Comments on Copenhagenize.com - Building Better Bicycle Cultures: The Social Ideology of the Motorcar

matt - it was seriously lovely, they should have m...

2009-11-10T23:18:58.221+01:00

matt - it was seriously lovely, they should have marathons every weekend!

And Melbourne is improving in some ways, for example there seems to be less cigarette smoke in the city these days, although the urban sprawl is showing no signs of stopping :-(

I'm choosing to hold onto the glimmer of hope represented by the little things though - the 'Sustainable Transport' (used to be Walking & Cycling) branch in the State Dept of Transport, there's not many of them, but they're trying to improve things for pedestrians and cyclists; the five police officers who make up the dedicated Victorian Police Cycle Patrol Unit, on their bikes all day long, merrily booking illegally acting bikes, cars and pedestrians alike whilst being a lot more understanding of bicycle issues than the average police; and of course all the cyclists who get up in the morning, do *not* put on any 'specialist' gear, and hop on their bikes anyhow, to amble off to wherever they're going. We'll get there.

And Anon - I'm right with you there, we're starting to look for a house to buy now, and we want to buy inner-city, so that we can continue with the bike lifestyle. So many people keep telling me that we'll 'have' to buy a car once we've got kids, that I'm getting really very determined not to, especially now I've discovered cargo bikes!

When we moved to a big urban area 14 years ago, we...

2009-11-10T13:09:10.713+01:00

When we moved to a big urban area 14 years ago, we made the choice to accept a higher priced, older home in a dense area within walking/cycling distance of our schools, city center and work. Rather than "drive until we qualify" for a McMansion in a distant converted farm off the highway. It was hard to explain to others what led us to that decision. It's nice to see our reasoning so well defined in this article.

I loved the Melbourne Cyclist's description of a t...

2009-11-10T01:37:41.901+01:00

I loved the Melbourne Cyclist's description of a traffic free St Kilda Road. I lasted a whole 10 weeks when I tried to live in Melbourne. There was just too much traffic, too many people, too much noise, and too much cigarette smoke in the CBD. I found it incredibly unliveable, and yet it consistently rates as one of the most liveable cities in the world. Hurumph!!

Not one of the most cyclist friendly cities either. Some of the burbs to the SE can be 60 or 70km out. Crazy.

It has been paradox of the automobile'd out.

I went to cheer some friends on when they were run...

2009-11-10T00:38:37.445+01:00

I went to cheer some friends on when they were running the Melbourne marathon a few weeks back (crazy people that they all are!), and one of the spots we stood to cheer was on St Kilda Rd, standing with the city up to our left, looking over the road to the Botanic gardens. For those that don't know it, it's a pretty big road into the city, but somehow still reasonably nice at the closer-to-the-city end, and definitely not a freeway, I guess because of long-sighted town planners: there's a tram route right down the middle, then going outwards there's a couple of lanes of (faster) traffic, then grass & trees in wide raised beds, then one/two lanes of (slower) traffic (narrows closer to the city), a painted-on bike lane (reasonable width), car parking spaces, and then pavement [all mirrored on the other side]. The idea is that the outer lanes are for getting onto and off the road via side streets, parking etc, and the middle lanes, the ones by the trams, are for transiting through - there's plenty of spaces to change between the two sets of lanes, and they all converge somewhat at traffic light intersections.

For the marathon, the road was completely shut off to all traffic other than trams, and what struck me was how beautifully peaceful it seemed compared to normal. Granted, there was the gentle crunch of runners' shoes over discarded water cups, but it was so nice without the usual traffic noise.

Plus there was the added amusing bonus of the three separate people who pressed the pedestrian crossing button in the hopes of stopping the marathon to cross to their trams :-)

Thanks for posting this - well worth the read.

2009-11-09T21:59:28.334+01:00

Thanks for posting this - well worth the read.

I think one of the best lines is this: "Here is ...

2009-11-09T18:40:34.125+01:00

I think one of the best lines is this:

"Here is the paradox of the automobile: it appears to confer on its owners limitless freedom, allowing them to travel when and where they choose at a speed equal to or greater than that of the train. But actually, this seeming independence has for its underside a radical dependency."

Here in America, we think of automobiles as one of the bastions of our freedom, when in reality, it is one of the largest detractors from our freedom - to the point that not only is it causing people to have to work extra hard to pay for it, it is limiting everyone's mobility, but even beyond that, it is causing destruction, it is causing debilitation, it is causing death. Our overuse and irresponsible use of automobiles is literally killing us, physically and emotionally.

An inspiring and insightful article! Is it not ver...

2009-11-09T17:35:42.123+01:00

An inspiring and insightful article! Is it not very depressing that such problems were forseen so early but little attention was paid to them. We are now in a position where most people believe to have a car is a right and the ownership of a car is soemthing not to be questioned. I live in the UK's cycling capital- Cambridge, and yet the car is always put first here. Car driving is mostly anti-social (in the true sense), selfish, non-sensical and dangerous.

I'm depressed and hopeful at the same time.

2009-11-09T17:00:51.746+01:00

I'm depressed and hopeful at the same time.

what a great article! this needs to be spread far...

2009-11-09T16:59:11.136+01:00

what a great article! this needs to be spread far and wide - to transportation planners, community developers, social justice advocates - everyone!

thanks so much Mike!

I enjoyed every word in this essay, but the last t...

2009-11-09T13:20:03.765+01:00

I enjoyed every word in this essay, but the last two paragraphs are the most important for me. Poor Gorz, he must thought that after 2000 his ideas will come true. Is there a hope?

I'd never thought before about the price people pa...

2009-11-09T12:50:01.340+01:00

I'd never thought before about the price people pay for owning a car in terms of their time.
With fuel prices so much higher now than when the article was written, an awful lot of ordinary people must be working all day today and tomorrow morning as well just to "feed the car" for this week.
Looked at that way, it just can't go on, can it?
- WeeE

"[Territory] must first of all be made liveable, a...

2009-11-09T12:03:19.818+01:00

"[Territory] must first of all be made liveable, and not trafficable." What a succinct yet poetic statement!