Automobiles have changed our souls
Automobiles have changed our souls.
Thoroughfares like cannon barrels – rammed full, and red hot with fire and blood and death. The whole planet is on fire, our whole country filled with particulate pollution, our whole population either dependant or enslaved by machines that quite demonstrably disrupt our capacity for empathy, community and care.
Cycling has always been my way of moving through the world. From childhood, it was the tool that opened horizons for me, that brought them closer and made my heart soar at the same time. I can’t imagine my life without it. But it is a way of life that is resisted and actively fought against by the general population, the body politic, and the legal and regulatory system. One only needs to take no more than a quick glance at road design to be clear the priority of the built environment.
Living in a tiny rural town, after over a decade in the big city, has led to me having to make a bit of a psychic readjustment. In the city the stupidity of driving around is pleasingly obvious, and the cyclist can know that the bicycle is the fastest and most convenient way through the city. But here in Bovey, I walk to the workshop, and the automobile is still dominant. Sometimes I want to scream at it all. Other times I just think, “ah, driving 2 minutes down to the shop is a rational choice given the incentives and town design, it’s not their fault”. Other times I want to cry.
I think that the arc of history is always going to bend towards human powered motion (the planet is on fire, the planet is on fire, my god!) but who knows. Automobiles have changed our souls.