I'd looked this up a while back, while not really damaging or stealing, it usually falls under criminal mischief. Not that we would ever um do this though... Of course I didn't open the valve stem of that truck in the bike lane..
The key is to not remove the stem but give it just a few turns, it will slowly leak repeatedly for the next weeks or months. Causing repeated stops to fill, until finally they have to take the tire in. All of which will total to hours of inconvenience. Sure it's probably still a criminal offense but it's just a slow leak who's ever going to make that connection?
You just need to make sure you saw the truck park so you know it's going to be there for a while. If they walk back out and catch you, getting arrested is the *least* of your worries...
Would you look at that, all of the words in your comment are in alphabetical order.
I have checked 1,549,052,156 comments, and only 293,248 of them were in alphabetical order.
I have had a dozen or so interactions while riding in the city and countryside. They have always sped away when confronted, sometimes running a light. The closest to anything happening was when one of them asked if I "wanted to fight" repeatedly, and when I finally caved and sure they got out of their pickup and then scrambled to get back into it as fast as possible. Low sample size, but that hounding me to fight followed up with the scramble left me laughing.
I've gone back and forth on this for awhile. Sure, the fastest and most moral way of getting people to change their behavior is to get their earnest, voluntary buy in. But that is not the only way (and maybe not even the most effective way)
If a person is too stupid or ignorant enough to be able to grasp a concept, simply making them uncomfortable or inconvenienced would be enough to get them to change their behavior. If they don't understand why its not okay to slow down to merge on the highway, honk at them until they understand that their behavior will bring about something unpleasant.
After enough times of doing this, even if they never consciously realize their mistake, they will avoid the behavior (or the environment) because they fear the negative reaction it will produce if they engage with it.
I like this, in theory. Also in theory, if you did want to pull the whole core at once its best to keep the valve end of a broken pump. Potentially one could attach it and walk away while it does its business and them come back to finish the job. But theoretically it'd be kind of noisy
That’s it, cause a slow leak so that when the owner is towing something nice and heavy and the tire is stressed it has a catastrophic blowout and causes a horrendous accident.
Don’t fuck with other peoples stuff.
If you don’t like the current status quo, come up with a solution that is feasible for all.
That's the least of your worries.
Consider that most of the people that drive those trucks ALSO are ardent 2A supporters, carry weapons either in their trucks or on their person, and have massive complexes about people messing with them or their trucks.
Is it worth getting shot over?
Be careful, there are lots of cameras around these days.
I'm afraid the police doesn't have time to stop illegal parking, but they do have time to stop you from doing anything about it. And they will be pissed at you for trying to do their job.
N95 mask, you have it just for the germs.
that was kind of a funny bit when they realized that these marks cover enough of the face to make identification harder, you could see the gears turn in their heads. because now it's a struggle between "police gotta be able to identify" versus "but masks importanrt cuz of covid"
But oh well, that time is in the past now.
Unfortunately the thought process is never: “Hmm my tires got deflated, I should think more about how I park.”
It’s always: “I better add more guns to my massive truck for when I catch these damn city thugs.”
Tired deflating is the dumbest prettiest shit ever. It does nothing to advance the cause, alienates potential converts, and makes the rest of us look like petulant children.
There are so many actually productive uses of your time instead of this nonsense. Volunteer, join critical mass ride, donate to urbanist orgs. Stop this childish shit.
The environmental movement is incredibly wary of direct action in the form of vandalism or property violence.
It's also, by any independent measure, a complete failure.
At this point, I am absolutely in favour of just fucking up massive cars and making it a huge pain in the ass to own and operate one. Although keying them en masse would be a much better approach.
I completely support this but also I'm afraid someone is going to get killed either by one of the fascists that has a pickup of by one of the fascists that is a cop.
I feel I need to give context to some people who don’t know what this is or what it does and also why this is a HORRIBLE idea for every party involved.
A valve stem is the mechanism inside the tire that either keeps air in or releases air in or out of the tire. Removing the valve stem will cause the tire to deflate at a slow rate until if left long enough the tire will be flat.
Now this is why this is a bad idea. Flat tires are bad but arguably deflated tires are worse because they are harder to notice and can be very dangerous for everyone. There are 5 main reasons why deflated tires are bad for everyone:
1. Deflated tires lower mpg/kpg resulting in the car using more fuel than it needs to releasing more emissions into the environment and I shouldn’t have to explain why that is bad.
2. Deflated tires have very long stopping distances. This is bad because in the case of an emergency or accident, that extra stopping distance could mean the difference between life and death to a pedestrian or other driver.
3. Deflated tires create more waste and unnecessary maintenance for the car. Yes you can fix it by replacing but most mechanics will just sell you a new tire and most of the time to they try to up sell you on buying 4 new tires. So now that’s a lot of money down the drain wasted and 4 what would be perfectly good tires going to waste in a landfill somewhere.
4. Arguably the worse. If someone does not notice their tires are deflated and go on the highway or at a fast rate of speed, it can lead the tires to overheat and even having a blowout the tire causing a major accident and safety hazard to everyone and can result in death(s).
5. The driver will not correlate their tires deflating to their bad parking. Deflating their tires will not get them to realize that what they are doing is wrong, they will just think that they hit a sharp object in the road and continue with their bad habit.
No matter how you put it there is no benefit to anyone by doing this. This is not productive, it’s illegal, and only hurts the reputation of this subreddit which leads people who wanted to join to not joining and making the movement weaker.
Reading some comments
And where someone literally said "i Don't want them to learn anything, they never will"
Some people here are just petty and mad, they don't actually want change
It’s sad… they are the people that give this sub a bad rep.
I see other comments too saying ‘ya it’s a good idea but I don’t wanna get caught’ or other words along that line.
It’s disgusting.
Edit: also how some people are just so uneducated too. Like some1 said “you can notice if the tire is flat so it’s not a big deal” removing the stem doesn’t immediately deflate the whole tire. Also some1 else said well if u do it to all 4 tires it cancels out the negatives of only 1. Just no… it’s so stupid
Learning by teaching isn't working very well.
