I understand, and I agree with you to a greater extent.Galactic wrote: ↑9 Nov 2022, 10:00amWe're encouraged to think that way, what with all the talk of 'offsetting' and 'net carbon', (not to mention the fact it's about 100 times easier to jump on a plane with our bikes than spend two days on ferries and trains with multiple tickets and changes). Nevertheless, doing less of 'bad' thing A (driving) doesn't give us the right (or an excuse) to engage in 'bad' thing B (flying once a year), particularly when a 'less bad' thing is available (train, ferry).Jon in Sweden wrote: ↑8 Nov 2022, 9:50pm Given that the majority of people on this forum use cycling as a substitute for many or most car journeys, I think we can be cut a little more slack on the flying front.
We might have got away with that if we'd started changing our economy 40 years ago when the writing on the wall was first visible to all. But we didn't, and short-haul flights (ie within Europe) are objectively one of the low hanging fruits when it comes to quickly reducing our emissions.
I'm just trying to offer something that I do not feel is available anywhere in the UK - largely traffic tree cycling in beautiful surrounds on exquisitely surfaced roads. A quick trip back to the UK a couple of weeks ago reaffirmed my opinion that cycling in the UK is much harder, much more dangerous and much less pleasurable than it ought to be.
It's not to say that I haven't done some fantastic cycling in the UK (a 60km Exmoor jaunt very early one summer's morning this year stands out) but even in Devon, it was mostly suboptimal.