I know people who can't get around without a car with GPS navigation. They do not know the way to the shops or their friends' houses.
It's interesting to me that road rage is non-existent between cyclists and pedestrians. It seems to be a manifestation of the frustration of being reduced to a metal box with a monotone horn, a couple of lights and the ability to go forwards and backwards. On a bike you're still a person.
If you are a tourist in a Dutch city you will quickly be disabused of the notion that there is no road rage between pedestrians and cyclists. Do not ever idly wander into a Dutch cycle lane, at any cost. You will be treated as invisible, people will cycle straight through you.
Should they for some reason take notice of you, they will not slow down one bit, but swerve away imperceptibly, infinitesimally, from a collision, thus making sure you are sufficiently rattled by the encounter.
Oops, I see everyone misread my comment. I meant to say road rage between cyclists and road rage between pedestrians. Not between cyclists and pedestrians. The difference is car people have road rage with each other. Pedestrians and cyclists intermingling is a problem with the infrastructure. Car people can't even blame that as they have the best infrastructure of them all.
Road rage between cyclists definitely still exists, and personally I can recall a few incidents (of my entire life) that might count as road rage between pedestrians. I think this is all proportional to how to can intimidate people with tool you have; motor vehicles are much more powerful so people become much more entitled.
As someone who bikes in the touristiest Dutch city of them all, we aren't going to hit you.
It is possible to do something so monumentally stupid as a pedestrian that you get hit and nobody could have helped you. That thing is to start crossing a bike path and then suddenly go backwards because you got scared.
As long as you don't do that, you'll be fine.
And the cyclists aren't nearly as annoyed by pedestrians as they are by mopeds.
I once saw a cyclist hit a pedestrian in Salem, OR. The pedestrian then beat up the cyclist to where I'm sure he lost teeth. Others called the police and I eventually left when the ambulance arrived. The cyclist was still laying on the ground, and the pedestrian was long gone.
Let's hope those dutch don't purposely hit an American.
As a novice cyclist I've been the target of angry exchanges with other cyclists on urban bikeways where pedestrians and cars are prohibited, because I go too slow, or get spooked by someone passing too close, or because someone cuts me off. It's not utopia, humans are still involved.
You've clearly never been on a bike path in America! Road cyclists wearing spandex suits are the most universally obnoxious group of assholes you'll meet here. They make Tesla and BMW drivers look polite, and will openly roid range on anybody that doesn't dive out of their way while they ride shoulder to shoulder in the middle of the path.
This is so universal that I’ve noticed that when I am wearing spandex when cycling, pedestrians seem to be really fearful of antagonizing me and act surprised when I do just what is right, like yielding for them, or breaking when they inadvertently get in my way. They clearly expect to be berated by me, probably because of their former experience with other spandex wearing pretend-pro cyclists
I know a converted railroad paved with asphalt decades ago going through woods for miles and an absolute respite from the chaos of human activity around my area. However, dealing with these "gangs" of spandex laden, wannabe pro-cyclists telling me to "get over" while shoving their way past me has made it stressful and confrontational. They remind me of the entitled suburban mom shoving her way up to the front of the line to grab her caramel macchiato because she's in a hurry to her botox appointment. And since this is Ashburn, VA...we have mega sized datacenters looming over both sides of the path like the heads of sentinels staring at you. I need to move further out :)
I have the opposite experience actually - majority of road "rage" incidents, which have only been contained to near misses or yelling, have been with pedestrians. Bike paths are ignored by pedestrians, they'll walk right in or through them, even when they look and see a bike coming. Pedestrians think they always have the right of way, and its very dangerous. This is in an American city though, btw, reflecting American city culture.
I've seen this argument before and thought it strange at first as in my experience road rage is everyday experience for me as a pedestrian. Then I realized that it depends on how much space is actually shared between cyclists and others. In Dutch cities bikes have their own space and it's not as common as here where bikes have to share the space with pedestrians. And with old ladies and their dogs. And with young people with baby strollers.
It's interesting to me that road rage is non-existent between cyclists and pedestrians. It seems to be a manifestation of the frustration of being reduced to a metal box with a monotone horn, a couple of lights and the ability to go forwards and backwards. On a bike you're still a person.