Advocacy & Safety - Upside Down World

Otherwise called the Bizarro World in Superman comics...


One of our readers, Sam, mentioned that an essay by the Uruguayen poet and writer Eduardo Galeano was required reading in his sustainable transportation class.

The essay is titled The Sacred Car and is in the book Upside Down - A Primer for the Looking-Glass World.

It's a fantastically eloquent and yet scathing attack on car culture. It starts with:

"Human rights pale beside the rights of machines. In more and more cities, especially in the giant metropolises of the South, people have been banned. Automobiles usurp human space, poison the air, and frequently murder the interlopers who invade their conquered territory - and no one lifts a finger to stop them. Is there a difference between violence that kills by car and that which kills by knife or bullet?"

The rest of the essay is just as to the point. I've never had anything in common with a respected Uruguayen - writer or otherwise - before but I'm pleased how his title The Sacred Car is reflected in the essay about The Sacred Bull in Society's China Shop.

Indeed, he writes in the essay that:

"I saw a cigarette ad in a magazine with the required public health warning: 'Tobacco smoke contains carbon monoxide.' But the same magazine has several car ads and not one of them warned that car exhaust, nearly always invisible, contains much more carbon monoxide. People can't smoke. Cars can."

We have a solution for the health warning labels on cars. We're just waiting for someone to finance our efforts... :-)

All in all the essay is refreshing in its tone and no-nonsense approach to contemplating the destructive road we're all travelling down.

Salon has a piece about the book which is worth reading: "Upside Down" by Eduardo Galeano. The author of "Memory of Fire" delivers a scathing, mischievous indictment of North America's hypocrisy and consumer culture.

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_kSNVKrktKUQ/S3U3Yy8gqgI/AAAAAAAAEk4/fSwJXO2CVg4/s400/upside+down+galeano.jpg

http://www.copenhagenize.com/2010/02/upside-down-sacred-car.html

Can you imagine a huge label on the sides of new autos...
Warning, the Surgeon General has determined that use of the automobile can be hazardous to your health...

http://www.trafficlife.com/images/page62.jpg
http://www.trafficlife.com/page31.html

http://www.trafficlife.com/images/page62.jpg
http://www.trafficlife.com/page31.html

BINGO! Now if they only said that in real life.

Well, cars do have their place; even in the Netherlands many people have cars. It's just that they're not driven that often, and when they are driven, it's usually to destinations far away and/or are being used to haul large quantities of stuff.

But yes, in terms of the pollution and such that cars cause, it's eminently reasonable to tax gasoline so that the revenue raised at least covers the cost of the roads. I wonder what level tax would do that (make the cost of the roads break-even with the gas tax).

copenhaganize.com has addressed this in it's Sacred Bull in a China Shop (http://www.copenhagenize.com/2009/10/sacred-bull-in-societys-china-shop.html) piece.


There's something I've been wondering about. I've noticed that the majority of traffic 'safety' campaigns seem to focus on everything except the bull in the china shop - the automobile...

Society has turned a blind eye to the bull. Even in traffic safety campaigns that employ scaremongering about car accidents, the focus is often on YOUR safety and that of the other passengers. Rarely the external problem of killing innocent people.

I think the point is relevant. Because motorists can create the most damage, the onus should be on the one motoring to act in a safer manner. I don't think it's enough to expect others to simply, get out of the way.

From a blog about our 3' passing bill:

Attention cyclists; we motorists are NOT responsible for your safety. Want to ride on roads or streets not wide enough for both you and motorized vehicles or ride on congested streets with motorized vehicles, YOU ASSUME THE RISKS. Stop crying for special protection laws. PAVED roads were made for high speed MOTORIZED vehicles, not slow-poke pedals.

To the Legislature: you are setting up an (un)civil war between cyclists and motorized traffic of which the motorized car or truck will ALWAYS win. Stop putting more and more obstacles in the path of motorized traffic. Move over for this, move over for that. Pretty soon we motorists will nowhere else to drive if you keep squeezing us further off the pavement.


http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/news/local/politics/2010/02/senate_wants_drivers_to_move_o.html#comment-5934902

Make sure you have the right agency. It's not the dept of health but the EPA

From a blog about our 3' passing bill:



http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/news/local/politics/2010/02/senate_wants_drivers_to_move_o.html#comment-5934902
Well, as long as I can shoot and kill motorists like they can kill bicyclists and pedestrians, then at least it would be fair.