Cyclists care more about the common good

That seems a bit fishy to me.
EMEC is in Stromness, bottom of the Orkney, Twatt is about 10 miles north. they have nothing up there, but I still managed to shoe horn it in. :)

managed to get Breast in to a report for a company in France and Muff for Ireland. I'm dead mature me. :)

(there were fishes at the bottom of a settlement pond and a burned out car in the car park when I used to be a draftsman, not to mention the bloke on the toilet and the hooker used instead of the bloke in workwear when doing ergonomic siting drawings).
 
I enjoy cycling, country hiking and urban walking. The urban walking has me engaging much more than the other two. First, by it's nature, you're in an urban area where there's more people. But, even if I did more urban cycling, it's far more convenient to just stop as you walk than it is to stop the bike and get off to chat. It's this inconvenience of stopping and disrupting the travel that means drivers are less likely to engage
 
I lived in Amsterdam for four years and as you would expect, I cycled from my 1st to the very last day in the city every single day to go anywhere. In such a city, with such a big urban cycling culture and infrastructure, walking seemed such an inefficient way to get around even on weekends and holidays.

I visited the city a few years later for a few days and had no bike so having the weather on my side I just walked everywhere. I immediately noticed how little I was engaged with the city itself till that point. I felt like I had to relearn it all over again even though I knew where I was going. A very conflicting feeling but to me it highlighted that I didn't really connect to the city itself, I merely crossed it over countess of times to and from the points of my interest missing the in between dots. Just slowing down and walking the same areas I once cycled through did it for me.

Don't know if this negates the findings of the article or not but for me to connect with the surroundings (and maybe even care more about them) I have to walk. Bikes get me from place A to B faster without much time to spend absorbing the surrounding urban environment. But that's just me.
 
Last edited:
I like the fact that the term ‘common good’ has been used. It is underused. It is vital. I was at a meeting where industrialists were confused that their processes took clean air, used it for free as a key part of their industrial process, then chucked out loads of toxins. Why should we pay for air? Well you paid for the oxides and rare earths…yes but air is free…

grief

I do have one problem on the way to work, and that‘s not a problem of being hyper aware of the common good but being able to look after the particular good of snails. At 7.00 am they all go from the left of the cycle path to the right. They need tiny flashing beacons on their shells. Otherwise it’s a slalom through them with the occasional upsetting crunch and pop….
 
Last edited:
I like the fact that the term ‘common good’ has been used. It is underused. It is vital. I was at a meeting where industrialists were confused that their processes took clean air, used it for free as a key part of their industrial process, then chucked out loads of toxins. Why should we pay for air? Well you paid for the oxides and rare earths…yes but air is free…

grief

I do have one problem on the way to work, and that‘s not being a problem of being hyper aware of the common good but being able to look after the particular good of snails. At 7.00 am they all go from the left of the cycle path to the right. They need tiny flashing beacons on their shells. Otherwise it’s a slalom through them with the occasional upsetting crunch and pop….
we should work with a "return it as it was" with air and water instead of charging for it, I say this, because once we start charging for the air, you'll bet your bottom dollar they'll figure a way to charge no industry for it too.

note, water take has gone this way, you can't put a wheel in a stream to generate power without paying for the privilege in the UK, and yet the water isn't changed by it (the flow might be, but that's another matter).
 
Agreed - I’m not advocating charging, just reflecting that it’s a common good and not to be consumed without thought…

Although I do breath without thinking…mostly
 

Latest posts

Back
Top