causes many conflicts and accidents. We should all learn from Denmark how it should be done
I am studying urban planning in school right now and its crazy how hard it is to just try to get people to accept not driving every single place, and having immediate access to free parking in front of the place they are trying to go. I live in the US so its probably worse, but its bad everywhere. This video was much needed, thank you. Hopefully people see it that need to see it.
Every single ride I think about this stuff and it drives me insane. A man on a bike was hit and decapitated in my old city (Elizabeth, New Jersey) the other day on a road that is set up to be a 6-lane highway with crosswalks and traffic lights going right through an urban area. That stretch of road is one of the most dangerous in the entire country and there's no wonder why. Now repeat that idiocy in pretty much every corner of the United States.
This is the best video you've ever made. It's the one tackling the biggest elephant in the room. It's the one that should go under every single comment in every social media on earth that constantly repeats "yeah but bike riders" Thanks.
Wow, finally a high quality, unbiased video adressing one of the main problems in cities. Really interesting studies and real life examples shown in this video, great work GCN! Looking forward to seeing the progress of your lobbying for a more bearable traffic culture in the future.
It only occured to me watching this that the reason my kids can't play in the front yard is because without a fence, it's unsafe...because of the road for cars! (Melbourne, Australia).
Yeah I was thinking, that's another one of those double standard questions you could ask where it's ok if it were cars near where children play, but not ok if it were "heavy machinery" or something of the like.
Whenever I look at pictures of my Dutch neighbourhood from the 1930s-1950s I’m always amazed by the amount of children playing in the street in every picture. That was possible, because there were only a few cars per street. No worries about damaging a parked car, no need to be afraid of getting ran over, as there simply weren’t enough cars to become a nuisance. The streets seemed so broad, too! Now the streets are getting increasingly tighter, with cars only getting bigger and bigger. Growing up in the 90s we’d often get angry neighbours if we’d accidentally kick or throw a ball against a car, causing no damage. I don’t think it’s just screen time that’s keeping children inside more.
@@DanDanDoe yes, not only screen time. When I was 3 years old I would walk a 1/4 mile alone to my friends house. From age 5 we would spend whole days roaming around the neighborhood and woods and come home only for dinner. I see the parks that used to be full of kids playing baseball and football and sledding in the winter now just empty, nobody goes there in the us now parents may even be arrested by police if their children up to age 12 are just walking down the sidewalk on their own, which is car culture gone completely mad
I like how it is in Japan where the car is almost always at fault when something happens. It might not seem fair at first but if you're driving a ton and a half around everywhere, you really should be extremely careful of your surroundings at all times.
@@gcn Great, as it should be. It's amazing how we've convinced ourselves that cars are safe even when they're the most dangerous mode of transport. Sure, you're likely to die on a motorcycle, but you're way more likely to kill with a car.
Technically it is the same in Germany as well (Betriebsgefahr Kraftfahrzeug), however, it seems that the Police, Prosecution and also to some extend the Judges go more and more in another direction, probably both to brainwashing as well as that some people never ride a bike or walk. This statement is regardless of inconsiderate to outright dangerous road users that occur amoung all forms of transportation.
Great video Si. I find the whole anti cyclist anger quite depressing. Whenever anything comes up on social media, they don’t pay road tax, insurance..blah blah😢. I find that even in conversations with non cycling friends I sometimes have to bite my tongue! I particularly like the segment about crossings where the priority is always car traffic. I regularly use a cycle path that crosses a busy road at a pelican crossing. You have to wait several minutes until there’s virtually no traffic coming before the lights change.🤷♂️
The segment on crossing is flawed. Why do you just believe what GCN say? It's not designed for cars to go faster at all. I find cults like GCN and its followers depressing. GCN have made a poor video, folk criticise it, you get depressed. That's really selfish of you You are being brainwashed by GCN
Is it wrong to say Ian Walker looks like he could be Richard Hammond's Dad? Great, and very disturbing video. The Cyclist hatred is real in Australia, and even more so in regional areas.
@@tsubakisan1147 Motonormativity is also much stronger in Australia than Britain and it's going to take a long time to dig us out of this hole. It's a self-reinforcing vicious circle where we drive because the alternatives are bad and that causes the alternatives to become worse. The sad thing I see around Newcastle (Australia) is where they build new cycle lanes in the inner city, increase urban density and rezone for mixed use, but then at the same time build a new subdivision on the outskirts of the city, zoned for single-family homes, 5km from the nearest shops and upgrade the nearby roads from 2 lanes to 4. It's like they kind of get it but there's still so much momentum in the wrong direction.
@@tsubakisan1147 I disagree about the regional thing. I live in a remote part of East Gippsland and people wave to me, and go over the centre line to overtake. Some people find it strange that I live without a car, but I have never encountered road rage out here, let alone the myriad of other forms of aggression that I get when I ride in cities.
In the US it's cars, large pickup trucks, side-by-sides and ATVs and while I understand that many people need their cars because our suburbs are so spread out, most people who have large trucks, side by sides and ATVs don't actually need them. But the people who have those things have convinced themselves they can't live without them. And then there are the people who ride motorcycles and the ones who ride golf carts through their neighborhoods...
My mom went on pension a month ago. She was so used to have a car from the business (she worked for) and instead of buying an electric bike she bought a car because she doesnt get how you could use a bike to go to a store or other things.
@@CanItAlready probably wouldn’t have suburbs to the extent we do if it wasn’t for cars. It’s self-perpetuating (Edited a beautiful autocorrect of suburbs to ‘sunburns’ 😅)
@@peglor used to have a guy lived opposite who would drive 200 meters to buy a paper. took him longer open the drive gates etc then it prob would have walking
As someone who has spent the last decade learning about how deeply car culture has brainwashed us, the content of this video was nothing new to me. But I have to give massive praise and gratitude for how well this video presented this information. I'm hoping it helps people challenge motornormativity.
I'm proud to say I'm born & raised in the US and have never owned a car. Initially it was for financial reasons, but as time passed, I recognized the environmental issues, and eventually the enormous waste of space storing everyone's vehicles on public roads 24/7 living in the city. At this point I ride my bike or take public transport everywhere, and with the money I saved, I bought a house. I've heard plenty of horrible takes from drivers against biking, but the worst is their inability to recognize if I'm riding, that's one less car on the road creating traffic and taking up parking. If anything, drivers should want as many people who want to ride to be able to do so safely, so that they can drive with less traffic and more parking. Currently, the city I live in is expecting a lot of new residents, and is actually taking steps to increase bike infrastructure and reduce the number of cars on the road. In the mornings I'll actually see the bike lanes well used with commuters! It actually makes me optimistic and I hope this type of planning will become universal when people see the results.
The bit about drivers should be thanking you for having ome less car on the road. No, not when you move slower and cause more congestion than you would in a car. Just watched one cyclist holding up over 40 vehicles going along a road, and you think we should be thanking him??
@elliotwilliams7421 I never said you had to be thankful for shit. You can screw yourself for all I care. I live in a city where there are stop signs at each intersection and parking so tight you have to drive for 30 minutes to find a spot within a quarter mile. At this point most drivers realize I'm not holding them up when they're just going to have to stop behind the next car in front of me. And my neighbors are thankful I'm not taking up an extra spot on the street. When I first moved to the city 20 years ago, drivers were pretty antagonistic towards bikes, but now that they've built better infrastructure for riders and it's obvious I'm not even taking up a lane, the tone has completely changed. These days, most drivers recognize the benefits.
@@elliotwilliams7421 I didn't say you had to thank anybody. Just because you saw a rider hold up some cars once doesn't really have anything to do with me describing bike infrastructure in my city. In fact, if you prefer bikes not having to ride in traffic lanes, then you should want them to have more options.
@AB-wf8ek driving made harder. it shouldn't be like that. Forcing folk out their cars. Must be better cyclists where you are. Watch the video, and you'll see how deluded uk cyclists are.
The funny thing about the urbanist movement, is once your eyes are open to the damage cars can do, you can never go back to seeing the world the same again. Fortunately, the movement is picking up momentum, so I hope to see major changes in my lifetime.
i dont think thats the case sure more bikers are realizing thanks to bgn and seth and more but biking (especially mtb and road biking ) is not widespread or treated seriously but just like how f1 helps cars improve, pro bikers help fix problems before they hit normal people even global warming is less and less serious now and there are many people who just hate change even for the better media doesnt help here either, i hate media and i generaly advice people to never trust media as they can manipulate and even falsify
You'll inevitably see it. i hope for the best. Peak oil is coming rather soon, a huge depletion is to be expected during our lifetimes so let's hope the worlds roads will become the best cycling infrastructure. If no cars are presents, the streets are ours.
I meant global warming is treated as a less serious problem now, not that global warming is less of a serious issue and that it reduced and got better.
This has to be my absolute favourite video from GCN! I’ve recently moved to London and it’s incredible how much freedom I have when there is so much cycling infrastructure and public transport, with incentives like congestion charging to reduce car use. It’s better for both our health and the planet. I just wish more cities could be similarly focused on these issues
As someone who, just the other day, was on the receiving end of a motorist winding their window down and yelling at me to 'get off the road!' purely for nothing more than I was just there and he had to wait awhile to overtake. Those first few people have me absolutely raging. The stupidity and sheer ignorance is ASTOUNDING.
I had a motor bike do that to me just yesterday. Yelled at me to get off the road and into the bike lane... which is funny since they had just ripped up the bike lane. I guess he was triggered because I delayed him 10 seconds getting to the red lights.
@@ihaps1117 I live in a "usually" nice polite part of Canada, but yes, it happens far more than it should. It doesn't help that my city is VERY slow in getting decent bike infrastructure in place. We didn't even have an Active Transportation coordinator on staff until last year!
The idea that we should put ourselves at the mercy of other people's judgement on every road, every day, to get around rather than say, rely on an expert to transport hundreds of people at once (e.g. trains) or placing people on non-harmful means of transport (e.g. bikes) is absolutely astounding. All our residential streets are dominated by cars, and are unsafe. We have to put up with noise pollution, and air pollution. Places like Soho, where the are more people than cars, are still dominated by cars. It's insane. Cars are entirely unrestricted speed-wise whereas our E-bikes can only go up to 15mph with pedal assist. Utter madness.
@@elliotwilliams7421 it's abjectly and demonstrably true. There's no reason cars should be able to exceed the national speed limit, yet I could go out and buy one that could top 200mph tomorrow. Great chatting to you
This video should be subtitled in as many languages as possible. In Poland unjustified road rage towards cyclists is something that we meet on daily basis. Very important material not only for cyclist and drivers, but for everyone. Thanks GCN 🙂.
This is an uncharacteristicly outspoken and opinionated video for GCN. Love it. More of this taking a stance on such an important public issue please!! ✌️🙌
I with them to be careful and respectful. That'll gain more traction. the sane case studies will eventually be herd too. Besides, we can't even get traffic circles here.
First time I ever want to double, even triple like, a GCN content^^ I might haven’t especially learned anything new, but I’ve been into soft mobility studies & data as well as cycling as a mean of transportation for decades, but being also a sport club cyclist rather deceived by the immense lack of knowledge or even consideration from my Lycra teammates for overall infra-security-mobility topics, I’m so glad GCN is bringing the matter on the table as they are the primary public of this channel 😇
This is the best most informative vud you have produced in a long time, thanks Simon! Like most I drive, cycle and walk, my main issue for not using my bike on more journeys is fear of theft of my bike, I won't take it into town. We need more secure bike storage in town centres. Government could also incentivise the public to not use there cars and use either public transport or foot and cycle.
If I ride to my local railway station there is no facility at all to securely lock your bike. In fact zero bike facilities at all. I comment occasionally that it is one of the quickest places to give your bike away. Nothing at the shops. Nothing at the doctors surgery. Almost everywhere I cycle there are no facilities for bikes. 1000 miles per year. Local authorities have done absolutely nothing in the 20 years since I moved to my current house. Nothing. I fear you are wasting your breath. Mostly everyone I know is pro-car and bugger the pedestrian and cyclist.
Fine and dandy but define incentivise. In every practical example it means punishing people for using their cars which they want to use. Make public transport or bikes or whatever as convenient or as useful as a car and people will switch willingly, but it is not up to you or the government to impose it's personal preference onto people's lives and limit their right to free movement, which for most people requires a car.
