[Grombobulous]

You’re right, it’s not ideal. That’s why people in the Netherlands invented a special technology to compensate, which they call “clothes.”

Clothes are not really an ideal solution compared to surrounding yourself with a 4,000 pound piece of machinery that costs $50,000, loses half its value in 3 years, and degrades your mental and physical health.

[juleiie]

Honestly avoiding people on the street improves my mental and physical health by reducing chronic cortisol. These fuckers stare at you and worse. A day of this and i am an anxious wreck.

It’s better to just get in your tanklet. Your little oasis. Home away from home.

That’s how i move nowadays from most point As to Bs. Music, AC, glasses. Perfect privacy. Calmness. Peace.

Kilograms of metal between you and the vicious, antagonistic reality of 2026 AD

It’s not just a car. It is an armor for the times like these.

[DonHopkins]

Face it, Juleiie:

"The more you drive, the less intelligent you are." -Miller, Repo Man

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rwma-xGQa6o

[Grombobulous]

lol, I can't tell if your comment is satire. Home of the brave, right? Where people looking at you is considered scary?

I'm a lot more scared of car crashes, since in most years they kill more people in the US than firearms do [1], and that's a pretty morbid statistic considering 58% of firearm deaths are suicides. [2] In other words, all those bullets flying at you as you walk down the street are less than half as deadly as driving in your vehicle.

I would encourage you to look in your local newspaper/news website and see how often someone loses their teenager in a car crash versus how often someone loses their teenager to violence on the street. I didn't lose any classmates to violence, but I lost at least one classmate to a car crash.

Here's another exercise: stand at a sidewalk at a traffic light intersection and count how many people in cars are actively on their phones.

The most statistically dangerous thing that happens to people walking is being hit by cars.

Somehow I doubt the Dutch are staring at each other with violent eyes and wishing they could cower away from the sidewalk into the safety of their RAM 1500 Crew Cabs. I struggle to imagine how that would happen: you can't even stare at people as you ride by them in the bike lanes in the Netherlands, the cyclists are going way too fast for that.

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5642886/

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7988561/

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7670332/

[1] https://everytownresearch.org/graph/gun-death-vs-motor-vehic...

[2] https://publichealth.jhu.edu/2025/new-report-highlights-us-2...

[annzabelle]

I think a lot of it is that the US doesn't take a paternalistic approach to mental healthcare or addiction treatment, so there are a lot of junkies and people with psychosis out on the streets in many cities. My understanding is that in Europe these people are more likely to be receiving some kind of treatment and be living in supported housing of some kind, whether mandatory or not, where in a lot of the US they are ranting and raving on the streets and on public transit. But, it's their freedom to refuse shelter and to refuse treatment (and our freedom to choose not to fund it).

[juleiie]

I don’t know why it feels like this but the modern world doesn’t feel like a safe place with sane people around us.

I would rather take my chances on the road than on the sidewalk or on a bus, completely exposed and defenseless. Like a girl from certain bus video.

You mentioned yourself that you can even be hit by a car. Many such cases lately of people driving car into groups of people.

This world is mad and i think you are much crazier than me. It’s one thing to feel it and do something, anything in response. It’s another to pretend like nothing is happening.

[Grombobulous]

I won't literally ask where you live where you feel this way as I don't need you to reveal personal info about yourself, but I truly believe that if you feel this way and you don't live in some kind of extreme outlier crime-laden area, you might want to seriously think about talking to a therapist.

This level of fear you describe is not a healthy or reasonable way to live your life and is not a very typical sentiment. A professional can help you figure out where these feelings are coming from and what you can do to manage them.

Sure, there are crazy and violent people out there, I don't deny that.

I know I was being somewhat of an urbanist zealot in my last comment, but for real...regardless of whether you prefer suburbs and spending more time in your car or the city and spending more time on foot, this isn't a healthy way for you to see the world in either case.

[juleiie]

These feelings are coming from being stared at. I can manage them by staring at people back in not so pleasant ways and having a weapon in a pocket if the staring contest escalates.

[Grombobulous]

Every major city I’ve ever lived in or visited mostly involved people doing the exact opposite of staring because urban culture generally has a “leave everyone else alone and mind your own business” aspect to it.

