"Today" cycling item update



Tony W wrote:

> "Jeremy Collins" <[email protected]> wrote in message
> news:2%[email protected]...
>
>>Mark McNeill wrote:
>>
>>>http://www.bikebiz.co.uk/daily-news/article.php?id=5247
>>
>>Top Gear presenter says:
>>
>>"it is not cyclists that should justify using a bike but drivers who
>>choose to drive journeys under five miles"
>>
>>Have I woken up in some bizzarro-world alternate universe?
>
>
> Seems more likely than any other possibility.
>

Bear in mind that he probably only chose 5 miles as the cut-off point
because his commute is 6.

James
--
If I have seen further than others, it is
by treading on the toes of giants.
http://www.ne.jp/asahi/julesandjames/home/
 
"James Annan" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
>
> Bear in mind that he probably only chose 5 miles as the cut-off point
> because his commute is 6.

Since my commute is about 2 miles I'm on shaky ground. But if we could
convince a reasonable minority of the population to consider cycling as an
option for *some* journeys of less than, say, five miles (some might think 3
the limit others 10 or more) we could massively increase the percentage of
journeys cycled -- with all the benefits we understand.

It is not necessary to convince everyone -- nor to convince those that you
do to cycle every journey of less than whatever the mileage figure is.

Personally, I probably use my bike for about 80+% of journeys of less than 5
miles -- but also use the car for some journeys of less than a mile.

T
 
Tony W wrote:

> Since my commute is about 2 miles I'm on shaky ground. But if we
could
> convince a reasonable minority of the population to consider cycling
as an
> option for *some* journeys of less than, say, five miles (some might
think 3
> the limit others 10 or more) we could massively increase the
percentage of
> journeys cycled -- with all the benefits we understand.
>
> It is not necessary to convince everyone -- nor to convince those
that you
> do to cycle every journey of less than whatever the mileage figure
is.

Sure, it is easy to get most people to agree to these sort of
statements, but you can guarantee that most of them are thinking in
terms of _other_ people driving less, leaving the roads clearer for
their own "essential" journeys.

James
 
Tony W wrote:

> But if we could
> convince a reasonable minority of the population to consider cycling as an
> option for *some* journeys of less than,

And for longer journeys, use the IT infrastructure instead. Stop
thinking in terms of the 19th/20th century office, and think of the
job instead. Dragging your body there and back every day is such
a waste of time: leave the roads clear for those with a real reason
to use them.

--
Nick Kew

(who has physically travelled to a place of work exactly once so
far this year)
 
Nick Kew wrote:
> Tony W wrote:
>
>
>> But if we could
>>convince a reasonable minority of the population to consider cycling as an
>>option for *some* journeys of less than,
>
>
> And for longer journeys, use the IT infrastructure instead. Stop
> thinking in terms of the 19th/20th century office, and think of the
> job instead. Dragging your body there and back every day is such
> a waste of time: leave the roads clear for those with a real reason
> to use them.

Unfortunately, for some of us, the IT infrastructure has some of the
same shortcomings as the transport infrastructure. I would love to shift
more of my work to home but until BT can improve my line from its
current 30k baud I am somewhat limited. I can get more bandwidth using
my USB flash card and a car!

Colin
 
Nick Kew wrote:

> Tony W wrote:
>
>
>> But if we could
>>convince a reasonable minority of the population to consider cycling as an
>>option for *some* journeys of less than,
>
>
> And for longer journeys, use the IT infrastructure instead. Stop
> thinking in terms of the 19th/20th century office, and think of the
> job instead. Dragging your body there and back every day is such
> a waste of time: leave the roads clear for those with a real reason
> to use them.

Bloody right. One of the most obnoxiously stupid bureaucratic idiocies I
have to put up with on a regular basis is that one particular computer I
need to use is inaccessible unless one is quite literally sitting at a
terminal in the same building. So after 2 days off with a stinking cold,
I dragged myself in to work today to do about 30 mins of routine
checking and submitting a new job. And collaborators from the UK have to
actually come and live here for months on end (some of them commuting
regularly from the UK) just to use the thing.

All because some numpty decided that the risk of hackers meant that they
would rather cripple the system for all users by design, than implement
any reasonable level of security.

James
--
If I have seen further than others, it is
by treading on the toes of giants.
http://www.ne.jp/asahi/julesandjames/home/
 
"James Annan" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
>
> Sure, it is easy to get most people to agree to these sort of
> statements, but you can guarantee that most of them are thinking in
> terms of _other_ people driving less, leaving the roads clearer for
> their own "essential" journeys.

Its not the 'most' you are after. Its the minority. Look at the experience
in London. Its still a minority who are cycling -- but there are many more
people cycling and cycling is increasingly accepted as a quite reasonable
means of transport.

We cannot legislate for the terminally stupid and the terminally lazy -- let
them die young.

T
 
"Nick Kew" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
>
> And for longer journeys, use the IT infrastructure instead. Stop
> thinking in terms of the 19th/20th century office, and think of the
> job instead. Dragging your body there and back every day is such
> a waste of time: leave the roads clear for those with a real reason
> to use them.

My other 'commutes' are electronically from my back bedroom to California,
Virginia, Germany and Japan -- I have never met most of my colleagues face
to face.