@@tattooedfred public transport is not free because by defenition you're not in control of it. You only go to the places the bus goes and when it wants to go there. Now that's fine in most cases but we can all think of times when it isn't, usually unexpected ones. As far as a bike goes that only works in a dense city. In every other situation it's too awkward to get sweaty, tired and wet to travel and many people are simply not able to. A bike is only a serious alternative to a car at about 3 times the distance that walking is, you would never say you can move freely just by walking where you need to go
Agree, it’s the last barrier to overcome. I was in Delft last year, there’s a free bicycle enclosure in the car free centre, manned by a chap with a tip hat, like a coat check service. Simple, cheap, and wish we had them here in the U.K.
I removed myself from the CAR-CENTRIC CULTURE twenty five years ago. All happened , After a car accident with a truck. Afterwards, I gave my car away-- i felt the car was a monster which needed to be fed daily, and would drain my finances-- just to get around. Realized, that one day the car culture would KILL ME !!. Change of PLAN. i cycle to work daily and live close to where i can walk to shops, hospitals and restaurants. on weekends, i cycle to remote areas of historical interest. A far less stressful way to LIVE. The opposition from friends and family were huge. Everyone does accept the car culture as a way of living in the modern world. Growing up in the Antilles-Caribbean island where motor vehicles were only owned by the rich, gave an insight that vehicles are slowly killing us along with our planet. THANK YOU for bringing up this great topic . I always wondered if i was the only one out there---without a CAR..
I never took the plunge into car ownership, so it's always seemed foreign to me. But it's interesting that you mention coming from a place where cars were an economic class divide. Did you know that only 16% of the world's population own a motor vehicle. You are in the majority, like me. We live better, healthier lives because of it. And 'the rich' are slaves to the oil and automotive industries; spending huge amounts of their time alive on this planet at their jobs, in order to pay for their personal ~2 ton chariot.
@@senorfreebie Glad to know there are more of US Carless Citizens out there. The Two Ton Chariot kills more people 40,990 last year in the United States.
@senorfreebie and I think vehicles will ultimately demolish the world along with the human race. Motorization is just for conveniences we all allowed to happen--except the Dutch, they live correctly
The smell of car fumes is the worst thing I've encountered since starting to commute to work by bike. The world would be soo much quieter and fresher with less cars...
Had to deal with this every day when cycling to school as a teenager, even in Cambridge, which is supposed to be a "cycling friendly" city! Diesel fumes were especially bad!
When i walk in the main city all i smell if piss not really the Car fumes. But i never walk in the city that much. Just to many people and to much nosie.
To the questions you've asked. I did know that there is some bias towards cars being not the problem, as I was born in Germany, and we rely heavily on driving cars. I didn't know that it is called motornormativity. I actually just received an email that my JobRad so a bicycle I can use for work was granted, and so I will try to ride my then e-gravelbike to work a lot more. I hope that we as a society will work on that and make the streets and the air safer for all of us. Great video.
One thing you typically see people say about new cycle infrastructure is 'there's no one in these cycle lanes, they are empty'. Well when the first stretches of the M1 opened in 1959 traffic volume was very low, around 13,000 vehicles every 24hrs. When you look at pictures of the M1 from that time it looks essentially empty. Today 10 times as many vehicles use the M1 daily. So let's give cycle lanes the same opportunity to grow, those that look under used today will be heaving in a few decades. Incidentally the M1 opened without speed limits, hard shoulders, lighting or a central reservation. So we need continuous investment in cycle lanes too to keep them safe, flat and free of debris - is that happening?
Other have done this but if you sit at a junction with a cycle lane and film it, you'll quickly notice just how efficient the bike lane is. It moves a large number of people quickly so 'appears' empty but it's like if water passes down the plug hole fast, we don't say it's underused but motorists will look at an empty bike lane and claim exactly that (& then say something about how it's 'a war on motorists ')!
As I've tried to explain to many friends, it's not the best 10 km that makes you not willing to take the bike. It's the 1 km where you are afraid for your life that decides it. The goal should be that elderly and children are willing and allowed to take the bike. That was what made me most happy when I visited the Netherlands to see all the children and older people out on their bikes.
The bike lanes would also need to go between places that people actually go. My city has some amazing infrastructure but it doesn't go anywhere useful so it isn't used as much as it could be.
There is a better way. A few years ago a busy main road where I live was closed for 2 weeks for resurfacing (it was a deep resurface), it was so nice to see people walking, children actually playing outside in the street, and of course the improvement in air quality was very noticeable. There are so many benefits to changing people’s perceptions. Well done GCN, top work.
Cars parked with two wheels on the pavement always baffles me. They haven’t left the road clear for two vehicles to pass but have impeded pedestrians. Lack of enforcement is the issue
I recently saw a video made by a cyclist passing standing traffic, following another cyclist. When the traffic was blocking the road, the two cyclists went on an empty piece of pavement to safely get past the traffic. They went slowly, about the speed of a fast runner but definitely slow for a bike. The comments were full of people callimg them out for how dangerous they were riding, and how cyclists never follow the rules yet expect to be respected etc. None of the drivers in the comments even mentioned the illegally parked car, with two wheels on the pavement and two wheels on the road (with a double yellow line). People were even arguing with me that the car was parked alright.
There was a government consultation about pavement parking rules about 3 years ago, but the Tories just refused to publish the results/any response for 3 years. Hopefully labour will do something about it. Pavement parking is illegal in London, but not the rest of the country. Just giving us all the same rules as London would be a huge step forward.
The United Kingdom is a lost cause. Just reading this crap, what the hell is wrong with you all? Is there not a financial incentive for punishing these blatant law infringements? The government here in Croatia is extremely corrupt, and yet leave your car parked on the street for more than a few minutes, you'll come back to it missing.
I've run into this in so many people for over 30 years. I'm so glad to see that someone is doing more than collecting evidence. Unfortunately I've been hit by motorists a few times in my life. Thankfully I got paid by the insurance company, and was able to fix my bikes. Please keep up the good work. Thank you.
In India (and I suspect a lot of the global south) a car is also considered an aspirational means of transport. People saw me cycling in Mumbai and were shocked that I chose to cycle and didn't own a car while I could afford one! When I told them people buy cycles in the UK that cost more than a cheap used car would cost in India, it blew their mind!!!
India is full of this superficial classist status circlejerk, I've seen this first hand. People will sit alone in their car in not even a normal traffic but Indian traffic, only to go like 7-8 kilometres, hell it's not even about bikes, they have mopeds and motorbikes at home too, but they don't even ride those because it's seen as a "low status" thing to do. And god forbid if you are seen as someone riding a bike in india, people consider it as a subhuman thing to do because it makes you perceived to be from extremely low financial status. India is an extremely narrow minded and dogmatic society
I do a ton of practical riding, and good-meaning family + friends tell me out of valid concern that I should be careful because cycling is dangerous. I often have to remind them that cycling is perfectly safe but they should be careful while driving. Every time they do it they risk killing someone.
I went to centre Parcs for the first time this summer and it was amazing to see how they actively force you to move your car off the main site to make it a more pleasant place to walk and cycle and everybody just totally accepts it. If we said that had to happen in our towns and cities, people would be in uproar.
Bikes do kill people. However, despite your fascination with death, not everyone is obsessed with death. Minor injuries and constantly having to avoid cycling on the pavement are a huge pain and danger. Your argument is on par with a 5 years olds
My next-door neighbor DRIVES her kid 1/2 a block to school, going the wrong way down a one way street every morning. It's three houses from hers to the corner on which the school is. It is SO infuriating!
The school district around me got budget approvals to build 3+ new schools. Watching all of them get built it saddens me that ALL of the infrastructure is about that adult parent driving their one child to school. They put token bike racks at the school my youngest went to, but it's a stroad with no shoulders whatsoever, and is a 3 lane road that is clearly built with ONLY cars in mind. Even the sidewalks on that side of the street end at the property lines of the school. Its honestly pathetic that my kids cannot safely ride bikes to school as I did, even if my biking to school was "safe" rather than safe
My neighbour works in the local village shop, the village has around 1,000 properties with low crime rate. She walks out of her front door and steps into the car, then has to drive to the end of the street, along the next street, then back down the next to get to the shop. There is also an open greenspace next to her house with a lit path along it, which would take her directly to the shop. It's around 100metres walk vs 1/2 mile drive plus traffic. I have absolutely no idea how some people manage to rationalise such behaviour
That's an extreme example, but to be fair, most of those parents that drive their children to school that's not even far, they do it because then they continue driving to get to work. At least it makes kind of sense if it's a small child that can't go alone.
I had enough of traffic in December and bought a 30 year old road bike and started cycling over 200 km a week (from zero fitness) for commuting and fun. Since mid December I have used less than two tanks of petrol.
Good going. I’ve been cycling to work for the past 3 years (sometimes I still use the car). On average I save about £20 a month on petrol. The bike I bought at the start has more than paid for itself and I’ve lost weight.
After having a child I realized that even our quiet neighborhood is a danger zone. The first thing you need to teach your child is to stand aside for cars. Even after this, you still always need to be around to intervene just in case. Why isn't anybody instead teaching the drivers to drive at pedestrian speed when they see children?
Because when you're in a car you're usually going somewhere important, where if you're walking you usually aren't. Parents keeping their children safe from the road isn't somehow bowing down to cars it's the same idea as keeping them safe from a river. This thing is inherently dangerous and very useful if used correctly, you're too young to use it correctly to stay away from it
@@johnmccrossan9376 Your very first sentence is a huge assumption. But even if it was correct, a driver going somewhere important does not giver them more rights compared to other citizens or other citizens safety.
@@squngy0 yes it's an assumption but it's a founded one. Driving costs money and people very rarely do things that cost money without a significant perceived benefit. Also the road is made for cars it's not as if you're taking rights away from someone else you're just using a space that is centred on motorists. If I was walking in a velodrome while people were trying to cycle you wouldn't say how dare they be annoyed at me getting in the way because that's not my space it's theirs.
@@johnmccrossan9376 So you would have no problem if we built velodromes over roads, so cyclists can go everywhere with no one in the way? And no, spending money does not prove importance, people spend money on all sorts of frivolous things.
Been saying this for years. Now there's finally a video that sums up my daily frustrations. "Yes sir, yes sir, my apologies sir, I now see that you are in a car and are much more important than I - I shall grovel to cross the road, cycle anywhere or even just to walk down the pavement safely".
This was great and informative. During architecture school, I worked on a project about the "beast of the street." Streets used to be vibrant spaces for people to meet, celebrate, and engage with their community. However, the rise of cars has significantly altered this dynamic, often diminishing the sense of community. Nowadays, it's rare to even know your neighbors.
The best video you've ever done, period. I do wonder though, if i bought a car and spent lumps of money on insurance, fuel, servicing and deposit, I understand people wanting to use it a lot. They passed two tests and worked so hard for this false dream and when they get the car they want to live in their fantasy as much as possible.
None of what you say makes sense. Terrible video, lies, and misdirection. What fantasy?? What I have noticed is how childish GCN and most of its supporters are and how often you create fake scenarios to boost your confidence.
@@elliotwilliams7421 the fantasy they probably had from a young age that a car somehow means they're adult or more free. I am totally sure you're far more intelligent than the guests in this video
I was talking about the merits of transit to a friend, and he mentioned that the subway system in my city has frequent disruptions, citing that as a definite negative compared to driving. I countered that every traffic jam as a result of construction, crashes, breakdowns and other stuff was the exact same, but they're so normalized that nobody thinks about them.
As a retired county council Cycling & Sustainable travel officer none of this is a surprise. One of the blockages to things changing is that while road planners were happy to help me design and plan 'traffic free' cycle paths they would not compromise car use in favour of cyclists and pedestrians at all. One clue is the term traffic free cycle path. Since when have cycles not been considered part of traffic?
Thanks for making this video. It's a shame that those of us who advocate for active transport are often seen as anti car, when we are actually anti car dominance. Keep up the good work guys.
As mtb rider I have to say the road is for cars. Take your bicycle where it belongs to woods and trails, or if you commute in city use bikelane or sidewalk like a normal person.
Not according to the Highway Code or any government guidelines in the UK. Cyclists are perfectly entitled to use roads, which by the way, were not originally built for cars. Cars are the interlopers - cyclists were using roads long before the car was invented.
