Insurance for my ebike is $25 per year, insurance on my car is over $3,000 per year. This is honestly one area where the economics make sense, the price does reflect the decreased risk of harming others.
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You have liability insurance on your ebike? Are you certain it's not just theft?
In the town I lived we used to know a light pole that you could give a firm kick to cut off all the exterior lighting in the area.
Yeah the masses are different, but personal injuries can still happen.
But I think that should be covered by regular health insurance, you shouldn't need a traffic insurance just for bicycling.
jeep dude with the frame-perfect brake slam
I think their entering the road “caused” the accident. The other driver was definitely going way too fast and their “evasive maneauver” aas whatever the fuck that was but the Jeep was fully in their lane when it all happened. Likely they thought they had time until it turned out that the other car was going mach 1, and then it instead of hoofing it out of the way they hit the brakes(it’s not a stop everything button).
Speculation, but I’d hardly call stopping in the other car’s lane “frame perfect”.
And then the NOPE! outta there
Things like this make me terrified to ride a bike on the street with nothing but a painted line between me and tons of speeding metal.
if it's not safe to bike, it's not safe to walk
The sidewalks are usually more removed. More than just a painted line, anyway.
Though where my folks live in the suburbs there's rarely sidewalks
Whether or not you like cars, being legally required to give insurance companies money is horrible policy
Until you get hit by an uninsured driver and you’re left with the bill.
Or we could have free healthcare and public transportation instead of letting profiteering corporations be the badaid for everything
I'm all for free healthcare and public transit, but that doesn't remotely cover the cost of being run over by an uninsured driver.
It's probably fine if there is a good public option setting the market.
Add to the fact that they will fight tooth and nail to not pay out
That's because their job isn't to insure things. Their job is to make money. That's all for-profit corporations are ever in business to do. They will absolutely bend over backwards to avoid having to pay it out, even if that's their sole purpose for existence.
Meh. Depends on the insurance. A teenager rear ended me and I was paid handsomely very quickly for my damages.
Disagree
On a side note: I wonder what the cost of all the bike-related crashes (caused by bikes) would add up.
A crash like the one in the video likely cost someone (insurance company, tax payers, other drivers, etc.) way more than hundreds of cyclist-caused crashes.
I'd be willing to bet that the administrative costs to have cycling insurance would likely be more than the insurance is worth.
Whereas with car insurance, you'd never be able to pay for the true cost of all the damage, lives lost, etc. That's why they cap liability to usually max $2,000,000.
I feel like most bike related crashes (not involving cars) are damage to the individual and not to property. Maybe to their bike, or minor damage elsewhere. If that's the case I would imagine medical insurance would be enough. I guess there are some really fancy bikes you might want to insure but you're right it's prob not worth the admin cost for even a 2 or 3k bike.
I put it higher up, but the cost to insure my USD2k bike is $25 per year. That covers theft, accident damage, liability, I keep it as theft insurance and very sure its worth it.
Insurance is gambling, and the house always wins, right? 24 of that $25 is probably theft insurance, the chance of injuring someone else on the ebike is not zero but so low it's immaterial.
You may be right, it's written more for racing bikes (human powered) than motored bikes of any kind, so covers damage and accessories and loss of use.
Exactly. You don't hear about bikes crashing through buildings and store fronts. Or knocking down road signs. Or power lines. Or bus stop shelters.
Yeah, apart from medical costs, the worst a cyclist can do is maybe smash a window of a parked car. The maximum amount of property damage is maybe a few 1000. Nothing that an average person can't pay off within a reasonable time frame.
I'm willing to bet that most cyclists crashes cost the cyclist more (i.e. to fix/replace their own bike) than the damage they caused to other things. LOL
And that likely holds true even if the bike in question is the crappiest old piece of trash.
Am I the only one who regularly can’t see posts in this instance? It says media failed to load, and I feel like that constantly happens in fuckcars.
I think it's the "catbox.moe" hosting site that is the issue. At least for me.
(also if you’re using Quad9 DNS – Quad9 and Catbox have an long running beef with each other)
That might actually explain it! Thanks!
I can only see videos if I’m in the comment section. They never load if I click on it directly. On voyager on iPhone.
Why is insurance not mandatory for cyclists?
Per the PPACA, health insurance is mandatory. This just isn't particular to cyclists because cycling isn't materially more dangerous than any other non-vehicular mode of transportation.
That's insurance for oneself.
Mandatory car insurance for drivers is liability insurance for everyone else. The driver is perfectly free not to insure their own vehicle (or their own injuries caused by their own driving).