To get a good perspective on why pedestrians and cyclists are so unsafe on our roads, you should check out the book Killed By a Traffic Engineer by Wes Marshall.
Loved the discussion. Id love someone to talk about the distance arguments. A 6 mile bike ride for me but drivers I know see traveling anything more than across a sidewalk from a to the building as a burden. These people this cannot help but see us wasting valuable road space doing something completely unnecessary.
The road locomotives look like the mechanical equivalent of riding a bull. Which is funny because people ride mechanical bulls.... Devil's advocate on the SUV driving to go mountain biking. Outside of large cities with extensive transit, owning a car/using a car to get to the trailhead is normal. Mostly because riding in your highest gear and wearing down your soft trail tires is a waste of the components. So the marketing is just targeting people who do that kind of riding. Overall in my opinion the solution to large city car issues is trains and walkable/ridable access to trains. Improving dedicated bike access to GO stations etc
Absolutely true that we could use WAY more dedicated support for multi-modal urban transport / enthusiasm and infrastructure for having bikes on our public transportation! And our point was totally the opposite -- there's nothing wrong with driving to a trail for a ride, in fact, it's awesome to see it depicted! I was more pointing out that it was surprising to see a car advert showing us how freeing it is to drive somewhere so that you can have the even more freeing experience of riding a bike, and that we should be able to have freeing experiences on two wheels without driving to them! And yeah, we DEFINITELY agree it's wasteful to commute on your beautiful downhill mountain bike setup! ;) Sorry if it wasn't the clearest message!
Hi Veronica and Owen! Fantastic videos on hot topics! Here are a few ideas on how cyclists can prep for this March, to influence both politicians and everyday drivers who oppose the Bloor bike lanes and bike lanes on the busiest streets. Both sides fight over the busiest streets. Cyclists want bike lanes for safety and the busier the street, the more effective they are. Drivers oppose bike lanes citing congestion for cars, again, the busier the street, the more harm they see being done. So what can we do now before March 2025 to win drivers to endorsing bike lanes? A twist to DIVIDE AND CONQUER. Marshall Rosenberg talks about how we create an “enemy image” when we are upset with an individual or a group. For people who oppose bike lanes, that means drivers see cyclists as a monolith to make it easier to hate us. The more we can break up this image, the easier it will be to overcome their hate. This means -limiting how many pro-bike lane campaigners are militant in our approach, -increasing our shows of empathy for their position, -and showing we not only ride bikes in winter, we are cheerful and friendly when we do. m.ua-cam.com/video/l7TONauJGfc/v-deo.html So the reference to divide and conquer means we divide our approaches towards drivers between militant and friendly without giving in. Militant It looks like a number of groups are militant. We fight for bike lanes. That’s good because people take us seriously. We had 3 events where we rode our bikes on Bloor into Etobicoke. Mild BEAT UP THE BIGGEST BULLY in the school yard... “kill” ‘em with kindness It looks like Mayor Olivia Chow has been using empathy and the Accusations Audit to calm Doug Ford and friends down. I heard Doug say he gets along great with her, that he wouldn’t be surprised if she stood beside him when they start removing the bike lanes. That is an indicator she shared a lot of understanding of his position without sharing her own. This approach comes from the book Never Split The Difference, by Chris Voss. He has a lot of videos which teach how to follow through on this with approaches to dealing with a bully without giving in. WIN OVER THE MODERATES “-push” the fence sitters off the fence This is discussed by Katherine Kehoe in the climate book Saving Us. A way to elaborate on this is to look at what people call MOTIVATIONAL INTERVIEWING. m.ua-cam.com/video/s3MCJZ7OGRk/v-deo.html This approach is opposite from your debating club arguments. You don’t present your case at all. You let the other side talk about both sides of an issue so they come over to your side on their own. It might sound like you take longer to change their mind but so often our reasoning and arguments fall on deaf ears. By letting them change their minds on their own, by us asking them questions it can be faster and create longer lasting change. It is used for creating change in alcoholics and drug addicts. But we can use it to win people over to support bike lanes. LEAD BY EXAMPLE We ride our bikes in winter, show drivers it can be done. Show them it can be fun. Show them people in Toronto do it. The simple act of riding a bike in winter can be a conversation starter for people we come across on the street or when we meet in a coffee shop. When we can: -Just ride. Just let people see us riding in winter. -Be cheerful and friendly. The saying you attract more flies and bees with honey applies even in winter. :)
Thanks for the thoughts Doug! It's definitely hard to change minds, and movement doesn't have to be political, but it seems like it inherently is due to the way we've structured our society - from bodies to roadways! Keep up the good fight :)
I keep looking for very practical and effective ways to promote cycling, bike lanes, winter cycling. I dressed up my mountain bike with evergreens and bells for the winter season. Once I did... gosh! I noticed just how many store windows are decorated for Christmas! There is so much of it, I’m hesitant to garnish my other bike. As in... Bro, just ride already! Cheers!
This is AUSOMEEEEEEE
To get a good perspective on why pedestrians and cyclists are so unsafe on our roads, you should check out the book Killed By a Traffic Engineer by Wes Marshall.
