My car just got totalled by a minor fender bender that apparently would cost more than the value of the car to repair. The tow truck is loading it up right now to haul it away to the junkyard (ridiculous, it's completely drivable, the lights all work and everything). Getting a cash payout, since the other driver was a dumbass who drove into me while I was stopped.
In a bit of serenidipidous timing, I'm moving into the core urban area of a big city next week, and so... I'm going car-free. Bike bus and walk, every day. Work is a relaxing bus ride or ambitious bike ride away. Daycare is a couple blocks away, so Little Beaver can walk with us to school every day. Cool shit everywhere nearby. My friends already live in the area, cuz it's a dope place to live. Already talked to more neighbors than I did in my old neighborhood, because this is an actual community of people instead of a bunch of islands surrounded by car moats.
Fuck that car. My life is already cooler without it.
I'm wondering whether this is due to the emotional bond. Like removed from what people think about cyclists you can rock up on a janky old thing anywhere and nobody but the dentists would care. While if you have a dent in your car, people think it's trashy.
i think it's more about how we have trouble conceiving the sheer kinetic energy involved in a car crash, and therefore the amount of crumple zone needed to safely absorb that energy
I think it's more of a liability thing. All of that stuff that aborbs the impact in a collision won't be there if it isn't replaced, so while this crash wasn't too bad the next one could be.
For the emotional part, I think most people (other than your spandex dentists on $3000 road bikes) just see bicycles as a "lesser" mode of transportation. It doesn't matter what condition they're in.
$3000? What are they, a dental assistant?
Lol right? I've seen some ridiculously higher prices than that on bikes for bourgeois lycra wearers