Peter Flax

Fortunately this rule is only broken 139 times a day by American journalists.

Maybe a good moment to re-up my 2020 classic—Journalists: Here’s How to Produce Less Horrible Stories about Pedestrians and Cyclists Getting Killed"
medium.com/@peterflax/j...

Those pesky SUVs are always running away from consequences.

A lot of people don't realize that Cadillac has already created 5000-pound motor vehicles that are not only fully autonomous but fully capable of feeling emotions and modeling the same misanthropic behaviors that human drivers often show.

*his name was Jose Amaya

H-O-L-Y S-H-I-T

Just when I thought the bottom had been surveyed....

More useful than 90% of bike racks.

Haha I definitely over-index for water fountain use. In my recent experience, I'm starting to see pretty wide use of fountains like this. Still see non-functioning fountains or fountains that trickle but honestly seems like a golden age of fountain upgrades.

LOL you should ask someone at your gym why they went for art over function.

How is that thing secured to the ground??

I sometimes walk the Avis or National lots at LAX on low-volume days where the lots are full. So many SUVs and Jeeps and muscle cars and surprisingly few small cars or midsized sedans. Meaning it's likely as much an inventory thing as a booking thing.

My dad was an exec with Avis and Hertz back in the day and wanted to say it's a tough business but they make money a bunch of different ways.

Buying cars with big discounts + maintaining high utilization + ancillary fees+ resale at 20-30k miles = $$$

I refuse. This is a smart thing to do.

Yes but I think their fleet management priorities are downstream from choices that impact the composition of their fleets.

Maybe. I suspect it's more insidious than that. Our culture has been brainwashed to think SUVs and muscle cars are more desirable than sedans. I'd guess the majority of rental customers like the algorithm of the upgrades. They value space and muscle over gas mileage, visibility, easier parking etc.

It doesn't have to work for everyone in every situation. For most Americans, most car trips are only a few miles or less. Maybe there are some that could work on a bike. Or maybe not—but if lots of other people do it, it would mean less traffic for you.

I rent cars a lot and am fascinated by the way the companies generally assume that moving consumers from the vehicle class they rented to something bigger or more powerful is an upgrade. I've always wondered if they have data to inform this policy.

Not horrible to lock up one bike (or two if there's more distance from fencing) but love the delusion that it's made to hold like six bikes.

Imagine if parking spaces were designed and built by people who had no idea what driving is like?

"Yes we decided to paint parallelograms rather than rectangles because they are interesting looking. And it only costs 25% more than rectangles."

Yet that's what bike rack design is like in the US!

HAHAHAHAHAHA good one

THE PRIMARY PURPOSE OF A BIKE RACK IS TO GIVE RIDERS A SAFE AND CONVENIENT WAY TO SECURE A BICYCLE AND THE DE FACTO STANDARD IN 2026 IS A SETUP THAT ALLOWS A FRAME AND ONE WHEEL TO BE EASILY SECURED WITH A U LOCK.

Complaining about horribly designed bike racks to avoid talking about my government bombing schools and lying about it as a deliberate plan to keep a child-trafficking scandal out of the news.

Interesting. I haven't seen that. (I have seen a very high percentage of water bottle cages unsuitable for racing the Tour of Battenkill however.)

Just wanted to say I'm in strong favor of all those things other than shitty bike racks.

Seriously, can anyone think of a product category where such a high percentage of options sold are so poorly designed to do their primary job as bike racks? Can you imagine if 40% of corkscrews couldn't really open a bottle of wine? Or water fountains where it's basically impossible to get a drink?

full

I'm in Madison Wisconsin for the weekend. Lovely bike-friendly bike town fool of kooky racks.

Unique and also kind of stupid.

Once you open your mind to kooky, illogical bike racks they are everywhere. It appears that many rack designers think everyone just wants to lock a front wheel with a chain like it’s 1983.

Made by people who don’t ride bikes I guess.

This is another bike rack design I just saw that is sneaky horrible.

Paul Seixas made quite a statement today.

Rad Power Bikes sale completed, new owner to build e-bikes in the US Rad Power Bikes, once the dominant force in North America’s direct-to-consumer e-bike boom, has officially found a new home. Life...

Interesting to me that this story doesn't even mention the impact of all the lawsuits and seven-figure settlements Rad faced.
electrek.co/2026/03/06/r...

You know, if gas prices are getting painfully high, one option is to drive less.

Saying that there is a war on cars with a straight face is 17% dumber than saying there's a war on Christmas.