I ebike regularly to work, but still far from everyday. 25km/15mi each way makes it a bit time consuming. But I live within walking distance of a grocery store, a gym, elementary, middle, & high school, multiple pharmacies, all sorts of medical facilities, multiple parks, cafes, restaurants, a transit station (that unfortunately doesn't actually get used except for rushhour, which is irrevelant for me), etc. Very little reason to drive outside of the commute here and things like trips to visit family. Still the infrastructure leaves some to be desired, but you don't even need a bike to get to most amenities in a reasonable time.
And I live in an area that is one of the most common go-to examples of car-centric infrastructure. Granted, much more sparsely populated suburbs do exist in the area as well.
I haven't had to take a driving test in over 20 years. Only once I had to take a multiple choice test on the meaning of various signs and you get three chances to pass it. It's absolutely absurd that they allow people to get their license at 16 and rarely have to retake a driving test.
The number of PSAs about not getting mowed down during Halloween was absurd. ‘Wear reflective vests’, ‘only cross the street in groups’ - and not a single ‘hey, it’s Halloween and there’s going to be excited kids everywhere - please avoid driving and if you have to, be super extra careful’.
My partner’s idea, which I thought was brilliant, was that the speed limit on all residential streets should be dropped to 20km/h for the day.
The speed limit on all residential streets should be at the very most 30km/h year round. Since I started active commuting every day, I’ve noticed how alarmingly scary it is going 50 when I do have to drive. Reaction times at that speed do not allow for the amount of braking distance required.
In one of those situations only someone in a long term relationship can understand my wife was upset as I was not worried that she may be dead when I wake up. Please don't ask me to explain these kinds of things. The main point is I was saying I was worried about her when she is off driving someplace as that is the most dangerous period of time.
It really annoys me when I see people on bicycles or e-scooters just browsing Twitter or whatever on their phones. At least people looking at their phones in cars have a steel box around them to protect them from their stupidity
Last i saw a racing-biker with about 40km/h... he had such handlebars where he can lean on it to lie almost on his bike... tipping on his smartphone...
I have always the urge to do a loud scream/shout...
Just claim sovereign immunity, bing boom, so simple. (I have no idea what the consequences of that owuld be, or what the legal outcome would look like.)
Attacking SUV drivers is precisely the wrong way to go about reversing the surrender of the public realm to the automobile and it is exactly the right way to start another immature culture war , alienating a lot of potential allies in the fight to reclaim out streets .
Exactly this. There are some clear use cases for cars and even for SUVs (possibly only if you literally live or work on a large farm). There’s no case for driving an SUV in a city. It’s antisocial behaviour at best and actively threatening at worst!
It makes the roads safer and that saves lives. It reduces pollution, saving more lives. It also saves space. That doesn’t save lives, granted, but it’s still a good thing.
If we accept any use cases for cars (and I do, personally), even if it’s primarily in the short to medium term while we build better urban infrastructure, then we should also advocate for those cars to be as small, as safe and as clean as possible.
A street filled with VW Golfs instead of Land rovers, still afforded the vast majority of space in town, still given priority at every turn and still transporting one or two people at a time, doesn’t move us much further forwards .
As is covered in the article, explaining the environmental impact of SUVs to SUV owners does not change their mind or encourage them to get a different car; it is effectively ignored.
So that is where ideas like the deflators come in, you make it more inconvenient, maybe that will work where polite discussion did not.
To be honest, I’m sick of trying to politely persuade people to stop killing other people with their idiotic cars. All cars are bad, yes. SUVs are the worst. It’s perfectly reasonable to try to solve a wicked problem by going for the worst offenders first.
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