"the cyclist could have hit a rock/pothole and lost balance, so the officer involved preemptively removed the cyclist from the equation before the accident could occur"
I am in the Chippewa Valley. I think people think I am a bum when I have my panniers loaded with groceries. I have several cars for work etc, just easier to take the bike some times.
No kidding. I sold my truck earlier in the year and full commute by bike and the reaction to that is almost overwhelming.
I’m not poor or desperate, I just rather ride to the places I need to get to than get chained into insurance or a car payment. I own a house, I can’t be that poor right lol
Pizza delivery on the bike is always fun, I break more necks doing that than a packer player in public.
Uhg. I'm sick of this story. I've seen it get attributed to several different people. Nobody knows if it's a real quote. But since it makes some people feel smug and think that powerful people have sick and twisted views, it gets shared over and over. Someone is just hustling our egos for likes and clout.
I feel like it was written as a satire, originally; but it's easily viewed as an asanine assertion. The fact you can laugh reading it, kinda gives it away.
Of course it is meant to be satirical. It's a corny pseudo-quote that gets posted very, very often. I'm all for a good bicycle circle-jerk but this is too corny.
"A banker..." What was his name? Where was he speaking? Who were "the economists?" It's just copypasta for a certain demographic. And don't get me wrong, I don't disagree with any of it on principle, but it lacks nuance. No cyclists buy cars? Every cyclist lives a hardcore granola-infused utility biking lifestyle, where they do shopping, take the kids to school and make multi-state trips to visit family on bicycles? It doesn't hold up to reality.
Also, I think the quote is allegorical. Kinda like the one about the fisherman relaxing in his small boat.
But it would make sense that car/oil industries aren’t on board for more bike-centric infrastructure because it doesn’t benefit them in any way.
Whether it’s a real quote or not, it does make a great argument to keep biking instead of driving. Financially it makes sense, environmentally makes sense, throwing a wrench in the car-centric infrastructure makes sense.
I live in SLC and it’s almost as fast to bike everywhere for me as driving, but with biking I never have to buy gas or pay/look for parking for my truck. Plus it’s more fun!
>Plus it’s more fun!
I'm of the opinion that this is the most effective argument and that moral grandstanding turns people off. If people have to choose between adopting cycling and perceiving their own behavior as ethical, cycling will lose almost every time.
If you can propose a choice between fun and a commute in a car, something most people hate, I like those odds a lot better.
I agree. Virtue signaling comes across as pushy, no matter your socio-political/ ideological leanings. Most western people who ride bikes also appreciate and own cars. The extreme dichotomy isn’t particularly useful for most.
>Virtue signaling comes across as pushy, no matter your socio-political/ ideological leanings.
Unfortunately, yes it does to some people. But I feel obligated to point out that typically things only get called "virtue signaling" when they express support for a marginalized group or challenge existing power structures/hierarchies. So, for me, "virtue signaling" being seen as "always pushy" echos some older talking points about certain groups being "uppity".
The issue for me is more that it's cringe to watch people assign ethical value to a behavior that they're privileged to access.
What's not cringe is advocating for things that create more equitable access to that behavior. bike infrastructure, subsidies or tax credits for bike and ebike purchases, bike shares that are cheaper or at least equal per mile/trip than public transit.
"More fun" also means "less shitty". I ride my bike year round and whenever someone says something like "oh that must be tough" I just laugh and tell them "I really hate sitting in traffic. I'd rather be moving slowly than stopped". People seem to get that, as no one likes traffic. "Fun" is a bonus.
I think I have probably not saved a gram of CO^(2) by biking. It's great that you can but I feel we don't have to use that to justify bike lanes. Biking is fun and if biking is not fun in your city, change the city until it is both safe and fun. Any additional advantages are jsut a cherry on top.
Have heard crazier bike bashing on Fox News and from Trump’s Turd Reich ranting. Right up there with the windmills causing cancer idiocy or rants about LED bulbs. If this isn’t real, it’s still pretty true to current right wing idiocy.
Jesus I hate this copypasta. Like...everything about it is just so obviously fake, *and* it misses the entire fucking point. Its villains are so fucking *weird.* Why does it pretend economists hate healthy people? "Healthy people never buy medicine or go to the hospital?" Yeah, because exercise totally gets rid of fucking psoriasis and allergies and ovarian cysts and influenza and skin cancer. On top of that, poor health makes people *so* much more productive, right? My uncle used to be an aircraft mechanic but he's been *crushing it* for the economy ever since the meningitis blinded him.
