Outragous

You apparently celebrate April Fools' Day a bit late in Oz.

Steve McDonald

No April Fool. This guy has written before. He is dead serious and gives you a first hand look at
our car culture that is second only to the US which can be seen by us being second to the US for
obesity. ]

Cheers Pete

"Steve McDonald" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...
:
: You apparently celebrate April Fools' Day a bit late in Oz.
:
: Steve McDonald
:

"John Doe" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

No April Fool. This guy has written before. He is dead serious and gives you a first hand look at
our car culture

Actually, though I think it's wrongheaded, he does make a few good points. I think his point about
demographics glosses over other possibilities (such as lifestyle choices made by those who care
about their health, and the environment).

Quoted message said:

that is second only to the US which can be seen by us being second to the US for obesity.

I'm sorry to hear that. The car culture in the US is a juggernaut. It is completely out of control
and beyond reason in many areas. The mention of energy saving, pollution reducing concepts such as
carpooling elicits derisive laughter from most Americans. One driver, one car has become every
American's birthright. New homes routinely have 3 and 4 car garages. The amount of money spent on
new highway construction and road repair in the US is mind boggling. We're also ripping up train
tracks as fast as possible, thus guaranteeing that over-the-road trucks will continue to belch
pollution by the megaton and make the highways terribly unsafe.

It's a miserable situation here. I have no problem with cars as long as they are used responsibly
and engineered to be efficient. SUV's (very popular in the US) are both dangerous and grossly
inefficient on the whole. They are rolling status symbols; and Americans can't get enough of them.

-Barry

"Bob" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
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<snip>

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Basements and attics don't make a difference. I ride my bike around my neighborhood in CT, and the
houses will have 2-4 car garages with EVERY

car

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outside the garage. What's the garage used for? Storage. Also, they

make

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the garages so small that you can get a car in there, but you can't open

the

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door. For example, I'm renting a house with a one car garage. If I have

a

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passenger, I have to let the person out before I put the car in the

garage,

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else they have a heck of a time getting out. And I have a small car (Saab 9-3), as cars in America
go. I can barely fit my truck (Jeep Comanche) in the garage, and my truck is relatively small.

Storage? Mine's a bicycle workshop! Alright, so there is some stuff stored in there and there is
some exercise equipment. But this "two-car garage" is really an oversized one car garage. Before we
moved anything into the garage, we experimented with putting both our vehicles in there. At that
time we had a Sundbird and a Mazda truck. Bob is right, you couldn't get out of either vehicle
without hitting the doors on either the other vehicle or the walls. And if you had to unload
packages, you better do it before pulling in. We eventually gave up and turned it into a
workshop/exercise/storage room.

I met a fellow who had a really nice car except for a serious set of dings all in the same area.
They just happened to line up with the rear door of the family car when both were parked in the
garage....

-Buck

"B. Sanders" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
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Quoted message said:

....The amount of money spent on new highway construction and road repair in the US is mind
boggling.....

Most cyclists still rely on roads, and they generally like them properly repaired & maintanined, so
I'm all in favour of spending money on road repairs if it gives us a smoother surface.

The mention of
: energy saving, pollution reducing concepts such as carpooling elicits derisive laughter from most
: Americans. One driver, one car has become
every
: American's birthright.

This is very similar. One driver cars are very common during peak time. There is no car pooling.
Most people using the car pooling lanes are people doing so illegally.

:New homes routinely have 3 and 4 car garages.

Same here as well. We also have a home obesity problem which is well reported.

SUV's (very popular in
: the US) are both dangerous and grossly inefficient on the whole. They are rolling status symbols;
: and Americans can't get enough of them.

We do as well (although we just call them 4wd). Status symbols, much more unsafe, especially for
occupants of standard sedans and pedestrians/cyclists. However the size of ours are no where near as
big as yours. I was in the US recently and I remember a local joking with me that the cars had to
get bigger so they didnt make peoples [censored] (ass to you) look too big.

Pete

"John Doe" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
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Quoted message said:

Check out this guys take. This is probably our most respectable paper:

smh.com.au1050172595996.htmlOpen ↗

These were the (printed) letters in the paper today - I think they picked a good selection to print:

(subtitle) No, Tim. And we pedal pushers have heard it all before

I was disappointed to see the Herald publish the uninformed, inaccurate and inconsistent drivel put
forth by Tim Dare ("Putting a spoke in the pedal pumpers", Herald, April 16).

