I have gone through the last week being, in turns, mentally drained (finished my Big Article in The Earth Blog on Thursday), sunburnt (swimming in the sea at Margate, foolishly without suncream on my shoulders), trying to be sober (my uncle and aunt’s 20th wedding anniversary) and, as usual, throughly downtrodden by the spewed out guts of humanity that comprises much of south Essex.
It may be normal to those people used to the SUV and 4×4 as being the economic end of the vehicle market, but this is what makes me sad:
I got this photo from a US car retailer who seems to pride themselves in their bull bars. There are lots in Essex, because they make drivers feel big and strong. I get the feeling that some people have a problem with just being fleshy and human, so they have to encase themselves in metal – BIG METAL – GOD DAMN HUGE METAL WITH SPIKES ON IT!!!
My children are 7 and 8, both girls, both sensible and trustworthy, and soon may be trusted to walk down the road on their own. I trust them. I don’t trust the people who drive these things, and who can blame me? Why should I trust someone who deliberately tries to make their vehicle as dangerous as possible to pedestrians?
As from 2006, bull bars on new vehicles are illegal. Living here inspires me to do good in the face of hopelessness, but it also makes me cross, so I will be moving away soon – because the locals still would like to have bull bars, and I don’t trust people like that.
I will be a bit less angry next time – honest.
K.
I lived in Austin TX for a year. I spent the entire year riding my bike, as I owned no car. I have NEVER seen such huge cars in my life. Gigantic SUV’s the XL version of everything. I was almost killed many times, (ironically I was hit by a small compact Saturn). The people inside these large beasts either couldn’t see me, or didn’t care. More than once I was forced off of the road by them.
Austin has a vibrant bike culture. Many people ride to and from work, and there is a great bike trail system, however not all roads have bike lanes, and people need to know that its not against the law to ride your bike on the road. In fact its against the law to ride your bike on the sidewalk.
Please share the road, or maybe just pay better attention, or better still ride your bike with us :)