Posts by BenWilson
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Stephen Judd, too true. You never notice the thousand lycra clad cyclists who don't get in your way, just the one who does.
However, one thing I do think adds to the danger factor of cycling is tiredness. People who are pushing themselves physically have less attention to spare for ... anything else. It stands to my reason that the lycra clad are more inclined to inattention and danger. Not because of the lycra itself (which is probably helping a great deal) but by the factors which caused them to don it.
A good friend of mine in Australia competed in Iron Man comps, and would regularly take 200km bike rides as part of his training. He'd be limping and staggering afterward. Pretty hard to believe he was in a safe condition to be in charge of a vehicle by the end of it. The way he described it, all his mind was doing was saying "breathe! push!" and he was otherwise on autopilot. No wonder they have such gnarly accidents on the Tour de France all the time.
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So I guess the collary of that principle is that 'hurrying is worth the mess and crap it casues'.
It's just a fact of life. People hurry. Watch out.
And the wrong assumption to make when tootling around the fine highways of the South Island currently - cycle tourism is very popular, so expect cyclists when you turn that corner.
I think you're talking at cross purposes. For sure drivers should watch out and slow down and follow the rules. But so should cyclists. Especially cyclists, since it is they that are going to get killed.
I have a car and pay taxes etc. It's just annoying that somehow some people, not all, just some, seem to think that the road isn't for sharing.
There might be more in that, psychologically. Bikes don't pay any road taxes, nor are they subject to any roadworthy requirements. To that extent, it's easy to feel that they actually don't have as much right to the road. On the flipside they do negligible damage to the road and don't take up much of it.
So if I can't, I'm working on getthing the idea of flattening them another way; cycle bridges between ridges.
:-) In 200 years, Auckland could be a cyclist's paradise yet. For me, it's already one, I flattened every hill by allowing the power of falling water in the South Island to push me gently up every hill. I got to explore the Oakley Creek path last week going uphill. It was lovely, I was pretty much totally alone in the wilderness, cruising along quietly, heart at a pleasant 110 rpm, mind calm and focused on seeing everything, scenery and hazards alike. Downhill would be nicer for normal bikes, but every downhill has a corresponding uphill at the end ...
The younger engineers get this. The older ones struggle with it.
I think the worst part is that town planning is a political process. For every engineer there is a politician who supports them, including all the ones who just want more motorways.
Personally I think it's more of a sexual fetish at work here.
Easy thought to have when you see a lycra clad bum going up and down on a seat that has a particularly phallic shape. But I think cycling gear is really just the most practical design for cycling when you want to go fast, or have lots of hills to climb. You get damned hot, and the wind-drag factor is huge. Personally I just wear what I always wear. T-shirt and shorts in the summer, sweatshirt and jeans in the winter. Like all the kids in my neighborhood. We're not hardcore, or trained, and just do it for transport and fun.
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I retract my interpretation then :-).
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Craig, too true. There is such a thing as a good King and a bad King, even if you think having Kings is always inherently bad. Chomsky is of course right to point out that Obama is still a King. I don't think he's gone so far as to say he is a bad King. He's just skeptical about how good a King he even can be, given what it means to be a King. Please note, King is a metaphor.
I'd actually imagine that he's pretty happy about Obama being elected, as is anyone with half a brain. But he's not going to drop his message that he's spent his whole life conveying, that the system of power in the US is geared towards a number of massive injustices, and Obama is still part of that system, and he should be held accountable for his part in them just the same as George Bush should be.
Obama, for instance, made getting out of Iraq one of his big election promises, and it's a good promise. To me it's the most important promise he made. But Obama was also part of the system which put the US army in Iraq in the first place. He voted for it several times. I'll be both very happy and very surprised if the US is actually withdrawn from Iraq on his watch. If you set the good of getting them out against the wrong of getting them in, I think the wrong actually outweighs the good. Obama will never talk his way out of that in a million years. Not to me, anyway, and definitely not to Chomsky.
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Sacha
Might be partly re-learning economical styles of driving in light of petrol prices, and I wonder if the 70s were more relaxed for similar reasons.
Or I could just be wrong, and what is mellower is me. Still hard to shake the feeling though.
Islander, I think 'carved up' might mean 'beaten', in Jon's context. As in, being dragged off or outmaneuvered. I'm thinking it's a surfing or skiing metaphor, sports where carving the wave or the snow are usually one's proudest moments. Correct me if wrong, Jon.
Jon, what did you want to say about Chomsky? Talking about Ralston doesn't do much for me either - I never watched his show, mainly because I don't like the format of any of those kind of shows, rather than any particular gripe with him. In fact, I don't like televised or radio news, period. Nor printed newspapers. In the old days, we had to put up with all that, but now, it's not necessary, and to me it just seems old school. Extremely popular old school, of course, still by far the most common way that people get their news. But that's just not enough reason for me to put up with the shortcomings.
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Yeah, I've noticed Auckland traffic is mellower than I remember the 80s and 90s being. Some of that could be down to propaganda and tougher enforcement, but I don't think so because I noticed the opposite in Ozzie, which has just the same propaganda and steadily tightening enforcement. I feel it's a zeitgeist thing, intangible, a mass mood swing. Perhaps popular mellowness has huge amounts of chaos built in due to karmic feedback loops. But whether that is true or not, I want to be on the side of good karma.
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Steve, haven't you heard of air con? Many's the time recently I've gone and sat in my car just to cool down. And c'mon man, you can wear lycra too. It's just a fashion statement not to, in this kind of heat.
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Honestly, I feel very sorry for the transport people. They have to figure out solutions that piss everyone off the least.
Yup and EVERYONE has an opinion on what should happen with the roads. Usually based on what would be best for them. So it's a pretty thankless job.
Where to put cycle paths is a tough one. Follow main roads, or quiet suburban ones? Personally I'd like the suburban way much more. When there is no dedicated route it's almost always the way I choose, if possible. Shared bus/cycle lanes make no sense to me at all, since a bus is absolutely the most dangerous kind of vehicle to be overtaken by, being long, wide, and impatient (for good reason, since they are carrying lots of people and have timetables to keep). Motorbikes, fine, they would be actually safer (apart from the fact that the paint on the road is slippery). But pushbikes? Only for the courageous. Suburban streets, with chicanes and speed humps, are perfect for bikes. Only real problem is they don't go where you want - main roads are main for a reason, and they are hillier. So it's a tough problem.
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Lucy, ditto that anywhere in Auckland that there is a decent bike path. Which is actually a steadily increasing number of places. But no amount of town planning is actually going to make the place flat.
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<quote>Despite all the scare mongering in the eighties,
it's f*cking hard to get AIDS<quote>Fucking hard, and in all the wrong places? Ho ho. I'm gonming to regret this...
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