In the US we got a 90% car daily commute rate. Cars cause 480 billion usd in damages a year here and 3 to 5 million people seek health consultations from car related incidents. Very interesting how the world even with data refuses to acknowledge the damage
We great apes are a highly flawed species. Make the animal get used to anything, even if it might be a danger and it will perceive it as normal. Some people were abused in their childhood and will - for their whole lives - search for partners which will also abuse them. Everything unknown might be more dangerous than status quo, even if in reality it would lead to a hundred times brighter future. Let's hope our societies will “heal” over time and start to perceive reality with more objective/rational eyes…
More videos like this please! The subtle messaging that vehicles are the way to go is everywhere, especially here in North America! Granted riding a bicycle in the winter is uncomfortable, it's not impossible
As a 60 year old, I really just thought this is the way it is. Then I started a Master's program at the University at Albany (New York State) originally focusing on bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure and learned just how wrong I was. I've commuted an hour or more to work most of my adult life. Imagine my surprise when I realized the reason for that is because of the low density high car use infrastructure built here in the US even for local travel. Just to get to university from my house would take two 15-mile bike rides and a 3-hour bus trip. The train, while an option, only stops twice per day neither of which are convenient to classes and still requires the 15-mile bike ride (not much of an option in upstate NY winters). Even by bus I'd be forced to sleep on a park bench somewhere because, by the time class ends, the bus route has shut down. The best way to ensure car culture is to atrophy all of the alternatives.
Since a little kid, I noticed that something was wrong with the way we build our cities and over many years, my intuition was confirmed. As someone who didn't ever own a car (and neither did my family), I am disappointed in the lakc of infrastructure for alternative options. Not only does "motonormativity" send the message that cars were inherently necessary on streets, it also makes people think that there are no alternatives to anything. Over many years, I've asked around many people in my region in Germany and I've come to realise that the amount of time spent driving makes causes people's brains to even be wired differently! People owning more than one car tend to be closed-minded and their closed-mindedness is confirmed by the bery culture they are a part of; people who use alternatives to driving less assume that people who do use them more (or exclusively like I do) were crazy or even insane... Then I started wondering whether a city or even an entire country with *0* cars was possible - and I came to the conclusion that it is and without any downsides! So let's stop cars altogether! Even the argument of rural areas or transport of goods is flawed since there is this vehicle known as a train. And if you don't remove the asphalt, at least replace the cars with buses, even that is better than keeping cars around. Whenever people call me extreme for that, I tell them how extreme they are with cars as they treat them like a necessity. Perhaps it helps to write fantasy books with urban places without cars. Perhaps the cinema needs more of that urbanism! And no, I am not extreme as cars cause nothing but trouble (and studies prove this over and over again).
I have moved from Canada where there is a huge amount of hostility towards cyclists (I live in the Netherlands now). But even in Canada, I have never heard the claim that cyclists are responsible for cars killing pedestrians. I can’t even fathom the mental gymnastics one has to perform to come to such a conclusion.
oh my god thank you for that. It's been the fight of my life for almost 5 years now. Great to see the sport cycling world actually caring about why cycling is a dangerous sport : cars. Cars has destroyed everything : calm, space, climate, brains. This video is a good first step to see it.
What are your thoughts on 'Motonormativity'? 🚘
More of this❤
Make more!
There is just no accounting for the number of morons there are in the World.
Michael Kranish wrote the book The World's Fastest Man: The Extraordinary Life of Cyclist Major Taylor, America's First Black Sports Hero. Major Marshall Taylor lived and rode 🚲 as life in the USA went from pedestrians and horses, to maybe 20 years of 🚲 supremacy, and then a lot of professional 🚲 riders helped bring in the 🚗 supremacy era we live in now.
"You have to build it before the behavior comes" isn't true, sadly. Amsterdam has excellent cycling infrastructure and a strong cycling culture. Silicon Valley has excellent cycling infrastructure and a weak cycling culture. Japan has almost no cycling infrastructure and a strong cycling culture. The cyclist deaths in Amsterdam and Japan are about the same. Silicon Valley has far more cycling deaths per citizen than Amsterdam and Japan. It's the cycling culture that must be changed not the cycling infrastructure. Changing cycling culture is effectively impossible so we just try to spend money to change the cycling infrastructure. Extremely sad. I have no real solutions. 😢 😢😢😢
"The cars are killing people, because bikes are forcing them in the middle of the road and causing problems."
I've heard it all now.
Hysterical, it'd be funny, if not tragic,they must be russians.
It's so stupid it could be funny. But it's not. :(
And drivers lack the judgement and spatial awareness to do other than swerve around cyclists, I imagine.
That's coming from an old lady who's supposed to have a lot of wisdom, yet is the epitome of stupidity.
Nobody is forcing anyone into the middle of the road, the average bonehead driver decides to do that!!! If you come up behind a cyclist you slow down and wait until it is absolutely safe to pass and NOT any other time, it really is quite simple!
Get stuck behind a bike for a couple of minutes and people lose their minds, sit in traffic for hours on end and its seen as acceptable because it can't be helped.
Well said.
Very good point
Not to mention road rage.
Here in Germany it's a matter of seconds, not minutes. Often even if the bike drives at speed limit.
Yes it is seen as acceptable because otherwise they would have to accept being part of the problem.
Blame Somebody Else.
The mental gymnastics of "cars only kill people because bikes forced them to swerve"...
Cognitive dissonance observed in the field.
It’s genuinely terrifying that this seemingly nice lady has such a death wish for other innocent people.
Well we all remember how that bicycle in the tunnel forced lady Diana's limo to swerve :)
@@PRH123 ....and also cause cancer.
E-Bikes my dear
I've got to admit, after two decades of effectively 100% commute by bike to work, over the last few years I've begun wondering exactly this. Looking at everyone in cars during 'rush hour' thinking 'when did it become the cultural norm to use 1 or 2 tons of metal and glass just to get your ass to work' -- for everyone, every day. Weird isn't it?
Yeah, imagine the people without their cars, one or two people taking up that much space on the road just to get somewhere.
Also, walking / cycling is healthier aswell. I had a sport teacher who travelled with the bike everywhere, he didnt even own a car, only his wife did. It was only because he once had something with his legs and needed to build muscle by cycling, it saved his legs but he continued to do so and still does. For years now. And he doesnt live around the corner, he lived in a city that was so far away I didnt even know its name, wich is the reason why I also dont remember it.
He told us stories of how he raced with motorcyclists or how he got stuck in winter 5 kilometers on the way to shool because his bike literally froze, so he had to walk back the 5 kilometers and get his other bike to drive to shool.
Was a great teacher and person, havent seen him in years. But he is the living proof that cycling is not only viable, but also healthy, he had some strong calves!
Cars aren't just for work hahahaha.
Bless you are young and naive. That's why GCN put videos like this out, to brainwash you all amd it's working
I’m in the US and my bike is my main transportation. It is very dangerous where I live in dc to ride my bike during rush hr. It’s like the drivers don’t care and everyone is in a rush. In most of the city we have dedicated bike lanes but cars park in them🤦🏾♂️ forcing us to have to move into the traffic. I’m very observant as I almost died recently; coincidentally riding in the bike lane. I got blamed for it. Flip side to that is even when on the sidewalk at very low speed people are either not paying attention to where they are walking or giving me funny looks as if I shouldn’t be riding on the sidewalk . But I keep up with laws and in Washington DC, you can ride on the sidewalk everywhere except the central business district or what we call “Downtown” where the White House is located.
@@IamKingFace1 Exactly that's the only reason speaking against bikes: Our city's aren't made for bikes but for cars, and cars rule currently. That's why this needs to change.
Re "the norm" I used to cycle to work, my company built a new set of offices and provided 1800 car spaces, and one bike rack with 15 spaces and then boasted how "green" their new building was !
In addition I should add that the cars were in a secure, barrier controlled basement; the bikes open, insecure and subject to the weather.
Si's journey from pro cyclist to raging urbanist is my favorite political character arc of all time. Great video, GCN!
Oh, and this chapter isn't over yet...
@@gcnGood! Keep it up.❤
“Raging urbasnist”
When I see him thumbing through a dog-eared copy of John Forrester's "Effective Cycling", I'll know the cyclist advocacy Kool-Aid barrel has been drained to its dregs.
I don't feel Si is being political...just factual.
I was raised in The Netherlands. I have never heard of bikes being dangerous compared to cars. Biking is so much more efficient, faster, healthy, and fun here. Cars are expensive and get stuck in traffic everywhere. It's politics, influenced by the car lobby, and not facts, that lead public opinion in the UK.
I use a bicycle in the city and a honda duel sport for every thing else
I visit The Hague regularly for work and it blows my mind that two countries so close to each other can have such different attitudes. It's literally across the water.
@@neilbirch8431 just like in the U.S each state is differant
I have been to the Netherlands twice and really enjoyed my time there both on and off the bike !
I went to the Netherlands recently. Bike provision is outstanding. Cycled though the centre of Hague, felt safe.
IMO, GCN being more of a "Global cycling network" instead of "competitive road cycling network" is a good change. This is the best journalism & content in general I've seen from the channel in a very long time.
I absolutely agree with you!
yes, definitely agree. This it probably the most important video GCN have ever made, in my opinion.
It's really poor, pretty much propaganda.
The guy doesn't understand basic road junctions.
Bike brain....a person who refuses to accept they do wrong and see themselves as the victim in all situations
I think it's much more interesting than small aero improvements in bikes noone can afford.
@@elliotwilliams7421 Well, you have just validated the point of the video, well done.
Always great to see videos like this. Being Dutch and living in The Netherlands, I always feel very privileged with how bike and pedestrian friendly our infrastructure has been made since the 70s.
But where are Europe's biggest motorways mate?
If everyone in the Netherlands cycle, why are your motorways so huge?
The A2 from Amsterdam to Utrecht is 5 lanes each way widened in the 2010's!
It appears that the A9 is about to become another one of these mega highways!
I guess most cyclists hate me because I'm little awkward - it's called fact checking!
I cycled when I was young and would hate to go back to that - it's very stressful.
@@RedKnight-fn6jr Because the party that has been in charge for the last 14 years is stupid, and hence nicknamed the "vroom vroom" party, so they're very pro-car, and quite anti-transit.
@@RedKnight-fn6jr You are right. Even with all the great cycle infrastructure we have here in the Netherlands, there is still a lot of room for improvement. Even so, I have lived in England and am now back in the Netherlands and I am struck by how much has changed here regarding cycle infrastructure over the last 15-20 years.
Things don't change overnight, but it's far better and safer to cycle here than in the UK.
@@catlady356 Good for you, but as long as you don't ram bicycles down the necks of us in the english speaking world - people like me just don't want to know. Cars are faster, even at 50kph, and there's no denying that!
@@RedKnight-fn6jr Within cities cars will hardly ever be faster. Outside of cities, the Netherlands is as 'car brained' as any other country. The difference is found in the number of deaths per kilometer cycled. It is way lower in the Netherlands, because of the great cycling infrastructure both in cities and outside cities. Every person in a car driving the A9 could CHOOSE to safely cycle their trip on a cycle path.
"Cars kill pedestrians a lot"
"Well yeah, but lets be honest, its cyclists fault that they do"
Mind blown.
This one got me, too
Hahahaha. Jumped the shark on that one didn’t she?
my blood boiled at that idiotic women
@@mctrials23 I’ve heard that in America, it’s the bikes that make people become mass shooters
That lady can go step on a lego.
Most important video by GCN in a while, maybe ever. Hope it spreads far and wide.
thanks for the love
@@gcn fantastic job 👍
Completely agree!
@gcn shame that the Active Travel Commissioner is on a tax funded jolly to Paris. Had such hopes, only to be dashed.
Where there is a will, there is a way. Such a shame those with the power, don't have the will.
@@jon_underscore I don't think it's a shame at all that Chris Boardman has gone to Paris, if that's the case. Paris and Mayor Hidalgo have been making great strides in recent months and years in improving the cycling provision of the city, and it's actually probably a better example than the Netherlands as the change is recent and has been rapid, which is what we need both in London and across the UK. If he can learn from what they have done and it helps them implement it back home, money well spent.
