A Personal Message to Critical Mass.

[theclaud]

and what is it about Austrian Catholicism that breeds much anti-capitialist cycle fetishists? The Marxist existentialism of Gorz is probably all very well in a University Common Room but it ain't going to do much to fix human nature.

The car is near ubiquitous. Is my Fiat Cinquecento that cost less than any of my bikes to acquire really a luxury object? Is the pleasure I get from driving it, is the benefit in time saving it gives me, really a myth? I fear that he'd get "Must try harder" scrawled on that essay by my old philosophy professor!

Blimey - your professor was hard to please! I wish I'd been given essays like that to mark .

 

[BentMikey]

Perhaps the trick to me being a reasonably happy urban commuter (on a bike) was that I never saw myself - or behaved in a way that indicated that I saw myself - as anything less than equal to every other mode of transport. If CM could somehow instill this mindset into every cyclist and driver, it would indeed be a great thing;

I agree, and have added the bold to fix that. I think that would make the very biggest difference to every road user.

 

[MacB]

and what is it about Austrian Catholicism that breeds much anti-capitialist cycle fetishists? The Marxist existentialism of Gorz is probably all very well in a University Common Room but it ain't going to do much to fix human nature.

The car is near ubiquitous. Is my Fiat Cinquecento that cost less than any of my bikes to acquire really a luxury object? Is the pleasure I get from driving it, is the benefit in time saving it gives me, really a myth? I fear that he'd get "Must try harder" scrawled on that essay by my old philosophy professor!

Greg you fall back on realism and human nature, but the current status of these two factors are not immutable. Like many beyond a certain age you also dismiss some views as being 'University Common Room' with the underlying implication of immaturity or naivety. I read a very interesting article that looked at these very attitudes in relation to age and circumstances. I can't remember all of it but some bits stuck in my mind. It actually categorised your style of argument here, when used by one time 'lefties', as being a form of self justification. Rather than admit to having failed to make a difference they seek to rationalise why it was foolish to consider the attempt in the first place. It was also pointed out that these rationalisations were generally made from an income point well above the average.

This leads back to the OP, agree or not with CM methods I still applaud that the effort is being made. I also recognise that some of the current CM crop will be 'enjoying' luxury car travel in future years. The one common denominator we all have is that we are pedestrians, it's after that things start to diverge.

 

[GrumpyGregry]

I agree, and have added the bold to fix that. I think that would make the very biggest difference to every road user.

I'm going to tweak it a bit further..

Perhaps the trick to me being a reasonably happy urban commuter (on a bike) was that I never saw myself - or behaved in a way that indicated that I saw myself - as anything less than equal to every other mode of transport. If CM could somehow instil this mindset into every person, it would indeed be a great thing;

 

[BentMikey]

I think this youtube clip would be a timeous addition to this topic, very appropriate and true. Given that it's from 60 years ago, nothing much seems to have changed:

View: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ZgiVicpZGk


Thanks arallsop - I knew what it was as soon as you posted it. Put it in my newsletter a couple of years ago.

 

[Dan B]

None of the reading I've done around queuing theory as it applies to motorways has persuaded me that speed, per se, is what causes traffic jams. Chokes, idiot operators, etc., etc., perhaps but not speed. ymmv and I'll read anything you direct me to that demonstrates otherwise.

I'm not claiming this is a counter-example, but it is interesting as a demonstration of how "sheer weight of traffic" can cause jams even when there is no apparent external trigger

Traffic that grinds to a halt and then restarts for no apparent reason is one of the biggest causes of frustration for drivers. Now a team of Japanese researchers has recreated the phenomenon on a test-track for the first time.
The mathematical theory behind these so-called "shockwave" jams was developed more than 15 years ago using models that show jams appear from nowhere on roads carrying their maximum capacity of free-flowing traffic - typically triggered by a single driver slowing down.

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn13402

A chhaotic system in both senses of the word, I'd say

 

[GrumpyGregry]

Greg you fall back on realism and human nature, but the current status of these two factors are not immutable. Like many beyond a certain age you also dismiss some views as being 'University Common Room' with the underlying implication of immaturity or naivety.

I see little evidence to suggest that the flaws in human nature are changing over time. ymmv.

