[blog] how we get drivers on board
[blog] how we get drivers on board
I genuinely believe that car owners could be tricked into supporting FuckCars policies by a very crafty politician/campaign. It would work like this:
- Proclaim your love of cars. Loudly. "I want to make our city the best city in the world for drivers!"
- "What are the biggest problems drivers face today? Traffic and parking! Therefore... We need to open up roads and parking spaces..."
- "And that's why we're going to cap the number of cars that can enter downtown. With increased public transit, we can free up these roads for drivers! That way: more parking, less traffic, a better life for drivers"
Do the same thing for bikes:
- "These bikers want to share the road, but studies have shown that whether you use sharrows, plastic bollards, it doesn't matter: people still get hurt.
- And here's the thing: when a car hits a cyclist, it's bad for everyone, including the driver. Nobody wants to hit a cyclist. But the sad truth is that it might just not be possible to share the road
- "That's why I'm proposing that we make some roads car-only, to protect cyclists." [Crowd of drivers cheer, and you quickly say:] "Also we'll make some streets bike-only, for the same reason." [And then when you get in office, just be like "Yeah the highway is for cars"]
I'm available for speeches if anyone's hiring
You may have failed already by using "Public transit." That's a dirty word to car people. Perhaps calling it "souped up, pimped-out rides on a cool train for free"
"We're gonna get all the poors off the road so it's only nice cars"
There we go
You don't need to target and trick drivers. Thats just a dick move. Vision Zero has much more effective methods of subversion.
Your cause hangs on the "safety" like that hang in there motivational cat poster. Yeah, no one wants anyone hurt, so we look like an ass fighting it. But the real trickery is deep in the policies where the word "safety" is redefined from what we think in our heads to align with fuck cars agendas. Safety, for my city, is absolute lowest priority, congestion as means for traffic control, blind obstructions, denied autonomy, and the absolute gem: we made collecting negative data about these changes illegal.
We unloaded both barrels into our feet before we even knew what happened. You're SOOO behind the times.
Raise the driving age to 25. Nobody likes sharing the road with reckless kids that cut you off, do not signal for turns, run red lights, almost hit your own kids, etc.