If any video was bound to make me angry....The unjustified anger towards cyclists in the UK is insane. Imagine thinking someone on a bike is more dangerous than a car.
How’s a 2ton car going 60km an hour more dangerous than a 100kg cyclist at 30km an hour ?! Think my dude, think!!! /s
Same in Germany.. du to facebook and other social media the level of hate towards cyclist is so high!
Come to Argentina and see how much worst it can be. In Europe at least there is a bit of justice.
I commute everyday, yet cyclists seem to have a very low regard to road traffic laws, being seen and in general riding with consideration.
Does the actions of one group negate responsibility of another? Of course not.
Before shouting about cars maybe we should all look at our own riding first.
@@phil_d all the research on this topic does not support your claim (from California to Denmark). Cyclists tend to be way more rule abiding than motorists.
Most motorists only notice cyclists who inconvinence them, and are appolagetic to other drivers, who bend traffic laws, as it is just a small thing, nobody got hurt, I would do the same... that's why some think cyclists never abide traffic laws (and of course some actually break the rules).
NotJustBikes, CityNerd, Streetcraft, Climate Towns, Global Cycling Network.
Love these channels so much for opening my mind and other minds to alternatives beyond cars.
They’re doing God’s work!
They are propaganda channels for corporate companies and investors.
Devils work more like
Nationwide in France, Finland, and Italy, 70% drive to work. Cars are here to stay. I have no car but I feel the temptation like rest of idiots.. Cars are sooo here to stay till you beat sense into idiot public, who are idiots. People like lazy zooming fast and seeming cool, people are and will remains idiots.. 70%.
Whenever I describe the time I was hit by an SUV, on my bicycle, whilst on the greenway/bike path, with our greenway light green and the road light being red, (pedestrians and cyclist’s right of way)… and every time, I am asked back, “Why were you out there where you could get hit by a car? You must have been out on the road.” Yes, the assumption is always, it was my fault. Even when talking to a local journalist.
I very nearly got hit by a that run a stop sign. When I pointed that out the driver was quite angry and declared it was my responsability not to get run over
I hate how journalists often report that a cyclist has been in a collision with a car. To me this sounds as though the bike drove into the car when no doubt the opposite was true.
@@grahamaustin9085agree. Also the language indicates that the ‘accident’ was between a person ‘cyclist’ and a machine ‘car’, inferring the driver of said car has no level of responsibility.
Fucking ridiculous. Hope you've recovered. Our society is built around capitalism and keeping us sick. Cycling goes against that: Easily repairable, cheap, fun, great for your health. How dare we!
I got hit by a SUV turning left across a cycle lane. Police asked me if i had lights on 9am in August on a bright cloudless day...hey now i always use lights have to protect the blind ...pedestrians should probably also have lights in the summer too. On the plus side the Epolice insisted i got checked at A&E and after the report of my injuriesi was way more bruised than i thought i was they were way more concerned
This was probably the best video from GCN. Riding on super expensive bikes in colorful lycra is fun, and exciting. But as cyclists we need space in urban commuting settings first. There are many channels out there who are promoting it, and i am glad that GCN puts its weight behind it, too.
We try our best, thank you
'Regular' GCN is great, with the fun (ridiculous?) challenges, tests of endurance, equipment reviews, etc. This video feels like a new beast entirely, cycling journalism, and I am all for it.
I’d love to see him collaborate with Not Just Bikes, once you’ve seen those videos, nothing is the same again!
GCN is just an advertisement outlet
Yeah great video
Get some politicians involved labour should be all over this
@@Splozy That's why this video is so surprising.
In the Netherlands there's now a government radio ad encouraging people to cycle more because it's cheaper, greener and healthier.
No idea if it's effective, but it is at least a clear message from the government.
As a highways engineer and keen cyclists in the UK, thank you for posting this video! The amount of car-centric thinking in my industry is insane with both colleagues and policy makers. I deal with it on daily basis. I will be sharing this video around because it is so powerful to show what needs to change within our society, culture, and the way we design our transport infrastructure and built environment. Thank you!
As a middle aged woman on an upright bike, thank you! We are in dire need of your expertise. If it ever feels like a thankless task remember I’m cheering you on 👏👏👏
@@FHRider-o1m You're worse off in this situation too. None of the infrastructure in the UK is built for upright bikes. I used to live in Stockholm. The women looked so elegant, being able to cycle around town without breaking a sweat.. Even if cycling is encouraged in the UK, it's only more aggressive forms of cycling..
I was going to post something very similar. Civil engineer here. I think the industry is a bit split, we have transport planners and active travel designers who get this problem and you have 80 years of accumulated design experience that says make driving easier and that's still largely the case in highways design. Also in my experience many politicians are not evidence based but go on gut feeling. I have had discussions where I try and explain that resurrecting the design and route of a new road from the 70s is not a good idea will just induce traffic and won't relieve the gridlock they are complaining about
Keep pushing dude you can change things 🎉❤
Agree, I've been involved in Transport Planning for 20 years, though there has been improvements, everything is still prioritising the car, despite certain paragraphs of national policy stating schemes should prioritise the most vulnerable travel groups first. Particularly challenging when I've been refused designs of schemes by Highway Authorities who say they are unsafe because they restrict cars etc. too much, or to scale back a scheme for pedestrians/people cycling as it is too comprehensive and too expensive to maintain over time.
Car free for almost 30 years. This is one of the most important videos I have seen. Ever. On any channel. Thank you.
Strong agree.. Yet even in this echo chamber there are signs of debate and push back around the facts which is such a shame to see.
im 44 never had a license. I tried driving in my early 20's, without a license of course, and whiles its faster, the amount of stuff you have to do just to legally be able to drive it is wild. I love the freedom my bike gives me, I learned to travel by bicycle and never looked back. It's been years since i've even been in a car.
Glad you enjoyed it!
I highly recommend ruclips.net/user/notjustbikes for issues around town and road planning and how cars affect health and the quality of our living spaces.
@@markhawkes8006 I'm a huge fan of Jason's. Great recommendation!
38 seconds in and I already lost it!!! Did this lady just say that people are being pushed into the car lane because they are trying to get out of the way of cyclist?!?! ‼️😡
Yep, staggering stupidity.
That was insane. I just can't understand that mentality.
People think they have the right to overtake a cyclist at any time they feel like. I was cycling through road works this evening, the speed limit with road works is 30kph and I was doing exactly 30, as a kind gesture to the cars following me. The lane was narrow with road cones either side, and the car behind me still felt the need to overtake... I should have been more assertive in taking the lane, but I also don't want to cause any frustration to the cars behind me, even though I'm well within my rights.
What I'm really saying is that I ride my bike carefully so that I don't trigger any snowflakes in their cars.
@@Metal-Possum Ahh the good old MGIF (must get in front)
She didn't want to learn anything, she wanted her feelings validated
I live in an American suburb and I have ridden a bicycle all my adult life. Sometimes just for exercise and recreation, but also to do shopping and errands and for a short time, commuting. I am older now and live on a steep hill so I have started riding an ebike. I find I can load it up in a way I could never load up a bicycle so I do quite a bit of shopping and errands on it.
In the quest to get to my destination and get home alive I have found that one of the most important tools I have is careful route planning. I do not see this discussed very much but it really should be. If you simply rely on printed city bicycle route maps or anymore, on navigation programs on your phone using the bicycle option, they will rarely plan the same route I would. They rarely include routes through suburban subdivisions but routes usually exist. You will probably need to study a map to pick them out, and they will not be as direct, but they are safe! On the other hand, navigation programs will often send you to a bike gutter, a painted line along a stroad that disappears at every intersection. These things are deadly as all of us who ride know very well.
Strangely enough, roads in the industrial parts of cities are often safer than roads in commercial districts. These roads usually have less traffic, many of the vehicles are very large and moving quite slowly. The fact that they are large is much less important than the fact that they are easy to see and avoid. Of course, these places may not be convenient to the places you are traveling to and from but when I visit relatives in Missoula Montana this is a really useful hack for route planning.
Every city is unique but there is usually a way if you study all the resources at your disposal for route planning, do some exploration (sometimes Google earth street view is helpful to see what a route is REALLY like) and get creative.
I could go on and on. There is lots of material here to explore: The differences in navigating cities vs suburbs vs country roads, you could make many videos about this. Some of it would be different from country to country but there would be a lot of commonalities.
Just a thought, have a nice day.
But why should we as bicyclists have to do this? Why should children riding to school have to go through long circuitous routes just to be safe from being killed by an SUV that has blind spots big enough to miss small children??
Streets should be save even when I'm visiting a new city. I can't plan everything in advance...
I'm a cyclist in Brazil and it amazes me to see how much of this culture can be 'universal'. Many of the main arguments are almost exactly the same...it really just confirms that we live in this 'car dictatorship', where cars are symbols of power, wealth and status.
Thanks a lot for sharing this, Si, it really takes some guts to expose this to the internet.
Yup. Thanks usa for this plaque too! It's not the only disease they let loose but one of the worst ones. I think the absolute worst is neoliberalism or libertarian as they call themselves.
I have a global study on this "cyclists are a bigger danger than drivers" nonsense and Brasil actually has the lowest numbers for this - even lower than the Netherlands, where basically everybody bikes. The highest (by far) are from Japan.
In Rio, even stopping at red lights is optional, and generally doesn't happen.
@@kailahmann1823Could you link me this study?
A carrocracia é real e precisa ser combatida em todas as esferas, em todos os cantos do mundo mesmo!
Just got honked at while I was cycling home with my 9 and 7 year old by an obese guy in a huge 4x4 because we dared to slightly impede his journey on a narrow suburban road. It’s a shame this brilliant video won’t be seen by him.
That was my school run with kids before high school. Mind blowing that they’d beep little kids on the road who were cycling in line just not at their speed. Me blocking the road legally, cycling by their side would infuriate them. F O.
Wouldn't make a difference. These people are truly carwashed.
I've had people yell at me or throw things at me, and I only ride on residential side streets and trails, unless I have to cut through a downtown on 25 mph roads. I drive 50,000 miles a year for work, but am never rude to cyclists. I really enjoy biking in my free time, but I suppose so many people just don't have experience bike riding, so they don't know how difficult it is to get to your destination without using roads at times.
I had a guy in a big range rover drive into the side street I was crossing last night. Completely oblivious of the fact that pedestrians had right of way there.
That's America for you , I got a ticket for getting hit in a crosswalk that was indicated for me to cross.
Those interviews at the start are mind boggling
could be fake. there's no guarantee this whole premise is staged.
A recent trip to The Netherlands was a massive eye opener. Proper cycling infrastructure making it much safer to cycle makes such a huge difference. The car has its place but for so many local journeys it makes little to no sense.
I only started to realise this when I came across a channel called "Not Just Bikes".
This channel led to channels like "City Beautiful" and "CityNerd".
These channels made me question the way our roads and cities are designed,
and now I can't unsee the preferential treatment given to cars, along with all the negative side effects they cause (traffic jams, safety risks, (noise) pollution, etc.).
Great channels. Add "Climate Town" to that list and you pretty much can see how cities are built around the world and issues that arose from the decisions.
I would add 'the war on cars'. Opens eyes.
Sometimes I wished I could go back to when I was brick-faced and car-industry-brainwashed, like all my friends are and basically everyone.
Instead of suddenly seeing all of those major issues with our anti-person city planning.
ruclips.net/user/notjustbikes is an excellent channel. The reporter there says "cars vs bikes" is a false dichotomy, a phoney war to shift blame and distract from the real issue which is "how much longer can societies tolerate the dominance of cars".
Welcome to the rabbit hole! There’s plenty of room down here for us orange-pilled urbanists!
@@brabrabarabra agree, they’ve opened my eyes too. Love the podcasts on YT by Not Just Bikes called ‘Urbanist Agenda’ including one with Mrs NJB, and the War On Cars, great listening.
I am writing this from a convalescent hospital in Castro Valley California, 12 days after being hit by a car riding my bike to the grocery store. I Have 3 fractured vertebrae and 8 fractured ribs. The cop interviewed me while I was lying in excruciating pain on the road. Somehow both the driver and an Independent witness “saw” me riding 19:24 in the opposite direction that I was, so I was found to be at fault for riding on the wrong side of the street! Cars can do no wrong. Somehow all accidents MUST be the cyclist’s fault. ( Doesn’t really matter as the driver that hit me was uninsured) . I have a long road to recovery and don’t know if I’ll ever be able to ride again. CARS SUCK!
