Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by porknubbins 39 days ago
I don’t known if its the heat or lack of greenery but everything I hear about riding bikes or motocycles in Texas just makes it sounds like there is some deep latent aggression there. I have bicycled in a bunch of states including the Southeast and never encountered anything like the stories people tell about Texas.
2 comments
tokai 38 days ago
Open up any kind of cycling content on social media and you see droves of comment literally calling for killing cyclists. Turns out some people are just ontologically evil.
link
marysol5 38 days ago
Same with the UK too, there's a semi-famous guy who regularly posts recordings of drivers on their phones etc.

And the sheer amount of hatred he gets, alongside the threats. You'd think he was head of ISIS or something

link
porknubbins 38 days ago
I think social media just gives people a palce to express their most unrestrained nasty opinions.
link
cogman10 39 days ago
It has basically 0 pedestrian or bike infrastructure (at least where I was at, Irving, was that way). You have to drive everywhere otherwise you are literally in the middle of the got dang road.

The speed limits are also all high. They get up to 50 mph in as many places as possible.

It also doesn't help that they've got some of the worst road marking of any state I've been in. There were a lot of roads where it was simply unclear how many lanes were supposed to exist.

Now imagine throwing a bike into all this.

I don't think it's so much aggression as it is really really terrible infrastructure.

Also, FTR, Texans are actually pretty polite drivers (at least they were circa 2011 in Dallas area).

link
donkyrf 38 days ago
> I don't think it's so much aggression as it is really really terrible infrastructure.

These are separate issues. Both are real.

link
dylan604 39 days ago
> I don't think it's so much aggression as it is really really terrible infrastructure.

As one that has been hit and coal rolled, I'll stipulate that I have a biased take that would disagree. I get that people in Irving are probably not as used to bicycles, but where I'm at is one the most popular places for biking (white rock lake). So drivers in this area are definitely used to bikes. These people to me are the meme version of the MAGA crowd. They're also the people that have no qualms doing 50mph in a 30mph zone. Infrastructure or not, these people are these people

link