this post was submitted on 31 Oct 2026
250 points (90.8% liked)

Fuck Cars

16955 readers
489 users here now

A place to discuss problems of car centric infrastructure or how it hurts us all. Let's explore the bad world of Cars!

Rules

1. Be CivilYou may not agree on ideas, but please do not be needlessly rude or insulting to other people in this community.

2. No hate speechDon't discriminate or disparage people on the basis of sex, gender, race, ethnicity, nationality, religion, or sexuality.

3. Don't harass peopleDon't follow people you disagree with into multiple threads or into PMs to insult, disparage, or otherwise attack them. And certainly don't doxx any non-public figures.

4. Stay on topicThis community is about cars, their externalities in society, car-dependency, and solutions to these.

5. No repostsDo not repost content that has already been posted in this community.

Moderator discretion will be used to judge reports with regard to the above rules.

Posting Guidelines

In the absence of a flair system on lemmy yet, let’s try to make it easier to scan through posts by type in here by using tags:

Recommended communities:

founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS
toaster@slrpnk.net
grue@lemmy.world
Toaster1@lemmy.world
250
The hierarchy of controls tells us that we should physically remove the hazard (Eliminate Cars). But, we choose the least effective option, protection (Helmets and bright colors) (programming.dev)
submitted 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) by Fossy@programming.dev to c/fuckcars@lemmy.world
76 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 
top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] TheTechnician27@lemmy.world 55 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (50 children)

I feel like you're treating cars as the reason people wear bike helmets, and as a commuter cyclist.... No?

If cars did not exist, you should still wear a helmet. If I were in perfect visibility on a straight, guaranteed clear, brand-new concrete bike path that has nobody else on it except a first aid team trailing 200 feet behind me, I would still wear a helmet because I'm not a fucking idiot.

And whereas it's obviously common to recommend wearing bright colors, I don't think I've ever seen helmets be the main PPE someone targets specifically for a car crash.

[–] SwingingTheLamp@piefed.zip 14 points 5 days ago

I think the point here is that we wear helmets for reasons that have little to do with cars, but traffic safety engineers treat helmets and high-viz as the be-all, end-all of rider protection. (Because they actually don't give a shit about safety, rather just a plausible way to blame the victims so they don't get sued.)

[–] shirro@aussie.zone 2 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (1 children)

I wouldn't wear a helmet for a short relaxed trip to the shops on a nice even seperated path if it wasn't the law. I suspect I am more likely to die from melanoma than brain injury from a fall and a broad brimmed hat would make more sense to me. Rest of the time they are better than nothing but not by much. The fines for not wearing them are insane.

Any good done by mandatory helmets is immediately undone the moment you funnel cyclist into door lanes. Flying into someone's door at speed can give you serious brain injury with or without a bit of foam on your head. Helmets are great for sports cycling but the weakest protection for commuters. They won't protect anyone from being crushed by a turning garbage truck.

[–] nforminvasion@lemmy.world 1 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Bike accidents are no joke. My dad fell when he was riding at age 13 and basically skinned the side of his face. He had a dent in the helmet where his head hit the ground.

Please wear a helmet. It's crucially important.

[–] alcoholicorn@lemmy.ml 1 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

I have had tons of bike accidents over my life, both bicycle and motorcycle, never had more than minor scrapes. I have seen other people sand their palms down or break wrists or just flop flat doing nothing to arrest their fall or put everything into a knee, hurting themselves in the most minor falls.

I think falling is a skill or instict that some people just never develop. For those people, yeah wear a hemet.

This doesn't account for high-speed, direct impact accidents where its physically impossible to say, stop your face from whipping into the car infront of you or ground or w/e.

For what it's worth, I always wear a helmet on my motorbike, rarely on bicycle, never escooter.

load more comments (47 replies)
[–] bigfish@lemmy.dbzer0.com 35 points 5 days ago (5 children)

We do have administrative and engineering controls too.. licenses to drive, laws, and separated highways, sidewalks etc. We're still too far down the ladder, but you either missed this or are just trolling.

load more comments (5 replies)
[–] redballooon@lemmy.world 15 points 4 days ago

Ever since a SUV almost ran over my 4yo while the driver was looking at their smartphone instead of the red light, I insist that my family takes route 3, isolation (use the pedestrian bridge). But I have to constantly explain and reexplain myself even to my own family members.