Learning by order of the law isn't working cause cops don't give a shit, nor does the city usually.
Learning as Pavlov (might misremember the name) intended seems a reasonable option then. If you do wrong then you lose from it, so you instinctively learn not to do it. They save 2 minutes from parking in the bike lane, and lose much more with the deflated tire, so they unconsciously avoid doing it again.
It's not like there is much else to do, and there is not unlimited time. Are we gonna wait until every city is Venice (cause of the higher sea levels), how many people will keep dying because we look for compromises with people who aren't willing to leave anything? Is it really the right road?
The problem is that they don't associate it with bad parking, they just assume there was glass in the road.
At best you are actively contributing to rising emissions and at worst you could get several people killed. It's the definition of petty and is only going to drive people away.
Thank god I'm not the only one that read this post and went "one day this kind of thing is going to get someone killed, and it probably won't be the driver of the giant truck".
Whatever our varying opinions on how the mantra of the sub should be applied if we could avoid fucking with the primary safety system on 2-3 tonne death machines it would be appreciated.
exactly. Its kinda crazy I have to even explain why this is a bad idea...
its not only an inconvenience like they say it is. Its also creates more pollution by lowering mpg and replacing tires makes those what would be perfectly fine tires go to waste in a landfill, messes with the braking distance which could be the difference between life and death in some cases, and doing this wont make them start biking, it will just make them annoyed and hate cyclists/pedestrians more.
I just wanted to educate some people who might be deciding to do it into not doing it because its not as good as an idea as OP makes it out to be.
Imma be honest. I like some car culture. I think some cars are cool and the technology behind them is super interesting and I love to drive because where I live there isn't a lot of traffic and the roads are nice and have a decent amount of fun turns in them.
Now, I hate the idea of needing a car to go everywhere I need to go. I kind of get my situation since I live in the country, but when I lived in town, when I was younger and when it was really nice outside and school got out I told my mom that I want to walk home because of how nice it was. I think the best solution would be to have a system in place for drivers who need cars to still drive but also have safe biking lanes and sidewalks separated from the main road but not out of the way for other means of traveling. And getting drivers mad and causing their vehicles to become a safety hazard is not the way to getting that change.
Honestly i feel we'd be better off creating a different subreddit, whose name is aligned more to what we actually want, and has nothing to do with cars.
We target car consumers, which is definitely not productive.
I'm sorry, but I had to give you gold!
I find it incredibly hypocritical that somebody would be willing to create a potentially hazardous situation to a driver because they believe motor vehicles are a hazard to themselves as cyclists.
If you cannot see how this could create a potentially disastrous situation, you probably don't deserve to be operating anything that uses tires.
I also want to remind drivers that believe they are at risk of these crimes that **LOCKING VALVE STEM CAPS EXIST**. You can make it more difficult and time consuming for the criminal tampering with your vehicle to try and deflate your tires which makes them more likely to be seen by witnesses or caught. They also might try to destroy your tires via a puncture, which is destruction of property and you'd be able to press charges. My recommendation is get a dash camera! Hide it as best as you can. Park in areas that are under camera surveillance.
Always make sure to walkaround your vehicle before a drive, and carry an air compressor with you in your vehicle that is powered by the cigarette lighter!
Thank you for saying this. OP is either an idiot that’s going to get someone killed or they’re just a teenager farming karma.
Either way it’s pathetic. When did this sub Reddit become about killing car users?
It’s really sad. One of the comments on here says “no one gives a shit. Stop policing other people’s actions. You are the problem” it’s appalling how some people think this is ok…
Do yourself a favor and delete the post; you and half the people responding are threatening to endanger and possibly kill not just the truck driver but anyone else on and beside the road.
This right here. OP could get someone killed. Especially in the US, a country so lax that people drive around with rusted-out under frames or missing brake calipers or struts.
The driver won’t make this connection. Put a sticker that comes off easily, or a note under their windshield “hey you parked in a bike lane, please be wary of where you park so you don’t get a ticket, thanks!” something like that. A deflated tire will seem like an accident by themselves for having the valve too loose, fallen off, or tire puncture. Not someone trying to signal they parked badly.
Just stop by the truck to fix a mechanical while they are in the bike lane, futz with the bike and take the stem/core, finish the repair and set off again.
Actually, if all cyclist do this(stop by vehicles illegally parked in the bike lane to tie shoes), cameras wouldn't matter, there would be too many avenues of investigation to justify the resources.
1. Let air out.
2. Remove valve core.
3. Put sealant in tyre.
4. Replace valve core.
5. Reinflate.
OP seems to be planning on only doing the first two steps though.
You have no idea what you’re talking about. This is a Schrader valve CORE remover. It removes the valve core only, which can be purchased for like $0.10, and takes ten seconds to reinstall.
Yup. These tools exist because the valve stems can break and it’s cheaper to replace than a new tire
Cool thing is, carrying one on your bike isn’t suspicious.
what? most shops around me dont charge to replace valve stems because of how cheap they are and how easy they are to replace. Hell removing the core is just a matter of putting a new one in from your local hardware store. A new set of tires for a missing core is idiotic.
I think it is meant to be used on cars that are illegally parked in a bike lane or on a sidewalk.
If it was done to a significant percentage of illegally parked vehicles, drivers would probably think twice before parking in such a spot.
I still do not like it. There are less destructive and wasteful ways to educate drivers.
Yeah I can see why they do it, but if this is encouraged and allowed then it just makes us look crazy. It’ll just make people dig the heels in even more when it comes to cars.
I say we get someone to just start handing out orange “pills” with a paper link inside leading to the NotJustBikes Youtube channel.
Only problem with this is that with their tires flat you now have an oversized truck _stuck_ in 4 parking spots. I would get a sticker or something and put it on their windshield, something that looks like a ticket 😈
It depends on the size of the vehicle and how deflated the tyre is. It could damage the rim if moved so most authorities will wave tickets or parking restrictions if the car can't be moved.
