• blaggle42@lemmy.today
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    18 hours ago

    I will assume you live in the midwest. Maybe some suburbia.

    NYC is entirely different than suburbia and actually is also entirely different from SF, DC and Tokyo. I don’t know about other cities.

    Within 30 seconds of biking from my apartment, I will already have seen.

    1. A car go through a red light.
    2. A car parked on the sidewalk.
    3. A delivery truck parked in the bike lane, and part of the street.
    4. Multiple people crossing the street randomly, not at crosswalks.
    5. I will have passed maybe 3 other bikers.

    Within a minute:

    1. Massive construction on the street.
    2. Cars parked in the road.
    3. Dodged deep pot holes.

    Within 5 minutes

    1. Multiple cars going through red lights, I would maybe guess 5.
    2. Multiple cars doing u-turns that are not allowed.
    3. Maybe 30 people walking across the street in random places.
    4. Some drugged up guy standing somewhere in the street.
    5. Hit an area where the streets are purposely laid out so, if you want to go the “right way” you have to ground around multiple blocks. It’s a peculiar place.

    This is the base line.

    All of this works together because there are basically no laws. A car goes through a red light, as long as it doesn’t hit someone it’s ignored. Same for u-turns, same for illegal temporary parking. You want to gun your car, make the wheels squeal and accelerate as fast as you can until the next red light? Nobody will care if you don’t hit someone.

    It’s a zoo. The normal thinking of laws doesn’t really apply. If you get upset about every car that runs a red light, you’ll be upset all the time. If you get upset at people doing stupid shit, you’ll be upset all the time.

    • LilB0kChoy@midwest.social
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      15 hours ago

      Ah, it’s okay if you ignore the laws because everyone else is doing it too.

      In that case it sounds like Darwinism on NYC streets and cyclists and motorists alike earn whatever comes their way.