
As a key component of Pokémon GO requires travelling to hatch eggs, find Pokémon and get to training gyms, it's natural that players would look for ways to cover ground more efficiently. At present the player has to travel about 2km in order to hatch just one egg.
Unfortunately for those wishing to hop on a bicycle in order to cover ground more quickly, you might be out of luck. The hatching speed limit is set at 10mph to make sure that people aren't cheating (by driving for example). However for any reasonably capable cyclist, 10mph is ridiculously slow.

Imgur user HyruleanHyroe explains the situation nicely:
I bike around town every day to catch Pokemon, covering 15-20km on light days, and I'm lucky to see ~1.5km of progress on my eggs. I'm not blazing around at high speeds, and I'm still getting plenty of exercise. Plus, bikes have been a staple of the Pokemon world since the very beginning. Why can't we ride, Niantic? WHY?
Apologies if my tone comes across as whiny/complaining, not the intent. I LOVE this game and will continue to play it regardless.
While there might be a safety issue in pedalling too fast and trying to capture Pokémon we would assume anyone with a modicum of sense (and not wishing to drop their precious smartphone!) would use the app sensibly and stop when they engage with the app itself. So cycling would purely be for exercise.
Of course we can't expect Tour de France champion Chris Froome to be trawling around at a snail's pace when he's having fun with Pokémon GO:
Seriously, as this writer knows from personal experience there is huge interest in Pokémon GO from the cycling community, as Australian cycle fanatic Shane Miller explains in the the video below.
What do you think? Should cyclists be forced to stay below 10mph for their own safety when playing Pokémon GO or is it an unnecessary barrier which prevents their enjoyment of the app? How could Niantic possibly improve on the situation in future updates?
We'll leave you with a video of YouTuber Lachlan trying his hand at playing Pokémon GO on his bike, not always as safely as he should!
[source imgur.com]
Comments 98
"However for any reasonably capable cyclist, 10mph is ridiculously slow."
Are you talking about regular cyclists (like most people in the Netherlands) or the ones pretending they can ride in the Tour de France?
Two hands on the bike, high speed bike crashes near cars is a bad thing.
...So you can hatch eggs on bike via main games...but when it comes to actually riding a bike, you're out of luck here?
Pokemon GO, in my view, was meant for walkers. So, get to walkin'!!!
They could make it 20 mph. It's rare to drive slower than 20 mph on car (not counting traffics).
People are complaining that a game made explicitly for walking around doesn't work properly when they are on their bikes? The horror. I say drop the speed limit to 5 or 8, whatever the normal average "walking" speed is for humans.
Maybe they can institute a "Bike tax" whee you can pay to increase your speed limit in game? $1 per MPH per 24 hour period. Max of 25 MPH, don't want anybody speeding. So $15 per day to ride your bike at 25. $5 per day for 15MPH, which I'm guessing would be reasonable, I'm not a bicycling aficionado.
Of course if they really want to make things interesting, no max limit, then the NYPD can raise their Pokemon while chasing down criminals.
http://gothamist.com/2016/07/14/pokemon_go_crime_drops.php
Pokemon GO needs to stop being athletic-cist and cyclist-cist, raise the speed cap to at least 20 miles and hour.
So I guess we were all cheating when we were hatching eggs on our bikes in the game?
I actually agree with the cyclist here... For the most part, at least. I mean, it's not a big deal at all, but the game is intended to have people get up and travel the world, which is exactly what riding a bike does for you. Niantic could easily up the speed to 20 mph but maybe make it that if your traveling over 10, it only counts for half the distance or something. The only real reason I see not to is for safety. If we have people riding their bikes at 20 mph while on their phones... That would just not be good.
Why are you talking about km but then mph?! No one should use mph.
I cycle everywhere and have done so for a while. I would say a 15 mph limit would be just fine as only people going out on proper rides would crack over that sort of speed consistently
Gee life is tough for some people eh?
Back in my day we had to walk until we got to vermilion city. Gen 1 baby!
This guy needs to get off his bike and walk! There's a reason the speed limit is included to stop people cheating with the eggs by cycling and driving about. Cyclists are probably collecting more Pokémon and Pokéstops anyway so it only seems fair to penalise them with less egg hatchings.
Cyclists are the biggest bunch of complainers on the planet earth.
I swear they are never satisfied.
They want their own lanes, think you should give them 3 feet of space, want to be considered a vehicle but never stop at stop signs, and they think they can go down one way streets the wrong way.
I will take the fanboy console war bickering over entitled bicyclist any day of the week.
I hope a mole jumps out of a hole and jumps between their spokes while they are going full speed downhill causing a sudden stop and thud.
typical generation of gamers of today....get to max level as fast as possible no matter what.... pour souls. I am in Croatia on holidays, while I waited 2 hrs for my wife to get her hair etc ready, I downloaded this app and walked around the old village. I discovered a 700 year old tomb, no other tourists, nothing, it was half a mile away....sure, I caught the Pokemon on the way there, was fun, then I got the three Pokeballs, and spent 20 mins exploring the tomb. Today I used it again for like 15 mins, caught another one, and an egg. I walked around anyway to explore the city without playing pokemon go, the egg is now almost hatched. Having a blast the few times I use it. However, people that need cars, bicycles, etc to find Pokemons? That's just sad...
He actually makes a good argument. No one in game walks when hatching, they use the bike. A raise to 20mph seems legit.
@manu0 UK and US use Miles.