[–] Nemo@midwest.social 6 points 4 days ago (1 children)

I choose all options simultaneously, so yes I wear a helmet but also Chicago is adding protected bike lanes left and right and Illinois is flirting with enshrining the Idaho stop into state law. Experiments with pedestrianizing streets have been extremely popular on the hyperlocal level, as well.

[–] nforminvasion@lemmy.world 1 points 3 days ago

Hello fellow Chicagoan!!

[–] GeneralEmergency@lemmy.world 8 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Lemmy ahh post.

[–] Axolotl_cpp@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 3 days ago

You are literally writing in the fuckcars commubity 🥀

[–] FartsWithAnAccent@lemmy.world 6 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

Let's replace the hazard with !micromobility@lemmy.world! Too bad there are massive industries funding an insane fight against it.

The assholes leading the oil and automotive industries seem to be amoral at best and have little to no regard for all the lives it costs having a car-centric society.

[–] sem@lemmy.blahaj.zone 4 points 5 days ago

Obligatory podcast episode:

[The War on Cars] Fine, We're Doing a Helmet Episode https://pdst.fm/e/traffic.libsyn.com/secure/waroncars/TWOC_2026-09-08-E179-HELMETS_GENERAL.mp3?dest-id=807818

[–] lntl@lemmy.ml 4 points 5 days ago (2 children)

There are many players involved and each has a different appetite for risk and access to different controls for the risk encountered.

Suppose for example, you're an automobile manufacturer. Then the success of campaigns to eliminate automobiles is a risk to your business. To control that risk, you may support politicians who advocate for your interest. (IE the Ford gov in Ontario CA, there is a large base of auto mfgs in Ontario)

On the other hand, you might be a person who needs to get to the other side of the street. In this scenario, if your appetite for risk is large enough you can don PPE and attempt a crossing or eliminate the risk completely and not cross at all.

Supporting local advocacy groups is most effective in areas where there aren't embedded interests like the Ontario example. In fact, most cities/regions don't have an embedded automobile manufacturing or related base and would be well-suited to grass roots advocacy.

[–] jtrek@startrek.website 8 points 5 days ago (2 children)

Suppose for example, you’re an automobile manufacturer. Then the success of campaigns to eliminate automobiles is a risk to your business.

We should come up with a society where people's individual interests aren't bad for society. Somehow. Perhaps magic?

But yeah there's a lot of "but I need my orphan grinding machines to sell that's my whole business" and I don't have a lot of sympathy, because those machines are dangerous and bad. Like, just stop selling mega-suvs or single use plastic junk or whatever. I'd be happy for the state to pay them to do something else instead.

[–] dumnezero@piefed.social 4 points 5 days ago

[????] or barbarism

[–] lntl@lemmy.ml 4 points 5 days ago

While potentially helpful, I don't think magic is required. We can do this with the tools and society available. Instead of focusing attention on places like Detroit MI, Windsor ON, or Houston TX which have a strong embedded interests, local advocacy in any and all areas without a strong embedded interest (literally anywhere else) could shift the economy away from "orphan crushing machines" without the input of these parties.

Then once the "rest of the world" has options beyond driving, these regions with embedded interests would have less to lose from embracing alternatives as well. I think about it like the US campaign in the Pacific in WWII: occupy the regions which the Japanese empire needs to run their war machine BEFORE engaging with the mainland.

The journey will be long and challenging with many set backs and failures, but by showing up everyday and fighting we can achieve victories.

[–] Taalnazi@lemmy.world 4 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Automobile manufacturers could switch to manufacturing bicycles?

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] altphoto@lemmy.today 3 points 5 days ago (2 children)

Nobody has ever been runover in my living room. So it works.

load more comments (2 replies)
load more comments
view more: next ›