More or less.
I suppose eventually things will reach a tipping point and things will change. After all, everything does sooner or later. Hey, when I was a teenager trying my hardest to look punk people used to throw bottles at me from cars. Now elementary school kids get their hair dyed blue. (Well they do here, anyway.)
Of course I'm still getting things thrown at me from cars, only now it's because I ride a bike. (Okay, fine, it's been awhile since someone threw something at me from a car for riding a bike--unless you count insults, which still happens fairly often.)
Speaking of Outside, via the Twitter it's come to my attention that an excerpt from my last column has made the hallowed virtual pages of the Merriam Webster book of diction:
Too bad they spelled "crabon" wrong.
Of course I always thought if I were ever to wind up in the dictionary it would be my face beneath the word "bloviate," but this will have to do.
19 comments:
Hi there.
Podiating yo.
2:25 east coast time... it's like wednesday there now? ponderous...
Pretty funny that BSNYC's "prove i am not a robot" test requires us to mark all squares that contain vehicles today, yet none of them are bicycles!
What would John Forrester say?
Why is BSNYC anti-vehicular cycling? Inquiring minds want to know!
Yr. pal always,
The "Podiating yo" Guy
Well put. The neighborhood I was mowing a lawn in looked like a page from the salesmans guide to selling fads. I know 81% of all statistics are made up but 70% of the vehickles were 6000 lb single passenger STDs, opps, SUVa. A formerly nice quiet neighborhood with no bike infrastructure.
Nice article, Wildcat.
I think I'm losing faith that one day it'll all turn around. Seems that the only jackasses that aren't trying to kill me on purpose are the jackasses that are trying to kill me "accidentally" because they're too busy on their phones.
I guess I could just quit exercising, grow to be 800 pounds, get a handicap placard for my car and go from taking 0, or 1, parking spot to taking up 2 spots right in front of everyplace I go.
If I ever make it in the dictionary, I hope it is somehow related to the word, "flatulation".
You are very fast -- passing 100 cyclists and five cars a minute!
Motor vehicles create far more economic activity than bicycles or pedestrians, this is the true reason they are prioritized. Motorists buy/lease their polluting shitboxes, pay interest to financial institutions, purchase insurance, rampantly consume petroleum products, attach expensive farty mufflers to their ugly cars and crash into each other frequently. Traveling by private motor vehicle is SO much more expensive than traveling using your muscles. Capitalism is all about keeping people consuming and maximizing economic activity -- consequences be damned.
Care stink, ride a bike : )
On the road, car drivers are in an arms race fueled by Detroit, envy, and fads to ride higher than everyone else in a larger and larger vehicle. Have you seen the size of some of these SUVs and pickups recently? I took a look at the front end of a particularly rotund pickup ( a 4 door!) and realized that it was the size of a smallish Mack truck. Good luck parking that baby! Ah, we are all so *&^%$!
If we can't get rid of cars, can we at least go back to small(er) ones?
Wouldn't that be crabon MONOxide induced dementia?
"the big three killed my baby!"
“The invention of the automobile is man’s greatest mistake.” Thanks Herr Benz.
Great column, RTMS. I often have a similar thought when out and about on the bikecycle. I am a body moving through space to get to where I want to go. You, in the car, are also a body moving through space trying to get somewhere. I'm not some kind of second-class citizen just because I weigh several thousand pounds less.
Need another five boro bike tour...perhaps a fall version.
The sound of a passing car/truck/suv is mostly the sound of air/oxygen being sucked in and converted to exhaust aka pollution aka sheit
That’s why ‘lecteic cars are so quiet
And Musk is right about mass transport sucking ass - though not for the reasons he espouses
...so we can tie up traffic,again.
Dearest Lord Snob,
Thank you for blessing us plebes with your daily rantings about the transportation world! One part that I do enjoy with your Outside articles are the infantile wails from the Outside community disagreeing with your point. Is there any way that you could link to the facebook post so I can conveniently scoff at their ignorant posts? Scrolling through Outside Magazine's trash is quite tedious, and I have bikes to ride.
Your Humble Servant
Seymour Butts on Bikes
BSNYC - you don't have to post this as my job these days leaves me late to the game on posting comments, but kudos- you've written another stellar column at Outside Online. This one depicting American auto-centricity, which is chronic and widespread. I've seen the writing on the wall for more than a handful of years now that 'Mericans are critically wedded to our car seats. There's some serious backtracking in Portland and Seattle, cities that a decade ago seemed very prog bike and all systems go. Seattle even elected a bicycling mayor, Mike McGuinn (A big city mayor bike commuters would easily 'run into' on late night commutes, like, i suspect ,the Dutch. Today, both cities appear to be suffering from critical cases of bike backlash, despite window dressing of better bikeways all over the metros. Personally, i've never seen such poorly maintained bikeways as the ones in today's Seattle. The anger in Sea-town about bike traffic is off the charts! Bicycle shaming is nothing new - see the myriad NYT articles circa 1880s - but the current, 2018 ire of the motorists, despite all better evidence to the contrary, is histrionic! The 'windshield complex' deserves notice in the next DSM edition as a recognized malady.
The building supply store and needing a car... Probably most trips could be taken by bike. If you need actual construction materials you could use your car or rent their trucks. Your car might not be so good for a half ton of goods.
Here is Munich, I live close to 2 OBI stores, think Home Depot down to the color. Here is a picture of the bike parking..
https://photos.google.com/photo/AF1QipN54B2FmSg0CGHat_HNYeM2EqeWnyKCdfKrpDCI
I hope the link works.
Interesting that the "KEEN" advert next to your article titled "Better Exploring Takes More Wild: Keen Newport Sandal" has an image of four people climbing on top of a . . . 4-wheel drive SUV. Not hiking, not kayaking, not cycling, but driving a 4-wheel drive in the wilderness IS adventure. There's that irony again.
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