Originally Posted by
Machka
Well thank goodness there aren't very many people with your attitude or no one would want to ride a bicycle ... or exercise ... or do much of anything
Unfortunately it is this very attitude that makes people avoid this forum ... and avoid the idea of being car-free or car-light. One can only hope your post is some kind of [very weird] joke.
Or if not ... do you consider yourself an abject failure? By your own comments (
I quote: "if you have made a commitment to yourself to be carfree, and then you use a car, then yes you have failed") ... you are. Is that really how you think of yourself?
Fortunately there is a much better approach ... the encouraging approach. Everyone has a choice of how they want to transport themselves from one point to another. Many times, using a motorised vehicle is the best choice, but if a person could walk/cycle or drive, and either method would work just as well ... and if that person chooses to walk/cycle for that particular trip ... great!
But they are not failures if they happen to choose to drive ... it's just simply a choice that they have made.
I would rather see people be encouraged to walk/cycle. Show them that walking or cycling to the shop, the tourist attraction, work, etc. is a good choice for various reasons.
But don't criticise and call them down if they don't make that choice. What a poor way to convince anyone to do something.
There seems to be a misunderstanding of the difference between failing to achieve a goal (or failing at a task) and being a failure. Was Edison a failure? Of course not, in spite of the many times he failed to succeed in his pursuit of an electric light. Failing at a task or while pursuing a goal is akin to learning to succeed. When one gives up, and thus fails no more, then one may be a failure, at least in terms of that task/goal. Truly being a failure would involve a much more widespread habit of quitting to the point of a character flaw. Your insistence that failing at a task is the same as being a failure is what is being perceived as negative, IMO.
Considering how few people in those countries that have English as the dominant language actually ride bikes, claiming that "going negative" would somehow keep the people who don't ride from riding is nonsensical at best. I agree with Roody that a public shaming campaign would be more effective than lollipops and flowers. In my home state of California, the state made some powerful anti-smoking ads that were incredibly negative, but so effective the tobacco industry sued to get them off the air. Car addictions kill hundreds of thousands of my fellow citizens every year. I think we are overdue for a bit of public shaming and education of the consequences of this deadly addiction.
That's not to say cars don't have a place. Just as opiates are great medicines that are deadly when abused, so it is with cars. They can be great tools, but, at least where I live, we tend to overuse them in ways that damage the environment, our economies and public health.