Yes Patrick, but policy cannot be based on each person's vision of human dignity. And it must also take into account those for whom human dignity is not high up on the to-do list. We are talking here specifically about basing essentially economic decisions--where as a society shall we put our wealth, such as it is--on whether a tiny subset of a subset of vehicle operators is playing nice or not. My point is that rogue cyclists are used to deny potential funding, while the much more egregious misbehaviors of the radical monopoly transportation* users is never used to, say, justify not building a particular interchange, or denying funds to widen a roadway. In fact, additional funds are *given out *to municipalities that dedicate resources in an effort to stop bad behaviors--enforcing seat belt laws and doing drunk driving checkpoints, for example.
My take on the "young people abandoning cars" is that it is chiefly economic. Where I am, most of the young adults want a car, but if they don't have one, it's for the same reason they are still living with mom and dad, ie, the economy. In any case, urban centers have always been a stronghold of non-car owners, since the public transportation systems and the neighborhood layouts make it much more viable to live that way. The age of the car is waning because the industrial civilization it helped to create and propagate is waning, along with the fossil fuel age and cheap, abundant energy. Much as I would like to think that we will gracefully transition to riding our Rivendells around well-planned walkable and bikeable urban centers overflowing with goods from nearby farmers markets while wearing locally knit wool sweaters, I suspect the ride down could be a touch more turbulent. It's all kind of frustrating and fascinating as things pick up speed. If any bicycle can offer succor during such times, I believe it will be my Clementine! *To briefly sort of explain what Ivan Illich meant by radical monopoly--not that you only had the choice of a Ford, but that you only had the choice of a car. Thereby automatically reducing all other means to "less than". What is wrong with that guy using his feet, walking along the roadside? Why is that guy riding his bike here, DWI? Oh, he can't afford a car, he takes the bus. On Thursday, July 14, 2016 at 4:11:18 PM UTC-4, Deacon Patrick wrote: > > For me this is simple. The issue is human dignity: upholding the inherent > and boundless value and irreplaceable uniqueness of any and every human > being. We are called to uphold our own, as well as that of everyone else. > > Do I ride in a way to upholds my own human dignity? That of those I meet > along the way? > Does a messenger biker zipping and dashing in ways that endanger > themselves and others uphold their and other's human dignity? > > With abandon, > Patrick > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
