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Tenuous cycle link article of the day - 'we're doomed'

by hawkinspeter
Thu, Apr 26, 2018 11:00
5

Okay, this may or may not be a tenuous cycle based link, but I thought this might be of interest:

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/apr/26/were-doomed-mayer-hillman-on-the-climate-reality-no-one-else-will-dare-mention

Mayer Hillman wrote:

With doom ahead, making a case for cycling as the primary mode of transport is almost irrelevant. We’ve got to stop burning fossil fuels. So many aspects of life depend on fossil fuels, except for music and love and education and happiness. These things, which hardly use fossil fuels, are what we must focus on.

It's largely the predictions of Mayer Hillman and his past predictions have a very good track record.

If you're new please join in and if you have questions pop them below and the forum regulars will answer as best we can.

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5 comments

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zero_trooper | 5 years ago
2 likes

The article is more anti-car than pro-bike. Really sums up where society has got things wrong.
Where I work cars are a real status symbol. Plenty of brand new German prestige motors. People can park wherever they want as the carparks aren't big enough, even when it's dangerous. Because the site manager has a massive 4x4? Could be 3
Alot of lip service to 'green transport policy', but it's all about the car.

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zero_trooper | 5 years ago
1 like

I'd read the article in full and no, it's not at all tenuous. Keep telling my kids that they live in exciting times.

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hawkinspeter | 5 years ago
2 likes

What makes it even worse is that it's really easy to keep tabs on where your kids are these days. There's lots of different beacon/tracking apps so you can be alerted if kids travel too far and you can see where they are if they're late etc.

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Yorkshire wallet | 5 years ago
4 likes

It's sad really. I grew up in smallish village until  I was 11 and had a freedom that I haven't given my own son in a small town. We literally went where we pleased on foot or bike and as long as we were back at set times it didn't matter where we'd gone. Then again you could ride around half the place and probably not even encounter a car.

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hawkinspeter | 5 years ago
4 likes

Quote:

While the focus of Hillman’s thinking for the last quarter-century has been on climate change, he is best known for his work on road safety. He spotted the damaging impact of the car on the freedoms and safety of those without one – most significantly, children – decades ago. Some of his policy prescriptions have become commonplace – such as 20mph speed limits – but we’ve failed to curb the car’s crushing of children’s liberty. In 1971, 80% of British seven- and eight-year-old children went to school on their own; today it’s virtually unthinkable that a seven-year-old would walk to school without an adult. As Hillman has pointed out, we’ve removed children from danger rather than removing danger from children – and filled roads with polluting cars on school runs. He calculated that escorting children took 900m adult hours in 1990, costing the economy £20bn each year. It will be even more expensive today.

When will we learn?

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