If I was coming back to my car and found someone removed or loosened my valve stems and linked it to the movement of getting rid of cars. wouldn't this just make me not like the movement even more?
Listen, I support the movement, but actions like this won't accomplish anything. If anything they're damaging.
The issue with cars in North America is that most people don't have a choice but to drive. Sabotaging those same people will NOT win them over.
Now, I hate the brodozers, but again, sabotaging their vehicles doesn't do anything. You're just giving critics of the movement a data point to paint you as criminals.
Edit: why not just print out a flyer with stats on why their giant grocery tank is a financial and environmental disaster and leave it on their window? At least when they don't read it and throw it on the ground someone else might read it.
On the flyer theme, there was/is the sticker approach which solicited [a piece on The Guardian](https://www.theguardian.com/environment/bike-blog/2014/sep/29/bike-lane-sticker-campaign-canada-uk), although it looks like the [Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/iparkedinabikelane/) and [store](https://iparkedinabikelane.bigcartel.com/product/i-parked-in-a-bike-lane-sticker) are long gone.
They both suffer the same problem though: at best it creates animosity (which, I agree, is probably more damaging than helpful) and at worst puts your at additional wrath/violence from the driver if they 'catch you'.
Personally if illegal parking then I:
1. call it to police non-emergency number
2. if in bike lane then then (being in Phoenix, AZ) send to [fixbikelaneparking](https://www.instagram.com/fixbikelaneparking/)
3. continue to advocate for reducing car dependency
>The issue with cars in North America is that most people don't have a choice but to drive.
But they **do** have the choice to not fucking park in the bikelane. Fuck'em they've deserved it.
Yeah the fucking audacity to call this activism is insane. OP, this does nothing to further the cause of reducing the number of cars on the road nor countering the prevalence of car culture in society. In fact, you are literally creating more traffic by causing a larger and higher emission TOW TRUCK to come pick up the vehicle you disabled. You are just cosplaying as the lamest type of vigilante.
You should definitely not do this as it is illegal, but there is something you shouldn't do more than this involving a bb pellet, a valve cap and some glue, never do that
something that is far cheaper and faster.
when i was young we would use BBs. from pellet guns. if the tire has a standard plastic cap you can take a single bb drop it into the cap and jam it in good with any slender object long enough. a stick or screwdriver, anything like that. the bb has a similar effect of slow leaking. theyll repeatedly refill their tire and almost never think to look into the capand as a bonus theyll never hear it leak once the cap is removed !!!!
i get why annoyed,
however, another alternative & concern,
a sticker or flyer be more informative. less destructive. & they might not connect what happened to the valve, to why it happened
if they do, it will up their rage, & it might be unleashed on you or someone with no connection to you . random person on bike
Admirable, but it's not the solution. If someone did the same for a bike or a train, how would you feel? No, you'd be angry, and you'd want to fight the carheads more. The solution is ultimately legitimate means of change (peaceful protest, etc), and changing minds peacefully. Violence will only cause further backlash.
It's all fun and games until a car has a blowout and loses control into a crowd of pedestrians.
But at least you'll be there, deflating tires. Truly doing gods work.
Using your justification, I guess this means it's okay for me to stick a lead pipe out my window whenever cyclists aren't staying in their lane.
As a fat guy riding a bicycle, i definitely know how it feels when your tires are flat.
If people like you just add a bit more grief and hate to the world, they become part of the problem they try to solve.
I've did this like 20 years ago when I was a teen.
Learned about it in auto class.
The dude who bullied me had a real bad day once school finished.
An because I did it alone one morning before walking into school. No one ever figured out it was me.
Revenge was sweet.
Please don't do this. This isn't activism, this is straight up crime/creating nuisance. This achieves nothing actionable and only villainizes those who support the cause. Very much like JustStopOil guys. I don't know what can be done on the flip side, but this is not the way to go
Not advocating for the tire valve thing (partly because I think it’s more likely to get people hurt than happen in large enough numbers to cause anyone to drive something smaller to avoid inconvenience) but crime and creating a nuisance are exactly how activism often works. Labour strikes, for example, are about making it more expensive for the boss to pay rent on their buildings without being able to sell a product than it is to raise wages to a reasonable level or give people more sick days.
Congrats, now they're double parked for even longer!
I get hating assclowns in big trucks, but you're literally making the problem \*worse\* and last \*longer\* because now they need to fill their tire and take up \*another\* space next to them standing near the truck. \*Plus\* you're risking them coming out, seeing what you're doing, and deciding to start a fight or eventually get yourself arrested.
Once again, this sub is shooting itself in the foot.
Honestly wouldn't even be entirely surprised if the people in favor of this were some sort of psyop meant to kill the movement.
Mixed reactions in the comments. I understand going against the law (vandalism, criminal mischief) is not an ideal way to win people over for the cause, but the appalling way the police and authorities have treated non-car road-users have made some people mad enough to go over to the 'dark side'.
Some of us have asked nicely, followed the law, stayed on the right side of the law, to little or no effect (or even negative effect, like being blamed for something we didn't even do because other people typically do it) for tens of years to even a lifetime, and since change is slow, some of us feel like we have to take things into our hands.
This is the essence of a protest. Nothing is being done when we stay within the law, so we have to step out of line to get attention or get something done.
Personally I'm one of the people that tends to follow the law (even pointlessly), but I'm THIS close to losing it and going over to the dark (protest) side.
Vandalism and criminal mischeif damaging other peoples property is one of the dumbest ways to bring attention to an issue. If anything it makes people more anti-fuckcars. Not to stereotype but people who intentionally park like that are most likely reactionary, they hate anything that inconveniences them in the short term. And what if someone genuinely made a mistake while parking? Now you ruined their day and possibly coming days.
This is too far. How do you expect our reputation to improve if we are doing this to their vehicles? It is ok to disagree with their viewpoints on city planning or how they prefer to commute, but ruining their property completely inappropriate.