@InklingOrange People don't like being hit, or being nearly hit, by large fast moving objects. That's not unique to cyclists, that's pretty much universal to all humans. Which makes sense, given that cyclists are just humans - who happen to be riding bikes at the time.
They're not a great deal less likely to walk or drive than anyone else; riding a bike doesn't prohibit you from walking/driving other journeys where a bike would be unsuitable. But when they walk they do have protected lanes (known as pavements/sidewalks), and when they drive they have large metal protective casings by default. They don't tend to complain about these activities, as there's not as much to complain about.
And when people actually do get decent protected cycling space, they surprisingly stop complaining and start going on about how bloody wonderful it is.
Honestly, this attempt to paint cyclists as a different species is even more absurd (and a lot more dangerous) than the churlish "console wars".
Fundamentally, people want to get where they're going, pleasantly, and in one piece. No matter what method of transport they're using.
@Paddle1 well they shouldn't
@TechJunkie69 I don't even own a bike, plus, what is 10 mph in kmph?
Yeah, I bike 14-16km to work on week days and I travel approx. 15km/hr and that is going too fast for the thing to track it. I got about 2km tracked on a 15km ride for the day.
Edit
It is funny how people are on the topic of how "bad" cyclists are. lol
@HSuzumiyaVI
10mph is about 16km/hr
@Maxz
These cyclists need to get the heck off the road when they see or hear a vehicle coming that would fix the problem.
a) so they do not get hit
b) so they stop holding up traffic
people actually have places to be.... like work... and should be able to go faster than 2 mph..
They want the vehicle to give them 3 feet of space but how about they give the 2 ton vehicle space instead.
Also the elitist entitled cyclists should stop going down one way streets the wrong way and actually stop at the stop signs if they do not want to get hit.
They want society to bow to their every whim and will not stop until they do. These cyclist are elitist self serving militant thugs that are a menace to society.
Stay cool.-Morpheel
^ InklingOrange needs to cool his or her tatas.
I think the speed limit is silly, because hatching eggs ain't exactly game-changing. It's not like the games, where you could be trying for the single highest IV in a particular stat. I say, let 'em hatch eggs!
@prog4m3r Miles are ridiculous, but I like inches better than centimeters.
@InklingOrange: It's funny, I could say the exact opposite about car drivers in Germany (especially in Münster, a town with a lot of bikes). Here it seems the car drivers don't look around and almost constantly are in danger of running people over. I often wished that cars would be forbidden in the city when I was walking or cycling.
I mean, cars drivers are basically driving around a potential murder weapon, while pedestrians and cyclists can't harm anyone. So if anything, the car drivers should give the others more space and not the other way around. It's the car driver's responsibility to be more careful and abide the law. I don't how it is in the car-enthousiast US, but in Germany the law says cars have to hold a minimum distance of 1,5 metres to a bike. That's not much, although as a biker I would be fine with 1 metre.
But the way you describe the behaviour of bikers in the US sounds like the bikers there are not well-taught. We don't have these problems here, because people on bikes actually read the signs and know how traffic works.
Also, most cities here have separate biking lanes, so all those problems don't even exist here.
But honestly, I think it's right that the car drivers have to bow to bikers. Bikes are no potential murder weapons and they don't pollute the air. Cars on the other hand are dangerous, they're killing our planet with their pollution and with all the metal that is needed to build them. But there are new ways to build cars, the big car companies just don't use them yet.
@InklingOrange Or in short:
"Look at me, I've found a group of people I can lump together, brand as illegitimate/inhuman, and then go on to insult and threaten without feeling bad about myself.
And to make it seem like I'm not picking on the vulnerable, I'm going to call them "elitist" (whatever that means) and then resort to whatever hyperbole comes into my head to infer that said outgroup is somehow responsible for the degradation of society, and an affront to all my values and birthrights. And I hope they die."
Or in extra-short: "I am an angry person and need somebody to hate"
Please drop the narrative. It's ridiculous, overblown, obnoxious and absurd. And in post-Brexit Britain, it's bloody everywhere and I'm completely sick of it:
Pick your outgroup, brand them as a different species, and then rip them to pieces - it's not like they're human beings after all.
It's hateful and tasteless behaviour, and seemingly the Nintendo Life comment sections aren't immune from it.
If a cyclist is caugh using a mobile phone they should be banned for two years from cycling and driving. And their phone crushed.
It's not a joke, I watch every day how cyclists go through red lights, not wearing proper head gear, cycling from road to pavement. Cycling with out lights, not giving proper hand signals, and cutting in front of cars.
I think these games, and yes there will be copies out within a few months, are a disaster waiting to happen.
I was really disappointed to see that riding my bike wouldn't work. That's how it's done in the game, why not in real life? Any extra reason to take my bike is a good thing.
@InklingOrange Words can not describe how wrong you are.
Are you supposed to walk, and does the app use the phone's accelerometers to tell if you're walking? It would know if you are cheating by using a car or bicycle, no matter what speed.
Maybe bumping the max speed for hatching to maybe 15mph is reasonable. When you get to 20mph+ you start getting into vehicle range.
I 'installed' the game on my samsung - but cant find it anywhere? Am I doing something wrong?
@InklingOrange
Wow. One of my friends had a friend just get hit by a car and die. According to you they deserve it because they were going to make the driver a minute or two late to their destination?
It's amazing that you complaign about other peoples entitlement, yet don't realize your argument comes across with incredible entitlement. I mean you're whole argument is you own the road so bikers should get off of it.
