> A cyclist that passes a slow car with, say, 30 km/h
No casual cyclist can sustain 30kph on a level road. My average speed when I was in top shape and biking 20km every day was 15kph. I don't think you understand just how fucking terrifying 30kph is when you're on a bicycle. I don't want to ride at that speed, it's really way faster than I can react, and I feel it very well. When you're in a car, 50kph feels like nothing at all, but on a bicycle you're acutely aware how you're propelling your body sitting on a few thin tubes of metal and two flimsy wheels at a speed at which you have no control over. I've reached 50kph only once in my life on a downhill stretch of good asphalt road on a Sunday with no traffic as far as the eye could see and I don't ever want to do it again. 30kph is scary. 50kph is terrifying.
No casual cyclist can sustain 30kph on a level road. My average speed when I was in top shape and biking 20km every day was 15kph. I don't think you understand just how fucking terrifying 30kph is when you're on a bicycle. I don't want to ride at that speed, it's really way faster than I can react, and I feel it very well. When you're in a car, 50kph feels like nothing at all, but on a bicycle you're acutely aware how you're propelling your body sitting on a few thin tubes of metal and two flimsy wheels at a speed at which you have no control over. I've reached 50kph only once in my life on a downhill stretch of good asphalt road on a Sunday with no traffic as far as the eye could see and I don't ever want to do it again. 30kph is scary. 50kph is terrifying.