Advocacy & Safety - Would you Adam an Eve it!

Cockney rhyming slang - would you believe it.

The proposals by London Mayor Livingstone are going down like a ton of bricks.

see attached.Sense at last? (http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/uk/newsid_1841000/1841850.stm)

Can we make him Transport Minister for the whole of the UK ?

I hear there might be a vacancy on its way soon ;)

Richard

The area is less than 3 miles square. How much of a problem is it to walk to work, or take the tube or bike or bus?

To hear the fuss, you'd think what was suggested was a major civil rights issue.

They are talking about taking on an additional 200 buses for London each year for the next few. Let's hope they are clean fuel ones too.

If this were happening in the US I would applaud it wildly, with only one nagging reservation: how complicated it all is.

Radical that I am, I would propose a much simpler solution:

NO CARS IN THE CITY (in London). Same if in the US: NO CARS DOWNTOWN.

There are cities in Italy where they've experimented with NO CARS in the city center on certain days, and to much surprise the result was popular approval! Some citizens even suggested the number of days car-free should be expanded. They commented on how peaceful it was, and what a pleasure to be able to walk freely.

Ah, well. La dolce vita, non è vero? :)

Originally posted by JonR


NO CARS IN THE CITY (in London). Same if in the US: NO CARS DOWNTOWN.



Motor vehicles were by far the greatlest blight I encountered in Rome. All day and all night, the entire city sounds and smells like one big diesel engine, and I got a little tired of walking around the cars parked on the sidewalks.

Originally posted by JonR
There are cities in Italy where they've experimented with NO CARS in the city center on certain days, and to much surprise the result was popular approval! Some citizens even suggested the number of days car-free should be expanded. They commented on how peaceful it was, and what a pleasure to be able to walk freely.
Cars, when multiplied unchecked, remind one of a foul virus.

I wonder if the virus feels happy in its little cocoon, wreaking destruction upon its host?

I'll ask it again--why isn't some bicycling or alt-trans organization wrapping issues like this in the US flag and talking about keeping money away from people who don't like us?
We are traitors when we drive!

Originally posted by Feldman
I'll ask it again--why isn't some bicycling or alt-trans organization wrapping issues like this in the US flag and talking about keeping money away from people who don't like us?
We are traitors when we drive!

My guess would be the car lobby. Where would you possibly get this view expressed? On TV? Not with all the car ads they run. In the papers and magazines? Ditto. On highway billboards? Probably not, since they can charge more money if more cars pass the billboard.

Besides, the automobile is a very important part of what many people think of when they think of America and freedom. Anyone disparaging the automobile is seen as attacking America and freedom, no matter how reasonable the arguement.

And besides, isn't wrapping things (anything) in the flag a bit of a cop-out? "Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel," and all that.

I would go with local solutions. Try to convince friends and family to ride, walk, or take the bus instead of driving. Start with small trips and work your way up. People who see billboards and TV spots disparaging their main form of transportation will simply clam up.

andy

Since everybody's true patria, or homeland, is the Earth, you'd think true patriotism would include limiting use of environment-destroying motor cars with their deadly emissions.

But it ain't so, apparently. :(

Here you go Jon,

http://borgman.enquirer.com/weekly/daily_html/2001/10/100101borgman.html

Thanks, Ridealot! Great cartoon: I sent it to one of the few people I know who don't have an SUV.

Here's an example of the SUV as a symbol of freedom (http://www.moraldefense.com/ProTech/Philosophy/Essays/suv.htm) . It's things like this that you find yourself up against if you try to convince people that fuel-efficiency is patriotic.

andy

Originally posted by aturley
Here's an example of the SUV as a symbol of freedom (http://www.moraldefense.com/ProTech/Philosophy/Essays/suv.htm) . It's things like this that you find yourself up against if you try to convince people that fuel-efficiency is patriotic.

andy

Thanks for the link! :) I still have tears streaming down my cheeks from laughing so hard!

I just try to talk like a redneck when around my redneck neighbors--locking the beater bike up outside of Safeway, guy down the block says hi, getting ready for the Tour Day Frayance, I reply no, just keeping air clean and air-rabs poor! In some regions this is a reasonable strategy--don't talk clean and green about bicycling, talk about how cycling=Arabs without bomb-building money!

Originally posted by aturley
Here's an example of the SUV as a symbol of freedom (http://www.moraldefense.com/ProTech/Philosophy/Essays/suv.htm) . It's things like this that you find yourself up against if you try to convince people that fuel-efficiency is patriotic.

andy
Mr. Bragg ain't the brightest bulb in the box, is he?

Had a bit of a llok around the moraldefense website. Talk about the nexus of the loony right.

Here's a little gem "What no one has grasped yet is that capitalism is not just practical but also moral. Capitalism is the only system that fully allows and encourages the virtues necessary for human life. It is the only system that safeguards the freedom of the independent mind and recognizes the sanctity of the individual." 'Sanctity of the individual' indeed. Gimme a break.

It never ceases to amaze me what delusional rationalisations some people come up with to justify selfishness and greed. Doesn't this clown realise that these ideas work directly against building a cohesive and happy society, and, ironically enough, true capitalism?

See the whole hilarious article here. (http://www.moraldefense.com/Philosophy/Essays/The_Moral_Basis_of_Capitalism.htm)