❤
I mean not to be rude, but you are required to ride with traffic not against it
@@RangerRudieRead it again. They were riding with traffic.
@@maryleeking248 damn that’s bad, feel for you x
That story seems pretty sus. Im not quite sure in which country that happened to you, but everywhere that i know of, the car driver will ALWAYS get at least some percentage of fault when in an accident with a cyclist or pedestrian, since the one sitting in a deadly weapon e.g. a car, has to always watch out for others (which can be pretty unfair in many cases).
Now if an independent witness also saw you riding against traffic you are either very unlucky or not telling the truth.
So, if this actually happened like you tell it, best wishes and a speedy recovery, otherwise, well yeah.
As a wheelchair user traffic crossings are a massive danger for the reasons you pointed out, but also because I’m lower and less visible than a walking pedestrian.
And as a hand cyclist, drivers get even more frustrated than they do with able bodied cyclists when I have the audacity to use their precious roads for my filthy exercise.
I do so wish we lived in a post enlightenment world… but alas.
Thank you - not something I’d thought of.
It doesn't take a wheelchair, any parent pushing their kid in a cart faces the same, though lesser, hurdles because those motorist make their own problem (parking) everyone's problem. If only local politicians and those working in the local govt traffic department would be forced to use a wheelchair for just one day every year, that might get a lot of small details get sorted quickly.
I had to use a recumbent trike a few years ago after they had to bolt my hip back together after an accident, I did park in what motorists would consider "their" parking spaces. Fun times 🙂
Many years ago i used to see a guy in a wheelchair every morning on my way to work, going right down the middle of the right lane on 16th street into the center of DC. It was impossible then to travel on the sidewalk / pavement, as they had not yet started to lower the curbs at crosswalks, and were only just starting to mandate access to buildings. So he evidently decided to take things into his own hands and assert his rights, and so he took the lane on his way to work in the morning.
@@TomK32 Worse, I have seen some drivers treat parents with kid strollers worse than regular pedestrians. I am both cyclist and driver, but first of all a human being and it seems to me like somebody with a baby stroller has higher priority on the road than Mr. God hisself.
To mistreat somebody disadvantaged is to choose to be less human.
I really notice the ramps at all intersections in the US are typically angled out into the traffic (because they don't want to build two ramps but rather just one to serve both directions). Of course most of the ramps are basically trash and impossible to use after a year or two...and I'd be scared as hell in a wheelchair or mobility scooter or whatever to try to navigate them with cars flying by going in excess of 20-30 mph OVER the 40 mph speed limit.
I really love the recent pieces on road safety. Keep up the great work!
Thank you! There's still a lot to discuss on this topic. Feel free to let us know what you'd like to see!
That woman who went through wild mental gymnastics to still blame bikes for deaths caused by cars... woo... mental.
Sometimes I wonder how much drugs people need to take to come to the wrong conclusion even in black and white situations.
Yeah I was screaming at my phone...
Here's the hard facts on pedestrian deaths in the UK www.gov.uk/government/statistics/reported-road-casualties-great-britain-pedestrian-factsheet-2022/reported-road-casualties-in-great-britain-pedestrian-factsheet-2022
The numbers go down, though I find it interesting that the number of accidents where they blame the pedestrian is quite high. Maybe it's just easier to blame the dead pedestrian... Any further research is welcome, I know one on the accident cause "speeding" and the verdict was: It depends on the police officer at the scene what cause is logged.
It's Si's Mum as well ! 😜
She clearly hasn’t taken her medication!
It is called social conditioning. I think it is funny that they complain about the price of fuel but are unwilling to walk a km to go to the shops, always having to drive their cars there, only to get frustrated finding a place to park the car.
Big agree. When i was a child my parents drove me everywhere, but we mostly went To a mall and a park that were both 5km away from our appartment. It was only at 18 I realized the absurdity, also going to the grocery store 2.5km away by car while there is literally 5 shops including a pretty big supermarket within 500m. 😂
And if you bring a decent backpack, you'll be surprised how much shopping you can carry with you home, without it being a pain to carry.
@@hadtopicausername or if you don't want to walk, take a bike.
you can have bags on that you add to the back of the bike, or use a bakfiets.
or even use one of those carts that you pull with your bike, the type you often see with a dog in them. if they are able to carry a 30kg Labrador they would be able to carry a load of groceries too.
added benefit, parking a bike only takes seconds.
One thing is driving to shops. Another thing is people driving 1 km to the gym to run on the treadmill! I know people who do it! It’s in Norway so it’s not because of safety. It’s just normalized car use for everything.
Some of that is from pure laziness, and some of that is a status thing. They have to be B.M.O.C. for appearances. Being identified by the car is part of their ego. Perhaps that's more of a man's thing I'd allow. Women have different things and instinctive things driving them.
One thing I've observed is when there is a pedestrian crossing (without traffic lights), and someone is waiting to cross and a car stops to give way, then some people hurry over the road with apologetic body language, as if it was the pedestrian creating an inconvenient situation.
I thought it was being polite
Yes, it is the "cars literally own the road" mindset. Whenever a pedestrians want to leave their island of pavement and cross the property of cars, they must feel ashamed of themselves. They are inconveniencing the gods, basically.
In some developed places (e.g., the Netherlands), the "offshoots" at intersections from the main road are actually raised to the pavement level and not the other way around. This creates a nice balance, giving the main road to the cars but indicating that the side streets belong to people and the car is a guest. I think that's pretty sensible
@@fayzondias6181 A wave at each stopper is being polite and good practice, but rushing across as if you are a problem is displaying the wrong mindset.
@@benedictearlson9044 Sometimes you are in a hurry.
Especially if the light took 120 seconds + 3 seconds of yellow + 1 second of red in all directions.
Considering writing my councilor and asking that the wait times for pedestrians be reduced to match the wait cyclist get when they go over a sensor in the new bike routes.
Got thinking about it after seeing a pedestrian at one of those crossings and thinking: "it I was on my bike the light would have changed for me already."
@@economicprisonerYes and its why as a pedestrian I will choose to cross on a red if I see its safe to do so.
I liked cars as a kid, but as I got older I came to see them for the bad smells of pollution, the constant roaring noise of roads you can hear almost wherever you go, and the sheer area of space taken up by cars, cutting apart wild forests and residential areas alike, making them dangerous and unpleasant to walk in. Its now one of the main issues on my mind these days.
Excellent, excellent segment! My recurring discussion when in a car passing a bicycle:
"Bicycles are dangerous on these roads."
--"Are you afraid of being harmed by one?"
"No, but they may get hit."
--"So, you are the one that is dangerous and harmful."
Cars and trucks are dangerous. Bicycles are vulnerable, just like pedestrians.
Don't swerve and slither around cars, problem solved.
The one that always gets me is when people say that bike lanes/cyclists hold up emergency services, weaponising blue lights against cycling infrastructure. I'm an NHS paramedic, I can count on the fingers of one elbow how many times I've been held up by a cyclist in my career: 0. Meanwhile I'm held up by cars a dozen times a job, literally hundreds of times a shift.
The negative externalities associated with cars are enormous, and yet most people would sooner surrender their health than their driving licence. It's fucked.
Such a daft argument. Again just something peddled by the press. In Europe on motorways it’s obligatory to move to the side leaving a free lane in the middle during a big traffic jam for emergency services. That doesn’t happen here but do the drivers care then? No, do they fcuk. Hard shoulders are being removed now for bs smart motorways but do they complain?
I think it would be a great service if you could find a way to set up a dash cam and show a compilation of your interactions with the people in traffic around you.
Wow, such useful insight against what now obviously seems like a ridiculous arguement. Thank you.
I wonder, are there paramedics on bikes? Would that work having a paramedic with a saddle bag medical kit that may be able to respond quicker and stabilise a person while waiting for an ambulance to fight through traffic?
@@RBradenG unfortunately I cannot access the dash cam footage without my manager's permission, but a guy called Chris Martin (not from Coldplay) makes great videos of his blue light runs on RUclips, and he discusses the decision making behind his driving.
@@tubularG there are paramedics on bikes, but generally only at events (marathons and parades are the most common ones) because the amount of kit we have to carry largely negates the value of a small and light vehicle like a bicycle, especially over the long distances we may have to travel. London paramedics use motorcycles too, which are apparently fantastic. The sad reality is that the ambulance service relies on cars and vans to do our job at the moment, but I'd like to see more trusts look into using alternative means of transport, especially in urban areas.
I used to be quiet and sometimes even slightly ashamed that I didn't own a car and cycled everywhere. Now, I make it clear that it's a choice I've made on purpose and that it brings me joy, and I'm boisterous and loud about it. Being open about being a normal guy on a bike, and open about the abuse and dehumanization that occurs at the hands of drivers, has led to people that I work with telling me that they're more careful drivers now after hearing just how often I almost get hit on the way to and from work.
I'd rather have a train station with 100 tracks in my town than a highway with a hundred lanes.
That's horrible and worse but shows how much of a psycho you are
Forgot to mention the road rage , honking and tailgating. Such aggression would never be tolerated normally.
It’s normalised in situations people aren’t face-to-face e.ge cars, internet,
Imagine you are waiting at queue to the till in Tesco. Somebody would shout at you to speed up or trying to jump in front of you or blocking the way so you can't put your groceries. That sounds mad but drivers are doing it every day.
Honking is just so aggressive and yet considered as kinda normal..
Indeed, there was actually a video where actors in a grocery store acted like drivers and it was...hilarious and sad...and yet somehow it takes much more than that to "orange pill" folks.
Fumes and mostly micro particules from brakes
I love how you managed to move GCN editorial choices towards more sustainability, urbanism, daily bike commuting, etc...topics. Rather than those boring consumerist cyclists topics. One of the greater contribution made on YT. Thanks!
I’ve watched GCN for over a decade. And can say this is one of the best pieces they have ever produced. From a personal side, I’ve lived in large cities across the US , Germany and France over the years, and feel like I’m the one taking crazy pills on my daily 5-10km bike commutes while hundreds and thousands of people sit in the same traffic, alone in their cars, for 3-4 times the amount of time it takes me to get to point A-B. What compounds the dangers for cyclists and pedestrians as well, is the mobile phone addiction sitting in the car with the person while they are in traffic. It’s been proven our digital lifes cause anxiety, depression and loneliness. The sadness, anger, rage and inattentive disposition of someone behind a 2-3 ton killing machine gets amplified 10 fold on a daily basis, and the odds of hurting or killing someone increases greatly each passing day. No one has the balls, or fortitude, to stop the cycle of madness. So we will just keep living in a twilight zone episode.
It's a depressing situation, yes. I think the crash at 1:47 in this video was caused by mobile phone distraction, if you watch the car on the right, unless it was a passenger holding it.
Excellent video. Love the term 'motonormativity' and as a keen cyclist-advocate and activist - and involved in the local 'Vision Zero' movement. I have attached the video link to a screenshot of the vid and shared it - should be seen by quite a lot more people. Mind you, you've already got over 500k views!
Why are you sharing propaganda? Lies? Misdirection? Why is propaganda excellent?
Genuine question.
@@elliotwilliams7421 If you want, you could detail exactly what the 'propaganda' is. I was interested in the results of the psychology study. Maybe you missed that?
@@compostjohn the video is pure propaganda. Making up stories, lies, misdirection, etc.
So you just agree with stuff, you don't research it? Why?
The study? What about it?
You seem to suffer confirmation bias
@compostjohn pretty much the whole thing is propaganda.
Surely you done your own research? Or did you just believe what the man said as you agreed???
Asking folk about danger then talking about death.
Lying about stats.
Lying about how and why roads are designed.
It's worrying that you are involved in this propaganda
@@compostjohn all you need to know is that the flared junction in the video predates the car, so to claim it's designed for cars to go faster, destroy any claim the man makes. He makes stuff up to suit his story.
Pure propaganda
One of the most important topics you could tackle!
Please make more of this!
And congratulations - it takes a lot of courage to do so publicly.
