Wollemi said...FormulaNova said...For what its worth, I don't complain about being stuck in traffic. I like driving, and a 1 hour commute for me is actually comfortable, and I prefer it to the train. Air-con that works, heaps of room, no one else's BO, and no more than 1 crazy person.
This statement is not helpful for all of us on the ever burgeoning planet.
Sometimes, you are just either must keep your thoughts to yourself, or adjust your mindset; preferably both. There are over 7000 000 000 people on earth sharing resources, and almost one-quarter of our nations population lives in or very near, Sydney. Please consider cycling and/or public transport, where you could read, or people-watch around you at leisure, say.
That's where I think you are missing my point. As an aside, I do catch public transport, but I do prefer to drive. It's expensive to drive though, so I generally don't.
I think your statement about not helping, is a bit ignorant too. Its easy to criticize others for their impact, but its not going to change things, just by being critical.
You are never going to convince people to give up a selfish mode of transport if there is no benefit to them. No one wants to.
So, you can either keep the infrastructure the way it is, and
really really hope that other people 'do the right thing' or you can intelligently design it, so that people can reduce their impact and enjoy doing it.
Which do you think is the most pragmatic way of having people change their behavior?
I like cycling, and do a fair bit of it on group rides each year. Would I ride to work in Sydney? Never. I may as well jump in front of a taxi closer to home and get a quicker trip to the hospital.
So, the solution could be... make special cycleways so that people can ride to the CBD from 30kms out? Decentralise business so that fewer people have to travel so far to get to work? Make better, more frequent, faster, more comfortable public transport available?
Or, 'we' could just go on about how others are being inconsiderate and wasteful. One approach is going to make you feel better about yourself, and the other just might actually change things.