Loved the discussion. Id love someone to talk about the distance arguments. A 6 mile bike ride for me but drivers I know see traveling anything more than across a sidewalk from a to the building as a burden. These people this cannot help but see us wasting valuable road space doing something completely unnecessary.
Like, have drivers stopped to consider that cycling might... ALSO be pleasant, in addition to practical? 🤔
Ive found it's safer to jay walk then try and cross at signal
The road locomotives look like the mechanical equivalent of riding a bull. Which is funny because people ride mechanical bulls....
Devil's advocate on the SUV driving to go mountain biking. Outside of large cities with extensive transit, owning a car/using a car to get to the trailhead is normal. Mostly because riding in your highest gear and wearing down your soft trail tires is a waste of the components. So the marketing is just targeting people who do that kind of riding.
Overall in my opinion the solution to large city car issues is trains and walkable/ridable access to trains. Improving dedicated bike access to GO stations etc
Absolutely true that we could use WAY more dedicated support for multi-modal urban transport / enthusiasm and infrastructure for having bikes on our public transportation!
And our point was totally the opposite -- there's nothing wrong with driving to a trail for a ride, in fact, it's awesome to see it depicted! I was more pointing out that it was surprising to see a car advert showing us how freeing it is to drive somewhere so that you can have the even more freeing experience of riding a bike, and that we should be able to have freeing experiences on two wheels without driving to them! And yeah, we DEFINITELY agree it's wasteful to commute on your beautiful downhill mountain bike setup! ;) Sorry if it wasn't the clearest message!
Hi Veronica and Owen!
Fantastic videos on hot topics!
Here are a few ideas on how cyclists can prep for this March, to influence both politicians and everyday drivers who oppose the Bloor bike lanes and bike lanes on the busiest streets.
Both sides fight over the busiest streets.
Cyclists want bike lanes for safety and the busier the street, the more effective they are.
Drivers oppose bike lanes citing congestion for cars, again, the busier the street, the more harm they see being done.
So what can we do now before March 2025 to win drivers to endorsing bike lanes?
A twist to DIVIDE AND CONQUER.
Marshall Rosenberg talks about how we create an “enemy image” when we are upset with an individual or a group. For people who oppose bike lanes, that means drivers see cyclists as a monolith to make it easier to hate us. The more we can break up this image, the easier it will be to overcome their hate. This means
-limiting how many pro-bike lane campaigners are militant in our approach,
-increasing our shows of empathy for their position,
-and showing we not only ride bikes in winter, we are cheerful and friendly when we do.
m.ua-cam.com/video/l7TONauJGfc/v-deo.html
So the reference to divide and conquer means we divide our approaches towards drivers between militant and friendly without giving in.
Militant
It looks like a number of groups are militant. We fight for bike lanes. That’s good because people take us seriously. We had 3 events where we rode our bikes on Bloor into Etobicoke.
Mild
BEAT UP THE BIGGEST BULLY in the school yard... “kill” ‘em with kindness
It looks like Mayor Olivia Chow has been using empathy and the Accusations Audit to calm Doug Ford and friends down. I heard Doug say he gets along great with her, that he wouldn’t be surprised if she stood beside him when they start removing the bike lanes. That is an indicator she shared a lot of understanding of his position without sharing her own. This approach comes from the book Never Split The Difference, by Chris Voss. He has a lot of videos which teach how to follow through on this with approaches to dealing with a bully without giving in.
WIN OVER THE MODERATES “-push” the fence sitters off the fence
This is discussed by Katherine Kehoe in the climate book Saving Us. A way to elaborate on this is to look at what people call MOTIVATIONAL INTERVIEWING.
m.ua-cam.com/video/s3MCJZ7OGRk/v-deo.html
This approach is opposite from your debating club arguments. You don’t present your case at all. You let the other side talk about both sides of an issue so they come over to your side on their own. It might sound like you take longer to change their mind but so often our reasoning and arguments fall on deaf ears. By letting them change their minds on their own, by us asking them questions it can be faster and create longer lasting change. It is used for creating change in alcoholics and drug addicts. But we can use it to win people over to support bike lanes.
LEAD BY EXAMPLE
We ride our bikes in winter, show drivers it can be done. Show them it can be fun. Show them people in Toronto do it. The simple act of riding a bike in winter can be a conversation starter for people we come across on the street or when we meet in a coffee shop. When we can:
-Just ride. Just let people see us riding in winter.
-Be cheerful and friendly. The saying you attract more flies and bees with honey applies even in winter. :)
Thanks for the thoughts Doug! It's definitely hard to change minds, and movement doesn't have to be political, but it seems like it inherently is due to the way we've structured our society - from bodies to roadways!
Keep up the good fight :)
I keep looking for very practical and effective ways to promote cycling, bike lanes, winter cycling. I dressed up my mountain bike with evergreens and bells for the winter season. Once I did... gosh! I noticed just how many store windows are decorated for Christmas! There is so much of it, I’m hesitant to garnish my other bike. As in... Bro, just ride already!
Cheers!