Mr Dare trots out the usual cliches about cyclists being unlicensed, unregistered and not
contributing to the costs of road infrastructure. He ignores the fact that cyclists do not control a
huge piece of steel weighing more than a tonne, propelled by a powerful and polluting internal
combustion engine, for which licensing and registration are an obvious necessity. I won't even start
on the lack of skills and etiquette displayed by most Sydney drivers.

Andrew Fatseas, Dulwich Hill, April 16.

A now-penitent commuting cyclist for 10 years, I have had my eyes opened by Tim Dare's wit and
rigorous argument. An activity I foolishly regarded as stimulating, healthy and sane I now see for
the delusional, selfish anti-democratic sham it is.

Tim has missed a greater danger, however: pedestrians. Slow, erratic, unlicensed, a threat to
themselves and society, they presume to take up swathes of paved surface which should rightfully be
shared with cars and buses. These fedayeen of the footpath don't even have wheels, let alone motors.
This just can't be right and we shouldn't put up with it. Tim, with your leadership we can make this
the decade when we stamp the menace out once and for all.

Ian Vaile, Balmain, April 16.

Most of Tim Dare's criticisms have been answered by cycling advocates 20 years ago. We have moved
on. Every Sydney council has a bike plan, even the city is soon to release one. If there is to be
some discussion on cycling and cyclists, at least get in some experts and do a proper job.

There is a lot to be discussed: how cycling to the train station could increase public transport
use, not decrease it; how new urban design can make cycling more attractive (it is a selling point
in most housing estates); how children and adults can get substantial health benefits from regular
cycling; how motorists, pedestrians and cyclists need to understand each other better to improve
road safety; how we can get councils to increase their expertise in bicycle planning.

Bob Moore, Lilyfield, April 16.

Tim Dare raises yet again the tired old furphy that cyclists are a lesser species of commuter as
"there are no tests, licences, registration fees". Tim, I pay registration on my vehicle and my
choice not to drive it has a positive effect on air quality. I also paid GST on my $3000 bike
(unlike new cars which are in fact cheaper under this regime) and I can't claim my ride-to-work bike
as a fringe benefit.

My third-party insurance policy with Bicycle NSW costs me $69 a year and provides $20 million in
coverage for anyone I may collide with.

Simon Tredinnick, Stanmore, April 16.

"Andy Simpson" <[email hidden]> quoted some letters to
the editor:

Quoted message said:

My third-party insurance policy with Bicycle NSW costs me $69 a year and provides $20 million in
coverage for anyone I may collide with.

Simon Tredinnick, Stanmore, April 16.

Wow, is it really that smart to publicize how much insurance coverage he has?

RFM

Quoted message said:

My third-party insurance policy with Bicycle NSW costs me $69 a year

: > and provides $20 million in coverage for anyone I may collide with.
: >
: > Simon Tredinnick, Stanmore, April 16.

Its a standard policy. I have it too. You get $20mil for personal or property damage directly
or indirectly caused. You can get that information off their website. For $89 it covers the
whole family.

Well, why the man himself is obviously living in the overpowered automotive thirties, he does have
one good point (and I know I'm probably gong to get blasted for this) Perhaps it would be a good
idea for bicyclists to receive lessons on the ROTR, as well as be tested for their knowledge of it.

It is a statistical fact that many, if not most accidents ARE the result of some stupidity of the
cyclist. If only ignorance of how to ride safely.

How many of us, as cyclists, have cursed, silently or otherwise, the cycling dodo who insists on
riding "south in the northbound lane"? Screams through stop signs as if the whole world should stop
for him? continues to dominate the center of the lane, holding up traffic, refusing to show simple
courtesy by pulling over enough for it to pass, even though it's perfectly safe for him to do so?

With examples like this, is it any wonder the uninitiated write articles like this one?

I think not. They are making ALL cyclists look bad, and it's the good guys that end up suffering for
the bad example they set for the rest of us.

OK, I'm getting off my soap box now :-3)

May you have the wind at your back. And a really low gear for the hills! Chris

Chris'Z Corner "The Website for the Common Bicyclist": geocities.comczcornerOpen ↗

Raymo853 said:

I love rails-to -trails stuff but as an advocate of rail travel I am torn about this.

I'm not torn at all, since steve mcdonald is a well known liar who promoted bicycle segregation when
BIKES BELONG ON ROADS. We need to save those rail rights of way for commuter rail lines, and for
when the oil runs out.

Quoted message said:

"Steve McDonald" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
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I'm promoting the ripping up of train tracks in my region, so they can be converted to
inter-city bikepaths.

Steve McDonald