Philipthelam wrote:damhooligan wrote:
you do realise that does include YOU !
You also assume YOU know how other people think...
you do this by saying MHL does not discourage cycling...
Your wrong.
If you read my post carefully the whole thing is written in first
person. I'm talking about my own experience. I said it didn't discourage
myself from cycling.
But sadly, you (like ross) have failed to understand that your personal
case study is an attempt to extrapolate an opinion held by other people.
You weren't discouraged... great. What about the other 20 million that
wouldn't even dream of riding? I spoke to a lady yesterday who lived in
Clifton Hills in Melbourne. Surely a better person to ride to work you
will not find. Short ride... but it's too dangerous. So she doesn't know
how to ride a bike?
Or is the issue that car drivers have made a neutral zone, a road, so
terrifying that she couldn't conceive of doing something both legal and
safe? The parallel is this - helmet laws give the impression that
cycling is so terrifying that you can't go riding without one, an
otherwise legal and safe activity. We need to move away from this
assumption that someone riding at 20kmh is somehow doing something
unsafe. They are not. It is disingenuous to say otherwise.
You're on a bike forum. Clearly the laws don't discourage YOU.
Simonn, did you post the strawman for your own post? Medical
professionals only see the injuries. Big deal. Where is the campaign to
ban ladder use? Backyard pools? Swimming at the beach? Banning weekend
sport? Sharp knives? These things create a LOT more emergency department
visits than bikes. These professionals are not neutral and they don't
apply these principles to all activities equally. Road safety
professionals is a good one. ACA/TT trots out some nutter from a driver
training school as a road safety expert. You have to be very careful who
you want to hand over your decisionmaking to... because control of
others is a dangerous thing, more dangerous than letting the great
unwashed decide for themselves. History is filled with various leaders
who crushed the populace
for their own good.
Real question, simon. If I go off and do a uni degree in ergonomics and
crash testing, do I suddenly get to veto any opinion you have about
health and safety? Do I get the right to inflict legal restrictions on
you for your own good, even if it is totally contrary to the principles
of a free society?
Are you prepared to surrender to my authority
because of a piece of paper from a university?