(no subject)

[komos.livejournal.com]

Comments

ROTFLMAO

[agnosticoracle.livejournal.com]

*applause*

[inahandbasket]

oh no you didn't...

[watchamacallit.livejournal.com]

OMG I love you even more now!

[spatch]

Those of us who've disabled embedded video in our friends list see nothing but a contentless post with a video placeholder here. Is it too much to ask for at least a hint of context or explanation? Thanks, man.

[rmd.livejournal.com]

it's a video that is amusing but completely unrelated to davis square. it appears to be meant to mock bicyclists who claim to be more evolved than the rest of us.

[rmd.livejournal.com]

ah. it's from monkey dust (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monkey_Dust), a british tv show.

[ron_newman]

At work, I generally watch such videos with the sound off. So all I see are three mostly-naked cyclists riding past (the future) CVS and then Starbucks, then running over a dog.

[komos.livejournal.com]

So long as there is an unmoderated rant about "lazy" drivers and cars as "addictions" every time there is any kind of discussion about parking (http://community.livejournal.com/davis_square/832308.html) in this community, things like this are entirely relevant.

If necessary, I'll take my lumps from the mods.

[ron_newman]

I tagged it "bicycle". Without the sound, I can't tell if it should have any other tags, but I don't think "parking" applies.

[cook-ting.livejournal.com]

It's important that you share your views as long as they're exactly the same as the most vocal members of the community.

[turil.livejournal.com]

Yeah, using words like "addiction" never goes over well, does it? I think using shame and guilt are pretty much the least effective techniques for making a better world. But, when I'm highly stressed (thinking about all the destruction that motorists, including myself - heck, especially myself - cause everyone) I get irrational.

I'm sorry if my ideas caused anyone else to suffer. I'm still working on more being skillful and compassionate, but I'm clearly not there yet...

[surrealestate.livejournal.com]

Agreed. Also, lj-cut is our friend!

[agnosticoracle.livejournal.com]

This URL will get you there without need for embedded video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rAOHhV1EFe4

The video is work safe in terms of both visual and verbal medium, though I generally recommend headphones for general office friendliness.

[ron_newman]

Or maybe a Subject, or some Tags?

[ifotismeni]

lol, oh my

Thank You

[http://users.livejournal.com/_mattt/]

What an awesome segment. As a cyclist and driver, I am beyond tired of the passé anti-car argument in Davis.

Re: Thank You

[ifotismeni]

amen on all counts.

Re: Thank You

[turil.livejournal.com]

Alas, the many-sided debate will continue as long as there is fear (of not being able to take care of oneself, one's family, and/or one's world).

Re: Thank You

[ron_newman]

Me too. Not sure how a simple news item about parking meters turned into all of that.

Re: Thank You

[http://users.livejournal.com/_mattt/]

I don't know either. I stayed away from it.
Maybe people are just self-adsorbed?

Re: Thank You

[turil.livejournal.com]

It's all about making a better world. Not that any of us were terribly effective in communicating that in the recent discussion! We all have different ideas of what kind of world we want to live in, and when someone threatens that fantasy, we tend to get defensive. I feel like the health of the world is being threatened by cars while it seems like other people feel threatened by the idea of not being able to have their own car because they believe that they would suffer without a car.

Re: Thank You

[http://users.livejournal.com/_mattt/]

People drive too much. I think it would be very hard for someone to argue to the contrary. I believe we live in a through-the-looking glass society where the vast majority are held to unsustainable and irrational transportation practices. I try to ride my bike, walk, or take public transportation whenever possible. I try to encourage others to do the same.

However, avoiding the use of an automobile in Davis Sq. isn't always a practical option for many, and thus I object to what I perceive as self-adsorption in the argument (not here, elsewhere) that everybody should just stop driving, as the stickers on the stop signs say at the intersection of Beech and Highland.

West Somerville, in my opinion, is one of the handful of transit friendly places in North America. That's why so many live there.

However, I believe that West Somerville has not reached a point of transit effectiveness, to make alternate means of transportation a viable option for all memebrs of society.

Sure, riding a bike/walking/using your segway/taking a bus is better. But I believe those options don't apply to everyone.
We have people who are elderly.
We have people traveling with small children.
We have people who are infirmed or disabled.
We have commercial traffic.
We have people hauling heavy things in their automobiles.
We have people driving through on their way to a location that is transit removed.
We have people doing business in the square who cannot afford to live there.
We have people who do not live here visiting and doing business.

When I lived there (and I hope to buy this summer and return to the general vicinity), I was of the opinion that the amount of unnecessary driving was pretty low, as really, who would want to drive through the square unless they had to?

Re: Thank You

[talonvaki.livejournal.com]

YES.
That's what I was trying to say yesterday. I haven't driven or owned a car for 10 years this August and oh, look...I manage just fine!

So thank you!

[komos.livejournal.com]

Could you be any more smug?

