On the whole carrot and stick approach as far as active transport goes. It amazes me the number of people who drive their kids to primary school when they live less than 3km from it.
I wish their was a feasible way to ban child squisher mobiles from within 500m of primary schools. The biggest safety risk kids face on the footpath is being flattened by some fuck wit who thinks their jacked up, bull barred, emission control deleted, selfishcuntmobile is appropriate in urban areas.
It amazes me the number of people who drive their kids to primary school when they live less than 3km from it.
Yeah it’s incredible. But for so many, it’s a rational choice, because the footpaths are so dangerous or uncomfortable, and the roads are so dangerous.
Ironically of course, this becomes so because of all the cars, and the infrastructure designed for cars. And so more people driving leads to more people finding it uncomfortable to walk or ride, which leads to more people driving, in a horrible feedback loop.
It’s a vicious circle.
Explaining this to the car brained feels insurmountable.
What freaks me out is when I see random clips in the street from the past:
“Whoa! Everyone is skinny!”
“The truth will surprise you” - proceeds to list exactly what I’d guess, and what I’d guess other people would guess. (Less sugar, less processed food, less advertising, more active daily lives, less reliance on ‘convenience’, …)
It’s a decent video, but it is not at all ‘surprising’. I’m sick of that hook.
The media need to stop pushing “fat acceptance” and the idea that being obese is healthy too, for a start. Being fat is never healthy, and is one of the biggest drains on our health system.
There’s also the cost of living which basically means eating healthily is becoming more and more out of reach for a large portion of the population. Physical activity without healthy eating is basically pointless.
The trick is that shaming fat people doesn’t help anyone. It’s more likely to cause a fat person to end up eating more because it’s emotional eating, than it is to actually be the cause of them finally getting in shape.
I don’t think the most extreme forms of “big is beautiful” are great. But fat acceptance in the form of “you shouldn’t be made to feel shame for being overweight” is a necessary harm reduction strategy.
Healthy eating is very cheap. You can do a few dollars a meal for veggies and legumes or beans and rice.
They could always bring back the Life Be In It campaign, telling people to get off the couch and do a sport of some sort.
One problem with that is how expensive community sport—especially children’s sport—has become.
Yes, people could just go out for a run. And as a runner I’d be ecstatic if everyone did. But social sport is a far more realistic option for getting most people off the couch, because it’s a double-whammy of exercise and social fun.
- Redirect road funds to walking and cycling
Now with the fuel crisis is the perfect time to embrace cycling infrastructure. I mean 20 years ago was also the perfect time.
I mean 20 years ago was also the perfect time.
As they say, “The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now.”
Unfortunately infrastructure around transportation isn’t always possible to majorly change, at least not realistically given how incompetent and corrupt our governments are.
Take Brisbane for example it’s an absolute mess that looks like it has zero forward thinking or planning. Without levelling the whole city there’s not much that can be done to fix it.
Not only is it possible, there are hundreds of examples we can learn from. It’s been done over and over in Europe to astonishing success. That could be us.
You’re definitely not entirely off the mark. It’s difficult, and our councils especially are insanely corrupt and useless.
But it’s definitely not true that you’d need to level the city to fix it. There’s a lot that can be done comparatively easily.
I would start by laying down ground rules: apart from motorways, no road should have more than one lane in each direction (temporary lanes at intersections, such as turning lanes, excepted) unless that road first has unidirectional safe, separated bike paths on both sides, with priority at the vast majority of intersections. Existing roads that violate this should be fixed at the first possible opportunity, such as the next repavement or intersection upgrade. All new motorway at train extensions should include separated cycleways parallel to them, similar to the Kippa Ring line or the Deagon Deviation and Gateway North Bikeways.
We need to develop a set of design rules that seriously prioritise the comfort and safety of pedestrians and cyclists. And engineers need to be held to them, much like they are in the Netherlands. Deviations from the standards may be permitted, if backed up by evidence, but they open themselves to risks of professional liability if they do so.
Councils already have PCNPs. They need to be required to act on them with priority.
Couldn’t agree more with making our streets more walkable and cyclable and I’d add promoting people-powered native tree and shrub planting and community garden projects in suburbs and surrounds and creating more small green spaces for people to enjoy and rest in.
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