cars | Velosophe

It Doesn’t Matter Who Pays for Roads

January 22, 2022 by Bernhard

In any discussion about making space for alternative transportation modes – whether buses, trams, or bikes – the likelihood of someone retorting, “but drivers pay for roads!” quickly approaches 100%. The implication here is that drivers have a special entitlement to road space on account of them being the primary (and some imagine, exclusive) financiers of roads. Those who don’t own cars – cyclists and public transit users – supposedly don’t pay for roads, and thus have little to no […]

Categories: Bicycles • Tags: bikes, cars, cycling, road infrastructure

The Rules of the Road are Baloney

January 2, 2017 by Bernhard

I’m going to start with the assumption that, at one time and place or another, people who bike have been chastised by people who drive for not “following the rules of the road.” I have seen and heard this grievance aired frequently. It has often been presented as an argument against increased bicycle infrastructure. It goes something like this: If cyclists want the “privilege” of using space “designed for” cars, then they must earn it by adhering strictly to the […]

Categories: Bicycles, Ethics, Philosophy, Transportation • Tags: cars, rules of the road

The Conference Board of Canada Greatly Overestimates the Degree to which Drivers Cover Road Costs

November 19, 2013 by Bernhard

Recently the Conference Board of Canada released a study that claims that upwards to 90% of Ontario road costs are covered by drivers. The purported findings of the study were gleefully touted by all major news sources, and if one was careless enough to read appending user-comments, one could expect that they were rife with remarks of smug self-satisfaction and entitlement, and perhaps claims of moral superiority in the horrific “war on cars.” I was immediately sceptical of the findings […]

Categories: Economy, Transportation • Tags: cars, Conference Board of Canada, road costs, transportation

The Publicly-Funded Convenience of Cars

September 27, 2013 by Bernhard

Like most issues, people engage with transportation mainly in an individualistic way. Hence most “debate” about transportation infrastructure, as in this predictable piece, merely amounts to recounting a set of personal anecdotes such as seeing cyclists riding on sidewalks, without extrapolating any broader insights beyond expressing one’s peevishness. Maybe this is just systemic – people are “inherently” selfish (or encouraged to be so), and have great difficulty considering some issue beyond their immediately personal wants and experiences – say on a […]

Categories: Environment, Politics, Toronto, Transportation • Tags: cars, cycling, public transit, transportation infrastructure

Velosophe

Thoughts on Bikes

Tag: cars

It Doesn’t Matter Who Pays for Roads

The Rules of the Road are Baloney

The Conference Board of Canada Greatly Overestimates the Degree to which Drivers Cover Road Costs

The Publicly-Funded Convenience of Cars