Studies on CAR exhuberance?

When is it needed to travel quickly? Ambulance? Tell me this then those who would scoff at my
suggestion with thus, tell me, how many of those ambulance trips are to save people who were in a
car accident? "Jake" <j@com> wrote in message "]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Has anyone doen a study on what % of CAR commutations are superfluous? I mean this in the relative
sense. The offendor may not think that driving

to

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the supermarket to collect the shopping is superfluous. But I would think

it

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more approriate to take the bicycle and a bob-trailer since this way I

knock

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off my excercise and the shopping in one go.

So has there been a hyperthetical study of say, a "bicycle economy"

opposed

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to the "car economy", stripping back every commutation that could be substituted with bicycle
power, accounting for excercise savings, health benefits. I mean I\'m not an economist, but you
would want to create some environmental coeeficients for incorpoartion as well. Such as reduced

noise

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and air pollution, reduced obesity etc.

Thus having stripped it all back, what part of commerce is genuinely dependent on heavy machinery.
It stikes me every single day as the most moronic icon of mankind. Majority-of -the-time Single
passenger vehicles that weigh in at 2 tonnes. Figure that eh, 2 tonnes of metal to carry a 60kg
person and all because we sell the idea to ourselves that it is a source of happinss to be able to
travel at high speeds if needed. And when is it needed? Police chase?

Tell me, how would the economy be hurt or different if freight trucks

could

Quoted message said:

onyl travel interstate at 50km an hour? How much lighter could the chassis be made then, how much
less strength woudl they require?

Man, everyday on my humble bicycle, I grieve the lunacy and madness of

this

Quoted message said:

materially exhuberant and obese civilisation.

"Jake" wrote

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Thus having stripped it all back, what part of commerce is genuinely dependent on heavy machinery.

Your bicycle came to you by ship and truck.

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Tell me, how would the economy be hurt or different if freight

trucks could

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onyl travel interstate at 50km an hour? How much lighter could the

chassis

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be made then, how much less strength woudl they require?

You would pay double the driver's wages for each trip.

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Man, everyday on my humble bicycle, I grieve the lunacy and madness

of this

Quoted message said:

materially exhuberant and obese civilisation.

Get out of this mad technological society. WALK!

Theo

Greetings, Suggest you contact Alan A Parker, of PEST (People for Ecologically Sustainable
Transport), who has been studying and writing papers on this collective insanity for years, and
take another look at Ben Elton's `Gridlock', one of the better satires on the subject. We all know
it's totally looney, but no-one does anything about. For the record, when I do drive, I drive a 1.1
tonne car (well under average) primarily to take my wife around, who is not a bicycle person at
all. I try to avoid sole-occupant trips wherever possible. Unfortunately, I'm also a tiny minority.
Cheers, Ray.

Jake said:

Has anyone doen a study on what % of CAR commutations are superfluous? I mean this in the relative
sense. The offendor may not think that driving to the supermarket to collect the shopping is
superfluous. But I would think it more approriate to take the bicycle and a bob-trailer since this
way I knock off my excercise and the shopping in one go.

So has there been a hyperthetical study of say, a "bicycle economy" opposed to the "car economy",
stripping back every commutation that could be substituted with bicycle power, accounting for
excercise savings, health benefits. I mean I\'m not an economist, but you would want to create some
environmental coeeficients for incorpoartion as well. Such as reduced noise and air pollution,
reduced obesity etc.

Thus having stripped it all back, what part of commerce is genuinely dependent on heavy machinery.
It stikes me every single day as the most moronic icon of mankind. Majority-of -the-time Single
passenger vehicles that weigh in at 2 tonnes. Figure that eh, 2 tonnes of metal to carry a 60kg
person and all because we sell the idea to ourselves that it is a source of happinss to be able to
travel at high speeds if needed. And when is it needed? Police chase?

Tell me, how would the economy be hurt or different if freight trucks could onyl travel interstate
at 50km an hour? How much lighter could the chassis be made then, how much less strength woudl
they require?

Man, everyday on my humble bicycle, I grieve the lunacy and madness of this materially exhuberant
and obese civilisation.

