Nuxx:4e268acb$0$2540$da0feed9@news.zen.co.uk

Path: num2.nntp.dca.giganews.com!num1.nntp.dca.giganews.com!number.nntp.dca.giganews.com!border3.nntp.dca.giganews.com!border1.nntp.dca.giganews.com!nntp.giganews.com!goblin1!goblin.stu.neva.ru!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: <4e268acb$0$2540$da0feed9@news.zen.co.uk> From: Nuxx Bar  Newsgroups: uk.rec.cycling Subject: Re: Educating people about alternatives to the car. Date: Wed, 20 Jul 2011 08:59:07 +0100 References:    Lines: 44 User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; Intel Mac OS X 10.7; en-US; rv:1.9.2.18) Gecko/20110616 Thunderbird/3.1.11 MIME-Version: 1.0 In-Reply-To:  Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Organization: Zen Internet NNTP-Posting-Host: 9ac1d12c.news.zen.co.uk X-Trace: DXC=N@]CaQ>FUh::o1:8MXjNT0nok4Z\ X-Complaints-To: abuse@zen.co.uk Bytes: 3347 Xref: perfectly-safe.chapmancentral.co.uk uk.rec.cycling:817781

On 19/07/2011 09:05, Simon Mason wrote: > On Jul 19, 7:53 am, Bertie Wooster  wrote: >> On Mon, 18 Jul 2011 02:13:48 -0700 (PDT), Simon Mason >> >>  wrote: >>> http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2015893/Doorstep-lectures-tra... >> >> Comments: >> Hmmm, what's the betting that these doorstep lecturers never actual >> materialise and this proves to be just another DM nanny state scare >> story? >> - Bertie Wooster, London, UK, 18/7/2011 21:52 >> >> Just in case anyone wonders - it wasn't me who posted the above. > > It would seem to be genuine. > QUOTE: > > The PTP seeks to overcome the habitual use of the car by encouraging > the public to make more journeys on foot, bike, bus, train or in > shared cars. Information will go out to homes so people can learn > about the alternatives to driving that are available in their > neighbourhoods. The PTP will initially be trialled in Cardiff with a > survey of residents travel habits. Similar schemes have already been > trialled in England that have helped cut car journeys typically by > 10%.

How on *Earth* do they know that it's the doorstep lectures which have brought that about? Good old bias on selection, one of the irrational car-haters' faves; also (ab)used, of course, with speed cameras, where they put in a camera, and also make some genuine road safety improvements at the same time (e.g. straightening out a bend), then when the number of collisions comes down, the camera gets the credit. Just as well that there are people like Simon Mason ready to lap it all up and believe them without hesitation.

I do think that, for whatever reason, these doorstep patronising sessions won't make it beyond the initial areas. They certainly won't become nationwide. And thank god for that; there are a million things which deserve taxpayers' money more (and BTW, 1/7th of that taxpayers' money comes from the demon motorists which these visits are trying to discourage...a bit of an own goal there...and that's not including the unofficial taxation raised through speed cameras and parking penalty charges).