[sustran] Re: EU laws to put brake on bikers(motorcyclists) BUT BUT BUT

K. Tsourlakis ktsourl at mailbox.gr
Wed May 24 22:08:50 JST 2006


I didn't mean I don't blame those who ride motorcycles aggressively and violate pedestrian rights (of course I do blame those, as well as car drivers who behave that way). I actually said I don't blame those who buy motorcycles. However, even in the case of the former the attribute "little-guy" is more accurate. Because, it is not them who design and control the overall transport system which creates these behaviours, but the authorities.

People are not offered good alternatives and are under a continuous brainwashing about how good is the motorised traffic. Most people are not experts to understand what should be done, although they realize the deception (e.g. confidence to politicians is very low). It is normal in a general population of million inhabitants to be found a small percentage (corresponding to a large absolute number) of criminals, perverted, immature or...just simply dumb. But if the authorities leave their actions unpunished and reward them (like greek police do for pedestrian rights violations) it is natural to enforce this behaviour.

For example, there is currently underway a huge plan to transform Athens (and others greek cities) central squares in underground garages. In many cases locals opposed, because, in addition to the car pollution, those underground garages degrade the plantation on top of them - but they faced callous reaction from the administration. These thousands of new parking spaces are going to create an even worse future, leading cars right to the centre of the greek cities (note that these parking spaces are explicitly earmarked not for the residents of the area, but for the visitors). But these projects are advertised as the solution to the traffic problems, even as environment protection projects! Now, who is the "big-guy" and who the "little-guy" in this case? Who do you put mostly the blame on?



>Date: Mon, 22 May 2006 21:53:32 +0200 (CEST)
>From: "Todd Edelman" <edelman at greenidea.info>
>Subject: [sustran] Re: EU laws to put brake on bikers(motorcyclists)
>	BUT BUT	BUT
>To: "Asia and the Pacific sustainable transport"
>	<sustran-discuss at list.jca.apc.org>
>Message-ID: <1653.62.245.95.24.1148327612.squirrel at mail.smartweb.cz>
>Content-Type: text/plain;charset=iso-8859-2
>
>KT wrote:
>>
>> I don&#65533;t blame people who buy motorcycles at all. In fact it is
>indeed "the
>> national governments" and other institutions like that you mention I put
>> the blame on, even for motorcycles aggressiveness, because this
>> aggressiveness is instigated by the attitude of the authorities... It is
>> > actually a crime,and some from the administration should
>> have been put on trial for what they have done (and still do) to the city
>> and its people, but...you know, even more serious crimes are left
>> unpunished these days. And the greek "justice" is notoriously corrupt and
>> dependent to them for doing anything.
>
>WAIT, hold on ! - dont people have some personal responsiblity? Even if
>people have no other option (?) than riding a motorcycle they do have the
>choice to ride carefully, dont they?
>
>- T
>
>------------------------------------------------------
>
>Todd Edelman
>International Coordinator
>On the Train Towards the Future!
>
>Green Idea Factory
>Laubova 5
>CZ-13000 Praha 3
>
>++420 605 915 970
>
>edelman at greenidea.info
>http://www.worldcarfree.net/onthetrain
>
>Green Idea Factory,
>a member of World Carfree Network
>


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