Prominent transport author claims appointment of Chris Boardman as Active Travel Commissioner is part of "Great Reset agenda"

I might be giving too much credit here, but I would guess that the journey isn't starting on Sidgewick Avenue, they are just quoting the relevant bit of the journey. He probably lives in the brilliantly planned commuter village of Cambourne with virtually no public transport into Cambridge.

Having said that there are plenty of P&R sites around Cambridge which could be used.

FWIW I used to cycle around Cambridge in the early 90s when SIlver Street was two way for all vehicles and Fen Causeway, Queen Street and Silver Street were all congested most of the day then.

Chris Boardman's great at avoiding the bear traps laid by the motoring lobby / status quo ("but the disabled"!  "how to get the kids to school!"  "but 'cyclists' / red light jumpers!" "The road's already congested"!) while being very clear, practical and common-sense.  Not getting tangled in intricacies of counter-arguments* is definitely the way for mainstream communication.  Most people are dependent on cars and have little awareness of "transport cycling".  Or even a negative view of "cyclists".  For change we have to speak to them.

This guy - although he sounds like he's straight out of some US political "culture war" nonsense - is right in one sense.  We will get some kind of "great reset" - like it or not.  We've already had a minor one with Covid (remember that?) working changes.  What's at stake is how - and whether - we choose to direct this.

Do we try to get somewhere which will benefit more people and be more stable longer term?  Or somewhere which involves less "change" to human routines and makes some people / organisations very rich - but merely defers some problems and creates others?  Alternatively we can just drift with the flow of events until change is forced upon us.

* The detail is necessary.  Just look at the tons of inadequate or actually dangerous "cargo cult Netherlands" - or worse - stuff we're still building.  From seeing what they'd started in Manchester I think he and his team have grasped the key points around adequate infrastructure which might actually serve mass cycling.

Dr Wellings does sound a wee bit unhinged, but I'm all for getting ordinary people out of cars. Brilliant idea Dr Wellings!

chrisonatrike wrote:

We will get some kind of "great reset" - like it or not.

Yep.

Quote:

Oil left in the world: 1,434,064,200,851 [running total]

Summary Table

Oil Consumption 35,442,913,090 barrels per year
97,103,871 barrels per day
Reserves/Consumption
47 (years left)

(Data shown in the table is for 2016. Counter shows current estimate.)

Now down to 41 years, and what's left is going to get more expensive and difficult to get out of the ground. Source: https://www.worldometers.info/oil/

Never heard of this dude before - I guess I don't pay enough attention to the pronouncements of the Institute of Economic Affairs.  Would that be Dr. Richard Wellings [homepage], "Libertarianism and Austrian economics."?

A quick skim suggests he's pretty full-on "the state is the problem" and "free market" (for a particular definition of free...).  Nothing (positive) about bicycles but couldn't be bothered reading much - tell me where I'm wrong.

I've never worked out why such folks rarely seem keen on cycling.  After all that's inherently decentralised, involves personal private transport, low cost to any state.  Some cost-benefit analysis suggests that compared with cars cycling could be a net financial positive when you sum all the externalities.  Perhaps cycling's ... too free - or rather, too cheap?  Maybe by being so efficient the bicycle makes it hard for a few folks to get a monopoly / make sacks of money?

Although by guilding the lily / making bikes more like the car with e-bikes and e-scooters for all I'm sure there's some opportunity left!

Surely it couldn't be that these folks decrying "crony capitalism" (of our "fake conservative" government) are just getting their funding from a different set of capitalists (or offering a better deal for the existing ones for support)?

Probably the best explanation is that the IEA is part funded by oil - BP is said to be major donor.  Along with other wholesome companies like the tobacco companies.

I think this quote from wikipedia sums it up:

"In or about 2019, on national radio station LBC, James O'Brien said that the IEA is a politically motivated lobbying organisation funded by "dark money", of "questionable provenance, with dubious ideas and validity", staffed by people who are not proper experts on their topic. The IEA complained to UK media regulator Ofcom that those remarks were inaccurate and unfair. In August 2021, Ofcom rejected the complaint.[60]"

I didnt even read that much into it tbh. Just hope he's right about kicking people out of their cars..

Is it the classic, 'the cyclist is the enemy of the capatilist'  as when choosing the bike you are not buying fuel, you are fighting obesity, you are not crashing into things and causing loads of damage, you are not paying insurance, etc. etc.

To be fair, if those people holding the above beliefs were to learn the price of the new 105 groupset, their viewpoint would surely change!