unrelated, or are they unrelated?
Why spend so much on cycling in a city, which
we know is dangerous, when people are freezing
because of combines activity in the energy markets?
Shouldn't some energy be expended to stop this
homicidal activity?
As for cycling: I did an article on my tech blog
about how cyclists can protect themselves from
the dangers of urban pedalism, like surrounding
themselves with a Brinx truck. I honestly think
that cycling on main urban roads is suicidal.
Secondly, I know from my old jogging routes, on
high traffic roads, that it's like smoking on a treadmill.
Your lungs will just pack up and leave you. Just when
the buds of your lungs are opening up , you coke
them up with truck exhaust. Craziness.
checkit: The Observer
Cycling
is good for you… and other peddled lies
While
bike users are endlessly cosseted, Scotland's real health issues remain
shamefully unaddressed
Kevin McKenna
Sunday 28 April 2013
In
the absence of anything resembling traditional religion these days, a curious
collection of secular sacraments has begun to fill the spiritual vacuum. Being
one of those lucky few who are on hand to help a beached pilot whale back into
the ocean is probably as good as it gets in the index of modern sacred
happenings. The dying whale seems to represent the ultimate sacrifice in
nature's endless cycle of death and rebirth. Although it's probably best to
gloss over the fact that when the big chaps inadvertently hit the sand they
already know the game is up. After that, they probably want simply to breathe
their last amid seagulls and starfish instead of being manhandled and violated
by scores of wailing and screeching sympathisers attempting to hump it back
into the sea.
… If
new pandas and old whales and spooky moons are the secular world's beatitudes,
then urban cycling has become its prayer and meditation; in Scotland we don't
build churches any more, only cycle lanes. To be a cyclist in lowland Scotland
is to have reached the absolute zenith of the human condition. Thus we find
ourselves in the middle of a campaign to presume guilt on the part of motorists
in any road accidents involving cyclists. The proponents of this extraordinary
nonsense tell us that, as cyclists can't kill you and cars do, then automotive
vehicles must be presumed guilty in any incidents involving cyclists.
I feel moved to state here
that I'm not averse to a wee pedal myself from time to time, but I feel that
doing so in built-up areas is the height of irresponsibility and displays an
arrogant and
high-handed attitude to the concerns of other road-users. All that countryside
with which we have been blessed in Scotland, all those hills and lochs – they
have been put here for a reason. It's to provide a natural facility for people
who insist on spending a disproportionate part of their lives running, cycling
and climbing. Cities are for cars, buses and trains. They are where people go to work hard and drink seriously. There is
ample room in the countryside for frivolous people who want to affect
healthiness and happiness and sport ridiculous millinery and garish apparel.
… In
the overwhelming majority of road incidents involving cars and bikes, the
driver will be in possession of
thousands of pounds' worth of training, car insurance and safety apparatus.
The cyclist will have nothing but a daft
helmet, diving goggles and spandex shorts. Cyclists need to be put through
a stiff proficiency test before obtaining a licence and they ought to be taxed
and insured.
Let's
not kid ourselves either that the government's obsession with making us all
cyclists and joggers is about creating a healthier Scotland. Cycling and
jogging in urban areas are mainly the preserves of the middle classes. It is
less about them being fit and active and more about them participating in a
daily fashion parade for designer sportswear or conducting clandestine liaisons
with their outdoor inamoratas. These people already eat five a day, floss and
attend a gym. Running and cycling are merely the frou-frou accoutrements to
their goat's cheese lifestyles.
No
amount of cycling and running, though, can ever address Scotland's real health
issues. Last week, it was revealed that
the number of Scots receiving handouts from food banks had risen 150%.
These are families who are beyond the
reach of the benefits system. This winter, the bedroom tax and the obscene cartelism and greed of the energy suppliers
will have increased that number. Also last week we were told that some
parts of Glasgow are the least peaceful in the UK and that the literacy gap
between schools in poor areas and those in affluent ones is as big as ever.
