A bike quote

Hello Everyone,

It's been ages since I posted to this group, but I came across the
following quote and I thought a few of you might enjoy it:

The automobile has not merely taken over the street, it has dissolved
the living tissue of the city. Its appetite for space is absolutely
insatiable; moving and parked, it devours urban land, leaving the
buildings as mere islands of habitable space in a sea of dangerous and
ugly traffic.
-James Marston Fitch, historic preservationist (1909-2000)

Have a good ride.

Ken

That quote works for me, however, it doesn't have to be that way!

In Denmark, they don't manufacture any cars and (as of 1994 so this is old
information) there is a 100% import duty on cars. The result is that bicycle
infrastructure is as important as motor vehicle infrastructure.

The last time I was there I saw something that you would never see in the
US. I saw a woman with a bicycle, a basket of groceries on the front, and a
child in a child seat on the back. I saw her hail a cab. I watched as a cab
stopped
and took this unusual bumper mounted bike rack out of his trunk. He put the
bike on the rack, the groceries in the trunk, and the woman and the kid got
in the cab. Here's the punchline. I started looking at the cabs. Every one
of them had these mounts on the bumper for this unusual bike rack. I don't
doubt that every cab also had the rest of the rack in the trunk.

Now that's a society that is built for the bike!

Jeff
wrote in message
oups.com...
Hello Everyone,

It's been ages since I posted to this group, but I came across the
following quote and I thought a few of you might enjoy it:

The automobile has not merely taken over the street, it has dissolved
the living tissue of the city. Its appetite for space is absolutely
insatiable; moving and parked, it devours urban land, leaving the
buildings as mere islands of habitable space in a sea of dangerous and
ugly traffic.
-James Marston Fitch, historic preservationist (1909-2000)

Have a good ride.

Ken

I just noticed that my last two posts to this group have been about how
wonderful the cycling is in Denmark. I don't want to give the impression
that it can't be done here.

I've heard that Seattle is very cycle friendly. I've heard that you can take
bicycles on public buses. That's pretty cool.

I've been to Tucson, AZ and seen a network of bicycle lanes that is very
impressive. They even has some bike lanes on highways/freeways. There are
bike lanes and bike traffic signals and from what I could see, there are
very few gaps (its a gap that got me!). So it can be done here but it takes
a public committment.

In addition to posting here, all of you USA based ng readers should email
your elected officials to express that you are in favor of the creation of
safe bike routes.

I understand that even my beloved NYC is planning to have bike routes that
go into all five boroughs. It was a long and hard fight to get that,
however.

Jeff
wrote in message
oups.com...
Hello Everyone,

It's been ages since I posted to this group, but I came across the
following quote and I thought a few of you might enjoy it:

The automobile has not merely taken over the street, it has dissolved
the living tissue of the city. Its appetite for space is absolutely
insatiable; moving and parked, it devours urban land, leaving the
buildings as mere islands of habitable space in a sea of dangerous and
ugly traffic.
-James Marston Fitch, historic preservationist (1909-2000)

Have a good ride.

Ken

On May 4, 6:40 am, "Jeff Grippe" wrote:
...
In addition to posting here, all of you USA based ng readers should email
your elected officials to express that you are in favor of the creation of
safe bike routes....

This should be cross-posted to rec.bicycles.misc - then we could have
the bike path versus vehicular cycling flame war!

--
Tom Sherman - Holstein-Friesland Bovinia
The weather is here, wish you were beautiful

On May 4, 4:55 pm, Johnny Sunset aka Tom Sherman
wrote:
On May 4, 6:40 am, "Jeff Grippe" wrote:

...
In addition to posting here, all of you USA based ng readers should email
your elected officials to express that you are in favor of the creation of
safe bike routes....

This should be cross-posted to rec.bicycles.misc - then we could have
the bike path versus vehicular cycling flame war!

--
Tom Sherman - Holstein-Friesland Bovinia
The weather is here, wish you were beautiful

Hey Tom,

I haven't "talked" with you in quite a while. I hope things are going
well.

Ken

Johnny Sunset aka Tom Sherman wrote:
On May 4, 6:40 am, "Jeff Grippe" wrote:
...
In addition to posting here, all of you USA based ng readers should email
your elected officials to express that you are in favor of the creation of
safe bike routes....

This should be cross-posted to rec.bicycles.misc - then we could have
the bike path versus vehicular cycling flame war!

Though of course a road /can/ be a "safe bike route"...

Pete.
--
Peter Clinch Medical Physics IT Officer
Tel 44 1382 660111 ext. 33637 Univ. of Dundee, Ninewells Hospital
Fax 44 1382 640177 Dundee DD1 9SY Scotland UK
net http://www.dundee.ac.uk/~pjclinch/