Please explain exactly what you mean by "full blown road dictators", and clearly detail how it is different from "use the road in a completely legal manner in ways trying to keep yourself and others from getting run over by the many car drivers with a sense of entitlement to the road".
They're saying that cars are bigger and stronger than bikes, which makes them able to bully cars, which makes them feel entitled to do so. Because they then feel entitled to the road, they start calling cyclists "dictators" when they are merely using the road.
It's a shockingly accurate description of behaviour that cyclists face on a daily basis, with drivers threatening their lives for no reason more than that the drivers feel entitled to do so.
Yes. Cars are the bullies and the dictators. But as the famous saying goes, "when you're accustomed to privilege, equality feels like oppression". Drivers like @makingStuffForFun@lemmy.ml are pretending that cyclists are the ones being "dictators", merely for existing, because they perceive that existence as a personal slight against them. Drivers feel entitled, and when that entitlement faces even the slightest pushback, they accuse the others of being dictators.
I didn’t make the original statement, which sounds more like hyperbole than specific, legal, actions.
From experience I can tell you that I have personally encountered cyclists disobeying the law and endangering my safety more than any other non-car transport.
See, I was an endurance rider for most of my life. Meaning I spent long hours, 3-4 days a week on trails, on horseback, moving at speed.
On these trails, cyclists are required to stop and move to the side when they hear or see an equestrian.
The number of times they did this, over 20 years as an equestrian? 4.
The number of times they didn’t? Dozens, possibly over a hundred.
The number of times it caused a wreck and people got hurt? 3.
Cyclists whine about horse poop and having to stop, but WE maintained those trails, they did nothing other than whine and cause accidents.
I’m sure there’s some of you that are not complete tools, but there’s a reason you are despised by all other users of trail systems.
I can't speak for horses. I've only once in my life encountered people on horses while on a bike. It's an exceedingly unusual scenario.
I can tell you that, as a matter of fact (not anecdote), drivers and cyclists break the law at roughly the same rate. But that in crashes between cars and bikes, the car is the responsible party in 80% of cases. And that studies have established that when cyclists break the law, it is overwhelmingly done in the interest of their own safety, while drivers break the law in the interest of perceived convenience.
I only realised after writing the above that that you mentioned "trails". Sounds like you're talking about mountain biking. I can't speak to that, I'm almost exclusively a roadie, using the bike either as a means of transport or for exercise/training on the road. Saying "you" doesn't really work here. The amount of overlap between mountain bikers and road bikers is surprisingly small.
Heh I remember several years ago, I bought a cool vintage 10-speed bike which was lovingly restored by a local bike co-op, it wasn’t ever a top of the line pro racing bike or anything, just a nice old street bike for casual riding. The co-op did a great job making it like new, but with subtle finishing accents.
I posted some pics of it on r/bicycling on Reddit to get their feedback, advice. SUCH SNOBBERY! My god, you’d think I took a shit in the middle of the lobby floor of The Ritz-Carlton. They made me feel wholly unwelcome and unwanted.
ive seen those, they have all the getup, wearing the gear aerodynamic helmet, and they act like karens while in the store too sometimes. and they loudly try to chatise you for almost running into them, when they suddenly pulled in front of you. i call them bicycle douches. oh and they disregard pedestrians too