The in-your-dash plastic flower vase in the new VW Beetle is helping that impractical, dangerous and unreliable two-door car sell like hotcakes. Strange how many folks will buy a car based on cuteness rather than practicality? Cars have become a primary method of killing all life on Earth, endangering flowers and the insects that pollinate them, due to global warming and the changes to photosynthesis global warming includes. Two-door cars are particularly impractical, except for giving Grandpa a hernia trying to get in and out of the back seat. They are, however, particularly effective at "dooring" bicyclists since the two doors are usually much bigger than those on a four-door car. The placement of a flower vase in a car is not a new idea. A few luxury vehicles of the past would have them for the benefit of the well-to-do. They were mounted on a doorjamb in the rear of the car for the enjoyment of the owner who is being chauffeured. They were not placed on the dash to add to the menu of distractions drivers now have to cope with. Putting a flower vase under the driver's nose is asking for trouble. How many pedestrians will die because of drivers arranging flowers at the wheel? How many dollars will flow as a result of personal injury settlements when reflections from a bright silk flower on a windshield cause a driver to reduce a bicyclist or pedestrian to road-kill? Putting a fake plastic flower vase in a car dash is a particularly tasteless idea. It's sort of like putting a sequin on a rat's asshole. Society is rapidly descending into an Autogeddon with the auto industry building three new cars for every person born. You can beat this Car-tastrophic system. Stay healthy, trim, shrewd and smiling with a sophisticated bicycle. You may move at a tortoise-pace in a hare-spring world, but remember who won the race. Jim Doherty is a raconteur and bike radical who sometimes rides with a giant peace symbol in his bike's front wheel. He lives in the "Baja Rockridge" neighborhood of Oakland. This article originally appeared in The-Edge, Gar Smith's (of Earth Island Institute.org) online publication. Cyclonaut Jim Doherty proudly helped tow a dead SUV through the streets of San Francisco as part of the Bluewater Network's contingent in the 2003 San Francisco Pride Parade. An estimated 750,000 spectators looked on and cheered.
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By James DMake-it-home-safe MANTRA: When dealing with traffic, it's better to be patient than to become a patient; AND - A Sailboat is to a Polluting Cruise Ship what a bicycle is to a smokin' Hummer. I know bikes are beautiful but I’M not backing off until bikes are bountiful and bikers have greater strength in numbers. CategoriesArchives
February 2016
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