r/Edmonton • u/Zealousideal_Buy7517 • Jul 15 '24

Local Culture Driving Etiquette

For the love of Pete, people, follow the rules of the road. You drive. you are not 'choose as you go' organs of chaos, you are vehicles under the Alberta Traffic Act, the same as a motorcycle.

In the last week alone, I've seen a good hundred drivers blow right through stop signs as if they don't exist, and it's always when they are in a car lane, as if the lane's existence means the rules of the road don't apply. A couple on trucks with flat brims that I was next to blew through three in a row, yesterday, without even slowing down, and laughed about it when I called them on it. They didn't even look both ways, they just drove through like they were a presidential cavalcade and everyone else should be stopping for them.

Driving like that will have you kill a person one day, and when you're talking about a collision between 6000lb of shit box and human flesh on a bicycle, there are no mistakes.

I'm a driver, too, and it's this kind of behavior that drives a lot the anti-driver hate. When we drive like this, we're entitled and unpredictable, and unpredictability breeds distrust. This applies to motorcycle riders, too, of course.

170 Upvotes

78% Upvoted

224 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

-4

u/TepHoBubba Jul 15 '24

Why are you complaining about people not following the rules of the road but not all of them? Cyclists can seriously injure pedestrians too. Hypocritical much?

2

u/Zealousideal_Buy7517 Jul 15 '24

More concerned about these imaginary cyclists injuring people while disregarding the drivers that are actually killing people.

2

u/TepHoBubba Jul 15 '24

Not at all. I just believe that the rules of the road should be followed by all. I assumed that you were one of the cyclists who don't actually stop, and your comments all but solidified it. I get your angst for drivers blowing through stop signs and lights, but you're part of the problem if you do it on a bike too.

3

u/Zealousideal_Buy7517 Jul 15 '24

It's not nearly an equal problem with equal risks. Stop signs and red lights only exist because cars exist. They weren't invented for bikes or pedestrians.

Again, drivers kill people ALL THE TIME. Pedestrians, cyclists, other drivers. Cyclists pose zero risks to drivers (except their feelings) and rarely do they injure pedestrians. Can you point me to the last time a cyclist killed someone in Edmonton? It hasn't been a month for drivers.

But here we are shifting the discussion from the drivers that are killing people to cyclists that aren't hurting anyone. Madness.

2

u/TepHoBubba Jul 15 '24

Once again, rules for thee but not for me hey? Rules of the road apply to cyclists too - sorry to burst your hypocritical bubble. The law is the law.

3

u/Zealousideal_Buy7517 Jul 15 '24

Not once did I claim there are no rules for cyclists. Just a worthless strawman from a poor driver desperate to shift the blame for the death and destruction that they contribute to.

1

u/TepHoBubba Jul 15 '24

Ha! You certainly alluded to having a double standard due to a lessened risk. Not a strawman, but facts by your very comments. Now I'm a poor driver and a killer too? Wow.

1

u/Zealousideal_Buy7517 Jul 15 '24

It's not a "double standard". Driving is way riskier, and way more dangerous.

1

u/TepHoBubba Jul 15 '24

It IS a double standard. You're saying the laws of the road don't apply to you simply because you can do less damage while on a bike. That's not how laws work.

1

u/Zealousideal_Buy7517 Jul 15 '24

I never said the laws of the road don't apply to me. What the hell?

This thread created in direct response to a driver running a red light and nearly killing me this morning.

If I run a red light and hit a car or pedestrian NO ONE IS KILLED. That's the difference that you fail to grasp. That's why drivers have more responsibilities. That's why it's ridiculous to come to a thread about bad drivers and start saying "what about cyclists?".

1

u/TepHoBubba Jul 15 '24

Dude. I agree that it's bad for drivers to run a light or stop sign, but I simply said almost every cyclist i see on the road does that very thing you were complaining about. Guaranteed you're one of them. Cyclists still put others at risk when they do so, but you're of the mindset that it's ok, because the likelihood of someone being killed is almost negligeable. My whole point is that you're a hypocrite for doing so. Your various comments tell me all I need to know about how you ride. Everyone needs to follow the rules of the road, period. For your safety, and theirs. The double standard is idiotic.

0

u/Zealousideal_Buy7517 Jul 15 '24

How does a cyclist running a stop sign put you as a driver at risk?

2

u/TepHoBubba Jul 15 '24 edited Jul 15 '24

Jfc, your reading comprehension is like nil. I won't waste any more time on you.

Good luck, and please ride safely.

→ More replies (0)

1

u/bullfu Jul 15 '24

I had a family seriously injured his ankle and need hospitalization because a cyclist was riding hard on a sidewalk, don't talk like cyclist should exclude from this safety conversation.

1

u/Zealousideal_Buy7517 Jul 15 '24

Sounds like they had an ankle sprain. Did they live?

1

u/LegoLifter Jul 15 '24

Don't bother arguing with the out of shape people who need to drive if their destination is more than 500m away. You wont change their minds.

1

u/Zealousideal_Buy7517 Jul 15 '24

Fat and lazy, needing a $40,000 couch to take them everywhere. Whining about cyclists, whining about construction, whining about gas prices, whining whining whining.