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#carDependency

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Had not had something like this happen in a while.

Riding my bike back home, a car passes me and some angry dude yells something. Of course he's caught up in traffic a little bit further ahead so I approach and say "what's your problem?"
-you shouldn't be on the road!
"so where should I be?"
He insists (wrongly) I shouldn't be on the road, gets off the car approaches me and threatens to punch me.
I'm not afraid and I dare him to do it, see how it works out for him. Plenty of witnesses and cameras on my bike, plus a very embarrassed woman still in the car with him.
He returns to his car, sits there and sulks.
I take my phone out, snap a picture of his car, smile and wave goodbye.
He's still sitting in traffic, probably.

Violently ignorant.
This is your brain on Cars.

Not my usual content, but here are a few photos from my recent experience using my bicycle for errands in a car-dependent society. :blobcatupsidedown:

My city really does have generally nice bicycle infrastructure, with some protected bicycle lanes and lots of wide mixed-use paths, but just because you can ride a bike doesn't mean that individual stores make it easy to park it once you arrive.

“Splendour in the Mud”:
Climate breakdown and car dependency put an end to commercial drive-in music activities

A “report found 85% of festivalgoers had been affected by either floods, storms, heatwaves or the threat of bushfires at an event they had attended in the past 12 months.”

The “Splendour in the Mud” festival left tens of thousands of motorists bogged and stranded in torrential rain. Extreme heat from greenhouse gas emission is also eliminating the ‘drive-in’ model for outdoor mass gatherings.
>>
theguardian.com/music/2025/apr

The end of the car dependent music festival? >>
news.griffith.edu.au/2024/08/2
#ClimateBreakdown #GHG #cars #traffic #congestion #CarDependency #FossilFuels #harm #DriveIn #MassGatherings #industry #festivals #NoisePollution #EnvironmentalDamage #soil #RiskManagement #PublicHealth #PublicSafety #outdoor #ExternalisedCosts #TheGreatOutdoors #ExtremeHeatwaves #floods #storms #splendour

The Guardian · Climate crisis could kill off Australian music festivals, report warnsBy Kelly Burke

Site visits at a retail park in Blanchardstown and an industrial estate in Neilstown mightn't sound like the makings of a pleasant morning out of the office, but today was a perfect day for the bike and I was able to take in both site visits and enjoy a cycle through the Phoenix Park and along the Grand Canal, as well as a short stop for lunch in Chapelizod.

Where is the walking and cycling infrastructure ?
Let's redirect funding from roads to walking and cycling infrastructure.

"Australia spends $714 per person on roads every year – but just 90 cents goes to walking, wheeling and cycling. Unfortunately, that’s how much the Australian government has invested per person annually on walking, wheeling and cycling over the past 20 years."

"As a result of this over-investment in car road-building, Australia has the smallest number of walking trips of 15 comparable countries across Western Europe and North America. Many Australians are dependent on cars because they have no other choice in terms of transport options."

"Road use is inherently dangerous – in Australia last year, more than 1,300 people died on our roads, which is more than 25 people a week."

"The typical Australian household spends 17% of its income on transport – with car ownership making up 92.5% of that figure, compared to 7.5% on public transport."

"A major source of all emissions in Australia are from driving."

"Redirecting funding from the current road budget makes the most sense, because getting more people walking, wheeling and cycling eases pressure on the transport system (think of school holiday traffic). "

"When it comes to transport, the saying goes “we get what we build” – so if we build more roads, we get more people driving. If we build paths, we get more people walking and cycling short journeys and our roads are less congested."
>>
theconversation.com/australia-

The Australian and NSW governments are funding the $2,200,000,000 ($2.2 billion), 14-kilometre Coffs Harbour bypass project. Cars will save 12 minutes. Imagine the walking and cycling infrastructure...
pacifichighway.nsw.gov.au/site

The ConversationAustralia spends $714 per person on roads every year – but just 90 cents goes to walking, wheeling and cyclingWalking and cycling get 90c per person each year from the Australian government. What if that figure rose to $5, $10 or $15?

Most of the problems people have with snow are really problems with car dependency. Driving is already dangerous on a good day, and even more dangerous on a snowy road.

Eliminate the need to drive, and you eliminate the danger. Walkability and rail transit are the answer.

Interesting point here about the dominant #urbandesign suburban land use style here in smoky #NorthAmerica : single exit SUV-dependent designs introduce a single point of failure in an emergency. The recommended emergency evacuation strategy here was for everyone to rush onto the streets at the same time, shutting down the streets until fire crews could come to bulldoze all of the abandoned vehicles. #disaster #cardependency #waroncars #evacuation firerescue1.com/wildfire-and-w

FireRescue1 · FD dozer pushes through abandoned cars as thousands flee from L.A. wildfireThe Los Angeles Fire Department took the rare step of calling in off-duty firefighters to fight the fast-moving Palisades Fire

Australia's lack of fuel security

"Our way of life
depends upon cheaper oil and fuel coming from overseas, but it does so at the cost of our security and resilience...The thought of not having food in cupboards and fridges or prescription medicines would likely exercise people's minds a lot more than the ill-informed thoughts they had during COVID about toilet paper." >>
abc.net.au/news/2025-01-07/aus

Tangled up in oil in Petrotopia
mastodon.au/@Bellingen/1137730
#energy #vulnerabilities #fuel #FossilFuels #cars #oil #petroleum #fuel #mobility #dependency #EnergyDependency #Australia #infrastructure #automobility #roads #malls #highways #Petrotopia #PetroMelancholia #CarDependency #MobilityDesign #ClimateBreakdown #transformation #societies #MiddleEast #FuelSecurity #MSO #WayofLife

Tangled up in oil in Petrotopia

Imagine life on an Island that has to import 91% of fuel from overseas.
And the entire matrix of the place has been set up for oil dependency a century ago.

Without a car there is no mobility (in Petrotopia)
Without a car one can't get stuff (made /transported by fossil fuels)
Without a car one can't get to work or other places
Without a car one can't drop off the kids
Without a car one can't empty the dogs
Without a car one can't go for a walk
Without a car /mower one can't do the endless lawns
Without a car/ boat/ plane one can't re-create or have a holiday

Australia is reliant on imports for around 91% of fuel consumption.
australiainstitute.org.au/post

Bondre, N. (2023). Petromobility and Energy Coloniality in Puerto Rico: Reading Luis Rafael Sánchez’s La Guaracha Del Macho Camacho. Green Letters, 27(2), 219–238. doi.org/10.1080/14688417.2023.
#energy #FossilFuels #cars #oil #petroleum #fuel #mobility modernity #dependency #EnergyDependency #Australia #islands #infrastructure #automobility #roads #malls #highways #Petrotopia #PetroMelancholia #CarDependency #MobilityDesign #ClimateBreakdown #transformation #societies

The Australia Institute · Australia 91% reliant on foreign oil: Research ReportA new research report by The Australia Institute has revealed the country has only increased its reliance on imported transport fuels since the federal