🚀 go-pugleaf

RLW wrote:
> The same NYT article quotes the mayor as follows:  "Bicycles are a very
> big quality-of-life problem.  It may be the thing that was most mentioned
> to me when I was campaigning, particularly in Manhattan"  Eristoff said:
> "In my four and a half years in office, no other issue has generated
> such a level of complaints," estimating he gets three calls a week on the
> subject."
 
John Serafin wrote:
> Hmmm, I would think that in Manhattan, automobiles are a _much_ bigger
> quality-of-life problem, worth at least several hundred calls a week
> in a city of several million.
> 
> If maybe autos aren't all that big a problem in Manhattan, then there is no
> way bicycles are even a blip.

Ken Kifer replies:
I remember reading about one of the early Christian martyrs.  He was
frantically finishing his diatribe before being led to the lions in the
arena.  Who was he attacking?  Not the Romans, who were about to kill
him horribly; instead, he was denouncing the Gnostics, which had never
caused him the slightest pain.  Why? Because their beliefs were in
conflict.

The major of New York is not going to get upset about automobiles even
if the fatalities increase alarmingly, the temperatures rise above the
markings on the thermometer, and the water starts lapping at the city
streets.

Our whole society is built around the automobile, and when the last car
has been hauled to the crusher, we are going to have to live in a
completely different world, something that he, and his constituents do
not want to face.

Do they want to wear Lycra?  No!  Do they want to get hot and sweaty? 
No!  Do they want to build up their hearts so they won't have to pop
pills and endure double by-passes?  No!  Do they want an end to endless
traffic jambs and the start of a less hectic way of life?  No!  Do they
want clear air and water and more comfortable weather? No!  Do they want
to fight each other all day long, work endless hours on tired legs, and
retire to the nursing home without having seen anything more than the
inside of a cubical or an automobile?  God, yes!

------------------(Carl Sagan  Broca's Brain)----------------------
The demise of the automobile surely has many positive aspects when
viewed in the long run, one of which is a return to the oldest
transportation mechanisms, walking, and [sic] to bicycling, which
is in many ways the most remarkable.