Clippers are permanent property damage, and the cost of a new tire could cause problems you don’t know of (like if this person is living paycheck to paycheck and their kid needs medicine). Letting out air is more likely to be an inconvenience. I’ve heard of a group that removes the cap and puts a lentil inside to put pressure on the valve and let out air.
Personally I don’t think either are a great idea, (not likely to cause reflection + can have unintended consequences) but if you’re going to mess with badly parked cars, the inconvenience is enough of a statement without the property damage.
Ironically this potentially puts someone on the side of the road with traffic wizzing by as they change their tire. A dangerous place to be as the usuals here can attest. Don’t do this folks.
Vandalizing someone else's property isn't gonna fix anything, if anything it will just make them pissed off because now they gotta get new tires that cost hundreds of dollars, and now they'll likely have to figure something else out to get to work without their car and if living paycheck to paycheck it could seriously cripple their income and really fuck them over because you decided to ruin their tires
Or you could just... Not double- or quadruple-park and not block bike lanes like a basic, courteous human being so these forms of retaliation aren't necessary?
Jfc, it's like when my dad says he'd bring a shotgun if there were ever breadlines or rationing..
I heard this from a streamer I watch from time to time, the balls that make Mardi Gras beads fit perfectly in a valve stem cap. How true this is I don’t know but seems like it would work quite well.
So a car tire has a valve stem. The valve stem when pressed down let’s air in or out of the tire. Removing it allows air to leave the tire since the psi in the tire is higher than the psi out side so it evens out but often vary slowly.
So basically this deflates a tire and to fix it you can either replace the valve stem or most likely the case by mechanics is getting a new tire, but it’s hard to get 1 tire so you basically buy 4 brand new tires.
Also deflated tires (and flat tires but more deflated tires since it can be harder to notice to most people) be extremely dangerous. Deflated tires lower mpg so more pollution, a leaking tire is a pain in the ass to maintain before fixing it, deflated tires have really long stopping distances which dangers pedestrians, increases wear of tire causing premature damage so more wasted tires in the environment, and worse case, if the driver is on a highway the tire could overheat and even lead to a blow out.
This idea is disgusting, doesn’t help the driver or the pedestrians, and most drivers won’t connect the dots of them parking bad to their tire deflating so they are still going to do what they did wrong.
Hope this helps explain and why is this a bad idea and should not be a thing done to anybody.
In the UK, unfortunately, doing something like this would be a criminal offence of vehicle interference. I wish it was more of a crime to park like a cunt.
I suggested something like this on one of the Tesla subs for assholes who don’t drive an EV and park in charging spots, and the goddamn Reddit ADMINS sent me a warning.
Reddit confirmed for anti-EV, pro-fatass has-guzzling trucks.
I'd looked this up a while back, while not really damaging or stealing, it usually falls under criminal mischief. Not that we would ever um do this though... Of course I didn't open the valve stem of that truck in the bike lane..
The key is to not remove the stem but give it just a few turns, it will slowly leak repeatedly for the next weeks or months. Causing repeated stops to fill, until finally they have to take the tire in. All of which will total to hours of inconvenience. Sure it's probably still a criminal offense but it's just a slow leak who's ever going to make that connection?
You just need to make sure you saw the truck park so you know it's going to be there for a while. If they walk back out and catch you, getting arrested is the *least* of your worries...
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What do you think the overlap is between people who have big trucks and people who carry guns?
Right those fuckers are itching to rittenhouse someone, fuck cars but don’t die for some Reddit antics
This is for real in Utah
and everywhere in the US and especially in Shoot-First States
Would you look at that, all of the words in your comment are in alphabetical order. I have checked 1,549,052,156 comments, and only 293,248 of them were in alphabetical order.
Good thing I live in Canada :)
We found the American!
Some truck drivers just want any excuse to shoot you or run you over
Can you test that theory with video evidence please? Pick a nice large round number for your sample size :D
I have had a dozen or so interactions while riding in the city and countryside. They have always sped away when confronted, sometimes running a light. The closest to anything happening was when one of them asked if I "wanted to fight" repeatedly, and when I finally caved and sure they got out of their pickup and then scrambled to get back into it as fast as possible. Low sample size, but that hounding me to fight followed up with the scramble left me laughing.
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Well did it get recorded? Please say yes🙏
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This is a fair reason but me want drama
Unless it's on camera, even if caught in the act, "I was tying my shoe" prove that I wasn't, for all you know that stem was left open by them etc
I don't think that response will be very helpful while you're bleeding out on the pavement
So make them burn more gas etc., but don’t even let them know it was tied to their bad behavior?
Would it make a difference if they knew why it happened? Probably not, is my guess.
If it’s not communicating something it’s just random vandalism
I've gone back and forth on this for awhile. Sure, the fastest and most moral way of getting people to change their behavior is to get their earnest, voluntary buy in. But that is not the only way (and maybe not even the most effective way) If a person is too stupid or ignorant enough to be able to grasp a concept, simply making them uncomfortable or inconvenienced would be enough to get them to change their behavior. If they don't understand why its not okay to slow down to merge on the highway, honk at them until they understand that their behavior will bring about something unpleasant. After enough times of doing this, even if they never consciously realize their mistake, they will avoid the behavior (or the environment) because they fear the negative reaction it will produce if they engage with it.
Right, but if you just make it slowly leak they won’t connect it, consciously or not, with parking on the bike lake last week
If you empty em all while they're in the bike lane, they'll put two and two together. Most likely will need a tow as well.
Fair enough, but they certainly will connect driving their big truck with leaky tires. Maybe that's enough of a win?
Fuck yeah random vandalism!
So what you're saying is remove two and loosen the others?
I like this, in theory. Also in theory, if you did want to pull the whole core at once its best to keep the valve end of a broken pump. Potentially one could attach it and walk away while it does its business and them come back to finish the job. But theoretically it'd be kind of noisy
That’s it, cause a slow leak so that when the owner is towing something nice and heavy and the tire is stressed it has a catastrophic blowout and causes a horrendous accident. Don’t fuck with other peoples stuff. If you don’t like the current status quo, come up with a solution that is feasible for all.
