Hmm. How can I start this thread without trying to sound like I am starting a fight? Discussion, communication, those are both good things.
Anyway, I'm a cyclist. I cycle backwards and forwards a couple of miles to work. I have to constantly fight against motorists who don't give you the time of day, treat me like crap, try to drive me off the side of the road, deliberately drive close to the curb to stop cyclists passing. Parking on cycle paths. Pulling out in front of me (or just blatantly ignoring me). I almost got hit by some old lady the other day, I checked both ways, no traffic for about 20 seconds, pull out, she deliberately pulls out in front of me and I have to jam my breaks on hard to not get knocked over. She just looks at me as to say "bur"... totally gormless.
My general opinions of motorists and their cars : spend thousands of pounds on petrol guzzling, over the top metal boxes, which you seem to think are "super high technology" despite being invented > 100 years ago and pretty much having a minimum of 35-50% of the main functionality being identical. Most of the problems that motorists have are due to being totally self-centred - they could take public transport or cycle, but either its not convenient to them or they simply prefer to drive. And so they all compete against each for extremely limited road space.
My absolute pet peeve are those middle aged fat guys/women with bad attitude driving around in their expensive car, trying to blast everyone out of the way and wondering why, when they are 1 person in a 15k car, there is so much traffic on the road. Of course, I highly doubt they could cycle a kilometer without having a heart attack, but hey, fat is all the rage in middle age it seems.
I for one, would hate to drive in Brighton. It is *absolutely* chock full of cars. The roads were designed for horses and carts, for petes sake!
So, for the future :
More people = more cars = more pollution, congestion and waste. This is not sustainable. I say, ban all personal cars from the main roads around cities, and implement some sort of secondary infrastructure. How badly this affects businesses relying on the infrastructure for deliveries etc, I will never know.
Now, I have chatted to a lot of people, and the situation looks like this. The opinions I have expressed above seem to ring true of most cyclists. The other view, that of the motorists, seem to be pure hate of cyclists, get off the roads, pay some tax why don't you, try carrying heavy shopping why don't you, etc etc which I have also heard before. Most of these views are that cyclists are an inconvenience, an annoyance, to motorists. Not that the motorists themselves are an issue, that they compete with each other every. Single. Rush hour. You don't get 15 mile hold backs of bicycles.
There *must* be some compromise. I am well aware that motorists are people, cyclists are people, and we all need to get around. It also hasn't helped that trains have stopped cyclists taking their bikes in peak times now... meaning more people are going to turn to their cars when they don't want to walk a couple of miles when they arrive after commuting.
/meh braindump
/mental note to self, structure things properly in future
Anyway, I'm a cyclist. I cycle backwards and forwards a couple of miles to work. I have to constantly fight against motorists who don't give you the time of day, treat me like crap, try to drive me off the side of the road, deliberately drive close to the curb to stop cyclists passing. Parking on cycle paths. Pulling out in front of me (or just blatantly ignoring me). I almost got hit by some old lady the other day, I checked both ways, no traffic for about 20 seconds, pull out, she deliberately pulls out in front of me and I have to jam my breaks on hard to not get knocked over. She just looks at me as to say "bur"... totally gormless.
My general opinions of motorists and their cars : spend thousands of pounds on petrol guzzling, over the top metal boxes, which you seem to think are "super high technology" despite being invented > 100 years ago and pretty much having a minimum of 35-50% of the main functionality being identical. Most of the problems that motorists have are due to being totally self-centred - they could take public transport or cycle, but either its not convenient to them or they simply prefer to drive. And so they all compete against each for extremely limited road space.
My absolute pet peeve are those middle aged fat guys/women with bad attitude driving around in their expensive car, trying to blast everyone out of the way and wondering why, when they are 1 person in a 15k car, there is so much traffic on the road. Of course, I highly doubt they could cycle a kilometer without having a heart attack, but hey, fat is all the rage in middle age it seems.
I for one, would hate to drive in Brighton. It is *absolutely* chock full of cars. The roads were designed for horses and carts, for petes sake!
So, for the future :
More people = more cars = more pollution, congestion and waste. This is not sustainable. I say, ban all personal cars from the main roads around cities, and implement some sort of secondary infrastructure. How badly this affects businesses relying on the infrastructure for deliveries etc, I will never know.
Now, I have chatted to a lot of people, and the situation looks like this. The opinions I have expressed above seem to ring true of most cyclists. The other view, that of the motorists, seem to be pure hate of cyclists, get off the roads, pay some tax why don't you, try carrying heavy shopping why don't you, etc etc which I have also heard before. Most of these views are that cyclists are an inconvenience, an annoyance, to motorists. Not that the motorists themselves are an issue, that they compete with each other every. Single. Rush hour. You don't get 15 mile hold backs of bicycles.
There *must* be some compromise. I am well aware that motorists are people, cyclists are people, and we all need to get around. It also hasn't helped that trains have stopped cyclists taking their bikes in peak times now... meaning more people are going to turn to their cars when they don't want to walk a couple of miles when they arrive after commuting.
/meh braindump
/mental note to self, structure things properly in future
![[TW]Fox](/data/man-of-honor/2009.png){kind=avatar}
