Actually, bikes really are far left and a tool for liberty. They were especially significant in the US movements for feminism and women’s suffrage, as bicycles allowed women to scootle around on their own, where before they were restricted by access to horses and male escort. (Yes, I used the verb to scootle.)
Also bicycles encouraged women’s fashion to allow for pants, which were utilitarian for bicycling sooner than they were for equestrian riding.
(Bicycles also encouraged the paving of roads before automobiles dominated them.)
Many opponents to women’s suffrage (to women’s rights and women’s autonomy) also opposed bicycles. Including the Roman Catholic Church. The Holy See asserted that bicycles, especially tandem bikes, were an instrument of the devil.
So bikes are Satan-approved!
Some recent useful videos (on YouTube):
Rebecca Watson’s take after SoT Sean Duffy decided bike lanes are woke
The Bicycle Episode of Climate Town with help from Not Just BikesOkay a funny, where I went to high school, a kid got pulled over for biking too fast. He was going like 20+, had nice road bike and strong legs, in a school zone. He didn’t get a ticket but it was funny.
School zones are like 25mph aren’t they?
Slower. At least the ones where they care are signed slower.
The woke left want to take away your traditional transportation! Trains are our heritage and what made our country so great! Trains burn big beautiful clean coal, some say the cleanest.
Interesting, considering (motorized) public transit is not that old, and bikes are even newer (cca 80 and 20 years prior to the automobile, respectively, depending on location)
I think you missed the part where they are lying to the conservatives to get them on board with things that are actively good for them
I know people do that and while this reframing is not exactly a lie, it’s interesting it works even when they are lumping walking (Homo erectus) and buses, trains, trams and presumably bikes (all 19ᵗʰ century) while excluding cars (basically early 20ᵗʰ century)
yep. learning their diction and rhetorics works wonders!
Now Let’s get these traditional means of transportation going!interested but skeptical.
Very interesting perspective.
Car[…]Requires regular inspection
Not in most areas, unfortunately
I live in an emissions check only state. My car is an EV and I admit I take enjoyment in knowing ICE car drivers have an inconvenience that I do not.
That said, I’d rather we had regular mandatory inspections. Cars are already dangerous. We should be productively trying to catch issues that could suddenly cause them to behave unexpectedly.
Fundamentally not a serious country
For a long time Vermont allowed people living out-of-state to register their vehicles in Vermont and get a VT license plate. They do require inspections but if you were out of state and never actually went to Vermont, the inspection requirement was irrelevant. This was often used by the skoolie (school bus converted to motorhome) community to get a bus registered and legal before it was converted to a motorhome (at which point you can register it normally in most states). And it was used generally by people with shitty old cars that couldn’t pass an inspection and didn’t have a valid title. However, they closed this loophole three years ago and now you can’t newly register an out-of-state vehicle there any more.
New Hampshire is grey as of this year. No inspection required!
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basically cops can stop you, find something wrong, and ticket you. Biking isn’t a right. Grays can also have their own auth rules.
I dream of getting a speeding ticket on my bicycle some day. I would frame that thing so fucking hard. It’s not often that I can actually legitimately get up to a speed above the limit, but it does happen once in a while.
legitimately occurs, esp. on velomobile owners.
Broke: biking is unsafe
Woke: biking doesn’t require government issued privledge
Bespoke: Biking gives you a fat ass and chiseled calves
Another major bonus is the fact that it only takes about a weekend of study to learn how to maintain and repair 99% of bike parts. Also, far cheaper parts. And also free bonus exercise.
I mean, this used to be true and still is for older bikes (which I heartily recommend). But the newer shit like electric shifting and disc breaks is a lot more complicated and insanely more expensive (like, imagine buying a new bike for $15K and having other cyclists laugh at you for being so cheap).
like, imagine buying a new bike for $15K and having other cyclists laugh at you for being so cheap
This has never happened ever, not even once.
Tour de France-level bikes cost $15k. You quite literally cannot spend more.
Disc brakes aren’t fancy any more, or insanely expensive – and they can be way easier to work on than truing a wheel perfectly to get your rim brakes working just right.
Maybe I’ve been lucky but only once did i need to get my brake lines bled. Otherwise, just replace the pads when they wear out, and the thing is self-adjusting.
Miss me with that electronic shifting though. We’re not airplanes. We don’t need fly by wire.
You don’t need any of that stuff though. That’s just for rich bike nerds. Tell those dorks to get stuffed while you save a few thousand dollars.
free bonus exercise
Which allows you to enjoy even more freedom fries!
Most places i feel you can get away with riding drunk. Not swervey drunk, but more intoxicated than you should drive in a car. I don’t feel cops really care too much for drunk cyclists.
I mention this, because some people drive drunk in a 2 ton vehicle capable for killing or maiming others. Those same drivers on a bicycle would be better (though there’s still a chance for injury and death, more of that risk is to the rider than others)
I personally know more people who’ve gotten somewhat badly injured biking drunk (clipless pedals…) than who have hurt themselves or others driving… (1 vs 0)
Actually now that i think about it, the car accident people i know are dead, that’s why i didn’t remember… (2 fatalities that i can think of, not sure if alcohol was even involved).
People should have a right to endanger themselves but not others
Florida used to use these sort of overturned metal soup bowl things as turning lane dividers. It was a way of giving a tactile warning to drivers of lane departures without damaging the cars. It was also a way of landing drunks riding their bikes at night flat on their fucking faces. You can guess how I know.
I think that’s what we in the drunk biker gang call a “skill issue”
Depending on the state, you can still get a DUI for riding a bike while drunk.
Be careful, you can accidentally make an error and and end up getting hit and killed, I love cycling but it can be dangerous.
Time to start selling tactical bicycles
Bonus points for including authentic WW1/WW2 images in your promo material. Stealth!
The Japanese took Singapore largely thanks to bicycles. There must be a few photographs of that shit.
You joke but I actually did 3D-print a picatinny rail for my bike handles to install a flashlight lol
Most of the headlights out there kind of suck anyway, I really prefer a decent flashlight.
What this will do, is make them want the right to drive unregistered, untested vehicles that run on used frying oil.
make them want the right to drive unregistered
Lol so many of these fuckwits already think that’s true … as long as they’re just “traveling” and not involved in commercial activity.
The patty wagon from The Spongebob Movie?
You greatly underestimate the police if you think biking privellages can’t be revoked.
Yup, in my area bikes need to be registered. It’s not enforced, but it could be.
My historic area give tickets to bike riders for being drunk, and for not having lighrs. Mostly the blacks but others too.