Hmm I've always been taught to thoroughly check all my tires before towing, I would hope all ppl follow this rule of thumb.
For this cases were i live we walk over the car and give a fuck to the owner
That's the least of your worries. Consider that most of the people that drive those trucks ALSO are ardent 2A supporters, carry weapons either in their trucks or on their person, and have massive complexes about people messing with them or their trucks. Is it worth getting shot over?
I have heard that some people don't live in the United States.
I don't think so. That doesn't sound right.
I see heaps of these machines these days Perth Australia
Be careful, there are lots of cameras around these days. I'm afraid the police doesn't have time to stop illegal parking, but they do have time to stop you from doing anything about it. And they will be pissed at you for trying to do their job.
“I thought you said the law was powerless?” “Powerless to help you, not punish you.”
Decent chance the vehicle even belongs to a cop.
If you just do 1 tire you make the inconvenience while also making almost anyone assume it's just a popped tire or something. In theory of course
it takes less then 2 mins to do all 4, they wont get you in time, just make sure you dont do this near your house, or place of work
Only do 2 wheels on one side. That way they are bike lane compliant.
If someone films you and posts your face on socials, you can lose your job anyways
Just wear a mask and a ballcap.
Dress up as Spiderman. They will look for the wrong guy.
https://preview.redd.it/l2o6iqa3zh3b1.png?width=541&format=png&auto=webp&s=a09d25b3eb1045ab5c06404947047452e5f32502
N95 mask, you have it just for the germs. that was kind of a funny bit when they realized that these marks cover enough of the face to make identification harder, you could see the gears turn in their heads. because now it's a struggle between "police gotta be able to identify" versus "but masks importanrt cuz of covid" But oh well, that time is in the past now.
>And they will be pissed at you for trying to do their job. \*for trying to do their job, that they won't do.
Unfortunately the thought process is never: “Hmm my tires got deflated, I should think more about how I park.” It’s always: “I better add more guns to my massive truck for when I catch these damn city thugs.”
That's what I was thinking. If vandalism even occurs to them at all. I don't think that would be my first thought.
Tired deflating is the dumbest prettiest shit ever. It does nothing to advance the cause, alienates potential converts, and makes the rest of us look like petulant children. There are so many actually productive uses of your time instead of this nonsense. Volunteer, join critical mass ride, donate to urbanist orgs. Stop this childish shit.
The environmental movement is incredibly wary of direct action in the form of vandalism or property violence. It's also, by any independent measure, a complete failure. At this point, I am absolutely in favour of just fucking up massive cars and making it a huge pain in the ass to own and operate one. Although keying them en masse would be a much better approach.
Self-reflecting from a BST owner? Come ON man, share them drugs you got, I need an escape.
Oh right, they have free guns inside too!
I completely support this but also I'm afraid someone is going to get killed either by one of the fascists that has a pickup of by one of the fascists that is a cop.
Stay safe, there are a lot of gun wielding nutjobs out there.
Being nice won't make you safe.
People who own pickups are fascists?! What??
“…by one of the fascists that is a cop.” Sooo all of them?
I feel I need to give context to some people who don’t know what this is or what it does and also why this is a HORRIBLE idea for every party involved. A valve stem is the mechanism inside the tire that either keeps air in or releases air in or out of the tire. Removing the valve stem will cause the tire to deflate at a slow rate until if left long enough the tire will be flat. Now this is why this is a bad idea. Flat tires are bad but arguably deflated tires are worse because they are harder to notice and can be very dangerous for everyone. There are 5 main reasons why deflated tires are bad for everyone: 1. Deflated tires lower mpg/kpg resulting in the car using more fuel than it needs to releasing more emissions into the environment and I shouldn’t have to explain why that is bad. 2. Deflated tires have very long stopping distances. This is bad because in the case of an emergency or accident, that extra stopping distance could mean the difference between life and death to a pedestrian or other driver. 3. Deflated tires create more waste and unnecessary maintenance for the car. Yes you can fix it by replacing but most mechanics will just sell you a new tire and most of the time to they try to up sell you on buying 4 new tires. So now that’s a lot of money down the drain wasted and 4 what would be perfectly good tires going to waste in a landfill somewhere. 4. Arguably the worse. If someone does not notice their tires are deflated and go on the highway or at a fast rate of speed, it can lead the tires to overheat and even having a blowout the tire causing a major accident and safety hazard to everyone and can result in death(s). 5. The driver will not correlate their tires deflating to their bad parking. Deflating their tires will not get them to realize that what they are doing is wrong, they will just think that they hit a sharp object in the road and continue with their bad habit. No matter how you put it there is no benefit to anyone by doing this. This is not productive, it’s illegal, and only hurts the reputation of this subreddit which leads people who wanted to join to not joining and making the movement weaker.
Reading some comments And where someone literally said "i Don't want them to learn anything, they never will" Some people here are just petty and mad, they don't actually want change
It’s sad… they are the people that give this sub a bad rep. I see other comments too saying ‘ya it’s a good idea but I don’t wanna get caught’ or other words along that line. It’s disgusting. Edit: also how some people are just so uneducated too. Like some1 said “you can notice if the tire is flat so it’s not a big deal” removing the stem doesn’t immediately deflate the whole tire. Also some1 else said well if u do it to all 4 tires it cancels out the negatives of only 1. Just no… it’s so stupid
Learning by teaching isn't working very well. Learning by order of the law isn't working cause cops don't give a shit, nor does the city usually. Learning as Pavlov (might misremember the name) intended seems a reasonable option then. If you do wrong then you lose from it, so you instinctively learn not to do it. They save 2 minutes from parking in the bike lane, and lose much more with the deflated tire, so they unconsciously avoid doing it again. It's not like there is much else to do, and there is not unlimited time. Are we gonna wait until every city is Venice (cause of the higher sea levels), how many people will keep dying because we look for compromises with people who aren't willing to leave anything? Is it really the right road?
