Post by @jessta@aus.social

2025-04-26 03:33 UTC

@UkeleleEric@mstdn.social @Steveb@mastodon.ie no, it doesn't. It's just physics. A person on a bicycle is maybe 100kg, a person in a car is at least 1200kg. You need specific conditions to get a bicycle above 40km/h and 40km/h would be the average speed of someone in a car. A bicycle is narrow making it unlikely that the full momentum of the bicycle could be applied to the person you hit. Even if you were intentionally trying to kill someone by hitting them with a bicycle the force isn't large enough you'd be relying on a chance the person fell awkwardly and hit their head. But in a car the risk of you killing someone that you hit at 40km/h is 20%, at 50km/h it's more than 50%.

Replies (2)

@jessta@aus.social 2025-04-26 04:52

@UkeleleEric@mstdn.social @Steveb@mastodon.ie If you're riding a bicycle down a street at 40km/h and you hit a kid that steps out from between two parked cars people are doing to say you were going too fast (and realistically you probably were). But if you're driving down a street and hit a kid at 40km/h, it's a tragic accident in which 'speed wasn't a factor' and you weren't doing anything wrong.

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@UkeleleEric@mstdn.social 2025-04-26 08:31

@jessta@aus.social @Steveb@mastodon.ie which is why all investigations and considerations need to be proportionate. Factor in the use of (legal and illegal) heavier e-bikes, of lack of training of cyclists, of blatant disregard of traffic laws by many road-users, and you need proper research and proportionate consequences.

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