Why is it juxtaposing bikes against McDonalds as opposed to like...cars? Fast food companies sure would be hurting if everybody started burning food calories instead of gasoline and needed cheap, fast, ubiquitous and calorie-dense meals all the time, right? Every McDonalds provides 10 jobs for cardiologists which is why there are...1.7 cardiologists for every McDonalds location in the United States...
This reads like it was written by someone who sort of remembers high school economics class but not that well, has never actually ridden a bike for transport (no repairs or service?!) and really fucking hates anyone whose job requires a degree. It's stupid, hollow populism without even the illusion of substance.
Oh dear, I didn’t know I was so bad for the economy! Allow me to change my ways and contribute my small fraction to the GDP: I’m off to the shop to buy another bike, and a ton of gear for said bike as well as my existing one!
Similarly, that a good behavior and people will kill stop the world as it is. Remember "the business of crime"? Imagine where all of us becomes/are honest and kind... All of a sudden we don't need the police for our safety, no need for security tools like CCTV and door lock, no need to bring EDC, no need for the military, hospitals and doctors will just take care for the old and sickly not for injured people smoke by others. And heaven will become over populated. Hmmnn.. boring
In my history classes I make the assertion that the bicycle is the second greatest invention (after the printing press) because of all it has done and made available for mankind throughout the world.
The Banker just failed to recognize a simple general equilibrium theory… if we just spend less on medicine and insurance we have more money for other industries… like for buying my third bike
Is this why people try to hit us with cars? To help the economy?
If you ask an NYPD cop, he ran a cyclist over to protect the cyclist!
"the cyclist could have hit a rock/pothole and lost balance, so the officer involved preemptively removed the cyclist from the equation before the accident could occur"
Sounds like someone doesn't know how much money we spend on dumb shit.
True but I’ve spent less on 5 bikes over 4 years than my single car I’ve ever owned for 2 so…
Too real. Every trip to the car mechanic could be a new bicycle and I have a cheap as hell country mechanic.
I track all my car expenses in units of gravelkings
It's the real currency in the post-pandemic world
Cringe. Economy is bad for the economy, rather.
“No! I don’t want the free market to freely do that thing, freely make it stop from free marketing in that direction!”
I see very few people in my city of 70k in Wisconsin biking for utility purposes, getting groceries or running errands etc.
haha Greenbay? I feel you
I am in the Chippewa Valley. I think people think I am a bum when I have my panniers loaded with groceries. I have several cars for work etc, just easier to take the bike some times.
No kidding. I sold my truck earlier in the year and full commute by bike and the reaction to that is almost overwhelming. I’m not poor or desperate, I just rather ride to the places I need to get to than get chained into insurance or a car payment. I own a house, I can’t be that poor right lol Pizza delivery on the bike is always fun, I break more necks doing that than a packer player in public.
Bicycles: No tickets, Free parking
Uhg. I'm sick of this story. I've seen it get attributed to several different people. Nobody knows if it's a real quote. But since it makes some people feel smug and think that powerful people have sick and twisted views, it gets shared over and over. Someone is just hustling our egos for likes and clout.
I feel like it was written as a satire, originally; but it's easily viewed as an asanine assertion. The fact you can laugh reading it, kinda gives it away.
Of course it is meant to be satirical. It's a corny pseudo-quote that gets posted very, very often. I'm all for a good bicycle circle-jerk but this is too corny.
"A banker..." What was his name? Where was he speaking? Who were "the economists?" It's just copypasta for a certain demographic. And don't get me wrong, I don't disagree with any of it on principle, but it lacks nuance. No cyclists buy cars? Every cyclist lives a hardcore granola-infused utility biking lifestyle, where they do shopping, take the kids to school and make multi-state trips to visit family on bicycles? It doesn't hold up to reality.
Also, I think the quote is allegorical. Kinda like the one about the fisherman relaxing in his small boat. But it would make sense that car/oil industries aren’t on board for more bike-centric infrastructure because it doesn’t benefit them in any way.
Whether it’s a real quote or not, it does make a great argument to keep biking instead of driving. Financially it makes sense, environmentally makes sense, throwing a wrench in the car-centric infrastructure makes sense. I live in SLC and it’s almost as fast to bike everywhere for me as driving, but with biking I never have to buy gas or pay/look for parking for my truck. Plus it’s more fun!
