(Another) Austin Cyclist seriously hurt in hit & run

http://www.kxan.com/dpp/news/crime/cyclist-seriously-injured-in-hit-and-run

fucking awful, but the comments on this story are truly atrocious.

“the actual problem IS - you idiots that ride your little bicycles on roads NOT designed for your little bicycles, need to find other places to ride your little bicycles. In no WAY should the city accommodate you people. Roads are for CARS. Sidewalks, trails etc are for your little bicycles. Go there, and you’ll be amazed at how unlikely you are to be hit by a car, since, as trails and sidewalks etc are FOR bicycles, you won’t get hit by a car. Also, I night add this, why is it when there is a 6 foot paved shoulder, do you guys on your little bicycles ride about one inch to the right of the fog line. Do stupid things, and bad things happen. It’s not rocket science, keep your little bicycles OFF the friggin roads. Sure, you have the RIGHT to ride your little bicycles on the road, but YOU are flirting with disaster then you CHOOSE to do so. You people just aren’t going to get any sympathy from anyone because EVERYONE is annoyed by the fact you peole don’t think the rules of the road apply to you. Well, they DO. And until you figure that out you will continue to get yourSELVES killed.”

“these little fruities that ride there little bicycles on the friggin roads get what they deserve. Sidewalks, trails, and parks are designed for people wanting to ride their little bicycles. These a-holes always ride up and down Ronald Reagan Blvd in Leander. There is a 6 foot paved shoulder and the little fruities ride their little bicycles about one INCH to the right of the white stripe. (fog line) And the idiots wonder why they get hit. Take your little fruity selves to a park somewhere and ride your bikes girls.”

“Agreed! Also, prayers for the poor SOB that hits one of these idiots. They we’ll have to pay a high priced attorney and possible jail time, because someone thinks they have the “right” to ride on any street. Even scooters are illegal in many areas due to the fact they don’t have enough power to get out of risky situations. I’m all for bike lanes if we limit them on roads without them.”

“its time to save lives … ban all bicycles on our public roads. Thank you very much for you time and attention.”

lol Texas is stupid. Not surprised.

We get the same shit here. Fuck em, with the skyrocketing rates of depression, obesity, heart disease, crushing debt, shitty employment prospects and general malaise in society these days it’s pretty easy to feel that anyone who pisses you off is probably a miserable shit anyway and it doesn’t matter what they think.

I commented: “If any of you cavemen (i mean, anti-cyclists, errr…supporters of manslaughter to avoid being late to work) would like to “man the F up”, let’s agree on a time & place to do so. Clearly this level of childish discourse is all that you can comprehend. I’d personally be happy to let you try and run me over, except my u-lock would smash your paltry skull first. Totally serious on this. Let’s have some fun, bubba. Invite all your homophobic friends too. I’ll be sure to bring some Keystone light. Oh, and PS. You’re even more likely to be hit riding on the sidewalk. I speak from experience. Go back to your caves, and leave the survival of the human race to those who value human life.”

not saying the driver was drunk, but I will say that Austin was incredibly lax at enforcing drunk driving laws. and had a shitload of drunk drivers.

I’m going to be happy when I go back to TX and even happier when I move to Chicago. Only reason to even go back is to get car/shit out of storage/and my cats.

I also have always wondered what these folks would think if it was their child/significant other/family member? Or to better their argument, if it was child/significant other/family member that was riding on the sidewalk and got hit by someone not paying attention, or just a hit and run. These people and bike thieves share the same place in hell.

What is it about newspaper/tv station comments fields that turns people into raving subhumans? You literally get more reasonable discourse at Nazi websites.

those comments are very typical and they piss me off so much.
they all talk like they have no responsibilty while driving. like it’s the cyclists responsibility to stay out of the way.
those mutherfuckers.
people drive 2-3 ton vehicles 10mph over the speed limit and do anything BUT pay attention to the fucking road and then talk about how the cyclist shouldn’t be on the road.

hey dumb fuck! you’re driving a fukcing vehicle. you can fucking kill people (pedestrians, cyclists, dogs, kids, other drivers) and you just wanna lay blame and put responsibility anywhere except where it goes.
YOU! the fucking driver of the vehicle.
put your fukcing phone down, take your eyes off the fucking radio and watch where the fuck you driving. that shit pisses me off so much.
and while you’re at it pay fucking attention at lights too. it pisses me off to no ends when i’m driving and a red lights turns to green and all you dumb fckn drivers sit there for 10 seconds before you realize the light turned green.

wonder why they haven’t pushed for sidewalks to be renamed siderides. there, problem solved.

sometimes i hate people.

u lock? try a .40 cal filled with hollowpoints and an extra magazine.
When I’m in Texas, FUCK asshole drivers who want to kill me.

I’m ALWAYS carrying a weapon on my bike. I carry the maximum extent that I am legally allowed to arm myself with given the state and localities.

This whole thing is sick.

  1. While I certainly don’t agree with nor will I suggest that it’s “ok” to say any of this stuff, it’s sort of expected par for the course. However, I find it disturbing (as I mentioned in my rammed by a car thread) that anyone would say something like “pray for the motorist” (which is fine frankly…) but say nothing of the cyclist. Whether you agree or disagree that cyclists should rightfully be allowed on roads, it’s shocking, mind blowing, insane, that one human being can see another human being clinging to life and simply look past that and say they had it coming.

  2. While I’m sure many of these comments are coming from people that we would regularly encounter on roads, don’t let it get to any of you. As was stated, media websites with open comments are just ridiculous. People say crazy insane bullshit, and it generally just amounts to what we would call trolling.

  3. I get everyone’s rage, but I’m still going to suggest that cyclists will be better off if we say nothing to such ridiculous arguments. Let these people speak up and let the world know just how ignorant, stupid, foolish, whatever they are. It only adds more leverage to our “cause” (god I hate using that word for this). You know what I mean though? If people want to argue, do it intelligently, don’t stoop to their level, which is essentially trying to pick a fight, because no matter what, cyclists are in the minority and frankly, this is how politicians get ideas about what to campaign on.

I’m not suggesting a moral high ground. I’m just suggesting a more logically sound argument.

Sorry to hear about this incident in general though.

love it when people say the footpath is to be cycled on not realising how stupid they sound. we have a lot of ‘bike paths’ around here, but they’re always full of pedestrians walking dogs, covering the whole path, etc. a while ago a cyclist hit a pedestrian on one of them, iirc one is now a quadriplegic, the other a paraplegic. of course after that there was an uproar about cyclists going too fast on bike paths.

we’ll never win

bike paths are for bikes because pedestrians get the sidewalks :colbert:

Yeah, agreed. I was just trolling a little myself :wink: I posted this as well: “Dear KXAN, how about you do your duty as a news organization and actually expose the level of hatred being bantered about in your forums? Offer some of these whack-jobs their ‘minute in the spotlight’ on your news program so that their names, faces, and “opinions about how manslaughter is acceptable” can be witnessed by the Austin community at large. It’s a war-zone out there for cyclists abiding by the rules because of a wreck-less few making us look bad. These bubba’s are buying into the notion that we all need to be off the roads when there’s 1000x as many motorists that shouldn’t be behind a wheel.”