cpmisalive (November 30, 1999 at 12:00 am)

Yeah, exactly. Take a sane, caring, loving person who likes nothing better than to chase butterflies and press wildflowers - put them in a car at rush hour on a wet, damp, Autumnal day and make them late. What a transformation, like Jekyll and Hyde. I can't think of a place where you can get so angry and do so little about it, apart from, of course, annoying other drivers, a bit like a chain reaction of pure, total, rage.

cpmisalive (November 30, 1999 at 12:00 am)

I guess this depends on where you're going and at what time. Going against the flow you'd live out the dream of a high speed interconnected convenient transport system. Go with the flow and you'll be introduced a hell-on-earth.

cpmisalive (November 30, 1999 at 12:00 am)

Yep, I often cycle past three or four miles of those "habitual passengers". Maybe, they could car-pool, then the next logical step is a bus and then a train.I prefer to live near where I work so less life is wasted commuting. Life is something that cannot be bought. When you're on your death bed thinking you'd like a bit more time, just remember where a huge chunk went, sat looking at other "habitual passengers" for three or more hours a day...

cpmisalive (November 30, 1999 at 12:00 am)

Yes, we should use less, there is no doubt about that.The problem here is that, whilst we do have trucks on our roads and they mingle with cyclists, cyclists need to take care.A trucker, like the rest of us, doesn't have ESP and hopes that people won't cut up the side they're indicating on.Undertaking is one of the most dangerous manoeuvres you can do on a bike.Accident frequency and truck number are inevitably related.Ask Gordon Brown "Where has the road2rail investment has gone?"

pippicat (November 30, 1999 at 12:00 am)

... is the least noxious effect of this concession. The far more bitter results are the multiplication of psychic frustration, the growing disutilities of continued production, and subjection to an inequitable transfer of power -- all of which are manifestations of a distorted relationship between life-time and life-space. The passenger who agrees to live in a world monopolized by transport becomes a harassed, overburdened consumer of distances whose shape and length he can no longer control."

pippicat (November 30, 1999 at 12:00 am)

"The harm done by contemporary traffic is due to the monopoly of transport. The allure of speed has deceived the passenger into accepting the promises made by an industry that produces capital-intensive traffic. He is convinced that high-speed vehicles have allowed him to progress beyond the limited autonomy he enjoyed when moving under his own power. He has allowed planned transport to predominate over the alternative of labor intensive transit. Destruction of the physical environment ...

pippicat (November 30, 1999 at 12:00 am)

"The habitual passenger cannot grasp the folly of traffic based overwhelmingly on transport. His inherited perceptions of space and time and of personal pace have been industrially deformed. He has lost the power to conceive of himself outside the passenger role. Addicted to being carried along, he has lost control over the physical, social, and psychic powers that reside in man's feet. The passenger has come to identify territory with the untouchable landscape through which he is rushed."

pippicat (November 30, 1999 at 12:00 am)

High speed transport is best confined to a ribbon of steel rails.For a deeper look into the current monopoly of high speed, read "Energy and Equity" by Ivan Illich.clevercycles. com/energy_and_equity"What distinguishes the traffic in rich countries from the traffic in poor countries is not more mileage per hour of life-time for the majority, but more hours of compulsory consumption of high doses of energy, packaged and unequally distributed by the transportation industry."

pippicat (November 30, 1999 at 12:00 am)

These kinds of videos invariably bring out the sociopathic element -- motorheads with a knee-jerk hatred of bicyclists. The tiresome arguments revolve around a quasi-religious reverence for motorized transport, as if high speed were a prerequisite for full citizenship and human rights.Missing from their rhetoric is the extreme damage done by motor vehicles to nature and human society. The bicycle is a far superior choice in terms of health, safety, sanity and equity.

underpantswedgy (November 30, 1999 at 12:00 am)

SO, this is a problem which the manufacturer's of Artics should address and consequently come up with a simple solution? Simply add a exterior camera which connects to a monitor inside the drivers cab - simple really!