Dumbest piece of anti-cycling nonsense you'll ever read.

[Learnincurve]

So get a ladies bike if you want to wear a long skirt then?

Silly cow, a silly white Christian doo gooding cow who can't see that her words are exactly the same thing a muslim extremist would say.

 

[GrumpyGregry]

"women of any ethnic group who wish to wear modest clothing, and I count myself in that category, are not going to cycle. It is a discriminatory form of transport"

Wear normal clothes then?

Wear rational dress then!

 

[GrumpyGregry]

So get a ladies bike if you want to wear a long skirt then?

Silly cow, a silly white Christian doo gooding cow who can't see that her words are exactly the same thing a muslim extremist would say.

Do you mean a mixte frame? Or a step-thru, or a bike with a dropped top tube, none of which are the sole demise of 'ladies'

As to the bovine gendered insults; leave 'em out please, they give rise to an appearance of the sort of narrow-minded ignorance you seem to be accusing this person of.

 

[numbnuts]

Disabled people can't benefit from cycling?

Well I do it stops me looking at four walls all day

 

[raleighnut]

Disabled people can't benefit from cycling? Try telling that to my partially sighted wife who can barely walk, but who enjoys the freedom, exercise and achievement that a (very closely supervised) bike ride gives her.

Stupid ignorant woman (the councillor, not my Missus)

Ditto for me with a broken femur, admittedly its a trike but it still has pedals.

 

[Drago]

And strictly speaking myself as well, albeit 2% loss of function in my right arm.due to the Ti holding my elbow together is pretty mild compared to the amputees, cardiac patients etc who all ride.

Perhaps we should send a letter to thjsncouncil, rebutting this stupid persons rant point by point.

 

[Ganymede]

the sole demise of 'ladies'

"demise"?!!

 

[Flying Dodo]

Birmingham is a great place and there's some wonderful cycling to be had there.

Yes, on the roads heading out from Birmingham.

 

[KneesUp]

The councillor in question is Tory. This means she is totally incapable of seeing the societal benefits.

Let us assume she is correct that the only people who cycle are white middle class men. (To be clear, she isn't, but let's run with it)

Now, if the improvements mean that more of them cycle, what are the benefits? All the councillor is seeing is that they can now cycle on nice paths. But there are other benefits. Like less costs to the NHS and therefore to the rest of society. Like less pollution, which benefits everyone. Like less congestion, that benefits all the people who are still using cars and buses. Like a quieter city centre and so on.

Even if only middle class white men cycle, getting more of them to do it benefits all of society.

Sadly Tories don't think there is such a thing as society.

 

[Glow worm]

Yes, on the roads heading out from Birmingham.

I know, poor old Brum gets a lot of stick. It's often from folk who've only seen it from the nasty M6 flyover thing. There really are some great parts of the place. A ride alongside the Brum to Worcester canal from the Indoor Arena place out into Worcs is superb (used to be part of my commute and I still miss it). It's also, by far the friendliest place I've ever lived.

 

[Drago]

What I don't understand is what the hell party politics has to do with providing park benches and emptying the bins?

 

[jdtate101]

BTW her husband, John Alden, is also a councillor who regularly espouses the need for cyclists to be taxed, insured and registered the same as cars. Luckily he and his wife are pretty much ignored and saner voices prevail....

 

[Profpointy]

What I don't understand is what the hell party politics has to do with providing park benches and emptying the bins?

at the risk of a (semi-)serious answer..... "the right" tends to think there should be less public provision, and people should pay for their own things, or clubs together if they want stuff - so there'd be fewer park benches or parks for that matter - but they might allow private estates to have their own park, from which the poor can be excluded, and maybe a fee charged for entry. "the left" on the other hand will confiscate money from us all, in order to waste it on things like disabled lesbian theatre groups, and other pet causes. Thus, even park benches might be party political. And bin emptying - should it be a public provision, paid for out of the rates, or should each householder contract with his own bin emptying company? After all, the public provision of bin emptying is only an excuse to create jobs for workshy trade union lefty types who couldn't survive in the private sector...

Well, maybe not serious, I got carried away...

Slightly more seriously, there's basic common services with even the right (at least the moderate right) thinks should be common, then the Party aspect is who makes a decent job of running it, then as each side mucks up and / or gets complacent or their noses in the trough, we kick 'em out and let the other lot have a shot at it.

 

[Drago]

Cool. There'd be less need for councillors then. One of the few things the Americans get right is local services, where the heads of seperate departments are elected, like Police, Sanitation, Highways etc, then the individual losers can be weeded out while those that do well can be left alone without recourse to party politics.

 

[ufkacbln]

Is ethnic clothing not normal then?

Two edged sword...

The question is whether cycling as a mode of transport excludes ethnic groups, or whether the choices of the ta ethnic group exclude them from cycling.

So to a particular ethnic group the clothing may be "normal", but across a diverse and mixed racial profile it will not be normal.

For instance a Sikh will wear a turban, but it is not the "normal" headgear for the majority of the population