Posts by Stephen Judd
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And apropos hills: the new Wellington city council cycle strategy document tells me that Wellington has more cycle usage than Auckland. Hills are one factor, but only one.
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Apropos terrain: yeah, it's not suitable for Dutch grannies.
However, a few decades ago, the terrain was just the same, yet all the kids rode bikes.
Everyone who's seen the ghostly streets at school holiday time knows that the bulk of the traffic (and the danger to cyclists) in the AM is parents dropping off children. If we could just focus on making it safe for kids to bike in the morning that would be a huge win for everyone, not least car commuters.
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I want a city that takes cycling from the cyclists (spandex wearers) and gives it back to the people (wearing normal clothes and going at a reasonable pace).
A mate and I were talking about this on the wkend. He is quite involved in advocating for walking and cycling. He noted that many of the cycle people were... abrasive. I told him the problem was the selection pressures on the cycling population. Because cycling is seen as somewhat risky and eccentric, regular cyclists have more risk-takers and eccentrics among their number... make cycling in the city safe and normal, and lo, they will have lobbyists as fat and respectable as any AA spokesperson.
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CHEQUE!
/me has been reading too many American writers recently.
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Cyclists do have votes but do they pay road tax
Of course. Like most commuting cyclists, I own a car too.
But anyway, my bicycle damages the road hardly at all compared to a heavier vehicle, and requires far less area.
Trucks smash the road up real fast, and are de facto subsidised by other users. If I, as a cyclist, were to receive a true accounting based on costs of providing roading, I'd get a hefty check, while the trucking companies would go broke.
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“Our people were not involved in any way in this and they will not be,” Mr. Obama snapped, his voice raised. “And if I ever thought there was somebody in my campaign that was involved in something like that, they’d be fired, O.K.?”
Mr. Obama said the pregnancy “has no relevance to Governor Palin’s performance as a governor or her potential performance as a vice president.” He added that, “my mother had me when she was 18. How a family deals with issues and teen-age children — that shouldn’t be the topic of our politics.”
“So,” he added, “I would strongly urge people to back off these kinds of stories.”
Class.
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I live at altitude in a place called Mounting Women.
Is that anywhere near Dickhead Central?
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Makes absolutely zero sense.
Like I said, I don't think it's true either. However, I've just run across it out there for a third time. Palin is such a bizarre choice that people are straining for explanations: it's a cunning plan!
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There is a theory out there that sounds almost plausible.
There are already big ethics concerns around Palin and her efforts to abuse her powers to punish her brother in law. And it seems like she might have a bit of a truthfulness problem.
So having diverted momentum off Obama's killer speech this week, next week McCain will regretfully replace Palin with a more conventional selection.
I don't actually believe this but it's the Roviavellian explanation.
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Considering that he's 72, already had cancer, and suffers from the deprivation of his POW years, the odds of McCain either dying or becoming incapacitated in office are not small. President Palin? OMG.