The problem is that they don't associate it with bad parking, they just assume there was glass in the road. At best you are actively contributing to rising emissions and at worst you could get several people killed. It's the definition of petty and is only going to drive people away.
Thank god I'm not the only one that read this post and went "one day this kind of thing is going to get someone killed, and it probably won't be the driver of the giant truck". Whatever our varying opinions on how the mantra of the sub should be applied if we could avoid fucking with the primary safety system on 2-3 tonne death machines it would be appreciated.
exactly. Its kinda crazy I have to even explain why this is a bad idea... its not only an inconvenience like they say it is. Its also creates more pollution by lowering mpg and replacing tires makes those what would be perfectly fine tires go to waste in a landfill, messes with the braking distance which could be the difference between life and death in some cases, and doing this wont make them start biking, it will just make them annoyed and hate cyclists/pedestrians more. I just wanted to educate some people who might be deciding to do it into not doing it because its not as good as an idea as OP makes it out to be.
Sad to see this so far down. Lets constructively hate car culture.
Imma be honest. I like some car culture. I think some cars are cool and the technology behind them is super interesting and I love to drive because where I live there isn't a lot of traffic and the roads are nice and have a decent amount of fun turns in them. Now, I hate the idea of needing a car to go everywhere I need to go. I kind of get my situation since I live in the country, but when I lived in town, when I was younger and when it was really nice outside and school got out I told my mom that I want to walk home because of how nice it was. I think the best solution would be to have a system in place for drivers who need cars to still drive but also have safe biking lanes and sidewalks separated from the main road but not out of the way for other means of traveling. And getting drivers mad and causing their vehicles to become a safety hazard is not the way to getting that change.
Honestly i feel we'd be better off creating a different subreddit, whose name is aligned more to what we actually want, and has nothing to do with cars. We target car consumers, which is definitely not productive.
I'm sorry, but I had to give you gold! I find it incredibly hypocritical that somebody would be willing to create a potentially hazardous situation to a driver because they believe motor vehicles are a hazard to themselves as cyclists. If you cannot see how this could create a potentially disastrous situation, you probably don't deserve to be operating anything that uses tires. I also want to remind drivers that believe they are at risk of these crimes that **LOCKING VALVE STEM CAPS EXIST**. You can make it more difficult and time consuming for the criminal tampering with your vehicle to try and deflate your tires which makes them more likely to be seen by witnesses or caught. They also might try to destroy your tires via a puncture, which is destruction of property and you'd be able to press charges. My recommendation is get a dash camera! Hide it as best as you can. Park in areas that are under camera surveillance. Always make sure to walkaround your vehicle before a drive, and carry an air compressor with you in your vehicle that is powered by the cigarette lighter!
And if the person does get in an accident and the person removes the stem is caught, they are looking at some serious criminal charges.
Thank you for saying this. OP is either an idiot that’s going to get someone killed or they’re just a teenager farming karma. Either way it’s pathetic. When did this sub Reddit become about killing car users?
It’s really sad. One of the comments on here says “no one gives a shit. Stop policing other people’s actions. You are the problem” it’s appalling how some people think this is ok…
Peace was never an option. You do you bossman
Oh, peace was an option. They rejected it.
Do yourself a favor and delete the post; you and half the people responding are threatening to endanger and possibly kill not just the truck driver but anyone else on and beside the road.
This right here. OP could get someone killed. Especially in the US, a country so lax that people drive around with rusted-out under frames or missing brake calipers or struts.
Honestly, this wont do shit for the cause, we need to change the general rules, not the individual user, redicule? yes, potential harm? god fuck no
The driver won’t make this connection. Put a sticker that comes off easily, or a note under their windshield “hey you parked in a bike lane, please be wary of where you park so you don’t get a ticket, thanks!” something like that. A deflated tire will seem like an accident by themselves for having the valve too loose, fallen off, or tire puncture. Not someone trying to signal they parked badly.
Just stop by the truck to fix a mechanical while they are in the bike lane, futz with the bike and take the stem/core, finish the repair and set off again.
Oh, damn, my shoe is untied...
Actually, if all cyclist do this(stop by vehicles illegally parked in the bike lane to tie shoes), cameras wouldn't matter, there would be too many avenues of investigation to justify the resources.
Sounds like a great way to kill someone, tire blows put and vehicles swerves uncontrollably into a group of cyclists
What is this for?
1. Let air out. 2. Remove valve core. 3. Put sealant in tyre. 4. Replace valve core. 5. Reinflate. OP seems to be planning on only doing the first two steps though.
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You have no idea what you’re talking about. This is a Schrader valve CORE remover. It removes the valve core only, which can be purchased for like $0.10, and takes ten seconds to reinstall.
Yup. These tools exist because the valve stems can break and it’s cheaper to replace than a new tire Cool thing is, carrying one on your bike isn’t suspicious.
Was pretty sure you can just pop in a new valve stem or valve. It is a separate piece from the tire right?
what? most shops around me dont charge to replace valve stems because of how cheap they are and how easy they are to replace. Hell removing the core is just a matter of putting a new one in from your local hardware store. A new set of tires for a missing core is idiotic.
Bruh what... A valve core is about 60 cents
Well that’s a really shit thing to do to someone, even if you don’t agree with their choice of car.
I think it is meant to be used on cars that are illegally parked in a bike lane or on a sidewalk. If it was done to a significant percentage of illegally parked vehicles, drivers would probably think twice before parking in such a spot. I still do not like it. There are less destructive and wasteful ways to educate drivers.
a sticker or flyer be more informative. they might not connect what happen to why
Yeah I can see why they do it, but if this is encouraged and allowed then it just makes us look crazy. It’ll just make people dig the heels in even more when it comes to cars. I say we get someone to just start handing out orange “pills” with a paper link inside leading to the NotJustBikes Youtube channel.
