Nuxx:MPG.25c688c1dd664249896f0@news.zen.co.uk

Path: num2.nntp.dca.giganews.com!num1.nntp.dca.giganews.com!number.nntp.dca.giganews.com!border2.nntp.dca.giganews.com!nntp.giganews.com!postnews.google.com!news4.google.com!feeder.news-service.com!tudelft.nl!txtfeed1.tudelft.nl!dedekind.zen.co.uk!zen.net.uk!hamilton.zen.co.uk!shaftesbury.zen.co.uk.POSTED!not-for-mail Message-ID:  From: Guy Cuthbertson  Newsgroups: uk.rec.cycling,uk.rec.driving,uk.transport Subject: What's So Bad about Freedom Anyway? Date: Sun, 24 Jan 2010 16:42:14 -0000 Lines: 68 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit User-Agent: MicroPlanet-Gravity/2.9.14 Organization: Zen Internet NNTP-Posting-Host: 981ada19.news.zen.co.uk X-Trace: DXC=NCF;L73LR7Y6GGoT]EbD@Wnok4Z\<mH4YhDU:2=XKPkXA\ND1:KmYZUEn<S9LLeaZ]FeTkZT:@i:R X-Complaints-To: abuse@zen.co.uk Bytes: 5043 Xref: perfectly-safe.chapmancentral.co.uk uk.rec.cycling:752859

As we are all too aware by now, there is a small but very vocal and influential minority of obnoxious, self-righteous nutters who go to extraordinary lengths to make things harder and harder for drivers by advocating ever-increasing legal restrictions, draconian and unjustified levels of enforcement (particularly of pointlessly low speed limits and nonsensical parking restrictions), removal of roadspace, obstacles and road closures, and an incredible array of other measures which have been specifically and sadistically designed purely to make journeys by car more difficult - whether or not the affected drivers have the slightest choice about their mode of transport.

A number of these loonies can be found on uk.rec.cycling, the most anti- motorist newsgroup (except possibly for uk.rec.cycling.moderated, aka uk.rec.cycling.censored due to the moderators' track record of blocking the "wrong" opinions). It is quite clear from reading their anti-car drivel that in the vast majority of cases, they don't really care about the things they say they care about. Many of them claim to support restrictions on motoring because of road safety, yet this cannot be the case, because they continue to support anti-motorist measures even when they have been shown to make things *less* safe (e.g. speed cameras), and they *don't* support measures which make things safer but also make things easier for motorists (e.g. road widening, dualling, building, pedestrian subways and the engineering out of bends etc).

It's a similar story for claims that they support restrictions on motoring because of "the environment"; funny how they oppose measures which would increase traffic flow (thereby reducing emissions), while supporting measures which restrict traffic flow and the pointless lowering of speed limits to 50/40/30/20 (which makes travel less efficient when they are obeyed). And "the law is the law" is often used as an excuse for support of draconian, discretionless enforcement against motorists; yet these same people don't like it when motorists use "the law" to fight back against charges and PCNs which legally and morally should never have been initiated in the first place.

Yes, as we all know by now, the car-haters don't campaign for restrictions on driving because of road safety, the environment or the law; they do it because they hate cars, and they hate cars because of the freedom that they give people from state interference. For some reason, the car-haters would prefer it if people were only able to go from A to B when and where the state allowed it, and they want the state to monitor and store detailed records of each and every journey.

The question is: why are they so hellbent on taking away people's freedoms? Why do they feel such a need for people to be controlled all the time? Don't they trust anyone but themselves, and doesn't that suggest a very disagreeable and unpleasant personality? And why are they so coy about admitting to wanting to take away people's freedoms? Surely if it's such a good idea then they should be able to justify it to everyone instead of pretending to care about safety, the environment and/or the law instead? But no: for some reason they're very reluctant to say to people "I want to take away your freedoms". Perhaps that's because it sounds insane, and perhaps that's because it is. Which makes one wonder why they bother with it at all. But they do, and they don't seem to care what the negative consequences of their anti-car meddling are (look how many people speed camera policy has killed for example). Why? Why are they so determined to control people and remove their freedoms at all costs?

Thank you for your time. And if you're one of the car-hating loonies that has been described in this post, it's never too late to atone, stop trying to interfere with everyone else, and concentrate on bettering your own life instead of trying to make other people's lives worse all the time.

Cheers and thanks

Guy C