The common room. Not what I was saying at all. I characterise uni common room attitudes, in this context, as being the attitudes of highly intelligent, well educated, mature individuals who are splendid and highly valuable theoreticians (Gorz at least used to make practical suggestions at the ends of his books, well the ones I've read anyway). But I'm a pragmatist. If it cannot be made to work in life for whatever reasons, without some form of compulsion, then it isn't a practical proposition. We can't uninvent the car, or the road network, or the transport industry, no matter how much some dead Catholic Priest thought we should. Catholic Priests would have us all do many things differently.

I read a very interesting article that looked at these very attitudes in relation to age and circumstances. I can't remember all of it but some bits stuck in my mind. It actually categorised your style of argument here, when used by one time 'lefties', as being a form of self justification. Rather than admit to having failed to make a difference they seek to rationalise why it was foolish to consider the attempt in the first place. It was also pointed out that these rationalisations were generally made from an income point well above the average.

I can't identify myself in that description. I'm not a one time 'lefty'. I've not failed to make a difference. What does someone's income have to do with it?

This leads back to the OP, agree or not with CM methods I still applaud that the effort is being made. I also recognise that some of the current CM crop will be 'enjoying' luxury car travel in future years. The one common denominator we all have is that we are pedestrians, it's after that things start to diverge.

Violence has many forms. I've seen what I regard as violence directed at other people on CM's. Rationalised and self justified by the perpetrators. That's why I stopped participating. I find myself unable to applaud the effort of those who methods I find reprehensible. I've seen what I regard as violence on CM's as recently as last Autumn. The end does not justify the means; no good tree grows from a bad or tainted seed.

The only violence I'm interested in is the violence of love.

 

[GrumpyGregry]

I'm not claiming this is a counter-example, but it is interesting as a demonstration of how "sheer weight of traffic" can cause jams even when there is no apparent external trigger
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn13402

A chhaotic system in both senses of the word, I'd say

with no external trigger other than the single driver slowing down?

 

[Dan B]

with no external trigger other than the single driver slowing down?

Can you spot which driver it was? Even looking at the video quite closely I find it hard to see anyone I would describe as "at fault"

 

[CopperBrompton]

I'm not claiming this is a counter-example, but it is interesting as a demonstration of how "sheer weight of traffic" can cause jams even when there is no apparent external trigger
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn13402

Though in most motorway cases, the root cause is actually poor driving. It only takes a single inattentive driver to get too close to the car in front then touch their brakes to correct it to start that kind of shockwave.

If everyone drove with what Roadcraft rather grandly calls 'acceleration sense', but which actually means nothing more than looking ahead and easing off the accelerator early enough to avoid the need to brake, shockwave queues would be pretty much a thing of the past.

 

[Flying Dodo]

I've seen that shockwave in real life, on the M1 between J9 & J10 which slopes uphill. Way in the distance up the top towards J10 I noticed a brake light come on briefly, and then there was a ripple effect from all the cars fairly close behind, and they would tend to brake longer, and so it meant the cars behind them in turn braked for even longer, so by the time it moved back to J9, cars were stationery.

 

[Dan B]

If everyone drove with what Roadcraft rather grandly calls 'acceleration sense', but which actually means nothing more than looking ahead and easing off the accelerator early enough to avoid the need to brake, shockwave queues would be pretty much a thing of the past.

While I agree with you here in principle, I don't think this solution is compatible with Greg's pragmatism. People will move up to fill the space (especially ona multilane road where they also want to "defend" the space from anyone who may want to cut in). That's human nature

edit: any kind of gradient change will tend to set it off too.

 

[CopperBrompton]

Well, indeed, I won't repeat my 'When I'm world dictator' plan for driving licences ...

 

[GrumpyGregry]

now don't get me started on numpties who shoot past me in an overtake and then give me a big fat face full of brake lights so they can dive into the gap in front of me. I don't mind the overtake, it is the sheer graceless, unstylish, inelegant, brutality of the need to apply the brakes hard to do it that make me shake my head...

...I presume when they change lanes they hit the catseyes as well!

 

[GrumpyGregry]

Well, indeed, I won't repeat my 'When I'm world dictator' plan for driving licences ...

Gwan. I'd probably vote for you.