Car appreciation... the aesthetics, the engineering, etc

[Apologies for long-windedness. No, really.]

Dear VeeVee,

I don't like cars either (although I'll make an exception for some veteran cars and a single VW Beetle ;) ). I've never driven one--never needed to. I'm not anti-car, though--cars are very useful for carrying heavy loads and all sorts of other purposes. But I think car over-use creates terrible problems and helps absolutely no-one, and I'm still enjoying this thread. I like to keep my views on this balanced. It has something to do with how change can happen. Change won't happen by pure negativity. Like it or not, high levels of private motor traffic will be around for a good while to come, and my (and perhaps your) car-free lifestyle is good but not massively popular just yet. This thread doesn't mark the beginning of the backlash whereby everybody on this forum suddenly starts liking cars and leaving in droves. It's just another thing to discuss. Tomorrow it'll be mosques again or something else.

Also, why repress what's obviously there, like an interest in cars? I think a lot of people here are obviously committed to riding their bikes as much as they can. Each at their own pace--some may already ride more, some less. As long as we all try to reduce our degree of victimhood of motor dependence as much as we can, change for the better is going to occur. It's not going to happen if we become divided, or if people have to pretend on here that they don't like cars just to fit in. And this forum always seems to have had a 'bring what you want to' policy, which I think increases its appeal.

This thread has mostly discussed expensive, rare, or classic cars that are often beyond the reach of people. There's been an undercurrent of motorsport, too. Personally, I'd see quite a lot of change for the better if people were able to confine their love of cars to racetracks and drove only for fun, at the same time of course discovering the joy of bikes. (And for the record, I'm not particularly into motorsport, either.)

I must admit I would have felt quite differently about this thread if it had discussed ordinary, boring car models to commute in or something that generally advocates high-mileage driving--the kind that's caused by bad infrastructure (e.g. no local jobs), increasing the need to travel, and so forth, which is what causes the real damage. Yes, motorsport no doubt strongly influences people into driving more, but bad planning and other factors do so far more. And it is going to take time to undo the sins of the past seventy-odd years and reducing the need to travel again. Cars are far more suited to doing things like races in them than they are suited to pointless everyday use. Collisions happen in races, too, and people die, but far more die on our roads and streets every year.

I think it's important to keep this thread in perspective like this. I also find a discussion around it useful for awareness-raising. But I really don't think we should make it personal. Sometimes, I find it extremely refreshing to look beyond my car-free lifestyle, which I wouldn't readily give up under any currently conceivable circumstances, and do something like the London to Brighton Veteran Car Run:

http://www.londonfgss.com/thread12197.html

Well, I was on my bike, not in a car, but it was still a lovely experience. Picking up my complimentary copy of the Daily Mail plus free Cliff Richard CD and affixing my plastic Union Jack flag to my bike was fun. It wasn't at all self-conscious in the way of 'ooooh, I'll have to do something really out of character now to feel cool' or something. I was simply on an emotional high from having ridden down to Brighton alongside and among all the veteran cars, in the gorgeous sunshine, and when you're in a good mood you can of course be genuinely open to all sorts of things that you wouldn't normally be open to.

YouTube - Lou Reed - New Sensations

Decent live version (more interesting to watch):
YouTube - Lou Reed (Farm Aid 1985) New Sensations

I've always thought this is good advice.

Cars are not 'the enemy'. Neither are any people who drive cars. (Not trying to put words into your mouth here, I know that your disagreement is with this thread on this forum.) The main problems are created by the fact that a lot of people think that driving is in itself (a) good--feeling thoroughly and inescapably dependent on it. Many genuinely are. They are really victims of something that many never wanted to get into in the first place. No-one really wants to spend one and a half hours each way in commuting by car--it's a massive waste of time that leaves so little time for more worthwhile things. If people understand that there are only a few kinds of driving that are in themselves desirable, they have a much easier time extricating themselves from dependence on it.

Everybody would love to build exercise like cycling into their daily routine if they could. Many people would love to cycle more--there is huge suppressed demand. Cycling is just that sort of activity that everybody can enjoy--it's simply one of the top five things you can do in your life, the best fun you can have with your clothes on (and especially with your pajamas on). But we must create an atmosphere in which passions aren't opposed--for instance, a passion for bikes opposed to a passion for cars--incidentally, that's a picture that certain sections of the media often portray, and it's really damaging.

Give people a continuum of passions in which they feel they can exercise discretion in every transport choice, though, and you'll soon find that they'll be able to go for cycling more. It is a mode of choice, not of duress. Everybody who isn't already car-free can reduce their car use. The key is to give them more confidence to shed more of their victimhood under motor dependence. And the more people do it who can already do it, the more those who really couldn't at the moment will become able to follow.

I personally therefore feel there's no need to worry about encountering someone who is more into motoring than I am if their passion is a bit like the passion for high-end cars, or highly unusual cars, and non-routine dricing, as mostly expressed in this thread. It's more difficult if someone really is full of fear that they couldn't change their lives to get rid of the joyless, boring, formulaic routine motoring that they feel dependent on.

Happy cycling!
Oliver.