Thanks for the support, it’s very important to us
The amount of stupidity in the world today is absolutely staggering! I'm a truck driver in the good'ol US of A and it's literally idiot after idiot after idiot to infinity! People have absolutely lost control and have zero respect for one another! As a biker here I'm positively terrified to ride a shoulder anymore for fear of being targeted for hit and run! In Wisconsin where I live bike lanes are exhaustingly, slowly being introduced but people drive in them to protest! It's totally disgusting the amount of trumpability that occurs! People could care less for each other and even less for the biker. Thank you for making this!
One of the few people who should actually be driving a motor vehicle in a sane world...
@@senorfreebie its should be used to carry cargo, city driving should be heavily discouraged.
@@Adventures4vida this. What kind of arsehole needs a 2t chariot to get them around, when they presumably weigh less than 100kg. Meanwhile 15t trucks roam our neighbourhoods carrying dozens of tons of cargo, and aren't even that efficient when compared to rolling stock or ships.
That's crazy! bike lanes benefit cars more than bikes. It seggregates bikes to allow cars to move faster but bike lanes are not as visible - reduced biker safety so cars can go faster.
The US seems to be a lost place.
If you asked any person with common sense which would be more dangerous - a 100kg object moving at a max of 30km/h or a 1500kg object moving at 50km/h, or to simplify even more, a light object moving slow or a heavy object moving fast - no one in their right mind would have guessed the bike. It really blows my mind how ridiculous that sounds if you break it down into simple physics.
yes people are plain stupid.
Thing about common sense is that it’s not very common…
Yeah, that's exactly what their study showed. Remove car from the context and it becomes obvious.
Ah but pedestrians are protected by the curb!! 🤦
That's why marketers are paid so well.
I have never heard anyone say that cars kill because they are forced in the middle of the road by bikes. Like wtf
It's good to discover that I'm not the only person looking at our streets thinking how much more pleasant our cities would be without all the noise, signals, signs, fumes, concrete and asphalt that go along with cars. My family think I'm a little looney when I ask them to stop for a moment and picture the street we're on with no car-related signs!
That said I probably am a little looney, but for different reasons.
You’re not looney, or alone, my family think I’m weird too. They are the worst drivers, it’s embarrassing.
Yeah same here...sad stuff. Everyone gets so sad about their health problems and those of their families. Huge ol mess were in 😢 and even worse not many see it
Even as a cyclist, i understand why cars are an important and usefull tool for everyone, it's not that i want roads gone, but i do want people to respect me as another human being instead of raging at me for existing, there's plenty of people who actively disrespect our lanes and react like we're going to destroy the earth if we're seen literally going walking pace on the sidewalk. This is what they tell us "being a minority feels like" and yet i haven't seen someone insult or attack an african american for no reason, but i have seen plenty of people getting mad at cyclists for nothing, almosy running them over when they were suposed to yield and complaining about it along with plenty of other shitty behaviour. Most of us haven't done anything to deserve this other than tryng to enjoy a hobby.
Of course the car is important, just not to the detriment of absolutely everything else.
@@Ferrari255GTO cars have a purpose, but most people use them to go around the block to go to the corner store. Gas should be very expensive for everyday drivers, Gas breaks given out to businesses that deliver goods, and special needs. We could easily do with 50 percent less cars on the road.
This makes me glad that I live in Copenhagen where bicycles are always given top priority.
A few years back, they had to do maintenance on a split bike/car bridge, and instead of compromising the bike lanes or reroute the bikes, the bridge got closed off for cars for a couple of weeks, and the car-section of the bridge was converted to temporary bike lanes during the maintenance of the bike-part of the bridge, as it was more important to keep the bikes flowing than the cars.
This is amazing. I can't imagine this ever happening in the US
Cycling in Denmark is a joy. Really great infrastructure, and I never saw any conflict between cyclists and drivers. Active travel is encouraged - you can take your bike on buses, trains, and the metro.
Strange last time I was in Denmark it felt that bike friendlynes stoped at the City limit of copenhagen. I did ride the direct road towards Rodby and exprienced a lot of very tight overtaking :/ That was one right in the top-ten of most anyoying roads for that cycling holiday. To be fair on another trip there I was impressed by this one bike traffic light detecting me an switiching with perfect timinig.
@@tobias3919 Whilst I haven’t biked on Lolland, it is true that the great bike infrastructure like that of Copenhagen is primarily found in and around the major cities and not as much out in the countryside. And while again, I haven’t biked on Lolland, I do know that more and more bike lanes are popping up across the country, though it is a bit of a bigger undertaking to build bike lanes next to all major roads, than focus on a single city, especially because of the safety regulations we’ve imposed on ourselves regarding bike lanes.
Without going to deep into the rules, if you are building a bike lane next to a major road, it HAS to be physically separated from the road and with a buffer margin; this means that the roads I used to ride to school, not too dissimilar from the type of road you mention, today has a dual-directional bike lane next to it separated by a 1m buffer area, but it also means that adding such bike lanes can be a political nightmare, as most roads are too narrow to simply be converted to this, and thus they often require a couple of meters of widening, which rarely goes down well with the residences whose front yard or driveway will be reclaimed for this purpose…
I recently biked in Denmark, both in Copenhagen and outside of the city in the countryside, and I kind of agree. Often overtakes in the countryside was rather fast. I never felt in danger but I must say compared to Sweden I think the Danish drove faster.
But the infrastructure for bikes are just so much better in Denmark. The absolute best thing is the amount of bike lanes and how they always are separated from pedestrians and the bike lanes are basically always one way so you usually have bike lanes on both sides of the road.
In Sweden we often combine bike lanes and pedestrians and that causes many conflicts and accidents. We should all learn from Denmark how it should be done
I am studying urban planning in school right now and its crazy how hard it is to just try to get people to accept not driving every single place, and having immediate access to free parking in front of the place they are trying to go. I live in the US so its probably worse, but its bad everywhere. This video was much needed, thank you. Hopefully people see it that need to see it.
Every single ride I think about this stuff and it drives me insane. A man on a bike was hit and decapitated in my old city (Elizabeth, New Jersey) the other day on a road that is set up to be a 6-lane highway with crosswalks and traffic lights going right through an urban area. That stretch of road is one of the most dangerous in the entire country and there's no wonder why. Now repeat that idiocy in pretty much every corner of the United States.
This is the best video you've ever made.
It's the one tackling the biggest elephant in the room.
It's the one that should go under every single comment in every social media on earth that constantly repeats "yeah but bike riders"
Thanks.
One of, if not THE best GCN Video! 👏
Agreed, this should be shown in schools.
Thank you all ❤
People like the lady at the start 0:35 are a great example of public health improvements we have seen from removing lead in pipes in the 1970s.
And leaded petrol
😂😂😂😂👍
Lead pipes replaced with social media and advocacy masquerading as journalism
Wow, finally a high quality, unbiased video adressing one of the main problems in cities. Really interesting studies and real life examples shown in this video, great work GCN! Looking forward to seeing the progress of your lobbying for a more bearable traffic culture in the future.
The video is horrifically biased. To the point they are making stuff to suit their agenda
It only occured to me watching this that the reason my kids can't play in the front yard is because without a fence, it's unsafe...because of the road for cars! (Melbourne, Australia).
Yeah I was thinking, that's another one of those double standard questions you could ask where it's ok if it were cars near where children play, but not ok if it were "heavy machinery" or something of the like.
Whenever I look at pictures of my Dutch neighbourhood from the 1930s-1950s I’m always amazed by the amount of children playing in the street in every picture. That was possible, because there were only a few cars per street. No worries about damaging a parked car, no need to be afraid of getting ran over, as there simply weren’t enough cars to become a nuisance. The streets seemed so broad, too! Now the streets are getting increasingly tighter, with cars only getting bigger and bigger. Growing up in the 90s we’d often get angry neighbours if we’d accidentally kick or throw a ball against a car, causing no damage. I don’t think it’s just screen time that’s keeping children inside more.
@@DanDanDoe yes, not only screen time. When I was 3 years old I would walk a 1/4 mile alone to my friends house. From age 5 we would spend whole days roaming around the neighborhood and woods and come home only for dinner.
I see the parks that used to be full of kids playing baseball and football and sledding in the winter now just empty, nobody goes there
in the us now parents may even be arrested by police if their children up to age 12 are just walking down the sidewalk on their own, which is car culture gone completely mad
I like how it is in Japan where the car is almost always at fault when something happens. It might not seem fair at first but if you're driving a ton and a half around everywhere, you really should be extremely careful of your surroundings at all times.
Pretty sure it is a similar situation in Belgium too
@@gcn Netherlands as well
Denmark as well
@@gcn Great, as it should be. It's amazing how we've convinced ourselves that cars are safe even when they're the most dangerous mode of transport. Sure, you're likely to die on a motorcycle, but you're way more likely to kill with a car.
Technically it is the same in Germany as well (Betriebsgefahr Kraftfahrzeug), however, it seems that the Police, Prosecution and also to some extend the Judges go more and more in another direction, probably both to brainwashing as well as that some people never ride a bike or walk.
This statement is regardless of inconsiderate to outright dangerous road users that occur amoung all forms of transportation.
'its no longer about facts, its about how people feel' goes hard
Great video Si. I find the whole anti cyclist anger quite depressing. Whenever anything comes up on social media, they don’t pay road tax, insurance..blah blah😢. I find that even in conversations with non cycling friends I sometimes have to bite my tongue! I particularly like the segment about crossings where the priority is always car traffic. I regularly use a cycle path that crosses a busy road at a pelican crossing. You have to wait several minutes until there’s virtually no traffic coming before the lights change.🤷♂️
The segment on crossing is flawed. Why do you just believe what GCN say?
It's not designed for cars to go faster at all.
I find cults like GCN and its followers depressing.
GCN have made a poor video, folk criticise it, you get depressed. That's really selfish of you
You are being brainwashed by GCN
The psychologist is Ian Walker, not Ian Driver... I'd say it is a biased research 🫢
incredible banter!
😂
Is it wrong to say Ian Walker looks like he could be Richard Hammond's Dad?
Great, and very disturbing video. The Cyclist hatred is real in Australia, and even more so in regional areas.
@@tsubakisan1147 Motonormativity is also much stronger in Australia than Britain and it's going to take a long time to dig us out of this hole. It's a self-reinforcing vicious circle where we drive because the alternatives are bad and that causes the alternatives to become worse.
The sad thing I see around Newcastle (Australia) is where they build new cycle lanes in the inner city, increase urban density and rezone for mixed use, but then at the same time build a new subdivision on the outskirts of the city, zoned for single-family homes, 5km from the nearest shops and upgrade the nearby roads from 2 lanes to 4. It's like they kind of get it but there's still so much momentum in the wrong direction.
@@tsubakisan1147 I disagree about the regional thing. I live in a remote part of East Gippsland and people wave to me, and go over the centre line to overtake. Some people find it strange that I live without a car, but I have never encountered road rage out here, let alone the myriad of other forms of aggression that I get when I ride in cities.
People will go to spectacular lengths to defend things that are convenient to them
In the US it's cars, large pickup trucks, side-by-sides and ATVs and while I understand that many people need their cars because our suburbs are so spread out, most people who have large trucks, side by sides and ATVs don't actually need them. But the people who have those things have convinced themselves they can't live without them.
And then there are the people who ride motorcycles and the ones who ride golf carts through their neighborhoods...
My mom went on pension a month ago. She was so used to have a car from the business (she worked for) and instead of buying an electric bike she bought a car because she doesnt get how you could use a bike to go to a store or other things.
@@CanItAlready probably wouldn’t have suburbs to the extent we do if it wasn’t for cars. It’s self-perpetuating
(Edited a beautiful autocorrect of suburbs to ‘sunburns’ 😅)
The insane thing is for most urban areas cars aren't even convenient, just a default choice that has not been examined at all.
@@peglor used to have a guy lived opposite who would drive 200 meters to buy a paper. took him longer open the drive gates etc then it prob would have walking
As someone who has spent the last decade learning about how deeply car culture has brainwashed us, the content of this video was nothing new to me. But I have to give massive praise and gratitude for how well this video presented this information. I'm hoping it helps people challenge motornormativity.
I'm proud to say I'm born & raised in the US and have never owned a car. Initially it was for financial reasons, but as time passed, I recognized the environmental issues, and eventually the enormous waste of space storing everyone's vehicles on public roads 24/7 living in the city.