It's unfortunate when others don't follow the rules and it inconveniences others. Patience is a virtue. I'm sure you're no sunny day with all your interactions with people.
I think people who are complaining about people riding bikes need to walk and run more.
@cleveland124
I do not own the road but neither do they. If a cyclist looks back and sees they are holding up a line of traffic and they refuse to get off on the shoulder of the road they are being foolish. It is the concept of sharing, be courteous to others, and obeying the law. Now that is happening to them now it is a big deal. big surprise. Why? because they think the world revolves around them. I think it is great they are getting a dose of their own medicine!
Shani stated "It's the car driver's responsibility to be more careful and abide the law."
I am abiding by the law but it is not my sole responsibility the cyclists need to obey the law as well. I should not have to slam on my brakes because some fool on a bike runs a stop sign at full speed or comes down a one way street the wrong way.
The courteous thing to do is move over for 2 seconds and let the traffic pass and then move on about their 2 mph merry way and be aware of their surroundings. Not everybody can waste their day waiting for you to get some exercise.
It is not a minute or two late when you have to drive 10 miles to work and it is double yellow line the entire way.
Then they complain about not having a bicycle lane but that would take a lot of money, time, and effort to implement. It is a complete waste of resources to appease a handful of folks who think society should bow to their whims.
We all do not live in heavily populated areas so some of us actually have to drive to work. God forbid somebody owns a car or "murder weapon" to go to their job in to provide for their family and travel the country while boosting the local economy.
I never said anybody deserves to die because they choose to ride a bike but if they do not obey the traffic laws or they refuse to be aware of their surroundings then whatever happens is their own fault.
If they are bold enough to sit on a $4 piece of aluminum with nothing on but $10 plastic helmet and $2 reflector and get out among 2 tons vehicles and not expect something to happen they need to be in a mental institution. It is like throwing a kitten in a pen among a parade of elephants.
I don't get it, I used my bike the other day and hatched two eggs really easy. I was really happy with it considering I hadn't used my bike in while, then again I was using a mountain bike around my area. I was going around reasonably fast on the footpath. Unsure how fast I was going.
@River3636 Very probably.
Interestingly, if we look angry poster no.1, we see people who ride bicycles lambasted for being "another species...they are an illiterate, helmet headed, spandex wearing entitled species", whereas angry poster no. 2 is frustrated at them for "not wearing proper head gear".
So, put on a polystyrene hat and have poster no. 1 label you "another species", or go bare headed and have poster no. 2 tell you off for being irresponsible (despite there being no laws that dictate any protective head gear must be worn in either of the posters' respective countries). It's your choice.
Or don't get on your bike at all. Instead, stay at home, boot up your favourite Nintendo website and start writing aggressive comments about how people who ride bikes are "entitled" and how you hope they die. Everyone loves a good dose of hypocrisy and misdirected rage, after all, and it's bound to do wonders for your self-esteem.
What about hoverboards?
The game IS designed for walking. The speed limit is set for safety. For the user and others. Deal with it. Besides they may update it later but for now it won't kill you.
@Maxz
The helmet has nothing do with being labeled another species.
It is their pompous, self serving, attitude. Just because they ride a bike does not mean that they get to not obey the law and terminate the concept of common courtesy.
They want to be treated like another vehicle on the road but only obey traffic law when it is convenient for them.
I am apparently not the only person has witnessed their blatant disregard for the law. The world does not revolve around them just because they choose to ride a bike.
I hope the fact that they can not go over a certain speed limit eats at their very soul. serves them right.
Look at his tweet "Apologies if my tone comes across as whiny/complaining, not the intent." He knows how it sounds but plays it off. Why? he has played this hand before. This is their tactic act nice then when nobody caves turn militant in attitude and demand.
@InklingOrange Someone didn't get the bike they wanted for Christmas.
@AlexOlney
Thank God I did not because I would hate to be part of that holier than thou society.
@InklingOrange Yup. Owning a bike makes you a part of a special "society".
Nice to know someone's got their head screwed on properly.
Now excuse me while I go worship at the Divine Alter of the Holy Rollerskates with the rest of my society. We meet everyone Monday for Roller-Communion. Me, and everyone else who got a pair of skates for Christmas several years ago. It doesn't matter that they're gathering dust in the attic; our very ownership of them binds us inseparably to our cult.
To be honest, it's a bit of a pain coming so soon after Spacehopper Sunday and right before Train Tuesday, but y'know, these transport based cults are have to be made time for.
Seriously though, your hatred and distorted beliefs surrounding a group of people with nothing in common but a form of transport border on the obsessive, and I find the prospect of you in charge of motor vehicle to be deeply unsettling. Sadly, driving tests don't feature a section to test for sociopathic hatred of other road users, but you're making a good case for one to be included.
@InklingOrange You forgot the worst thing cyclists do. Imagine a two lane road, one in each direction. A cyclist is backing up traffic in one direction because the cars don't have room to pass. Eventually they do, and five or six pass him and get back up to speed. They come to a stop, and while waiting to go the cyclist catches up. Does he stop behind the cars that passed him, keeping his place in traffic? No, he rides next to the stopped cars up to the front and starts backing up traffic all over again.
Cyclists are the worst.
@AlexOlney For what it's worth, I think we've discovered the new 'Star Fox Zero's Controls' or 'Tokyo Mirage Sessions ♯FE's Censorship'.