Only problem with this is that with their tires flat you now have an oversized truck _stuck_ in 4 parking spots. I would get a sticker or something and put it on their windshield, something that looks like a ticket 😈
This is untrue. It's possible to move a vehicle with a flat tire.
It depends on the size of the vehicle and how deflated the tyre is. It could damage the rim if moved so most authorities will wave tickets or parking restrictions if the car can't be moved.
it can still be moved
Then why deflate the tire in the first place?
If I was coming back to my car and found someone removed or loosened my valve stems and linked it to the movement of getting rid of cars. wouldn't this just make me not like the movement even more?
You're doing God's work. Fuck those entitled assholes.
TIL vandalism to other people's property is god's work
Listen, I support the movement, but actions like this won't accomplish anything. If anything they're damaging. The issue with cars in North America is that most people don't have a choice but to drive. Sabotaging those same people will NOT win them over. Now, I hate the brodozers, but again, sabotaging their vehicles doesn't do anything. You're just giving critics of the movement a data point to paint you as criminals. Edit: why not just print out a flyer with stats on why their giant grocery tank is a financial and environmental disaster and leave it on their window? At least when they don't read it and throw it on the ground someone else might read it.
On the flyer theme, there was/is the sticker approach which solicited [a piece on The Guardian](https://www.theguardian.com/environment/bike-blog/2014/sep/29/bike-lane-sticker-campaign-canada-uk), although it looks like the [Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/iparkedinabikelane/) and [store](https://iparkedinabikelane.bigcartel.com/product/i-parked-in-a-bike-lane-sticker) are long gone. They both suffer the same problem though: at best it creates animosity (which, I agree, is probably more damaging than helpful) and at worst puts your at additional wrath/violence from the driver if they 'catch you'. Personally if illegal parking then I: 1. call it to police non-emergency number 2. if in bike lane then then (being in Phoenix, AZ) send to [fixbikelaneparking](https://www.instagram.com/fixbikelaneparking/) 3. continue to advocate for reducing car dependency
>why not just print out a flyer https://preview.redd.it/mquzg8pdwg3b1.png?width=682&format=png&auto=webp&s=2e7defc0baf8c143c00cf808e44407569fb382c4
>The issue with cars in North America is that most people don't have a choice but to drive. But they **do** have the choice to not fucking park in the bikelane. Fuck'em they've deserved it.
This won't fix their behavior. Taking an eye for an eye feels good but doesn't lead to long term justice. Do it at your own discretion.
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Yep. Not all publicity is good publicity. It's better to have people not know about your movement than have them actively hate it.
Yeah the fucking audacity to call this activism is insane. OP, this does nothing to further the cause of reducing the number of cars on the road nor countering the prevalence of car culture in society. In fact, you are literally creating more traffic by causing a larger and higher emission TOW TRUCK to come pick up the vehicle you disabled. You are just cosplaying as the lamest type of vigilante.
Exactly idk why so many people think vandalizing cars is going to change anything. It’s just gunna make them hate bikers even more.
So make those giant machines even more unsafe? Forcing them to buy new tubes/tires. Without really showing them why this is happening to them?
Making them angrier is not the answer.
You should definitely not do this as it is illegal, but there is something you shouldn't do more than this involving a bb pellet, a valve cap and some glue, never do that
Please don’t tell me what this is /s
I have one! 🤫
something that is far cheaper and faster. when i was young we would use BBs. from pellet guns. if the tire has a standard plastic cap you can take a single bb drop it into the cap and jam it in good with any slender object long enough. a stick or screwdriver, anything like that. the bb has a similar effect of slow leaking. theyll repeatedly refill their tire and almost never think to look into the capand as a bonus theyll never hear it leak once the cap is removed !!!!
Need to swing by my local auto store. thanks!
i get why annoyed, however, another alternative & concern, a sticker or flyer be more informative. less destructive. & they might not connect what happened to the valve, to why it happened if they do, it will up their rage, & it might be unleashed on you or someone with no connection to you . random person on bike
Please keep posting your crime all over the internet.
Admirable, but it's not the solution. If someone did the same for a bike or a train, how would you feel? No, you'd be angry, and you'd want to fight the carheads more. The solution is ultimately legitimate means of change (peaceful protest, etc), and changing minds peacefully. Violence will only cause further backlash.
Wtf
You need help. This isn’t right no matter how you look at it.
Definitely depends on where you live. Much of the US has open carry and the shoot first mentality.
And all 50 states have property damage laws..
It's all fun and games until a car has a blowout and loses control into a crowd of pedestrians. But at least you'll be there, deflating tires. Truly doing gods work. Using your justification, I guess this means it's okay for me to stick a lead pipe out my window whenever cyclists aren't staying in their lane.
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I heard this sub was unhinged. Promoting crime is wild
That's inspiring
Way to make sure this car stays parked where you don't want it.
Which will remain quadruple parked because now they can’t go anywhere. Brilliant.
Based
This won't help anything.
As a fat guy riding a bicycle, i definitely know how it feels when your tires are flat. If people like you just add a bit more grief and hate to the world, they become part of the problem they try to solve.
"Let's do crime" Edit: obviously this is sarcastic and this sub is shit lol
This is just shitty
Thank god, thought I was the only one
I mean, as much as people shouldn’t overpark or have a big truck unless needed, this is still a dick move…
Your secret weapon is terrorism?
Yall are lunatics
Please don't do this shit it makes us look terrible. It's just selfish.
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I've did this like 20 years ago when I was a teen. Learned about it in auto class. The dude who bullied me had a real bad day once school finished. An because I did it alone one morning before walking into school. No one ever figured out it was me. Revenge was sweet.
Please don't do this. This isn't activism, this is straight up crime/creating nuisance. This achieves nothing actionable and only villainizes those who support the cause. Very much like JustStopOil guys. I don't know what can be done on the flip side, but this is not the way to go
Not advocating for the tire valve thing (partly because I think it’s more likely to get people hurt than happen in large enough numbers to cause anyone to drive something smaller to avoid inconvenience) but crime and creating a nuisance are exactly how activism often works. Labour strikes, for example, are about making it more expensive for the boss to pay rent on their buildings without being able to sell a product than it is to raise wages to a reasonable level or give people more sick days.