Because of that observation, I think it would be wise for you to dig deep on whether something about your own perceptions is failing you in this regard. I think there’s a strong likelihood that either something about your physical appearance looks very different, your own behavior is causing staring, or the staring isn’t happening at all in the way you describe.

Unless you just live in a specific place/culture where staring is prevalent.

[DonHopkins]

> staring at people back in not so pleasant ways and having a weapon in a pocket if the staring contest escalates

"Staring at people back in not so pleasant ways" IS escalating. Just like complaining about the traffic while driving means YOU ARE the traffic you're complaining about.

So you're intentionally causing traffic, escalating aggression, and increasing your chances of killing people with both your car and your gun, while also increasing your probability to 35 TIMES MORE LIKELY that you die by suicide by your own gun.

Not a wise strategy for someone who already admits to suffering from mental health problems so bad that you're afraid to look your fellow Americans in the eye. Threatening to murder someone because of a staring contest is totally unhinged, especially with your intentional escalation strategy.

My advice: get a bike and get rid of the gun. Don't just leave it around where children can get ahold of it. Destroy it.

But don't just destroy the gun and lose the car and get a bike: get professional help too. Crazy people murder innocent people with their cars all the time too, like what just happened at Berlin Pride.

Handgun ownership associated with much higher suicide risk:

https://med.stanford.edu/news/all-news/2020/06/handgun-owner...

>Men who own handguns are eight times more likely to die of gun suicides than men who don't own handguns, and women who own handguns are 35 times more likely than women who don't.

[crote]

How do you know those people aren't staring at you because you started staring at them in an unpleasant way in response to them randomly glancing a look vaguely in your direction?

I don't stare at people. They don't stare at me either. Problem solved?

[vidarh]

I would urge you to seek help, as this attitude is not exactly indicating sound mental health.

[DonHopkins]

Well maybe if you Americans would stop glorifying Rolling Coal on bicyclists and pedestrians and electric cars, and electing narcissistic leaders who classify bike lanes as "Woke" DEI and are so racist and bigoted that they believe pedestrians and bicyclists and "Woke" and "AntiFa" citizens are radical terrorists who threaten their way of life, you wouldn't be so frightened to walk outside or look anyone in the eye.

Trump Secretary Puts Americans in Danger Over “DEI Bike Lanes”. Sean Duffy has derided bike lanes as too woke, and is now stripping mentions of them from federal websites:

https://www.reddit.com/r/transit/comments/1v4svzl/trump_secr...

ULTIMATE ROLLING COAL ON TESLA COMPILATION | TESLACAM STORIES #98

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sgT1Sjo6u34

Cycliq Fly6 CE and Fly12 CE – Coal Rolling in Daytona

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GFeBKT8mNXc

Update on the Waller Texas teen who crashed into cyclists while rolling coal on them

https://www.reddit.com/r/cycling/comments/1efwnvp/update_on_...

Late 2021 in Waller County Texas, the teenage son of a well connected local family rolled coal on six cyclists and crashed into them causing serious injuries. There was police inaction (looked like a bit of a coverup) and then the DA filed felony charges. Since 2021, pretty much total silence in the news.

A reddit post in May 2023 here asking for information still comes up in a Google search and is one of the most recent, @ u/gmkrikey https://www.reddit.com/r/cycling/comments/13u9bxn/what_happe...

Very little information has been put out on this terrible crash since it happened in 2021, but recently I finally found some. And the article seems to show the driver was given little accountability. It's an interesting article, read & update. Including a discussion on the history of corruption in the Waller Texas area.

The Horrific Coal-Rolling Incident that Nearly Killed 6 Cyclists

IN A RURAL COMMUNITY OUTSIDE HOUSTON, A VIOLENT COLLISION SHATTERED LIVES. A TEENAGE BOY WAS CHARGED WITH ASSAULT, BUT WAS JUSTICE SERVED?

Original update, https://www.bicycling.com/news/a60747401/waller-texas-coal-r...

