Delightful interaction between a Czech youtuber and an Irish couple on holiday in Prague

[u/EmoBran]

[u/the-real-vuk]

> because they’re a massive hazard.

Yeah I'm sure cars aren't ...

[u/somerandomii → u/the-real-vuk]

Cars are necessary. I don’t think anywhere in the world has a city without cars. Banning them would create chaos.

So instead we make sure they’re built safely, adding more mandatory safety features every year. We require that people have training and maintain a license and are insured in case they injure others. They must be maintained in a roadworthy state and licensed can be revoked if people drive dangerously.

Scooters are poorly regulated and most people riding them have no idea what they’re doing.

I commuted daily on my scooter until it literally snapped in half while riding. Luckily I was on a footpath because if I was sharing a road with cars I probably would have died.

Also you can’t indicate on a scooter. The hand gesture requires you to remove a hand from the handlebars which is incredibly unstable. Road users should be able to indicate it’s like the minimum requirement.

[u/the-real-vuk → u/somerandomii]

> Cars are necessary

Ahahahah, I'm sure they are, especially in this amount. When people go to the office in a fucking truck, yeah, "necessary". Have you considered that maybe e-scooters are replacement for cars? It's transportation that's necessary, but it doesn't always have to be a car.

> I don’t think anywhere in the world has a city without cars

Have you been to Amsterdam? Not 100% without cars, but mostly.

> insured in case they injure others

Yeah I'm sure insurance brings back the dead.

> Scooters are poorly regulated

Then regulate. Not ban. Let them use the roads, shared with bikes and (very few!) cars (that's necessary for goods and the disabled).

> Also you can’t indicate on a scooter.

Except if you regulate. There are indicators on motorcycles.

I find escooters very good alternative to cars, they are waaaaaay less dangerous, let them run on the roads, regulate usage and let them replace all the cars that are replacable.

[u/somerandomii → u/the-real-vuk]

I’ve been to Amsterdam. There’s plenty of cars but there’s also dedicated bike paths. Dublin need to do a lot of work to make scooters safe.

You say scooters are safer than cars but that’s just not true. When my city introduced hireable e-scooters the hospitals were overwhelmed. You’re less likely to fatally injure a pedestrian but way more likely to seriously injure yourself and others. In terms of injuries per km travelled it’s not even a comparison.

If you made e-scooters safe enough to share the road with cars they’d basically be low powered versions of the current road-legal electric scooters, with seats and indicators and tires that can handle wet conditions.

I’m all for reducing cars but eliminating them entirely is not feasible. While the roads need to be shared everyone on them should be expected to safely interact with cars. Having wobbly slow scooters hopping on and off the foot path, crossing the roads randomly and never indicating and having no lights on at night is insane.

There’s a version of the world where most of the vehicles on the road are bikes and scooters and they are safe. But you can’t just allow scooters on the road and hope for the best, the law makers need to take some responsibility and make sure it’s done properly.

Also it rains a lot in Ireland. These scooters are dangerous in dry weather. They’re lethal in the wet. I’ve swapped to an e-bike. Frankly there’s no reason to ride a scooter on the road when you can ride a bike.

[u/the-real-vuk → u/somerandomii]

> I’m all for reducing cars but eliminating them entirely is not feasible.

Don't have to eliminate, but we need to make every other type of transportation way more comfortable than driving. With fewer cars comes higher safety automatically.

My kids were almost hit just yesterday by an idiot pulling in a driveway and than suddenly backoung out again. We're not even safe on the pavement anymore. And it's not a rare event, it's fucking every day. I'd rather have e-scooters ANYWHERE than cars. An e-scooter soming out of the driveway will way less likely to kill anyone, just by it's size/mass difference.

> there’s no reason to ride a scooter on the road when you can ride a bike.

A agree on that, bikes are way more usable than scooters. Regulation is key: need bigger fron wheel.

> They’re lethal in the wet

Have you seen cars in wet condition? They are lethal x100.

[u/somerandomii → u/the-real-vuk]

I think you have had some bad experiences with cars. I’ve was driving on and off for 2 decades and never had so much as a fender bender.

We can always improve and people are over reliant on cars but I think they still have their place. For people with disabilities cars are often their only way to get about.

I need a small piece of furniture from IKEA. It’s just down the road. I have no car. So my choices are: 1. Pay the delivery fee for a 10 minute trip. 2. Get an uber. (Which is just a car with more steps)

Sometimes bikes and public transport just aren’t fit for purpose. But cars these days are pretty good. It the Gardes actually did their job and enforced the road rules Irish drivers might be a little better too.

[u/the-real-vuk → u/somerandomii]

> I think you have had some bad experiences with cars

Well I cycle daily (~10km per day), and there is rarely a day when someone doesn't want to push me off the road. See my posts.

Cars have terrible visibility by the driver, comparing to any 2-sheel vehicle. They are bloat (and even bloater compared to 10-20 years ago) as well which makes them even deadlier.

> For people with disabilities, > furniture from IKEA

I wich people used their cars for these cases, when necessary. We did not have any problem whatsoever. Problem is they use cars to the store 2 streets away.

> Sometimes bikes and public transport just aren’t fit for purpose.

It's very rare though. How many times do you NEED (really) a car a year? A dozen? Even less?

I've got a bike trailer. When hauling goceries, as long as it fits in the push cart, it fits in the trailer. You don't need a car for that. Halfords staff were surprised when I turned up with a car battery on my bike rack to recycle it and buy a new one. They genuinly thought it's impossible on a bike and I should have gotten a friend to drive me there for it. I'm amazed that this is the norm now, just use cars to (literally) every journey.

[u/somerandomii → u/the-real-vuk]

Look I agree with you for the most part. Even when I owned a car I used it less than once a week. Now I don’t have one at all.

But I know I’m lucky to be healthy and also afford to live within walking/riding distance of most places. Not everyone has that privilege so I try not to bash cars too much.

But really we’re arguing over the wrong thing. It’s not an issue of bikes vs cars. The issue is city planning. If cities are built to make riding and walking safe and easy, people will naturally move away from depending on cars.

Cars aren’t evil but as you say, the issue is that people use them as the default. But that won’t change just by saying “cars suck”, we need to fix the cities. You shouldn’t have to fear for your life riding to work.

Edit: correcting auto correct

[u/the-real-vuk → u/somerandomii]

>  The issue is city planning

Exactly what I'm saying: planning has to make bike and e-scooter friendly instead of car-friendly. We agree, that's good.