mekka okereke Jul 8, 2023

🤔 Do bicycles create empathy? Or do people that care about other people, tend to care about bikes?

Why is there such a big overlap between "bike infrastructure radicalized people," and "people that care about people that are different than themselves?"

Why is there such a low overlap between "people with trash hateful takes" and "people that want more bike infrastructure?"

Show threadajkandyJul 10, 2023
@mekkaokereke I don’t think bikes create empathy so much as cars erode it. Sealed in a pod, cut off from the surrounding environment, sensorially muted, and attention shifted. A sense of entitlement regarding road space. Not that drivers are evil, but poor city design post WWII bulldozed everything else for the car - rail, streetcars, main streets, the idea of the street as a shared space for everyone - they bristle if you mention this privilege.
Show threadklausfiend has moved
@ajkandy @mekkaokereke I think this is a more accurate formulation. It would also explain why I respond so differently to beat cops on foot compared to ones in squad cars.
Jul 10, 2023 at 3:37amWeb