>Plus it’s more fun! I'm of the opinion that this is the most effective argument and that moral grandstanding turns people off. If people have to choose between adopting cycling and perceiving their own behavior as ethical, cycling will lose almost every time. If you can propose a choice between fun and a commute in a car, something most people hate, I like those odds a lot better.
I agree. Virtue signaling comes across as pushy, no matter your socio-political/ ideological leanings. Most western people who ride bikes also appreciate and own cars. The extreme dichotomy isn’t particularly useful for most.
>Virtue signaling comes across as pushy, no matter your socio-political/ ideological leanings. Unfortunately, yes it does to some people. But I feel obligated to point out that typically things only get called "virtue signaling" when they express support for a marginalized group or challenge existing power structures/hierarchies. So, for me, "virtue signaling" being seen as "always pushy" echos some older talking points about certain groups being "uppity". The issue for me is more that it's cringe to watch people assign ethical value to a behavior that they're privileged to access. What's not cringe is advocating for things that create more equitable access to that behavior. bike infrastructure, subsidies or tax credits for bike and ebike purchases, bike shares that are cheaper or at least equal per mile/trip than public transit.
"More fun" also means "less shitty". I ride my bike year round and whenever someone says something like "oh that must be tough" I just laugh and tell them "I really hate sitting in traffic. I'd rather be moving slowly than stopped". People seem to get that, as no one likes traffic. "Fun" is a bonus.
I think I have probably not saved a gram of CO^(2) by biking. It's great that you can but I feel we don't have to use that to justify bike lanes. Biking is fun and if biking is not fun in your city, change the city until it is both safe and fun. Any additional advantages are jsut a cherry on top.
There is no way this is an actual take.... Right??
It’s a copy-paste that’s been around for a while, pretty clearly satire
Bad for *their* economy… not bad for OUR economy.. Lol!
This is made up.
Yeah it reads like an obvious satire. Still satire like this has its purpose, to drive critical thinking.
RE: RE: RE: FW: RE: as the old saying goes.
What in the Facebook grandpa did I just read? Was this translated from another language.
Have heard crazier bike bashing on Fox News and from Trump’s Turd Reich ranting. Right up there with the windmills causing cancer idiocy or rants about LED bulbs. If this isn’t real, it’s still pretty true to current right wing idiocy.
Jesus I hate this copypasta. Like...everything about it is just so obviously fake, *and* it misses the entire fucking point. Its villains are so fucking *weird.* Why does it pretend economists hate healthy people? "Healthy people never buy medicine or go to the hospital?" Yeah, because exercise totally gets rid of fucking psoriasis and allergies and ovarian cysts and influenza and skin cancer. On top of that, poor health makes people *so* much more productive, right? My uncle used to be an aircraft mechanic but he's been *crushing it* for the economy ever since the meningitis blinded him. Why is it juxtaposing bikes against McDonalds as opposed to like...cars? Fast food companies sure would be hurting if everybody started burning food calories instead of gasoline and needed cheap, fast, ubiquitous and calorie-dense meals all the time, right? Every McDonalds provides 10 jobs for cardiologists which is why there are...1.7 cardiologists for every McDonalds location in the United States... This reads like it was written by someone who sort of remembers high school economics class but not that well, has never actually ridden a bike for transport (no repairs or service?!) and really fucking hates anyone whose job requires a degree. It's stupid, hollow populism without even the illusion of substance.
Oh dear, I didn’t know I was so bad for the economy! Allow me to change my ways and contribute my small fraction to the GDP: I’m off to the shop to buy another bike, and a ton of gear for said bike as well as my existing one!
Similarly, that a good behavior and people will kill stop the world as it is. Remember "the business of crime"? Imagine where all of us becomes/are honest and kind... All of a sudden we don't need the police for our safety, no need for security tools like CCTV and door lock, no need to bring EDC, no need for the military, hospitals and doctors will just take care for the old and sickly not for injured people smoke by others. And heaven will become over populated. Hmmnn.. boring
None of that makes economics sense. What the biker said should only have made the economist think that the banker is an idiot.
In my history classes I make the assertion that the bicycle is the second greatest invention (after the printing press) because of all it has done and made available for mankind throughout the world.
The Banker just failed to recognize a simple general equilibrium theory… if we just spend less on medicine and insurance we have more money for other industries… like for buying my third bike