Re: Thank You

[hissilliness.livejournal.com]

What are the hot new anti-car arguments? I do so try to stay hip.

[turil.livejournal.com]

Hehe! I want more! Spandex clad, carbon fiber frame sportos are funny. And a little sad, since they take themselves so seriously. They miss out on all the fun stuff of riding a clunky old bike and being able to carry a gorilla as a passenger. And they are probably giving themselves high blood pressure to boot.

Those cyclists in the film also sound like the aliens from the Simpsons. Creepy alien cyclists coming to invade the world!

Anyway, if bicyclists are an evolutionary step above motorists, then the few folks who are priviledged enough to have a pedal powered airplane (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gossamer_Albatross) must be the future of humankind. Though I think DaVinci's flying man machine thing is cooler, personally.

[ifotismeni]

clunky bikes ruuuuuuuuule!

[hissilliness.livejournal.com]

Where can I get a gorilla near Davis Square?

[nonnihil.livejournal.com]

As an avid cyclist, I have just one thing to say:

Hurrah!

You'll recognize me as the cyclist who is actually stopped at the red light. Alas, that's a unique identifier these days. Cyclists who run red lights, ride on the sidewalk, and otherwise make dangerous and lawless nuisances of themselves are a low form of life indeed; those who do so and then claim some sort of moral high ground are beyond vile.

My bicycle is a vehicle, I follow the law as a vehicle, and I get legally and safely from Point A to Point B without finding it necessary to exhort or harangue, online or off-. The more others who would do the same, the better off we would all be.

[ron_newman]

I usually stop at the light, but once I can tell there is no conflicting traffic, I don't remain stopped. (This is different from what I see in this video.)

[rosiewoodboat.livejournal.com]

Hence breaking the law as spelled out in the vehicle code.

[ron_newman]

Which I'd like to see changed to explicitly allow this. (I've heard of similar proposals for motorcycles.)

[rosiewoodboat.livejournal.com]

Which are equally non-sensical. Vehicular cycling is shown to be a safe and efficient method for integrating cyclicts and motor-vehicles.

Why on earth should human powered vehicles have a different code of rules?

yeesh

[mattdm.livejournal.com]

As a pedestrian, no thanks. I've been almost run down several times by bicyclists who think the only cross traffic they have to care about is the big metal kind with wheels.

[ukelele.livejournal.com]

Alas, that's a unique identifier these days.

Unique? What, have you not met your wife? Neat trick, dear ;).

[charlwoo.livejournal.com]

I stop at red lights. So does my girlfriend. So there are at least three of us :)
I treat cycling the same way as I do driving with respect to traffic laws -- if I wouldn't do it in a car, I wouldn't do it on a bicycle. Although I have been tempted when I do drive my car to run lights after I see cyclists do it.

[elements.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

I can't count the number of times I've almost been hit while walk-commuting by bikes going through lights after I've already looked that direction and seen the car traffic come to a stop. I can't look all four ways at once while I'm crossing the street. I've also had near misses from bikes going the wrong way on a one-way street while I'm crossing the street, where the bike is so quiet I never hear it coming, and the cyclist can't always predict how fast my walking speed will put me in their path. When they ring a bell, it's hard to tell which way to jump, and besides, that's not the way I want to start my morning.

One other issue with bikes crossing at red lights is that if a pedestrian does see the bike in time to avoid being hit or near-missed and stays on or returns to the sidewalk, it often means that the pedestrian has lost the chance to cross the street during that light cycle since at some corners the lights cycle through pretty fast. If you can't start your walk within a few seconds of the walk signal, you can't walk at all. The cyclist who runs the light isn't around long enough to notice that they've left the pedestrian stuck.

I have several friends who take the bike-as-vehicle, therefore subject to vehicular rules thing seriously, and I've seen other cyclists stop at lights. It's even helpful when they pause, since then they're more likely to notice pedestrian traffic. I think a huge part of the problem of other cyclists who don't stop is that cyclists aren't all educated about the rules of the road as it applies to them, and there's not a lot of cultural pressure for them to learn. I consider it lack of education rather than wilfull disregard. I know not all of the rules make sense to cyclists, but they often do make sense to the combination of cars, cyclists and pedestrians that is our road traffic.

[bombardiette.livejournal.com]

That made me laugh. A lot.
Thank you. I was finally able to view it.

[ukelele.livejournal.com]

OMG, that's hilarious.

I am totally a bike commuter but those are exactly the sorts of people/attitudes I can't stand, and perfectly portrayed :).

[ron_newman]

On a related note ...

You, you, you … jerk (by the editor of the Somerville Journal)

So it’s been twelve whole hours, and I’m still pissed off at the (expletive) who insisted he had the right to bike on the sidewalk through Davis Square

I used to be a jerky cyclist.

[myselftheliar.livejournal.com]

....I would be those guys if some jerk hadn't STOLEN MY BIKE AND LEFT THE CHAIN FOR ME TO WEEP OVER.