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by btrettel 2677 days ago
When I moved to Texas I did not anticipate this. As a cyclist, I will definitely keep the types of vehicles in mind when choosing a place to live from here on. Texans do worse, as "grille guards" are particularly common: http://www.frontier-gear.com/products/grille-guards/

When I first saw one of these I thought it was something out of Mad Max. The vast majority of these people don't need these grille guards as they don't work on a farm or anything similar. My guess is that they are bought to make their truck or SUV look tougher.

In contrast, I grew up in a rural area where grille guards might be useful and I never saw them. Big trucks don't seem to be as common as here either.
2 comments
bilbo0s 2677 days ago
I grew up rural Wisconsin, and moved to, and lived in, Houston for about a decade or so. It's funny you should mention how no one where you grew up has those trucks, because this was my exact same experience. Initially, I just thought that everyone in Texas was just WAYYYY more wealthy than people in Wisconsin. Then I realized, down there, it's just the culture. Whether they have money or not, they will get a giant truck or suv, even if they don't need one.
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enraged_camel 2677 days ago
Even Austin, the most liberal of Texas cities, is horrible.

A friend of mine, who is a bike-trail advocate, was intentionally hit by the car behind him while he was stopped at a red light waiting to make a right turn. He said he waited a bit too long, the car behind him honked impatiently first, then bumped into him. He fell to the side and bruised his leg, while the perpetrator non-nonchalantly drove by, made their right turn and drove away.

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btrettel 2677 days ago
I live in Austin. Sorry to hear about your friend. Can't say that I'm surprised.

Austin seems to be full of people who are happy to give cyclists lip service, but once they have to wait more than 5 seconds for a cyclists, they could hardly care less about them.

I was assaulted by a road raging driver, and to their credit the police made a token effort. Even took my statement. But they made no effort to arrest the guy as far as I can tell. Wasn't difficult for me to figure out where the guy lived, so all I can figure is that the police never bothered looking at all.

This is the most significant reason why I don't intend to stay in Austin.

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