At this point I ride my bike or take public transport everywhere, and with the money I saved, I bought a house.
I've heard plenty of horrible takes from drivers against biking, but the worst is their inability to recognize if I'm riding, that's one less car on the road creating traffic and taking up parking. If anything, drivers should want as many people who want to ride to be able to do so safely, so that they can drive with less traffic and more parking.
Currently, the city I live in is expecting a lot of new residents, and is actually taking steps to increase bike infrastructure and reduce the number of cars on the road. In the mornings I'll actually see the bike lanes well used with commuters! It actually makes me optimistic and I hope this type of planning will become universal when people see the results.
The bit about drivers should be thanking you for having ome less car on the road. No, not when you move slower and cause more congestion than you would in a car.
Just watched one cyclist holding up over 40 vehicles going along a road, and you think we should be thanking him??
@elliotwilliams7421 I never said you had to be thankful for shit. You can screw yourself for all I care.
I live in a city where there are stop signs at each intersection and parking so tight you have to drive for 30 minutes to find a spot within a quarter mile. At this point most drivers realize I'm not holding them up when they're just going to have to stop behind the next car in front of me. And my neighbors are thankful I'm not taking up an extra spot on the street.
When I first moved to the city 20 years ago, drivers were pretty antagonistic towards bikes, but now that they've built better infrastructure for riders and it's obvious I'm not even taking up a lane, the tone has completely changed. These days, most drivers recognize the benefits.
@@elliotwilliams7421 I didn't say you had to thank anybody. Just because you saw a rider hold up some cars once doesn't really have anything to do with me describing bike infrastructure in my city. In fact, if you prefer bikes not having to ride in traffic lanes, then you should want them to have more options.
@AB-wf8ek but it relates to why people have a negative opinion of cyclists. Trying to blame brainwashing.
@AB-wf8ek driving made harder. it shouldn't be like that. Forcing folk out their cars.
Must be better cyclists where you are.
Watch the video, and you'll see how deluded uk cyclists are.
The funny thing about the urbanist movement, is once your eyes are open to the damage cars can do, you can never go back to seeing the world the same again. Fortunately, the movement is picking up momentum, so I hope to see major changes in my lifetime.
i dont think thats the case
sure more bikers are realizing thanks to bgn and seth and more
but biking (especially mtb and road biking ) is not widespread or treated seriously
but just like how f1 helps cars improve, pro bikers help fix problems before they hit normal people
even global warming is less and less serious now and there are many people who just hate change even for the better
media doesnt help here either, i hate media and i generaly advice people to never trust media as they can manipulate and even falsify
You'll inevitably see it. i hope for the best. Peak oil is coming rather soon, a huge depletion is to be expected during our lifetimes so let's hope the worlds roads will become the best cycling infrastructure. If no cars are presents, the streets are ours.
I meant global warming is treated as a less serious problem now, not that global warming is less of a serious issue and that it reduced and got better.
This has to be my absolute favourite video from GCN! I’ve recently moved to London and it’s incredible how much freedom I have when there is so much cycling infrastructure and public transport, with incentives like congestion charging to reduce car use. It’s better for both our health and the planet. I just wish more cities could be similarly focused on these issues
As someone who, just the other day, was on the receiving end of a motorist winding their window down and yelling at me to 'get off the road!' purely for nothing more than I was just there and he had to wait awhile to overtake. Those first few people have me absolutely raging.
The stupidity and sheer ignorance is ASTOUNDING.
I had a motor bike do that to me just yesterday. Yelled at me to get off the road and into the bike lane... which is funny since they had just ripped up the bike lane. I guess he was triggered because I delayed him 10 seconds getting to the red lights.
Happens every single time I'm out.
@@ihaps1117 I live in a "usually" nice polite part of Canada, but yes, it happens far more than it should. It doesn't help that my city is VERY slow in getting decent bike infrastructure in place. We didn't even have an Active Transportation coordinator on staff until last year!
they yell at you because they have to wait a little? I got screamed at even though the road was completely empty and car could pass me instantly.
Get a camera and report. It's quite fun.
The idea that we should put ourselves at the mercy of other people's judgement on every road, every day, to get around rather than say, rely on an expert to transport hundreds of people at once (e.g. trains) or placing people on non-harmful means of transport (e.g. bikes) is absolutely astounding. All our residential streets are dominated by cars, and are unsafe. We have to put up with noise pollution, and air pollution. Places like Soho, where the are more people than cars, are still dominated by cars. It's insane. Cars are entirely unrestricted speed-wise whereas our E-bikes can only go up to 15mph with pedal assist. Utter madness.
Yoir last sentence is pure nonsense
@@elliotwilliams7421 it's abjectly and demonstrably true. There's no reason cars should be able to exceed the national speed limit, yet I could go out and buy one that could top 200mph tomorrow. Great chatting to you
@@sedwarg they are restricted by law. Anytime you wanna learn just ask
@@elliotwilliams7421 So they're not restricted at all then, given if a person *wants* to speed, they can. And do. Down every road, every single day.
@@sedwarg so they are restricted by law. Yes. If someone wants to break the law, that's their choice. Same as anyone who chooses to break the law.
This video should be subtitled in as many languages as possible. In Poland unjustified road rage towards cyclists is something that we meet on daily basis. Very important material not only for cyclist and drivers, but for everyone. Thanks GCN 🙂.
GCN and NotJustBikes collaboration when?!
Get GCN over to Netherlands for a cycling infrastructure special!
Big hour long carspiricy we can spread and everyone should see! Again showing the alternative can help people change their perspective e.g. Denmark
This is an uncharacteristicly outspoken and opinionated video for GCN. Love it. More of this taking a stance on such an important public issue please!! ✌️🙌
I with them to be careful and respectful. That'll gain more traction. the sane case studies will eventually be herd too. Besides, we can't even get traffic circles here.
First time I ever want to double, even triple like, a GCN content^^ I might haven’t especially learned anything new, but I’ve been into soft mobility studies & data as well as cycling as a mean of transportation for decades, but being also a sport club cyclist rather deceived by the immense lack of knowledge or even consideration from my Lycra teammates for overall infra-security-mobility topics, I’m so glad GCN is bringing the matter on the table as they are the primary public of this channel 😇
This is the best most informative vud you have produced in a long time, thanks Simon!
Like most I drive, cycle and walk, my main issue for not using my bike on more journeys is fear of theft of my bike, I won't take it into town.
We need more secure bike storage in town centres.
Government could also incentivise the public to not use there cars and use either public transport or foot and cycle.
If I ride to my local railway station there is no facility at all to securely lock your bike. In fact zero bike facilities at all.
I comment occasionally that it is one of the quickest places to give your bike away.
Nothing at the shops.
Nothing at the doctors surgery.
Almost everywhere I cycle there are no facilities for bikes. 1000 miles per year.
Local authorities have done absolutely nothing in the 20 years since I moved to my current house. Nothing.
I fear you are wasting your breath. Mostly everyone I know is pro-car and bugger the pedestrian and cyclist.
Fine and dandy but define incentivise. In every practical example it means punishing people for using their cars which they want to use. Make public transport or bikes or whatever as convenient or as useful as a car and people will switch willingly, but it is not up to you or the government to impose it's personal preference onto people's lives and limit their right to free movement, which for most people requires a car.
@@johnmccrossan9376you don't require a car for free movement, you are choosing the car for it. You can easily chose to take a bus, train, bike or walk
@@tattooedfred public transport is not free because by defenition you're not in control of it. You only go to the places the bus goes and when it wants to go there. Now that's fine in most cases but we can all think of times when it isn't, usually unexpected ones. As far as a bike goes that only works in a dense city. In every other situation it's too awkward to get sweaty, tired and wet to travel and many people are simply not able to. A bike is only a serious alternative to a car at about 3 times the distance that walking is, you would never say you can move freely just by walking where you need to go
Agree, it’s the last barrier to overcome. I was in Delft last year, there’s a free bicycle enclosure in the car free centre, manned by a chap with a tip hat, like a coat check service. Simple, cheap, and wish we had them here in the U.K.
I removed myself from the CAR-CENTRIC CULTURE twenty five years ago. All happened , After a car accident with a truck. Afterwards, I gave my car away-- i felt the car was a monster which needed to be fed daily, and would drain my finances-- just to get around. Realized, that one day the car culture would KILL ME !!. Change of PLAN. i cycle to work daily and live close to where i can walk to shops, hospitals and restaurants. on weekends, i cycle to remote areas of historical interest. A far less stressful way to LIVE. The opposition from friends and family were huge. Everyone does accept the car culture as a way of living in the modern world. Growing up in the Antilles-Caribbean island where motor vehicles were only owned by the rich, gave an insight that vehicles are slowly killing us along with our planet. THANK YOU for bringing up this great topic . I always wondered if i was the only one out there---without a CAR..
I never took the plunge into car ownership, so it's always seemed foreign to me. But it's interesting that you mention coming from a place where cars were an economic class divide. Did you know that only 16% of the world's population own a motor vehicle. You are in the majority, like me. We live better, healthier lives because of it. And 'the rich' are slaves to the oil and automotive industries; spending huge amounts of their time alive on this planet at their jobs, in order to pay for their personal ~2 ton chariot.
@@senorfreebie Glad to know there are more of US Carless Citizens out there. The Two Ton Chariot kills more people 40,990 last year in the United States.
@senorfreebie and I think vehicles will ultimately demolish the world along with the human race. Motorization is just for conveniences we all allowed to happen--except the Dutch, they live correctly
The smell of car fumes is the worst thing I've encountered since starting to commute to work by bike. The world would be soo much quieter and fresher with less cars...
Had to deal with this every day when cycling to school as a teenager, even in Cambridge, which is supposed to be a "cycling friendly" city! Diesel fumes were especially bad!
The best thing about the disaster of 2020 was that the air cleared up REAL quick when there were hardly any cars on the road.
and the heat!! omg, biking in Austin TX if i'm behind a car i can FEEL the heat coming out of the exhaust.
@@kelseyhuse Even in the UK that can be pretty unbearable if you're behind a bus
When i walk in the main city all i smell if piss not really the Car fumes. But i never walk in the city that much. Just to many people and to much nosie.
To the questions you've asked. I did know that there is some bias towards cars being not the problem, as I was born in Germany, and we rely heavily on driving cars. I didn't know that it is called motornormativity. I actually just received an email that my JobRad so a bicycle I can use for work was granted, and so I will try to ride my then e-gravelbike to work a lot more. I hope that we as a society will work on that and make the streets and the air safer for all of us. Great video.
One thing you typically see people say about new cycle infrastructure is 'there's no one in these cycle lanes, they are empty'. Well when the first stretches of the M1 opened in 1959 traffic volume was very low, around 13,000 vehicles every 24hrs. When you look at pictures of the M1 from that time it looks essentially empty. Today 10 times as many vehicles use the M1 daily. So let's give cycle lanes the same opportunity to grow, those that look under used today will be heaving in a few decades. Incidentally the M1 opened without speed limits, hard shoulders, lighting or a central reservation. So we need continuous investment in cycle lanes too to keep them safe, flat and free of debris - is that happening?
Other have done this but if you sit at a junction with a cycle lane and film it, you'll quickly notice just how efficient the bike lane is.
It moves a large number of people quickly so 'appears' empty but it's like if water passes down the plug hole fast, we don't say it's underused but motorists will look at an empty bike lane and claim exactly that (& then say something about how it's 'a war on motorists ')!
As I've tried to explain to many friends, it's not the best 10 km that makes you not willing to take the bike. It's the 1 km where you are afraid for your life that decides it. The goal should be that elderly and children are willing and allowed to take the bike.
That was what made me most happy when I visited the Netherlands to see all the children and older people out on their bikes.
On the same theme, the M6 Toll was pretty much empty for years - and still isn't all that busy.
The bike lanes would also need to go between places that people actually go. My city has some amazing infrastructure but it doesn't go anywhere useful so it isn't used as much as it could be.
There is a better way. A few years ago a busy main road where I live was closed for 2 weeks for resurfacing (it was a deep resurface), it was so nice to see people walking, children actually playing outside in the street, and of course the improvement in air quality was very noticeable. There are so many benefits to changing people’s perceptions. Well done GCN, top work.