"Jake" <j@com> wrote in message "]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Has anyone doen a study on what % of CAR commutations are superfluous? I mean this in the relative
sense. The offendor may not think that driving

to

Quoted message said:

the supermarket to collect the shopping is superfluous. But I would think

it

Quoted message said:

more approriate to take the bicycle and a bob-trailer since this way I

knock

Quoted message said:

off my excercise and the shopping in one go.

So has there been a hyperthetical study of say, a "bicycle economy"

opposed

Quoted message said:

to the "car economy", stripping back every commutation that could be substituted with bicycle
power, accounting for excercise savings, health benefits. I mean I\'m not an economist, but you
would want to create some environmental coeeficients for incorpoartion as well. Such as reduced

noise

Quoted message said:

and air pollution, reduced obesity etc.

Thus having stripped it all back, what part of commerce is genuinely dependent on heavy machinery.
It stikes me every single day as the most moronic icon of mankind. Majority-of -the-time Single
passenger vehicles that weigh in at 2 tonnes. Figure that eh, 2 tonnes of metal to carry a 60kg
person and all because we sell the idea to ourselves that it is a source of happinss to be able to
travel at high speeds if needed. And when is it needed? Police chase?

Tell me, how would the economy be hurt or different if freight trucks

could

Quoted message said:

onyl travel interstate at 50km an hour? How much lighter could the chassis be made then, how much
less strength woudl they require?

Man, everyday on my humble bicycle, I grieve the lunacy and madness of

this

Quoted message said:

materially exhuberant and obese civilisation.

It all depends on what you class as a necessity - and whether you are talking about keeping other
segments of our existance the same.

For example, I ride into my office every day and keep a suit there to get changed into when I need
to see a client. If the client is easily accessible by PT, I will take that (you cannot turn up to a
client on the bike - I would be covered with sweat).

If the client is not easily accessible, I will drive my car (I average about one trip every two
weeks in my car). I could probably do without the car (through walking and PT), but this would then
take up a much larger chunk of my day, meaning that I could service less people, my company would
get paid less and my wages would have to go down commensurately.

The vast majority of people who drive to work in the city every day *could* take PT - even if they
drove to the station, but choose not to (due to status, perceptions, bias and that they may need to
leave home 10 minutes earlier).

But removing "non-required" transportation would require an enormous shift in our culture, society,
governance etc.

Tim

Jake,

You sound like the sort of guy who relishes borrowing a friend's car for a few weeks.

A true Luddite implements reforms at home before belly-aching about the shortcomings of others.

EF Schumacher makes a slightly tongue-in-cheek calculation in one of his books, where he shows that
if you add the time taken in earning the money to pay for a car, plus time sitting at traffic
lights, in traffic jams, washing the thing on weekends, etc to the time actually driving somewhere,
then the average speed attained is somewhat less than walking pace...

Nick

"Theo Bekkers" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:HzkBb.46146$aT.30876@news-
server.bigpond.net.au...

Quoted message said:

Get out of this mad technological society. WALK!

"Nick Payne" wrote

Quoted message said:

EF Schumacher makes a slightly tongue-in-cheek calculation in one of his books, where he shows
that if you add the time taken in earning the money

to

Quoted message said:

pay for a car, plus time sitting at traffic lights, in traffic jams,

washing

Quoted message said:

the thing on weekends, etc to the time actually driving somewhere, then

the

Quoted message said:

average speed attained is somewhat less than walking pace...

In response to an article in a bike magazine a loong time ago, I produced some spreadsheets
comparing the costs (in hours worked and subsequent average speeds) of a V8 car, a small car, a
small and a large motorcycle, and a bicycle. To my surprise they published the whole thing in a page
and a half of print. The small motorcycle wins hands down for cost/efficiency.

Theo

google.comsearchOpen ↗

Ah, slime, I don't know what you're talking about mate.
"Slime" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Jake,

You sound like the sort of guy who relishes borrowing a friend's car for a few weeks.

A true Luddite implements reforms at home before belly-aching about the shortcomings of others.