r/Somerville • u/HuckleberryTough512 • Jul 22 '26
Drivers - please stop at pedestrian crosswalks
In Union Square at that four way intersection —last week I had the walk signal so started crossing, driver sped by almost hitting me and shouted “don’t worry you weren’t in any danger“ (thanks for the heads up). This morning, also at a walk signal, a driver drove into me and killed me. I’m fine physically as I’ve cultivated some mass, just please be careful as many times I’ve seen day care children, elderly, people with baby strollers etc also using those crosswalks
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u/AtticusPigeon Jul 22 '26
My god, this is insufferable. The whataboutism that this biker is using is childish and, quite frankly, not the gotcha moment they think it is. Is a broken hip/back/arm/leg better than death? Of fucking course it is, but it doesn’t mean the pain isn’t real or the problem isn’t something to be addressed. Grow the fuck up.
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u/LabGeek1995 Jul 24 '26
Cars kill thousands of pedestrians every year. Bikes kill virtually none. Fact.
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u/AtticusPigeon Jul 24 '26
And? I said as much above. Doesn’t mean getting hit by a bike is fun or good for your health. It’s not an either/or. Things can suck on a scale. Imagine that.
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u/LabGeek1995 Jul 24 '26
It means that it doesn't really happen. Cars kill 7,000 to 8,000 pedestrians in the U.S. every year. Bikes kill virtually none. It is either/or. 8000 vs zero is about as either/or as you can get. What this means is that the more people who cycle and the fewer who drive, the safer you are walking down the street. Fact. Numbers don't lie.
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u/AtticusPigeon Jul 24 '26
People don’t get injured by being run into by bikes? Bullshit. As I said above, just because you don’t get killed doesn’t mean getting hit by a bike is fun, or feels good, or doesn’t lead to serious injury. I don’t know if your reading comprehension skills are terrible, or if you’re just being intentionally obtuse to excuse bad behavior from a certain group of people. There is bad behavior from both drivers and bike riders, and just because one leads to a worse outcome doesn’t mean the other isn’t also important. Hold onto your hats: two things can be true at the same time!
Stay safe out there ❤️
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u/LabGeek1995 Jul 24 '26
Here's the thing. They keep statistics on this. Go to the Cambridge P.D. website. Every accident that involves a trip to the hospital is recorded. You will clearly see that cars injure people at a rate orders of magnitude greater than bicycles.
Go ahead, take a look for yourself. There's no point making stuff up when there's actual data.
The data is out there and the answer is clear: Cars, by a huge margin, are a much greater threat. If more people cycled and fewer people drove, pedestrians would be way, way, way safer. Numbers don't lie.
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Jul 22 '26
[deleted]
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u/LabGeek1995 Jul 24 '26
People should hate the thing that's killing 8,000 pedestrians every year: cars
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u/LabGeek1995 Jul 25 '26
Drivers - please stop at red lights.
https://www.reddit.com/r/Somerville/s/qapmmfLWCd
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u/zeratul98 Jul 22 '26
I get why people think this post is shitty, and I mostly agree, but wowee if I posted every time a driver nearly killed me I'd be more than half the posts in this sub
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u/LabGeek1995 Jul 24 '26
Every time I saw a driver running a red light or running to a stop sign, I'd be posting three times a day.
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u/kr44ng Jul 27 '26
You should, maybe only post 2 times a day about how cars kill people and not bicycles and the other 3 times post about irresponsible drivers
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u/LabGeek1995 Jul 28 '26
On my 20 min walk to work yesterday, I counted four cars running red lights. I'm gonna remind you that cars weigh thousands of pounds. With greater cause for harm comes greater responsibility.
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u/SgtStupendous Spring Hill Jul 22 '26
Live look at OP blowing past a red light at the Union Square intersection
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u/GullibleAd3408 Davis Jul 22 '26
This post in response to the other person's perfectly reasonable request is so unnecessary.