Just write a few more articles somehow involving a bicycle, and you'll have the comments in an enraged, hyperbolic, frothing mess in no time.
Instead of increasing the limit, maybe they should drop it to 5 m/h. My top walking speed is 6.8 km/h, which is under 4.5 m/h.
@Maxz
You just do not get it. The cyclists would never settle to be just part of a cult they think they are the gods and everybody should bow before them. Holier than thou.
@PanurgeJr
Yep seen that one before too. It is like the rules and laws do not apply to them but they demand to be treated as a vehicle just like a car or truck.
@TeslaChippie "Miles are ridiculous, but I like inches better than centimeters."
That makes little sense. I'd say, choose one. ISO units make more sense as they're all interconnected by round numbers.
i think a casual bike ride should the the speed they should aim for, something you can enjoy the scenery and not have to catch your breath
@InklingOrange
I have seen plenty of entitled cyclists both as a cyclist and a car driver. But I've also seen plenty of entitled car drivers.
I follow the law both as a car driver and a cyclist. Simple, really.
@PanurgeJr
You're also forgetting that by riding to the front they are removing that 1-1.5 metre distance they insist on having. As someone who has knocked down a cyclist in my car, it's not fun, despite what I say in jest.
I go cycling pretty often, but I usually try to stay on the sidewalks. Even the bike lanes around here are too narrow for my taste. I use a sportive road hybrid, though, not a fast road bike. I'd rather have a bit of durability and insulation for the wheels, road bikes don't do well with the sidewalks around here.
Really don't understand the hatred of cyclists. Bad behavior isn't exclusive to one group of people, or one group of vehicles, or any such thing. Point out individual examples, don't use sweeping generalizations, it doesn't present your ideas very well.
Personally, I think the real problem is that the road systems in many industrialized nations are based around private transportation, instead of public. We have all these nonsensical road problems because the way the roads are designed to accommodate mass private transportation is fundamentally prone to overpopulation. It doesn't take long to overcrowd the roads when almost everyone is expected to have their own motorized vehicle in high population centers. If the road systems were based around public transportation, that would have greatly offloaded the strain on private road systems. We would have preemptively separated lanes for every type of transportation.
I would also agree with the raise to 20 miles/hr, it doesn't make sense that biking is not encouraged in Pokémon Go, when it is definitely encouraged in the mainline series. It fits in with the environmental messages of the series, too. When it comes to resource and natural conservation, biking is preferable to driving, and public transportation is preferable to private.
And for those confused about the imperial measurement system confusion, that's what happens when you have an American company developing a game, then trying to release it worldwide.
@InklingOrange For every idiot who rides a bike regularly, there is an idiot who drives a motor vehicle regularly, and then some. How many deaths each year are caused by motor vehicle drivers, as opposed to bicycle riders? Care to post a ratio? You probably wouldn't, would you? Everyone who pays attention to annual road crash reports knows that the vast majority of road deaths are due to bad drivers, with most of the rest being weather related. The amount of deaths due to bad cyclists is extremely miniscule by comparison. That should inform you right away which one is more dangerous. It's common sense.
If the game is about being active, why not bump it to 35km/hr? It still makes things difficult for a car driver playing the game
@InklingOrange No, I don't get your paranoid fantasy in which everyone who rides a bicycle to get somewhere is part of some colluding hivemind. You've been making riducilous assertions from the start and it's frankly embarrasing. You can't just invent your own reality for the purpose of getting angry at it. It seems pathetic to indulge your own paranoia of other people - who, given the physical divide between sitting a car and riding a bicycle - you're unlikely to ever have a real conversation with, just because it feels good. Just because Donald Trump goes big on "labelling people who aren't like Donald Trump as dangerous savages", doesn't make it cool. In fact, it's tacky as hell.
@PlywoodStick, and to an extent @BornInNorway81, have already hit a huge number of nails on the head. The point they're basically making is the following:
People do dumb stuff. People do dumb stuff in cars. People do dumb stuff on bikes. People even manage to do dumb stuff with without the aid of a vehicle whatsoever.
Whenever I go into town, I frequently see new bollards, pillars, lamp-posts, and various other items of traffic furniture that people have run into and broken. Because people do dumb stuff like that.
People drive into traffic furniture. People drive into buildings. People drive into other people in cars. People drive into other people on bikes. People drive into other people on foot. People drive at 30 in the 20 zone. People park on double yellows. People drive at 40, 50, 60, and upwards, in the 20 zone. People drive at over 120 in the 70 zone. People break all sorts of speed limits. People run red lights - on bikes and in cars. People don't signal clearly. People have faulty brakes, and faulty/non-existant lights when it's dark. People tailgate other people. People jump queues. People drive drunk. People do dumb stuff.
Nobody's denying that people on bikes do dumb stuff. People on bikes are people. And people do dumb stuff.
But when people do dumb stuff in a car, we're mostly happy to throw our hands in the air, and say, "well... y'know, people do dumb stuff - what can you do!?". They don't start yelling their favourite cooked-up fantasies about a menacing "Cult of Drivers" who are some sort of sub-human species out to destroy humanity (despite having a genuine death doll associated with them).
