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Comment on Why cyclists should NOT get the same fines as motorists | Car Culture 6 - Motonormativity

Easy enough to calculate yourself. A quick Google says that an average motorbike might be as much as 700 pounds, and if we use the same “fat man” as the bike (300 lb), that’s a total of 1000 lb. The formula for comparative damage is (W~1~/W~2~)^4^, so plug that in and we get (1000/350)^4^, or motorbikes doing 66× the damage of the bike, or 0.00396.

If a cyclist had to pay a $10 fee, as @ChaoticNeutralCzech@feddit.de suggests, motorbikes would pay $660, while the average car driver pays a whopping $1,100,000, if you were trying to accurately account for damage done.

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princessnorah@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
Firstly, you’re an Aussie, I’m an Aussie and we’re on an Aussie instance, the heck are you using pounds for? Secondly, there’s not a chance in hell the average motorbike weighs 317 kilograms! A Honda Goldwing, notoriously one of the chonkiest, plushest experiences in motorcycling, is only 390kg, and they have an 1800cc flat-six engine. I used to ride a 500cc twin and at 192kg it was heavier than a lot of 1000cc 4cyl that have more expensive, lighter materials. These days, I have a Postie Bike and that’s exactly 100kg lighter than my 500 was. It’s the equivalent of carrying a slightly overweight dude on my shoulders.

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- Zagorath@aussie.zone ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  I only used pounds because the table the user above shared was in pounds. And comparative damage is just that: comparative. It’s the fourth power of the ratio between the two. So keeping to the same units was easiest.
  
  Regarding the rest of it, remember we’re comparing it to a “freakishly heavy bicycle”. The table the other user shared implies a fat man + bike is 350 lb. My assumption was that’s 300 lb person + 50 lb bike. That would be a 23 kg bike. That’s crazy heavy. It’s more than double most bikes’ weight, and triple the weight of a racing bike. So if the motorbike weight I used is an overestimate, that’s basically just evening the playing field. (While both will still end up looking worse compared to a car than they should—which just highlights how much better both are than cars.)
  
  Anyway, I got the figure by just Googling “motorbike weight”, which turned up this page, which says:
  
  Some sources say the “average” motorcycle weighs around 700 pounds, but the weight depends on the brand of the bike, the engine size, and the style—whether it’s a street, off-road, touring, cruiser, or sport bike, or something else entirely.
  
  I’m not interested in being precise enough to delve into those different factors, so going with the quoted “average” sounded good to me.
  
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  - lordriffington@aussie.zone ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    
    That would be a 23 kg bike. That’s crazy heavy. It’s more than double most bikes’ weight, and triple the weight of a racing bike.
    
    It’s actually not that crazy. E-bikes tend to be at least that heavy. Mine is 30kg.
    
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    Cort@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    Lol my ebike is 35 kg, and I’m American weighing in at 155 kg, so about 200kg fully loaded on my bike. But I live in an area with pretty fantastic bike trails that have speed limits near 25-30kph.
    
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  - princessnorah@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    There’s not a snowflakes chance in hell the average is anywhere near that high in Australia, or most of the world. I’d put money on it being a US-only figure, considering their obsession with large cruisers. If you include motorised scooters, which I was, then I’d say the average would be about 200kg. Considering the rate increases exponentially, I think that’s important.
    
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