We have a suckhead that parks his delivery van on the middle of a cross over (we call it a zebra pad) everytime to deliver goods to our local flower shop. So I tell him he is unlawfully parked, he says I shouldn’t worry, it is just for a minute. I tell him it takes only a second for a pedestrian to get hurt. He didn’t care the slightest bit.
In my country you can submit a photo of this to the local police with a statement swearing it’s a true photo, then your name and tax ID number. Then in 6-9 months the vehicle owner will receive a citation and fee in the mail.
It’s fun because you have a serial offender who thinks they are getting away with it like this, but in 6-9 months they will get the first few and correct their behavior but continue to receive the citations. Then they will finally look at the dates of the offense on the citation and realize they have thousands of euros in fees still coming for months of shitty behavior.
Oh, man. We want immediate justice so often, but I almost think the delay is the best part of that.
Still means 6 months of cyclist frustration though…
That’s the dream. Where do you live?
Don’t they have traffic wardens in Cambridge? They’d be fined and possibly towed as well here
Plus the wardens have to watch the vehicle for 10 minutes before issuing a ticket. The driver would have completed the delivery and gone within that 10 minutes.
You’d think, but there are three levels of responsibility: the city council, the county council, and the local police. Calling any one of them to complain and demand enforcement results in them redirecting you to one of the others.
Basically, unless you’re blocking car traffic, no one with power cares.
Just gotta wait for that cyclist that turns into the road because a car was blocking him. Then it’ll be all “oh no how could this ever happen?”
But why weren’t they wearing their helmet/high-vis/body armour???
Honestly they should’ve worn their metal exoskeleton with four wheels
Uber Eats does this all day every day.
Not the first time, not the last. Amazon delivery drivers are terrible in every area. Urban or rural they will find a way to block traffic, especially when there is a nearby way to not do so.
I suspect it’s a selection effect. Amazon is a pain in the arse to work for. Decent drivers are in demand. This makes it easy for good drivers to jump ship to other companies. This leaves the inexperienced or just stupid drivers left to deal with the BS.
If you’ve not driven a van before, they are intimidating to maneuver, at first. It’s takes time and skill to spin them on a dime, and slot them in, with awareness of how much space you are leaving. Novice drivers simply lack that skill.
I have to deal with similar issues in my neighbourhood; any service vehicle will have to block the bike lane because that houses driveway is already full of vehicle.
Service vehicle never “have” to block the bike lane. They could simply block the general purpose lane instead.
In other words, they are making a deliberate choice to fuck cyclists’ safety in order to prioritize convenience for car drivers.
I think you’re attributing malice to laziness.
I cant think of a single courier or delivery driver that would actively think “let me take an extra 20 seconds to reverse into this driveway just to fuck with bikes”. They just want to get it done and get to the next
I think the word “deliberate” might be a little strong, because it’s not one person’s choice alone. It probably is laziness, but the way the road is made makes the lazy choice the one that screws over everyone else to prioritise cars. They could leave the van in the middle of the road, but drivers would get angry, so they make a subconscious choice.
Cars are large, cumbersome, dangerous objects with horns on them, and the road’s design centers them. If you park in the middle of the road, cars are so space-inefficient that you cause a traffic jam and people get upset and honk, but nobody’s in much more danger. If you block a pathway for pedestrians and cyclists, they can get around, but it’s much more dangerous, especially for children and the disabled, but most of the time the delivery driver isn’t forced to deal with that fact. Those people are much less visible.
So the result is that the mode of transport which causes the most problems for the people around it is also prioritised above all others. Decisions were made at the city planning level that put cycle paths together with cars. There are much better ways of doing things, for instance separate paths, with bollards so cars can’t just leave the road. You could make delivery vehicles smaller and lighter, with dedicated delivery bays. You could narrow roads and slow them down to disincentivise inner-city traffic, and encourage the use of bypasses, and subtly teach drivers to expect frequent stops in town.
it would be far easier to simply stop in the lane they are already in. No, they go out of their way to park in the bike lane.
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Well…yes, in most areas that inconveniences 3 people vs 300. Bicyclists, despite their entire personality being geared around it, are not by default better or more valuable than people driving cars.
But are people driving cars better and more valuable than cyclists?
Have you ever been to China? Holland?
If cycling wasn’t so dangerous and given lower priority there would be many more cyclists and fewer cars. We see this wherever town planners make this change.
Less car traffic in general is better for everyone, even the drivers. It doesn’t matter if you think that cyclists are annoying or holier than thou. It doesn’t matter what kind of people they are at all. They could all be assholes, that doesn’t change the fact that cars are bad actually.
Cool story. Not really relevant to anything I said but cool nonetheless.
I can see how you’d think that if you didn’t read it or pay attention to any of the pertinent details.
What cyclists are more of, compared to people driving cars, is vulnerable, which means they’re more important to protect – by not blocking bike lanes and forcing them to mix with car traffic, for example!
But that’s an irrelevant point if you live, as most Americans do, in an area where nobody is biking to begin with.
Curious how it never occurs to them to block the driving lane, or you know, park around the corner.
Amazon drivers aren’t Amazon employees, and aren’t paid well enough or treated well enough to care. Don’t be angry at the drivers, be angry at Amazon.
Fuck that. This isn’t some poor customer service shit. This is being an inconsiderate asshole on public property. Yes they are treated poorly but that’s not an excuse for every behavior.
Seconding this. Some of these comments are an unpleasant reminder of why the stereotype of cyclists as upper class and entitled exists.
Some blame also lies on the local government for not adding bollards or other structures to separate the bike lane from traffic. Seeing all these issues and deciding someone with shit pay and zero job security is worth getting mad at just doesn’t make sense. Go take that energy somewhere it can do something.
I have enough anger for both.
By your logic the right answer is to be mad at every prime customer.
I am.
I suppose keying them is a criminal offence?
Just photograph the van from both angles and send the photos to the local traffic authorities.
These vans know every time the driver sneezes so Amazon can dock their pay for unsafe driving. These things have a million cameras inside and out.
So basically, wear a mask.
Well, given that parking in a bike lane carries a hefty fine, and that the cops don’t seem to care, it’s unlikely that they’d be around to notice or choose to do anything about scratched paint or a broken headlight.
I’m just thinking from perspective of type of offence. In Canada you can park in the middle of the road and that’s a non-criminal offence. You’re getting a fine if someone is bothered to write you up. Purposefully keying a vehicle on the other hand is vandalism, which is a criminal offence. If you get caught, you’d get a record and potentially worse than a fine. It’s a different level of punishment.
The vans are surveillance vans, you do this and amazon is definitely recording you
That having been said, I think relieving the vans of all of their tire air would not be considered permanent damage.
That’s a good point actually. Amazon is much more likely to care about a van that can’t deliver than some scratched paint.
“Oh nooo, my bike handle accidentally smashed into the van while I was avoiding the obstacle in the bike lane.”
“And I forgot to tape the outer most part or my handle bar, so it is just the bare metal”