But change the form of transport to a bicycle, and suddenly it's open season for the angry brutes who need an outgroup to sink their teeth into; to make themselves feel good, and feel gratifyingly 'normal'. They make up absurd theories about how other road users are part of some 'community' by virtue of simply owning a bicycle. They do everything in their power to convince themselves that those they look down upon are not simply human beings - mothers, fathers, sons and daughters - trying to get somewhere - just like them - but are instead some sort of aggressive pest that needs eradicating. They act as though voicing such angry claims is "speaking out" and being "the voice of truth", when in reality they're simply finding excuses to indulge their own self-serving paranoia.
And at the end of all that, they probably don't even care, rendering the above ranting largely pointless.
It's a psychotic, deluded, and potentially dangerous attitude, and to put it bluntly; you come across as a deeply disturbed individual.
But what can you do, eh? After all, people do dumb stuff, don't they?
@Maxz The excessive swearing was unnecessary.
@Megumi_Sagano You missed one at the bottom. I'll tidy it up myself.
Anyway, sorry. I was a bit worried about that, but thought that word in particular might scrape through.
I'll change it to "stuff". It doesn't quite have the same impact, but it'll do. I assume the vulgar anagram of "carp" is equally off-limits?
@InklingOrange
To answer more simply:
"The cyclists would never settle to be just part of a cult they think they are the gods and everybody should bow before them. Holier than thou."
No. This is such an absurd, paranoid statement it's almost funny. Cyclists are people trying to get somewhere. On bikes. That's it. This comment makes you appear so deluded that it's hard to take you seriously. So I should probably stop trying.
@InklingOrange
I think there is something mentally wrong with someone who wishes bodily harm on someone who causes them a minor inconvenience to them. Even if you were stuck behind a bicyclist for 10 miles we are talking a 10 minute delay. Annoying, but only someone completely self absolved would see that as a reason to act the way you do. Fascinatingly, I usually think that people that scream and yell like you are the ones who push for a bike lane so they don't get slowed down.
And driving a car is is a priveledge that comes with a great deal of responsibility. Back on the college campus, I remember college students would make anywhere a road crossing and always had the right away. I found it annoying, but if controlling a car is that difficult you shouldn't be driving.
@Maxz Crap is fine, actually...
@Maxz Oh Maxz, these people are ignorant on people who ride. I can easily do 20 miles a day. I play Go and all and I think they hatch all right. This is app is supposed to make people get off their butts and get moving. GET CRACKING. If you want to ride a bike, jog, or walk go for it. Just don't be a lazy gamer.
@Megumi_Sagano Oh...! That's interesting - I'd always thought of the two words as roughly on the same level, vulgarity-wise. Anyway, I'll be sure to put that knowledge to good use.
@Maxz I did not read all of the comments these feeble minded people who were talking about bike riders, It has made me quite mad. They just don't get it. I thank you for regulating this in my steed.
People are on their phones while they ride bikes? Sounds like a great recipe for funny vids.
@Megumi_Sagano I give you, and the thread, the invaluable CRAP song.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CMaLgec2XWY
I would be fully in support of a minor speed cap raise above 10 mph...on one VERY important condition...as soon as someone passes 10 mph, hide all pokemon/poke-stops/gyms until the GPS recognizes that you have dropped below this speed again. Already drivers lacking common sense are utilizing this app when they certainly should not be. It can't really be blamed on the app, but if Niantic raises the cap without doing this they will catch some severe flack they can't afford, since many people (and media groups) will incorrectly interpret this action as them condoning such practices. Bikers however should certainly be able to use them for eggs, since it falls in-line with the goal of getting people active, and adding the safeguard prevents the temptation to use it for anything other than eggs.
Honestly, I really wish they would set the above restriction regardless, just to save lives. A lapse in judgement shouldn't have to place others in severe harm. I know this may cause issues for passengers trying to play this, but the game wasn't really intended to work that way, and it would still work at red lights and such (traffic jam pokemon hunting anyone?).
The only other conundrum is determining the point where a limit is too high, lest drivers begin to abuse the higher speed limits for their own egg-hatching.
Edit- my bad, mixed up current limit of 10 mph. Fixed that accordingly above in the speeds I mentioned.
@PlywoodStick
Lot more cars on the road than cyclists bound to be more accidents. Even with a lower volume of bikes I read every week where some fool cyclists refused to follow the law or pay attention to their surroundings and wound up like a squirrel on the side of the road. At least the squirrels have enough sense to try to get out of the way and not have earbuds rammed in their ears.
I think 20mph would be fine, particularly as it would mean my bus ride to work would be much more productive lmao. But no in all honesty those saying things like people should just walk forget 2 major things. 1. Every single main series pokemon game has used bikes, including the later on games which had the mach bike (bet that did more than 10mph). 2. Not everyone has the time and or health to walk for miles and miles. Particularly those with walking disabilities may find it much easier to go around on a bike (especially if it's electric powered etc and they tend to be faster than 10mph). It's not like you lose signal going faster so really there is no major reason not to up it slightly for the more speedy bike riders if they just want to be able to hatch eggs faster.
@Maxz
Not paranoid that is your spin and has been the whole time. I am just a law abiding citizen that expects the same from everybody else on the road for my own safety. The last thing I need is a lunatic on a bike running a stop sign, plowing into my vehicle, and then being charged with manslaughter for their incompetence. You know it is really not asking too much of others to be courteous by getting on the shoulder of the road for two seconds instead of holding up a line of traffic and obeying the law. That is all I am saying.
@Jayronauron
Actually that's a good idea even if they did like a travel mode where it just stays open in the background.
