(no subject)

[vostoklake]

An idiot motorist pulled out in front of the bus lane just as I was coming down Mount Eden Road on my bicycle last night. No damage to the bike. (ETA: Spoke too soon. Right side gear lever smashed.) No serious damage to me, although I'm bruised to buggery along my right side and may be walking kind of slow for a couple of days. The worst bit was having to sit in a cop car while the Crown forces took a statement from me. (Those cop car seats are surprisingly comfortable. Do they want prisoners to be relaxed while they drive them to their beatings?)

Cars are a fuckin' menace. They kill more people every year in my country alone than that Korean fellow at Virginia Tech and are a leading cause of filthy air, resource wars in the Middle East, and good farmland and interesting suburbs being bulldozed for motorways. The solution is free and frequent environmentally friendly public transport. Car driving to be restricted to those actually need it, like they have their groceries or five kids in the back. Oh, and an instant ban on SUVs for a start. All this to be funded by big motherfuckin' tax on the corporates and the corporate ruling class, and confiscations of their property if necessary. (You see, that's what they call a financial feasibility study.)

Comments

[mainfisch.livejournal.com]

You won't believe it, but it's true: a female bicyclist injured me slightly in an overcrowded subway station this morning. And she didn't care, she even ripped a triangle out of the jacket of this sleepy bear here, well, almost. Guess who was suffering from an ursine mental explosion few seconds after this incident.

Doesn't mean that we don't have to overcome the environmentally unfriendly individual traffic by cars, especially by ego-shooting one-man-transports like SUVs, sports cars, limos and what not.

[maudlinrose.livejournal.com]

God, I hope the bitch goes DOWN. >:| And I agree with you about the public transport - like, is your life really IRREVOCABLY RUINED FOREVERMORE by having to plan around a bus/train/ferry timetable? No, no it is not.

[nishatalitha.livejournal.com]

Glad you're okay. Good public transport is a thing of wonder and beauty.

[deepbluemermaid.livejournal.com]

God, sweetheart, I'm sorry to hear you got hit - and glad you weren't seriously hurt.

I find it odd every time I'm in a car, as I'm so unused to it by now. It was crazy in Rome - a big and very cheap public transport system, and yet everyone has a car it seems. The result: congestion, parking on the footpath and across tramlines, damage to human health, and damage to the city's historic built environment.

I boggled every time I saw an SUV in Rome - petrol costs so much that it's not an affordable option for most people, and you couldn't find a park for love nor money!

[calenturian.livejournal.com]

*hugs* I'm glad you're mostly OK. (the flatmate and dog add their voices to this statement)

Public transport is great. There should be more of it.