Post by @quixoticgeek@social.v.st

RE: https://mastodon.nz/@SimonCHulse/116623169267315966

This is solving the problem of cyclist/pedestrian collisions, the same way bullet proof backpacks are a solution to school shootings.

Cyclists and pedestrians have been gerrymandered out of the public space, pushed to the edges to make space for giant metal death cages.

The problem is not pedestrians being unable to hear bike bells. The problem is bikes and pedestrians being forced together.

Get rid of the cars, make the world safer for everyone.

Cait the Proud Trans Woman

@oldladyplays@wargamers.social · 2 hours ago

@quixoticgeek

Hmm...I see your point. In my case, I want warnings because of a multi-use trail near my home as a cane user with PTSD, as e-bikes are near-silent at high speed even, and so I am slightly traumatised each time no warnings come. I don't care what mechanisms are used. As long as they signal, as accessibly as possible, the approach of a fast-moving silent person, I'll be fine sharing a trail. Voice, bell, music, horn, tuba, bagpipe...i don't care. Just don't sneak up on people fast.

Our society creates PTSD in daily life. Just moving around a city. We should be, alongside minimising car use, increasing mild forms of social pressure to build a culture of consideration.

Maya

@Mayabotics@tech.lgbt · 2 hours ago

@oldladyplays @quixoticgeek We got park trails that are really meant for promenades, not as shortcuts, but our county started encouraging cyclists to use them as such.

It was fine before e-bikes were a thing, but now you have families trying to have a leisurely stroll through the park while e-bikes zip through.

Repurposing leisure trails like this as transport corridors gave the cyclists that took over the local transit advocacy group what they wanted, more direct routes deconflicted from cars, while not requiring the county or the city to actually spend money developing new infrastructure.

Quixoticgeek

@quixoticgeek@social.v.st · 2 hours ago

@Mayabotics @oldladyplays get rid of the cars from the other routes and send the bikes off the shared promenade... The problem is the cars.

Cait the Proud Trans Woman

@oldladyplays@wargamers.social · 1 hour ago

@quixoticgeek @Mayabotics

I don't disagree. And that will be a glorious day, when it comes. But I probably won't be alive until then, so I wouldn't hate if we could *also* implement the social solution? Seeing as it would be a net social good in any case? :)

Quixoticgeek

@quixoticgeek@social.v.st · 2 hours ago

@oldladyplays why is it shared? why is the space so small? and if it is shared, the bikes should slow the fsck down. Even ebikes. I'm sorry you have to put up with this, going outside shouldn't be so hostile :(

Cait the Proud Trans Woman

@oldladyplays@wargamers.social · 2 hours ago

@quixoticgeek

Because it is direct, following a lightly active railway right of way through town, and is as wide as there is room already. And it links to other trails and bike infra. It's not that kind of failure; maybe a zoning failure, to leave so little space for the railway ROW so many decades ago. But not a modern one. An artefact of a city's growth over time.

But to fix it, there is a social solution, as I have proposed. We use the ancient tech of inducing social change, to encourage a more collective approach to shared services and their use. It's old, but reliable, well-studied, we already have skilled workers in the field. We just need to have the will to push Start.

Ko Simon toku ingoa :tinoflag:

@SimonCHulse@mastodon.nz · 2 hours ago

@quixoticgeek I agree, but we aren’t going to be rid of cars anytime soon, so we need to work with the world we have.

(Also, I think the compassion to bulletproof backpacks is overkill. *That* problem can and should be solved by getting rid of the guns, that’s not as hard as getting rid of cars)

Quixoticgeek

@quixoticgeek@social.v.st · 2 hours ago

@SimonCHulse Public transport and active travel are the solution to cars. We have the technology, it just isn't evenly distributed. Cars kill over a million people per year. And we're supposed to just accept that?

Ko Simon toku ingoa :tinoflag:

@SimonCHulse@mastodon.nz · 2 hours ago

@quixoticgeek totally agreed. We should not just accept it. But taking away guns can be done in a couple of weeks (Australia and New Zealand both proved this after one mass shooting each, and a small amount of political bravery).

Changing concrete routes in cities from car focussed to bike focussed takes at best, months, if not years of concerted effort.

Quixoticgeek

@quixoticgeek@social.v.st · 2 hours ago

@SimonCHulse we better get started then, sooner rather than later.

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