@cleveland124
If you could not tell the mole comment was in jest then perhaps you are the one with the mental problem. I wish no harm on anybody but when people get themselves into situations due to neglect that is on them.
I would rot in the bad place before I would ever push for a bike lane. There is no need to go to all that expense when they can get on the side of the road for two seconds that is not asking too much.
You must not work because if you show up 10 minutes late to work then you will find out how precious 10 minutes is to the person paying your wages. But hey you are a cyclists so the world revolves you and not your employer. There is the self centered cyclist attitude peeking out.
it would be nice if they bumped it up to 15mph or 20, but honestly if you are out playing, chances are you will be going fairly slow and stopping frequently to catch 'mon anyway... so its really not all that big deal.
@BensonUii
I would agree. Except if they are just hatching eggs, they don't need to look at their phone.
@cleveland124
I don't think anyone here would actually murder a person because they were stuck behind them on the road going 10mph. I think that was a slight exaggeration due to frustration, which we all do.
and while i have no issue with law abiding cyclists, Quite frankly I will have to agree w/ @InklingOrange on a few frustrations.
There have been hundreds of occasions where i have passed cyclists with AMPLE room (3-4 feet at least), and yet i still get yelled at and shown the middle finger by them. and not to mention the little 10-15 man "pods" of cyclists who take up the ENTIRE lane unlawfully by riding shoulder to shoulder, instead of single file like they should, which is extremely dangerous and inconsiderate. and god forbid you honk or do anything to try and get past, about a dozen middle fingers will be pointed directly at you.
When you have to get to work/school, y'know... ON TIME, and you are stuck behind a cloud of cyclists for 10 miles and can't get past them, simply because they want a little exercise... you can imagine how frustrating that can be.
I'm sure you are a perfectly civil dude, so maybe none of what i just said applies to you. but trust me, it does happen. often.
This is strange to me, because I've made the VAST majority of my egg progress in a car without even particularly trying...but bikers are having trouble? So weird.
wow, some real rage in this thread, huh?
@InklingOrange @J-Manix98
Joking about someone getting hit is exremely poor taste and the overall tone given was very disrespectful. I guess my attitude was because I thought yoy shoyld walk away from that joke instead of continuing to support that as okay. I said before frustration is a perfectly fine attitude, I just don't get the level of frustration being shown here.
I get pulled out in front of almost daily by cars who then proceed to go 10 mph under the speed limit and then give me the finger if I pass them. I don't get trying to group all cyclists as evil people when societally selfish behavior has become the norm. Another example, I live in a state where you don't need a licence to drive a moped on the road. So there are a large contingency of mopeds that too out at 35 mph that drive on our roads because I'm assuming that they have DUIs. So yeah it stinks to get caught behind them, but I don't think vitrol is the correct response. I actually so a moped with a modified 2 wheel front the other day. I'm guessing it would make it easier to drive while drunk from the bar.
To answer your question, if I was 10 min late to work everyday because of cyclists, I guess I'd leave 10 min early instead of having a tirade on something that is uncomtrollable.
@cleveland124 I'm not going to bother linking in the original poster, as his mentally instability and irrational hatred have been given enough exposure already, but it's interesting that we've reached the point where his last two comments boil down to, "I'm not crazy, it is you who is crazy! I am a normal, law abiding citizen", and "I am not paranoid, it is you who is paranoid!" (after recently having stated that anyone who rides a bike is part of some separate species that think of themselves as gods).
We've also got the classic, "when I said the bit about wishing they were dead (or at least sustain severe bodily harm), that was a joke, yeah!? How did you not get that hiralious joke!?".
It's text book stuff, along with the constant assertions that the person is "normal" (law abiding citizen blah blah blah) and therefore is beyond reproach; as though this justifies their writing like a delusional, psychopathic brute.
I'm beginning to think that half the evil in the world is committed by people who think they are "special", and the other half by people who think of themselves as so "normal" that they can't possibly do or say anything considered to be "wrong"; the "I'm not a deviant therefore I am inscrutable" mindset. For all their talk of other people being elitist, entitled and "holier than thou", I don't think anyone has come across as having more of those qualities than the poster themselves.
@J-Manix98
Thank you for sharing your experience with the cyclists entitled brood. It is a shame people act like that.
@cleveland124
You are the gift that keeps on giving. You cannot just agree and say they should move over for 2 seconds and let people pass ( the courteous thing) oh no I must schedule my life around their exercise schedule and wake up 10 minutes early unbelievable. I must bow to the whim of the cyclists. Nowhere did I state it is an everyday occurrence you just assumed that and instructed me to change my life around to appease the entitled cyclists. That self centered entitled cyclists mentality is on full display again.
@Maxz
Look Dr. Phil thanks for the psychoanalysis that nobody requested but people need to obey the law. Everybody else brought up death and murder not me. But if I tell a person not to touch an electrical line and they touch it and die that is on them. If these elitist cyclists do no follow the law what ever happens is on them and I have little empathy. I did not bring up another species you did and I just agreed with you. Not that I think they are literal different species but they think they are a different level of society than everybody based on their self centered attitude. They could be classified as gods not literally but because of their self feeling of being on the higher rung of society. Sounds to me like the Brexit vote did not go your way and you are still bitter typical cyclists mentality. Society did not bow to whim now let me turn militant.
@Maxz
But I'm not even a cyclist. I just try to use common sense. Sometimes when you are driving things happen that slow you down and are out of your control so leaving some extra time is important. It's your job to get to work on time, not somebody elses.