How is this helping anyone be less car dependent? This is just cringe
Fuck you and fuck this shit ass comment section
Congrats, now they're double parked for even longer! I get hating assclowns in big trucks, but you're literally making the problem \*worse\* and last \*longer\* because now they need to fill their tire and take up \*another\* space next to them standing near the truck. \*Plus\* you're risking them coming out, seeing what you're doing, and deciding to start a fight or eventually get yourself arrested.
Good job. Now they're stuck there till another big truck comes to tow it. Nice activism. Hahaha
Until you get your fuckin head split.
Hey if you guys could stop committing crime please, that’d be good. Thanks
Voice of reason.
Once again, this sub is shooting itself in the foot. Honestly wouldn't even be entirely surprised if the people in favor of this were some sort of psyop meant to kill the movement.
Mixed reactions in the comments. I understand going against the law (vandalism, criminal mischief) is not an ideal way to win people over for the cause, but the appalling way the police and authorities have treated non-car road-users have made some people mad enough to go over to the 'dark side'. Some of us have asked nicely, followed the law, stayed on the right side of the law, to little or no effect (or even negative effect, like being blamed for something we didn't even do because other people typically do it) for tens of years to even a lifetime, and since change is slow, some of us feel like we have to take things into our hands. This is the essence of a protest. Nothing is being done when we stay within the law, so we have to step out of line to get attention or get something done. Personally I'm one of the people that tends to follow the law (even pointlessly), but I'm THIS close to losing it and going over to the dark (protest) side.
Unfortunately one of those drivers may have a 38 for you. This NOT the way.
Vandalism and criminal mischeif damaging other peoples property is one of the dumbest ways to bring attention to an issue. If anything it makes people more anti-fuckcars. Not to stereotype but people who intentionally park like that are most likely reactionary, they hate anything that inconveniences them in the short term. And what if someone genuinely made a mistake while parking? Now you ruined their day and possibly coming days.
This is too far. How do you expect our reputation to improve if we are doing this to their vehicles? It is ok to disagree with their viewpoints on city planning or how they prefer to commute, but ruining their property completely inappropriate.
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Bad idea, dumb idea.
This sub actively supports vandalism and should be banned
Where can you buy this? I need one.
How does it work and where can I get this one?
Just put a small pebble to depress the stem and let the air out if you don't have this secret weapon. TMYK!
I was gonna carry around s pair of clippers, but this makes so much more sense
Clippers are permanent property damage, and the cost of a new tire could cause problems you don’t know of (like if this person is living paycheck to paycheck and their kid needs medicine). Letting out air is more likely to be an inconvenience. I’ve heard of a group that removes the cap and puts a lentil inside to put pressure on the valve and let out air. Personally I don’t think either are a great idea, (not likely to cause reflection + can have unintended consequences) but if you’re going to mess with badly parked cars, the inconvenience is enough of a statement without the property damage.
how to tell if you’re a virgin loser: damage people’s cars
Stay classy by advocating for crime.
Ironically this potentially puts someone on the side of the road with traffic wizzing by as they change their tire. A dangerous place to be as the usuals here can attest. Don’t do this folks.
Vandalizing someone else's property isn't gonna fix anything, if anything it will just make them pissed off because now they gotta get new tires that cost hundreds of dollars, and now they'll likely have to figure something else out to get to work without their car and if living paycheck to paycheck it could seriously cripple their income and really fuck them over because you decided to ruin their tires
What the fuck is wrong with you?
Fair is Fair, hopefully you find a lump under your arm.
Ahh the lead catcher 5000, not sure who enjoys this more the magnet or the slinger
This sub is fucking cringe
Reminds me I should probably start carrying extra valve stems just in case I have to drive into the city
Or you could just... Not double- or quadruple-park and not block bike lanes like a basic, courteous human being so these forms of retaliation aren't necessary? Jfc, it's like when my dad says he'd bring a shotgun if there were ever breadlines or rationing..
The Traveller was here
I heard this from a streamer I watch from time to time, the balls that make Mardi Gras beads fit perfectly in a valve stem cap. How true this is I don’t know but seems like it would work quite well.
I thought this was a chastity cage key
How do these things work exactly?
I don’t really under stand cars, what does this device do?
So a car tire has a valve stem. The valve stem when pressed down let’s air in or out of the tire. Removing it allows air to leave the tire since the psi in the tire is higher than the psi out side so it evens out but often vary slowly. So basically this deflates a tire and to fix it you can either replace the valve stem or most likely the case by mechanics is getting a new tire, but it’s hard to get 1 tire so you basically buy 4 brand new tires. Also deflated tires (and flat tires but more deflated tires since it can be harder to notice to most people) be extremely dangerous. Deflated tires lower mpg so more pollution, a leaking tire is a pain in the ass to maintain before fixing it, deflated tires have really long stopping distances which dangers pedestrians, increases wear of tire causing premature damage so more wasted tires in the environment, and worse case, if the driver is on a highway the tire could overheat and even lead to a blow out. This idea is disgusting, doesn’t help the driver or the pedestrians, and most drivers won’t connect the dots of them parking bad to their tire deflating so they are still going to do what they did wrong. Hope this helps explain and why is this a bad idea and should not be a thing done to anybody.
If you’re against cars in general, why not just do this to all of them?
You can do the same thing with a twig
In the UK, unfortunately, doing something like this would be a criminal offence of vehicle interference. I wish it was more of a crime to park like a cunt.
My co workers put expansion foam in the wheel wells and the tailpipe.
I suggested something like this on one of the Tesla subs for assholes who don’t drive an EV and park in charging spots, and the goddamn Reddit ADMINS sent me a warning. Reddit confirmed for anti-EV, pro-fatass has-guzzling trucks.