T
 
Nick Kew wrote:
> Tony W wrote:
>
>
>> But if we could
>>convince a reasonable minority of the population to consider cycling as an
>>option for *some* journeys of less than,
>
>
> And for longer journeys, use the IT infrastructure instead. Stop
> thinking in terms of the 19th/20th century office, and think of the
> job instead. Dragging your body there and back every day is such
> a waste of time: leave the roads clear for those with a real reason
> to use them.

This argument makes perfect economic and environmental sense, but
as someone who works from home most of the time it is not
something I would force on anyone. Give people the choice, sure,
but if they want to come to an office let them. The choice of
*how* they get there is a separate issue.


--
jc

Remove the -not from email
 
Colin Blackburn wrote:
> Unfortunately, for some of us, the IT infrastructure has some of the
> same shortcomings as the transport infrastructure. I would love to
> shift more of my work to home but until BT can improve my line from
> its current 30k baud I am somewhat limited. I can get more bandwidth
> using my USB flash card and a car!

Ob pedant

It's 2.4k baud transmitting data at (presumably) 33.6 kb/s

Point well taken, though.

A
 
Ambrose Nankivell wrote:
> Colin Blackburn wrote:
>
>> Unfortunately, for some of us, the IT infrastructure has some of the
>> same shortcomings as the transport infrastructure. I would love to
>> shift more of my work to home but until BT can improve my line from
>> its current 30k baud I am somewhat limited. I can get more bandwidth
>> using my USB flash card and a car!
>
>
> Ob pedant
>
> It's 2.4k baud transmitting data at (presumably) 33.6 kb/s

Yes. Never did get the hang of the baud thing but my fingers decided to
type it! In fact the data rate rarely gets above 30kb/s. 31 is a good
day, 28 a bad day.

It might even be that with a bigger flash card I could use my bike.

Colin
 
"Colin Blackburn" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...


> It might even be that with a bigger flash card I could use my bike.

You mean a gigabyte memory stick at, say, 20 km/hr is more effective than a
1.4MB floppy in a Chelsea Tractor stuck in traffic?

Shirley not!!!

:~)

T
 
On Thu, 17 Feb 2005 14:19:04 GMT, Jeremy Collins wrote:

> Nick Kew wrote:
>> Tony W wrote:
>>
>>
>>> But if we could
>>>convince a reasonable minority of the population to consider cycling as an
>>>option for *some* journeys of less than,
>>
>>
>> And for longer journeys, use the IT infrastructure instead. Stop
>> thinking in terms of the 19th/20th century office, and think of the
>> job instead. Dragging your body there and back every day is such
>> a waste of time: leave the roads clear for those with a real reason
>> to use them.
>
> This argument makes perfect economic and environmental sense, but
> as someone who works from home most of the time it is not
> something I would force on anyone. Give people the choice, sure,
> but if they want to come to an office let them. The choice of
> *how* they get there is a separate issue.

I share Jeremy's view for, I suppose, the same reasons.

However, I do wonder why it's the case when so many people go to work in
offices and use IT all the time why they still have to travel so far to do
so. I mean, is it really necessary for all those bods who work in corporate
facilites such as banks and insurance companies to sit in the same massive
building? Are the economics of facilities, IT and telecomm infrastructure
really such that that the people have to be concentrated in one place and
not distributed around the country?

Given the specialist nature of my work I understand that I'm either going
to have to work at home, commute a long way or move house if I change job.
Is everyone such as specialist that they have to commute, say, 20 miles to
get to their work?
--
Michael MacClancy
 
On Thu, 17 Feb 2005 17:21:37 +0000, Michael MacClancy
<[email protected]> wrote:

>Is everyone such as specialist that they have to commute, say, 20 miles to
>get to their work?

I often wish I could do my work from home. Especially when it's 0545
and pissing down with rain ..

--
Jesus was apparently betrayed by 8.3% of his disciples.
 
Tony W wrote:
> "Colin Blackburn" <[email protected]> wrote in message
> news:[email protected]...
>
>
>> It might even be that with a bigger flash card I could use my bike.
>
> You mean a gigabyte memory stick at, say, 20 km/hr is more effective
> than a
> 1.4MB floppy in a Chelsea Tractor stuck in traffic?
>
I think it's safe to say that if there's traffic, there's broadband. Mind
you, it needs a fast connection at both ends.

A
 
in message <[email protected]>, Colin Blackburn
('[email protected]') wrote:

> Nick Kew wrote:
>> Tony W wrote:
>>
>>>But if we could
>>>convince a reasonable minority of the population to consider cycling
>>>as an option for *some* journeys of less than,
>>
>> And for longer journeys, use the IT infrastructure instead. Stop
>> thinking in terms of the 19th/20th century office, and think of the
>> job instead. Dragging your body there and back every day is such
>> a waste of time: leave the roads clear for those with a real reason
>> to use them.
>
> Unfortunately, for some of us, the IT infrastructure has some of the
> same shortcomings as the transport infrastructure. I would love to
> shift more of my work to home but until BT can improve my line from
> its current 30k baud I am somewhat limited. I can get more bandwidth
> using my USB flash card and a car!

What on earth do you do that needs more than 30K baud? Dammit, we only
have 64K here, and we're supporting customers all over the place.

--
[email protected] (Simon Brooke) http://www.jasmine.org.uk/~simon/

'graveyards are full of indispensable people'
 
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