EDIT: added non paywall version, https://archive.ph/3tLtL

[DonHopkins]

The therapy that Juleiie needs begins with watching nine minutes of harmonious mixed car, bike, and pedestrian rush hour traffic at the intersection of Korte Prinsengracht and Haarlemmerstraat in Amsterdam.

Unbelievably busy bicycle crossing in Amsterdam:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pqQSwQLDIK8

Watching that video soothes my mind and warms my heart: thousands of people who have not Repo Man-style driven themselves unintelligent and insane manage to negotiate the same shared space simply by looking at one another in the eye, and acknowledging that everyone else exists.

The famous Dutch traffic engineer Hans Monderman believed drivers become more alert and cautious when there’s more uncertainty on the road.

Want fewer car accidents? Remove traffic signals and road signs:

https://bigthink.com/the-present/want-less-car-accidents-get...

>Hans Monderman believed that societies could make roads safer by making drivers more uncertain, and therefore alert.

>“When you treat people like idiots, they’ll behave like idiots.”

>That was the philosophy of Hans Monderman, the Dutch traffic engineer who became famous not for what he added to road design and urban planning, but for what he removed: curbs, traffic signals, signs. He believed drivers become more alert and cautious when there’s more uncertainty on the road.

>“The trouble with traffic engineers is that when there’s a problem with a road, they always try to add something,” Monderman said to Wired. “To my mind, it’s much better to remove things.”

>According to the anthropologist James C. Scott, Monderman began with the observation that:

>when an electrical failure incapacitated traffic lights, the result was improved flow rather than congestion. As an experiment, he replaced the busiest traffic-light intersection in Drachten, handling 22,000 cars a day, with a traffic circle, an extended cycle path, and a pedestrian area. In the two years following . . . the number of accidents plummeted to only two, compared with thirty-six crashes in the four years prior. Traffic moves more briskly through the intersection when all drivers know they must be alert and use their common sense, while backups and the road rage associated with them have virtually disappeared. Monderman likened it to skaters in a crowded ice rink who manage successfully to tailor their movements to those of the other skaters. He also believed that an excess of signage led drivers to take their eyes off the road, and actually contributed to making junctions less safe.

Unexpected interview in Groningen (Homage to Hans Monderman):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQASVz4xun8

>What? You know all about transport in cities and you have never heard of Groningen? Well, check out this an unexpected street interview in Groningen, a slice of life as lived by our old friend and transport innovating colleague Robert Stussi. He has titled it: A Homage to Hans Monderman. Hear, hear!

Hans Monderman: Rethinking the design of streets and public space:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bjBGokenEhQ

>An Urban Design London and Urban Design Group Lecture

>Hans Monderman has been one of the most significant influences on the current debate about the design of streets and spaces in the UK. A traffic engineer and road safety specialist from Northern Holland, he is celebrated as the pioneer of shared space as a means to influence speed and driver behaviour.

>Monderman has been the inspiration behind scores of towns and villages which work without road markings, traffic signs, signals, kerbs, barriers and bollards. ‘Most engineers, when faced with a problem, try to add something,’ he says. ‘My instinct has always been to take something away.’

>Following a short introduction by Rob Cowan, Hans explains his approach, work and experiences.

Hans Monderman talking about Shared Space:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2amDl1Hkl0w&list=PL83763C4BA...

[crote]

> Honestly avoiding people on the street improves my mental and physical health by reducing chronic cortisol. These fuckers stare at you and worse.

... you do realize that you are also "these fuckers", right? It's like complaining about "being stuck in traffic": no, you are the traffic.

The people on the street are just people. They aren't any different from your coworkers, your family members, or the parents of your kid's classmates. If merely being in the presence of other people causes you serious anxiety, you might want to consider asking a medical expert for potential therapy options before it gets even worse and you're left unable to leave the home at all.

[juleiie]

We are totally not the same in ways you could never fully comprehend

[DonHopkins]

Drive safely, don't get into staring contests, put down your phone, keep your eyes on the road, don't hit pedestrians, get rid of the gun, and don't shoot anyone, including yourself.

If you need to talk, the 988 Lifeline is here. At the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline, we understand that life's challenges can sometimes be difficult.

https://988lifeline.org