Cars parked with two wheels on the pavement always baffles me. They haven’t left the road clear for two vehicles to pass but have impeded pedestrians. Lack of enforcement is the issue
I recently saw a video made by a cyclist passing standing traffic, following another cyclist. When the traffic was blocking the road, the two cyclists went on an empty piece of pavement to safely get past the traffic. They went slowly, about the speed of a fast runner but definitely slow for a bike. The comments were full of people callimg them out for how dangerous they were riding, and how cyclists never follow the rules yet expect to be respected etc. None of the drivers in the comments even mentioned the illegally parked car, with two wheels on the pavement and two wheels on the road (with a double yellow line). People were even arguing with me that the car was parked alright.
There was a government consultation about pavement parking rules about 3 years ago, but the Tories just refused to publish the results/any response for 3 years. Hopefully labour will do something about it. Pavement parking is illegal in London, but not the rest of the country. Just giving us all the same rules as London would be a huge step forward.
Imagine this in reverse with pedestrians casually blocking part of the road for some reason. The abuse would be off the charts!
The United Kingdom is a lost cause.
Just reading this crap, what the hell is wrong with you all? Is there not a financial incentive for punishing these blatant law infringements?
The government here in Croatia is extremely corrupt, and yet leave your car parked on the street for more than a few minutes, you'll come back to it missing.
I've run into this in so many people for over 30 years. I'm so glad to see that someone is doing more than collecting evidence. Unfortunately I've been hit by motorists a few times in my life. Thankfully I got paid by the insurance company, and was able to fix my bikes. Please keep up the good work. Thank you.
In India (and I suspect a lot of the global south) a car is also considered an aspirational means of transport. People saw me cycling in Mumbai and were shocked that I chose to cycle and didn't own a car while I could afford one! When I told them people buy cycles in the UK that cost more than a cheap used car would cost in India, it blew their mind!!!
India is full of this superficial classist status circlejerk, I've seen this first hand. People will sit alone in their car in not even a normal traffic but Indian traffic, only to go like 7-8 kilometres, hell it's not even about bikes, they have mopeds and motorbikes at home too, but they don't even ride those because it's seen as a "low status" thing to do. And god forbid if you are seen as someone riding a bike in india, people consider it as a subhuman thing to do because it makes you perceived to be from extremely low financial status. India is an extremely narrow minded and dogmatic society
I do a ton of practical riding, and good-meaning family + friends tell me out of valid concern that I should be careful because cycling is dangerous. I often have to remind them that cycling is perfectly safe but they should be careful while driving. Every time they do it they risk killing someone.
What if It was a motorcycle would they say the same?
I went to centre Parcs for the first time this summer and it was amazing to see how they actively force you to move your car off the main site to make it a more pleasant place to walk and cycle and everybody just totally accepts it. If we said that had to happen in our towns and cities, people would be in uproar.
@@thrillhous8888 I believe Walt Disney intended to do the same with Epcot and the city of the future.
Big thank you for this episode, GCN. The simple truth: cars can kill people, cyclists don't is so triggering for many people - and just a simple fact
Bikes do kill people. However, despite your fascination with death, not everyone is obsessed with death. Minor injuries and constantly having to avoid cycling on the pavement are a huge pain and danger.
Your argument is on par with a 5 years olds
My next-door neighbor DRIVES her kid 1/2 a block to school, going the wrong way down a one way street every morning. It's three houses from hers to the corner on which the school is. It is SO infuriating!
Don't know about your country, but typically driving the wrong way down a way one street is illegal. Record it and send it to police.
The school district around me got budget approvals to build 3+ new schools. Watching all of them get built it saddens me that ALL of the infrastructure is about that adult parent driving their one child to school. They put token bike racks at the school my youngest went to, but it's a stroad with no shoulders whatsoever, and is a 3 lane road that is clearly built with ONLY cars in mind. Even the sidewalks on that side of the street end at the property lines of the school. Its honestly pathetic that my kids cannot safely ride bikes to school as I did, even if my biking to school was "safe" rather than safe
You gotta drive your kid to school to protect them from the other parents driving kids to school...
My neighbour works in the local village shop, the village has around 1,000 properties with low crime rate. She walks out of her front door and steps into the car, then has to drive to the end of the street, along the next street, then back down the next to get to the shop.
There is also an open greenspace next to her house with a lit path along it, which would take her directly to the shop. It's around 100metres walk vs 1/2 mile drive plus traffic.
I have absolutely no idea how some people manage to rationalise such behaviour
That's an extreme example, but to be fair, most of those parents that drive their children to school that's not even far, they do it because then they continue driving to get to work. At least it makes kind of sense if it's a small child that can't go alone.
I had enough of traffic in December and bought a 30 year old road bike and started cycling over 200 km a week (from zero fitness) for commuting and fun. Since mid December I have used less than two tanks of petrol.
Good going. I’ve been cycling to work for the past 3 years (sometimes I still use the car). On average I save about £20 a month on petrol. The bike I bought at the start has more than paid for itself and I’ve lost weight.
After having a child I realized that even our quiet neighborhood is a danger zone. The first thing you need to teach your child is to stand aside for cars. Even after this, you still always need to be around to intervene just in case. Why isn't anybody instead teaching the drivers to drive at pedestrian speed when they see children?
Because when you're in a car you're usually going somewhere important, where if you're walking you usually aren't. Parents keeping their children safe from the road isn't somehow bowing down to cars it's the same idea as keeping them safe from a river. This thing is inherently dangerous and very useful if used correctly, you're too young to use it correctly to stay away from it
@@johnmccrossan9376 Your very first sentence is a huge assumption.
But even if it was correct, a driver going somewhere important does not giver them more rights compared to other citizens or other citizens safety.
@@squngy0I don't think there's any point trying to discuss this with somebody who is proving the entire point of the video. He's brainwashed.
@@squngy0 yes it's an assumption but it's a founded one. Driving costs money and people very rarely do things that cost money without a significant perceived benefit. Also the road is made for cars it's not as if you're taking rights away from someone else you're just using a space that is centred on motorists. If I was walking in a velodrome while people were trying to cycle you wouldn't say how dare they be annoyed at me getting in the way because that's not my space it's theirs.
@@johnmccrossan9376 So you would have no problem if we built velodromes over roads, so cyclists can go everywhere with no one in the way?
And no, spending money does not prove importance, people spend money on all sorts of frivolous things.
When cars were first introduced, pedestrians were outraged that they had to share the roads with them. How things have changed.
11 years of commuting by bike in London Vs £3000/year travelcard, I can't believe more people don't wake up!
Been saying this for years. Now there's finally a video that sums up my daily frustrations.
"Yes sir, yes sir, my apologies sir, I now see that you are in a car and are much more important than I - I shall grovel to cross the road, cycle anywhere or even just to walk down the pavement safely".
This was great and informative. During architecture school, I worked on a project about the "beast of the street." Streets used to be vibrant spaces for people to meet, celebrate, and engage with their community. However, the rise of cars has significantly altered this dynamic, often diminishing the sense of community. Nowadays, it's rare to even know your neighbors.
The best video you've ever done, period.
I do wonder though, if i bought a car and spent lumps of money on insurance, fuel, servicing and deposit, I understand people wanting to use it a lot. They passed two tests and worked so hard for this false dream and when they get the car they want to live in their fantasy as much as possible.
None of what you say makes sense.
Terrible video, lies, and misdirection.
What fantasy??
What I have noticed is how childish GCN and most of its supporters are and how often you create fake scenarios to boost your confidence.
@@elliotwilliams7421 the fantasy they probably had from a young age that a car somehow means they're adult or more free.
I am totally sure you're far more intelligent than the guests in this video
@@Contempoist you are more free
I was talking about the merits of transit to a friend, and he mentioned that the subway system in my city has frequent disruptions, citing that as a definite negative compared to driving. I countered that every traffic jam as a result of construction, crashes, breakdowns and other stuff was the exact same, but they're so normalized that nobody thinks about them.
As a retired county council Cycling & Sustainable travel officer none of this is a surprise. One of the blockages to things changing is that while road planners were happy to help me design and plan 'traffic free' cycle paths they would not compromise car use in favour of cyclists and pedestrians at all. One clue is the term traffic free cycle path. Since when have cycles not been considered part of traffic?
Since always. A bike is an oversized child's toy a car is something you need. Cyclists are pedestrians in funny clothing
@envixxsy I THINK he's being sarcastic?
We need more envisioned road planners, wish I was twenty again. Appreciate everything you did, against the odds 👏👏👏
Thanks for making this video. It's a shame that those of us who advocate for active transport are often seen as anti car, when we are actually anti car dominance. Keep up the good work guys.
As mtb rider I have to say the road is for cars. Take your bicycle where it belongs to woods and trails, or if you commute in city use bikelane or sidewalk like a normal person.
Not according to the Highway Code or any government guidelines in the UK. Cyclists are perfectly entitled to use roads, which by the way, were not originally built for cars. Cars are the interlopers - cyclists were using roads long before the car was invented.
In the US we got a 90% car daily commute rate. Cars cause 480 billion usd in damages a year here and 3 to 5 million people seek health consultations from car related incidents. Very interesting how the world even with data refuses to acknowledge the damage
We great apes are a highly flawed species. Make the animal get used to anything, even if it might be a danger and it will perceive it as normal. Some people were abused in their childhood and will - for their whole lives - search for partners which will also abuse them. Everything unknown might be more dangerous than status quo, even if in reality it would lead to a hundred times brighter future.
Let's hope our societies will “heal” over time and start to perceive reality with more objective/rational eyes…
More videos like this please! The subtle messaging that vehicles are the way to go is everywhere, especially here in North America! Granted riding a bicycle in the winter is uncomfortable, it's not impossible
As a 60 year old, I really just thought this is the way it is. Then I started a Master's program at the University at Albany (New York State) originally focusing on bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure and learned just how wrong I was. I've commuted an hour or more to work most of my adult life. Imagine my surprise when I realized the reason for that is because of the low density high car use infrastructure built here in the US even for local travel. Just to get to university from my house would take two 15-mile bike rides and a 3-hour bus trip. The train, while an option, only stops twice per day neither of which are convenient to classes and still requires the 15-mile bike ride (not much of an option in upstate NY winters). Even by bus I'd be forced to sleep on a park bench somewhere because, by the time class ends, the bus route has shut down. The best way to ensure car culture is to atrophy all of the alternatives.
Since a little kid, I noticed that something was wrong with the way we build our cities and over many years, my intuition was confirmed. As someone who didn't ever own a car (and neither did my family), I am disappointed in the lakc of infrastructure for alternative options.
Not only does "motonormativity" send the message that cars were inherently necessary on streets, it also makes people think that there are no alternatives to anything.
Over many years, I've asked around many people in my region in Germany and I've come to realise that the amount of time spent driving makes causes people's brains to even be wired differently! People owning more than one car tend to be closed-minded and their closed-mindedness is confirmed by the bery culture they are a part of; people who use alternatives to driving less assume that people who do use them more (or exclusively like I do) were crazy or even insane...
Then I started wondering whether a city or even an entire country with *0* cars was possible - and I came to the conclusion that it is and without any downsides!
So let's stop cars altogether! Even the argument of rural areas or transport of goods is flawed since there is this vehicle known as a train. And if you don't remove the asphalt, at least replace the cars with buses, even that is better than keeping cars around.
Whenever people call me extreme for that, I tell them how extreme they are with cars as they treat them like a necessity. Perhaps it helps to write fantasy books with urban places without cars. Perhaps the cinema needs more of that urbanism! And no, I am not extreme as cars cause nothing but trouble (and studies prove this over and over again).
I have moved from Canada where there is a huge amount of hostility towards cyclists (I live in the Netherlands now). But even in Canada, I have never heard the claim that cyclists are responsible for cars killing pedestrians. I can’t even fathom the mental gymnastics one has to perform to come to such a conclusion.
and what we would give to have Montreal levels of cycling infra down here in the states!
You are Jason Slaughter and I claim my five pounds! :-)
oh my god thank you for that. It's been the fight of my life for almost 5 years now. Great to see the sport cycling world actually caring about why cycling is a dangerous sport : cars. Cars has destroyed everything : calm, space, climate, brains. This video is a good first step to see it.
Best GCN video ever. Please continue to pushing this kind of content.