Cugel wrote:Cyril Haearn wrote:londoncommuter0000 wrote:Does anyone know if there are places in Kent where one can do a couple of hours cycling, without any cars?
I abhor the motor car. I consider it a blight on our planet. And I have very little patience with the bleating that 'Oh, it has done so much!' Maybe it has. But at the hands of the idiots who are supposed to be 'in control' of it, the motor car has slaughtered hundreds of thousands of innocent people.
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Plus One for thread drift before crossing the start line
Correction: killed millions
Don't forget the tens or perhaps hundreds of millions the car has seriously maimed, in it's relatively short history upon Planet Erf. Then there's those who have been made miserable by the death or maiming of their loved ones. And the victims of it's pollutants who are awarded an early death. Also, cars are possibly some of the worst kind of litter, choking everywhere with their parking.
It has also effectively stopped me from walking anything but short distances. Our big Tesco is a 30 minute walk from here. I could take my big rucksack and walk there. But the route takes me across .. I don't know how many side streets. And of course, once I am crossing any of these side streets, car drivers and motorcyclists are supposed to stop and let me cross. But the drivers and the motorcyclists didn't get the memo. Almost every single time I walk anywhere here, I have the choice: I can accept that I'm a piece of dirt and cede passage to my motorised overlords... or I can stand my ground. When I have tried the latter, I am systematically threatened, and have had vehicles deliberately aimed at me.
Cycling is the same, of course. I could take my tourer with four panniers and go shopping at the Tesco. But since the council here has created loads of places on the actual carriageway where drivers can park their cars legally, there is probably about 70% of the route which is effectively single carriageway. And I have not yet met a driver or motorcyclist here in SE London who will actually stop and let a cyclist past if the latter has priority. They will drive or ride straight at you, in the full knowledge that your instinct not to be killed, means you will back down.
South East London is as close to utter hell on earth, as I can imagine. I absolutely
hate it here.
As a result, I almost never walk or cycle. To my utter shame, I have taken the car to drive to the Co-Op, which is seven minutes on foot, just so I can avoid confrontation with drivers.