Vancouver Critical Mass
Boxing Day Critical Mass
Yes, Boxing Day is the last Friday of 2008!
That means the regular monthly Critical Mass meets at 5:30pm at the VAG. It will be an interesting ride with all this snow. Riding in the snow is fun - except when there are cars to make it dangerous and not soft.
For themes? My suggestions would be political: Protest the Federal Harper Gov't (who don't even have support of parliament so really shouldn't be in power) Automobile Industry Bailout! Although it is important to help people against losing jobs we need to stop bailing out the auto industry which can't even exist without subsidies. Private cars are not sustainable socially, finacially or environmentally. The government should be helping workers find new jobs or companies to exit from unsustainable industries. And NO - greenwashing cars is an attempt at perpetuating the auto industry - the wrong direction. There is no such thing as green cars because we need carfree cities to be green. Why isn't Ottawa bailing out the rail and bus and bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure industries BILLIONS?
And the other topical political issue is positive. The local government is FINALLY doing something positive about the Burrard St. Bridge! It has been over 15 years. There was a referendum on this that we won in the mid-1990s! And not only are they making positive noises they are even proposing sanity with a 2 lane solution (because it makes more sense and is cheaper than 1 lane) AND they are doing this early in their mandate rather than at the last minute (as COPE/Green 2001 did and fumbled it). So we should all be really, really supportive of this because it is a signifigant change if it were to happen. And, even though it is a no-brainer to those that think and study this sort of topic, there will be a LOT of opposition (even opposition for the sake of it) and we have to subvert that and keep it positive. It may seem like an insignifigant bridge (which it kinda is, thus sane bike solutions are politically feasible there) it can set an important precedent and example. We NEED real world examples of improving public roads by re-allocating space so that cars don't dominate. Too often people assume that car-free is impossible. This is only partially car-free but it is symbolic and signifigant and if it works well it will set peoples' imagination on fire as they begin to understand that they CAN escape from the cars if they just have the commitment to just make the change happen. It's a no-brainer but car culture runs on no brains.
Ride on!
That means the regular monthly Critical Mass meets at 5:30pm at the VAG. It will be an interesting ride with all this snow. Riding in the snow is fun - except when there are cars to make it dangerous and not soft.
For themes? My suggestions would be political: Protest the Federal Harper Gov't (who don't even have support of parliament so really shouldn't be in power) Automobile Industry Bailout! Although it is important to help people against losing jobs we need to stop bailing out the auto industry which can't even exist without subsidies. Private cars are not sustainable socially, finacially or environmentally. The government should be helping workers find new jobs or companies to exit from unsustainable industries. And NO - greenwashing cars is an attempt at perpetuating the auto industry - the wrong direction. There is no such thing as green cars because we need carfree cities to be green. Why isn't Ottawa bailing out the rail and bus and bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure industries BILLIONS?
And the other topical political issue is positive. The local government is FINALLY doing something positive about the Burrard St. Bridge! It has been over 15 years. There was a referendum on this that we won in the mid-1990s! And not only are they making positive noises they are even proposing sanity with a 2 lane solution (because it makes more sense and is cheaper than 1 lane) AND they are doing this early in their mandate rather than at the last minute (as COPE/Green 2001 did and fumbled it). So we should all be really, really supportive of this because it is a signifigant change if it were to happen. And, even though it is a no-brainer to those that think and study this sort of topic, there will be a LOT of opposition (even opposition for the sake of it) and we have to subvert that and keep it positive. It may seem like an insignifigant bridge (which it kinda is, thus sane bike solutions are politically feasible there) it can set an important precedent and example. We NEED real world examples of improving public roads by re-allocating space so that cars don't dominate. Too often people assume that car-free is impossible. This is only partially car-free but it is symbolic and signifigant and if it works well it will set peoples' imagination on fire as they begin to understand that they CAN escape from the cars if they just have the commitment to just make the change happen. It's a no-brainer but car culture runs on no brains.
Ride on!
Labels: cm
posted by VanCM Blogger @ 12/24/2008 12:53:00 am
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