@InklingOrange Interesting, I read the same thing about drivers (and pedestrians) getting pounded into pulp by other drivers every week due to stupid driving behavior, but virtually nothing about bike related crashes or deaths... Maybe it's a European thing?
...Nah, it couldn't be, East Asia has all kinds of cyclists, and I've rarely heard of this from there...
I leave in plenty of time to make it to work on time but I am not about to rearrange my life on the off chance that a group of rude, selfish, discourteous cyclists may be on the road on any given morning. I mean there could be a 18 wheeler flipped over in the middle of the road on any given day (more than likely caused by a pack of jackal cyclist) but I am not going to get up 3 hours early just in case that is foolish. You may not be a cyclist but sounds like you have been around them long enough that their self serving mentality has become entrenched in your mind set.
@PlywoodStick
I am sure when cyclists cause accidents it always gets reported as the fault of somebody else. A pedestrian can literally jump out in front of a vehicle at any time and guess what? If they die it is reported as vehicular manslaughter not suicide. However if a cyclists gets killed for doing the same exact thing it is such a tragedy we must act now! bike lanes all over the city to prevent such tragedy public awareness for the drivers on everything. NO follow the law and prevent this mess. It is always their own gross negligence and disregard for the traffic laws that cause their demise. That is like running in front of a firing range getting killed and blaming it on guns. I have seen pedestrians and cyclist run out in front of traffic and cause an accident and guess what? It gets reported as a car accident.
@InklingOrange Well, I would agree with your sentiment in that case, of course. Whereabouts is that happening?
Apparently all over the USA if not the world. I have personally witnessed it twice. Once in my small town and once on college campus.
Cyclists?! What does that have to do with us runners? I can run up to 40 km/h. That's about 24 miles an hour. 10 miles is for fat people to have a chance. This is setting the bar too low...
@InklingOrange
Saying that you need to take responsibility for your actions and not blame others is self serving how? Please explain.
The fact that you will not admit that it would be courteous if bikers instead of being self serving got off on the side of the road for 2 seconds when there are 10 cars lined up behind them to let them pass and then go about there merry way is all the evidence I need to prove you have that cyclist self serving attitude. They would not even have to stop they could keep pedaling just move over on the shoulder and let the cars pass as a courtesy.
Are you saying 10+ people in the cars should all rearrange their life everyday on the off chance (any given day) that a cyclist may be on the road just to satisfy one person that can move over to the side of the road for 2 seconds and alleviate the problem but will not do so due to lack of courtesy and an arrogant attitude?
I am not advocating that the cyclists get up 2 hours after I am at work to get on their bike. I am just advocating obeying laws and being courteous to others. Concepts a child can grasp but apparently not an elitist cyclist or those who share their same mentality.
This whole article is about them having to rearrange their lifestyle in order to play a freaking video game and they are complaining about it. They are self centered.
Read the mess "What do you think? Should cyclists be FORCED to stay below 10mph for THEIR own safety when playing Pokémon GO or is it an unnecessary barrier which PREVENTS THEIR enjoyment of the app? How could Niantic possibly improve on the situation in future updates?"
In other words, who all should bow to the cyclist cartel? The city? The company that built the app?
Their own safety? how about everybody else's safety? They are the one's wanting to go over 10 mph on a bike while playing a video game.
This courtesy is not lacking from the garbage truck staff who if they see a line of cars behind them not only will move over but will watch out for oncoming traffic and wave you around letting you know it is ok to pass their large truck which is hard to see around. Common courtesy is not a hard concept to grasp to everybody else but the arrogant cyclist who lack any form of common decency. Cyclist think they are high society but the garbage staff rank higher on the totem pole.
Look at this quote from an earlier post "Even the bike lanes around here are too narrow for my taste." Cyclists are never satisfied a community can go through the expense and headache of adding bike lanes to pacify the cyclist militia but the cyclist are never satisfied.
It is their world revolves around me attitude, blatant disregard for traffic laws, and lack of common civil courtesy that generates and advances negative feelings toward them.
It's simple. Raise the limit to 20 mph! No one is going to want or be able to drive a car that slow but it would allow cyclists and runners to credit
@InklingOrange have you ever thought that the people you're encountering on your commute riding bikes are also commuting to work too and can't go out 2 hours later just to appease you?
Who's the foolish one now.
@ads29
...apparently the person that cannot comprehend this simple statement .
"I am not advocating that the cyclists get up 2 hours after I am at work to get on their bike."
Read and comprehend.
I don't understand their reasoning here. Isn't the point to exercise? My smartphone is secure on it's mount, with or without a game like this. it's actually unsafe for me to bike that slow because I have big tires and it wobbles trying to stay under 10 mph.
Of course I'm not doing anything with my screen, I'm watching where I'm going, but I'd like to be alerted if something's going on so I can stop and deal with it. It would therefore be reasonable to let me catch Pokemon, or go to a pokestop, provided that I stopped when I'm using either. The game could easily detect that I've stopped moving. As far as eggs go, I think a more reasonable speed limit would be 15 miles per hour. I could actually bike 20, but 15 is a good medium pace.
Instead, whenever my bike goes above 10 miles an hour I get notified that the game thinks I'm driving and then I'm forced to say I'm a passenger when I'm not. I'm on a freaking bicycle. that alert, ironically, draws my attention away from the road and is more likely to create an unsafe condition. Wouldn't it be ironic if someone was struggling to bike slow enough and got injured? If Niantec thinks it can be held liable for someone "texting and driving" with it's app it's obvious that it would be liable for trying to condition people into unsafe biking patterns.
