NYTimes article on our response to bicycle (as compared to running) accidents
Fell Off My Bike, and Vowed Never to Get Back On
Knock on wood, I've never had a very serious crash. Don't know how I'd feel if I did. The article brings up some interesting variables that impact our reactions.Views: 194
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Far'arned Retrogrumpalunkus #63 on
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Burst away.
It doesn't take a genius to side-step most of this. Plug in NoScrips to your browser, adblock, block cookies, browse anonymously with Anonymouse. There are tons of ways to keep what is yours yours.
-or you can just throw your hands up, give up, and had them a condom while you bend over and pray that they use it...
ad said:Um, sorry to burst your bubble, but you do realize that free programs such as Google Analytics (which is used by over 50% of the top 10,000 most visited websites) allow any website you visit to track your user data (including your browsing history) without ever having to require you to register on the site, right???? In fact, it could be running right now on this page and you would never know. The internet never equals anonymous anymore. If anything, I give the NY Times credit for at least being transparent to a degree about what they are doing and requiring you to register.
James Baum said:Everyone's idea of what constitutes a breach of personal privacy are different.
If you don't mind that they are collecting and keeping data on which articles you read, at what time, how long you linger at each page, and reading where you came from before that in your browsing history then it's not a big deal.
I prefer to remain a little bit more anonymous at times. Letting Big Media track me isn't high on my list of priorities.
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Permalink Reply by ad on
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Or maybe most of us just realize that whether you think it is fair or not this type of market-based information gathering has been conducted for decades by companies even before the internet existed, with the internet just being an easier tool to utilize to gather such information than ever before. Unless you have never watched cable TV, never shopped at a grocery store and used a preffered shopper card, never used a credit card, never had a State-issued drivers license, never ordered something from a catalogue or never subscribed to a magazine or a newspaper ever in your life, complaining that the NY Times does something almost every for-profit company does (and always has done in some form) to a degree in America just doesn't strike a cord with me. By all means, though, continue to rant away.
James Baum said:Burst away.
It doesn't take a genius to side-step most of this. Plug in NoScrips to your browser, adblock cookies, browse anonymously with anonymous. There are tons of ways to keep what is yours yours.
-or you can just throw your hands up, give up, and had them a condom while you bend over and pray that they use it...
ad said:Um, sorry to burst your bubble, but you do realize that free programs such as Google Analytics (which is used by over 50% of the top 10,000 most visited websites) allow any website you visit to track your user data (including your browsing history) without ever having to require you to register on the site, right???? In fact, it could be running right now on this page and you would never know. The internet never equals anonymous anymore. If anything, I give the NY Times credit for at least being transparent to a degree about what they are doing and requiring you to register.
James Baum said:Everyone's idea of what constitutes a breach of personal privacy are different.
If you don't mind that they are collecting and keeping data on which articles you read, at what time, how long you linger at each page, and reading where you came from before that in your browsing history then it's not a big deal.
I prefer to remain a little bit more anonymous at times. Letting Big Media track me isn't high on my list of priorities.
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Permalink Reply by Will on
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Wow. If you don't want to register, don't register. But enough about it already!
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As always, the way to look at is by "considering the source."
Will V. said:Wow. If you don't want to register, don't register. But enough about it already!
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Permalink Reply by Jason on
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Just today at lunch I read a very informative article about proposed changes to the way internet sites can gather and use your info:
Agency Proposes ‘Do Not Track’ Option for Web Users
WASHINGTON — The Federal Trade Commission advocated a plan on Wednesday that lets consumers on the Internet choose whether they want information about their browsing habits to be collected, an option known as “do not track.”
More here: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/02/business/media/02privacy.html?_r=...
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But back to the original topic: that article isn't representative of anything. And further more it's just shoddy journalism. The writer claims her wreck is "so horrific that my first impulse was to say I would never ride on the road again" but then describes a relatively minor crash, one which she picked herself up and rode home from. Doesn't sound all that horrific to me, even though she did break a collar bone. Horrific involves blood, lots of blood. Also, "my first impulse was to say I would never ride on the road again" then halfway down the page "The first thing I did when I hit the ground was turn off my stopwatch — I did not want accident time to count toward our riding time." So which is it, your first impulse is to never ride again, or it's to not screw up your training assesment? Get over yourself lady.
That bit of histrionics coupled with some old anecdote from an exercise physiologist she once knew who insists that crashes are an inevitability and "he should know" because he once wiped out "when he crashed taking a sharp turn riding down a mountain road." Well duh, of course you're chances of crashing go up when you ride fast, aggressively and on technical terrain.
And then this quote: “With biking, you feel in control until you have an accident. Then all of a sudden you realize you are not in control." Uhhh, I'm not in control when I'm riding a bike? Really? That's absurd. What sort of existential over reaching hoo ha is that and in what way is it specific to bicycling? If you get t-boned out of the blue in your car by a drunk running a red light, aren't you just as likely to be faced with your own mortality and the possibility of bad things happening over which you have no control? Get over it, it's called being alive. It's a privilege.
The whole article views bicycling as a risky endeavor and bicyclists as excessive risk takers. That's very myopic and clearly a result of the writers approach to cycling as strictly a competitive athletic endeavor. (I immediately imagine the writer as one who only rides her bike competitively, rarely if ever as transportation and who is also a terrible rider in traffic. Not every competitive cyclist fits this bill by far, but we've all seen them.)
This assumption totally disregards the type of cyclist who rides their bike as transportation and employees best practices. In my book employing common sense measures like adhering to the basic traffic principles, obeying traffic law, wearing bright colors, using lights, communicating with drivers etc. doesn't constitute the "exaggerated caution” the article alludes to as some sort of inevitable post crash consequence. I would counter that this type of cyclist is employing warranted and practical caution and that there's no reason they can't very well ride their entire life without any sort of serious injury.
Overall I thought it was a disappointing article considering the usually high quality stuff the NYT puts out. But oh well, they can't all be gems.
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Permalink Reply by Davo on
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WOW!
Cricket said:>>>Bicycling injuries, he told me, “tend to be more acute and dramatic — often there is blood or even bones sticking out,” and “if it’s a gory image, it tends to deter us.”br/>
And sometimes there are tree limbs sticking out. (From: http://www.ride-strong.com/freak-bike-accident-view-with-caution/)
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