A friend of mine worked as a bike courier and constantly had to deal with drivers trying to run him off the road. He eventually got hit, and broke his leg. It all sounded pretty miserable, but this was also before e-bikes so maybe it’s easier now.
Yeah this city isn’t anti-bike overall, and some neighborhoods have truly impressive biking infrastructure. But many streets/horizontal roads in Manhattan are brutal for bicyclists due to a subset of hyper-aggressive male drivers who are so desperate to feel powerful for just once in their life that they’re willing to risk killing someone in an attempt to bully them off the only legal path offered to bicyclists.
My college had a handful of restaurants that delivered via bicycle. They were always the fastest and got a ton of business because of it. Pretty sure they just went to the college cycling team/clubs to recruit becuase they were always on very nice bikes in the full spandex bike suits. They were awesome
not gonna deny the riding style is quite douchey, but compared to cars, this is just meh. and it seems like half of the manoeuvres he does are in response to shitty driving in the first place.
running reds like that without visibility, though, and weaving pedestrians like that… fuck that shit.
Half the manoeuvres he does, like riding through every red light, cutting off pedestrians on crosswalks, riding on the sidewalk, forcing cars to break suddenly, ….?
Don’t forget, as a very squishy bike messenger weaving through endless cars driven by homocidal toddlers, that the ceramic in spark plugs goes right through auto glass, and they’re certainly not something such a messenger would carry on their pocket —much like how U-locks are totally not hammers, just waiting silently from their arms-reach holster to defend you. 🫡
the ceramic in spark plugs goes right through auto glass
I’ve tried that and been entirely unsuccessful at it. Bounced right off with no damage whatsoever, even when hurled from very close as hard and as fast as I could.
It’s just too small and too light to actually break anything.
Some glass can be surprisingly strong to the extent that it feels wrong and unintuitive.
Not auto glass in my anecdote, but last year I had a medium sized aquarium (30 gallons, ~114 liters) where the bottom got broken. I didn’t need to fix it because I had a bigger spare waiting, so I decided to break it apart to more easily package the glass into a safe container for disposal or recycling.
I was able to smack that thing on a wide flat surface with a HAMMER and have it bounce right off. They were really hard swings too. My biggest concern was how freaking loud the hits were, like I was going to disturb a neighbor in their house or make them think they heard a gunshot. My second biggest concern was that I was going to fling glass across the yard using so much force. I believe put it into a large bin or wrapped it in something before I got the courage to turn it up to 11 and break the fucker.
I think I used a 3lb drilling hammer too, which looks like a mini sledgehammer. Heavier than a standard claw hammer, just not very pointy.
I’ve not personally attempted it, ahem but AFAIK it’s fairly foolproof —though my sources* also preferred to grind/scuff down the metal bits a little to help improve kinetic transference. Who knows. 😉
Wolt and Bolt Food have cycling as an option here, but of course Wolt got bought by DoorDash or someone, so it’s enshittified greatly. And I bet Bolt isn’t far behind, it’s getting pretty big.
Bike courrier would be such a great job. Not for such an evil company, obviously, but in general I’d love that job.
A friend of mine worked as a bike courier and constantly had to deal with drivers trying to run him off the road. He eventually got hit, and broke his leg. It all sounded pretty miserable, but this was also before e-bikes so maybe it’s easier now.
Hmm … Bike Courier sounds more like an ideal job in a 15 minute walkable city. In most parts of the US, not so much.
Funnily enough this happened in NYC, which is probably the closest we have to a walkable city!
Yeah this city isn’t anti-bike overall, and some neighborhoods have truly impressive biking infrastructure. But many streets/horizontal roads in Manhattan are brutal for bicyclists due to a subset of hyper-aggressive male drivers who are so desperate to feel powerful for just once in their life that they’re willing to risk killing someone in an attempt to bully them off the only legal path offered to bicyclists.
My college had a handful of restaurants that delivered via bicycle. They were always the fastest and got a ton of business because of it. Pretty sure they just went to the college cycling team/clubs to recruit becuase they were always on very nice bikes in the full spandex bike suits. They were awesome
Unless you ride like this guy https://youtu.be/yWHdkK5j4yk
Almost scraped those kids good just after the 30sec mark
Yea that is a shitty biker, not a good one.
meh, still less dangerous than a car
not gonna deny the riding style is quite douchey, but compared to cars, this is just meh. and it seems like half of the manoeuvres he does are in response to shitty driving in the first place.
running reds like that without visibility, though, and weaving pedestrians like that… fuck that shit.
Half the manoeuvres he does, like riding through every red light, cutting off pedestrians on crosswalks, riding on the sidewalk, forcing cars to break suddenly, ….?
no that would be the other half
stg sometimes I feel like lots of people here have the reading comprehension of the avg redditor
Don’t forget, as a very squishy bike messenger weaving through endless cars driven by homocidal toddlers, that the ceramic in spark plugs goes right through auto glass, and they’re certainly not something such a messenger would carry on their pocket —much like how U-locks are totally not hammers, just waiting silently from their arms-reach holster to defend you. 🫡
I’ve tried that and been entirely unsuccessful at it. Bounced right off with no damage whatsoever, even when hurled from very close as hard and as fast as I could.
It’s just too small and too light to actually break anything.
Some glass can be surprisingly strong to the extent that it feels wrong and unintuitive.
Not auto glass in my anecdote, but last year I had a medium sized aquarium (30 gallons, ~114 liters) where the bottom got broken. I didn’t need to fix it because I had a bigger spare waiting, so I decided to break it apart to more easily package the glass into a safe container for disposal or recycling.
I was able to smack that thing on a wide flat surface with a HAMMER and have it bounce right off. They were really hard swings too. My biggest concern was how freaking loud the hits were, like I was going to disturb a neighbor in their house or make them think they heard a gunshot. My second biggest concern was that I was going to fling glass across the yard using so much force. I believe put it into a large bin or wrapped it in something before I got the courage to turn it up to 11 and break the fucker.
I think I used a 3lb drilling hammer too, which looks like a mini sledgehammer. Heavier than a standard claw hammer, just not very pointy.
I’ve not personally attempted it, ahem but AFAIK it’s fairly foolproof —though my sources* also preferred to grind/scuff down the metal bits a little to help improve kinetic transference. Who knows. 😉
*: NYC alley cats, '97-'11^
Sounds like it’d only work for side windows not windshields.
Wolt and Bolt Food have cycling as an option here, but of course Wolt got bought by DoorDash or someone, so it’s enshittified greatly. And I bet Bolt isn’t far behind, it’s getting pretty big.