Another annoyance is that even if I only bike between the pokestops and ignore the alert that says I'm going too fast, I can't activate a pokestop when I stop. I have to wait until the game calculates how long it should have taken me walking between stops. That's just stupid, and all these issues combined resulted in me mostly shelving this game. I will still pull it out occasionally, but Ingress doesn't punish me for using a bike.
@MadAdam81 I have never held a phone in my hand while riding a bike. That's why cell phone mounts exist. I have been using cell phone mounts for navigation, logging miles, and playing music without trouble long before this game existed, and my main motivation for playing is to use alongside the biking I already do.
Each day my commute to school is 18 miles and due to bus routes being what they are takes around the same time or quicker. It can be doing that both ways though and in the middle of a semester when more stressed I can be tempted to take the bus instead. I was hoping to use this game to help encourage myself to bike more, especially since it costs me $3 to take the bus each way which can really add up to a big expense.
There's no reason not to stop if I hit a pokestop, but really, the power drain on this app in and of itself prevents me from wanting to leave early and stop at all so I'd be happy with a secondary app that can only be used to log walking or running in the background so I can have other apps in focus. That won't make everyone happy, but even if I cared about the pokestops Id probably just switch to it when I stop.
But no, instead when I'm riding my bike with the app on it's repeatedly alerting me that it thinks I'm driving and I have to tap that I'm a passenger when I'm not even in a car and I'm not even going that fast yet. If you want a dangerous distraction, the app already has it. I don't like having to stop every time it complains about my speed. Then there's the issue of music. My audio player volume is significantly reduced while the app is open so if I ever switch out to look at something else my music will suddenly blast in my ears which is also dangerous. Clearly they're not concerned with being held responsible for creating dangers, not that they seem to care about anything. When is anyone ever received any kind of response from them? I've tried multiple times to get help on certain things over the course of a year and the only response I got was a blank response followed by an automatic request to tell them how they did.
@Inkling64 I commute by bicycle. 18 miles to school. My commute takes me from my home, along streets that do not have bike lanes which in turn forces me to bike on the rightmost side of a driving lane, since the sidewalks are dangerous being that there are shop doorways that open right out that could injure me or other people. About two miles into my commute I reach the bike lanes though, and those are actually off the road for about 8 miles. (confluence trail) Then I have to cross an intersection and onto a designated bike lane, which doubles as a shoulder lane so there's frequently broken glass from drivers who throw beer bottles out. As a result, I have to make sure that my tires have extra liners and gel filling to minimize the risk of flats, and even then flats inevitably occur - an issue I wouldn't have to deal with if people driving cars wouldn't do that. Occasionally the glass is so bad that I have no choice but to temporarily drive on the right most sign of the driving lane until I'm past the debris, of which I'm always observant of other cars before doing so and signaling my way appropriately. ( if I didn't, then an exploding Tire would cause me to suddenly stop and fly forward, which is also happens to me before, and that would also potentially affect drivers) Likewise, I have to leave the bike lane if cars are present. Sometimes a car is just stopped for no apparent reason. I also have to be aware that someone may try passing from the bike lane despite being against the law and I once had to veer into a river as a result. For the last 2 miles of my trip I'm also off the road taking the direct bike route to the campus bike locking. Then when I'm done with classes I go back the way I came, but if it's after Dark the drivers frequently blast their high beams at me unnecessarily which significantly slows down how fast I could safely bike. I say unnecessarily because I'm biking in the appropriate lane to the right, and I have my own lights, but almost everyone does it anyway.
I stop at stop signs, but I've noticed many cars do not stop at stop signs and I have been hit by cars on bikes multiple times. One time someone even threw a half full soda can out of their car without even seeing me there and it nearly missed hitting my head. ( the soda was flying out of the can and did hit me though) I'm not distracted by a game either, since I I'm not even looking at my phone since it's on a bike mount. My phone primarily is used to play music, and although I know the way myself I keep Google Maps open in case there's road construction period it notifies me if there's going to be a problem on my route.
And when I drive a car (I actually share a car, where the other person has a much longer commute to work so I have to bike to school) I don't throw beer out the window, or soda cans, or hit pedestrians and cyclists because I actually pay attention to where I'm going and follow the rules of the road.
When I'm walking people also tends to ignore me, and just yesterday while crossing the street at a crosswalk where I have the appropriate signal a car was speeding through the intersection and nearly hit me, and that wasn't even the worst case I've encountered. I've had people running red lights honking at me after they almost hit me and I've been hit by cars walking as well.
You see, no matter what you do there are going to be idiots on the road. As a car driver, I have encountered motorcyclists driving in both lanes and veering between cars, so I could understand your general frustration, but that's not characteristic of everyone on a motorcycle. That's just what an idiot does on a motorcycle. An idiot driving any vehicle will be an idiot in that vehicle. An inconsiderate person in a car Will Blast their music at all hours of the night and keep you awake. An inconsiderate person on a bike will veer in front of you.
You are probably picturing someone sitting on a bike, holding their phone with one hand, and veering all over the place without paying attention to what they're going. Well I could certainly imagine that someone somewhere has done that, but that's not really typical, or if it is typical in your area for whatever reason then I can guarantee you that every kind of driver is just as bad because that's what happens when idiots get behind the wheel.
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