Originally Posted by
canklecat
I don't read comments under stories/videos about cyclists and pedestrians being killed by negligent drivers. It would kill my last shred of hope for humanity.
I do occasionally see similarly hostile and threatening comments under local news on social media. It may be only 1% of drivers who come across as borderline psychopaths just itching for an excuse to use their vehicles to murder cyclists and pedestrians. But that's still thousands of ticking time bombs behind the wheels throughout our city. If people posted similar threats and schadenfreude in other contexts -- crime news, any other local issues -- they'd be warned, suspended or banned from the Facebook groups or FB altogether. But FB mods and admins have no problems with anti-social people posting threats against cyclists and pedestrians.
The worst part is that some of them are also cyclists. Riding a bike doesn't exempt people from anti-social psychopathy.
This week Phil Gaimon posted a rant on FB about recent truck and SUV designs with huge, blocky, squared off hoods and fenders that block the view of people and objects below the driver's sightlines. He was just echoing warnings from automotive and safety industry pundits. Some pundits are calling for a return to sloping hoods on big trucks, vans and SUVs, to improve sightlines.
Some guy posted multiple trolling responses to other commenters -- calling them cowards, or unAmerican for complaining about negligent drivers, or... it wasn't really clear what his point was. Between the odd phrasing and misspellings it seemed like drunk posting, or worse. Curious, I glanced at his FB page. He's a serious cyclist, and promoting his new business as an insurance broker. But the guy seems to have a serious disconnect not only about empathy for other cyclists, but a total lack of regard for his personal and business reputation.
Again, that's a minority of the self-identifying cyclist population. But, still, if only 1% of cyclists share his irreconcilable views, that's a heckuva lotta utterly clueless cyclists who think they're immune to negligent drivers.
Not surprised. On the other subject, I agree that sight lines are worse (and have been for a long, long time) in modern vehicles, and that’s due not just to blocky hoods on trucks but also vehicles being super-sized and higher up in general. The majority of buyers would rather buy a big, substantial-feeling vehicle with poor visibility than a slighter, lighter, lower vehicle with good visibility. It sucks.
Ironically, the higher hood and cowl lines on even normal-sized cars (not just trucks) is partly due to pedestrian safety standards!
It was determined that having additional empty space for deflection between the metal in the hood/front edge of the car and the harder engine block is helpful if a ped. is hit and rolls or flies up and lands down on the hood.
Hence no low, aero wedge-shaped front ends on regular cars for like the last 15 years.