Thoughtful and well-argued piece. I don't use a car, but don't think that all car owners are arseholes, maybe 5% are? More than that are positively nice, will flash their lights and wave you across the road ..
I disagree, it read more like a stream of thought on why public transport and walking sucks, followed up with why car driving is great, a short aside on how bicycle riding isn't even an option because it's dangerous, finished up by telling the readers "please do not @ me on this or any other point in this article"
I strongly agree with his conclusion about funding transit as loss-leaders. But take serious issue with the line "We also should retrofit proper separated cycle lanes into existing streets wherever this can be accommodated alongside existing traffic" - If you're couching such a goal as "we can't affect current vehicle traffic", you're not very serious about getting a functional bike network. Bike routes will only ever be as safe as their most dangerous leg.
> I don't use a car, but don't think that all car owners are arseholes, maybe 5% are?
Agree with you here, 5% of all road users (whether they be drivers, cyclists, or pedestrians) will be jerks, and unfortunately they are the ones who tend to be the most memorable - but 95% of people are just trying to get from A to B safely and efficiently.
I get what you mean, it's not a structured essay as one would write on a humanities course assignment, but I find that a breath of fresh air in these days of effort-free chatbot blandness ...
It just jumped out at me when reading the book, fabulous. I found a French translation (by François Rivenc) a few years ago, equally striking:
L'homme qui a nourri le poulet tous les jours de sa vie finit par lui tordre le cou, montrant par là qu'il eût été bien utile au dit poulet d'avoir une vision plus subtile de l'uniformité de la nature.
cars are expensive, annoying to maintain, require heaps of infrastructure, make something as simple as crossing a road difficult or sometimes dangerous, create tons of pollution of various kinds, and cause tons of deaths… there are lots of reasons outside of “car owners are arseholes”
I had to rent a car 4 times this week, first to move some large items to the recycling station, second to head to animal ER with my cat, third to go to an examination site out on the country side and last to see the vet for a followup.
I've decided to buy one, it'll be expensive but make life easier and most importantly I can get faster help for my pet.
Page isn't loading for me (got it working here https://archive.is/4ujvn), but as far as I can tell, no group is arseholes like that. It's usually that people can't correctly attribute things because they don't use intelligence to correctly load in characteristics. You'll see this in various online threads: "Of course it's a Nissan driver / Of course it's a Prius / Of course it's a German car". The attribution is nonsense. It's like getting mad at moustachioed men because you saw a documentary on Hitler and Stalin.
Listen, when I commuted every day in the Bay Area by motorcycle, you know what I most remember? Cars moving to the left of lane 1 to make it easy for me to split. When I'm driving? People switching lanes to clear the lane next to an exit-only lane so that others can merge in.
The world is full of good people and other people, and anyone who does this kind of incorrect attribution is obviously making unintelligent statements. The slicing goes a different way: all those guys who would make an allowance for me + me + others like me form Team A; and all those who try to cut off others or be dicks form Team B. And Team A members drive all sorts of vehicles.
One last thing, though. TfL does spray around buckets of cash, but has >1 farebox recovery ratio. So it's expensive, but it pays for itself. And it's a very efficient system, with daily/weekly/monthly maximums and entirely contactless. It's a wonderful system.
I will admit that bus services outside London can be absolute shite, though.
Readit News
I disagree, it read more like a stream of thought on why public transport and walking sucks, followed up with why car driving is great, a short aside on how bicycle riding isn't even an option because it's dangerous, finished up by telling the readers "please do not @ me on this or any other point in this article"
I strongly agree with his conclusion about funding transit as loss-leaders. But take serious issue with the line "We also should retrofit proper separated cycle lanes into existing streets wherever this can be accommodated alongside existing traffic" - If you're couching such a goal as "we can't affect current vehicle traffic", you're not very serious about getting a functional bike network. Bike routes will only ever be as safe as their most dangerous leg.
> I don't use a car, but don't think that all car owners are arseholes, maybe 5% are?
Agree with you here, 5% of all road users (whether they be drivers, cyclists, or pedestrians) will be jerks, and unfortunately they are the ones who tend to be the most memorable - but 95% of people are just trying to get from A to B safely and efficiently.
L'homme qui a nourri le poulet tous les jours de sa vie finit par lui tordre le cou, montrant par là qu'il eût été bien utile au dit poulet d'avoir une vision plus subtile de l'uniformité de la nature.
I had to rent a car 4 times this week, first to move some large items to the recycling station, second to head to animal ER with my cat, third to go to an examination site out on the country side and last to see the vet for a followup.
I've decided to buy one, it'll be expensive but make life easier and most importantly I can get faster help for my pet.
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Listen, when I commuted every day in the Bay Area by motorcycle, you know what I most remember? Cars moving to the left of lane 1 to make it easy for me to split. When I'm driving? People switching lanes to clear the lane next to an exit-only lane so that others can merge in.
The world is full of good people and other people, and anyone who does this kind of incorrect attribution is obviously making unintelligent statements. The slicing goes a different way: all those guys who would make an allowance for me + me + others like me form Team A; and all those who try to cut off others or be dicks form Team B. And Team A members drive all sorts of vehicles.
One last thing, though. TfL does spray around buckets of cash, but has >1 farebox recovery ratio. So it's expensive, but it pays for itself. And it's a very efficient system, with daily/weekly/monthly maximums and entirely contactless. It's a wonderful system.
I will admit that bus services outside London can be absolute shite, though.