Yesterday's exercise

Rather than go to the leafy lanes, I decided to go into town. With the
roads quiet, it's great to bimble along the normally choked main roads,
rather than thread though the usual residential roads. It is remarkable
how things look so different compared to when seen from a box. One can
even start to imagine how the edges of towns used to thrive before cars
enabled better off people to decamp and start the downward spiral.

As one can't be sure that traffic light sensors pick up bicycles I went
past several lights on red. Really weird to stop (for one pedestrian) to
cross a dual carriageway and then only see one vehicle on it, stationary
some distance away. I also went along a one way street the wrong way -
cars parked on both sides and a channel down the middle; on a bike, easy
to move to one side for anything oncoming.

Gosh, it feels strange to admit to being naughty. Should I now report to
the headmaster's study to get a smacked botty?

TMS320 wrote:

Rather than go to the leafy lanes, I decided to go into town. With the
roads quiet, it's great to bimble along the normally choked main roads,
rather than thread though the usual residential roads. It is remarkable
how things look so different compared to when seen from a box. One can
even start to imagine how the edges of towns used to thrive before cars
enabled better off people to decamp and start the downward spiral.

I find it eerie cycling in areas that you would once always expect to
find awash with traffic and pedestrians now to be so desolate and
quiet. It's a strange feeling almost like something is wrong, like
there is something you haven't been warned about - like it's too good
to be true, in other words.

As one can't be sure that traffic light sensors pick up bicycles I went
past several lights on red. Really weird to stop (for one pedestrian) to
cross a dual carriageway and then only see one vehicle on it, stationary
some distance away. I also went along a one way street the wrong way -
cars parked on both sides and a channel down the middle; on a bike, easy
to move to one side for anything oncoming.

That's another thing, with so little of anybody else around, little
indiscreations that you wouldn't normally dream of making can now be
undertaken with a feeling of almost complete freedom because there is
no one else to mind or be bothered. This is what it must have been
like in the Black and White movie days before the explosion of cars
and the swell people - and we can presently live it in glorious
colour.

Gosh, it feels strange to admit to being naughty. Should I now report to
the headmaster's study to get a smacked botty?

Ha! Enjoy it while you can.

On 20/04/2020 13:22, Kelly wrote:
TMS320 wrote:

Rather than go to the leafy lanes, I decided to go into town. With
the roads quiet, it's great to bimble along the normally choked
main roads, rather than thread though the usual residential roads.
It is remarkable how things look so different compared to when seen
from a box. One can even start to imagine how the edges of towns
used to thrive before cars enabled better off people to decamp and
start the downward spiral.

I find it eerie cycling in areas that you would once always expect
to find awash with traffic and pedestrians now to be so desolate and
quiet. It's a strange feeling almost like something is wrong, like
there is something you haven't been warned about - like it's too
good to be true, in other words.

There is still plenty of life around. I expect they are enjoying the
quiet times too.

As one can't be sure that traffic light sensors pick up bicycles I
went past several lights on red. Really weird to stop (for one
pedestrian) to cross a dual carriageway and then only see one
vehicle on it, stationary some distance away. I also went along a
one way street the wrong way - cars parked on both sides and a
channel down the middle; on a bike, easy to move to one side for
anything oncoming.

That's another thing, with so little of anybody else around, little
indiscreations that you wouldn't normally dream of making can now be
undertaken with a feeling of almost complete freedom because there
is no one else to mind or be bothered. This is what it must have
been like in the Black and White movie days before the explosion of
cars and the swell people - and we can presently live it in glorious
colour.

Countries that remain civilised by having shops that shut occasionally
can sometimes still give this feel.

Gosh, it feels strange to admit to being naughty. Should I now
report to the headmaster's study to get a smacked botty?

Ha! Enjoy it while you can.

Indeed.

On 20/04/2020 13:22, Kelly wrote:
This is what it must have been
like in the Black and White movie days before the explosion of cars
and the swell people

You seen the 'videos' of city streets before cars?


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cqCJJNioiGI

Can you imagine all the horse sh excrement?

soup wrote:

On 20/04/2020 13:22, Kelly wrote:
This is what it must have been
like in the Black and White movie days before the explosion of cars
and the swell people

You seen the 'videos' of city streets before cars?


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cqCJJNioiGI

Can you imagine all the horse sh excrement?

Grief - that is certainly not how I envisaged it. Looks like central
London has been a nightmare, traffic-wise, long before the motor
engine took over. And I had imagined that horse 'manure' was highly
valued in those days and so horse owners would be only too willing to
pick-up after their horses - but they surely wouldn't in that throng.

I think, though, things look all the more mad and riotous because its
speeded up. Notice the pedestrians happily weaving in and out of the
traffic, as well as casually hopping into and out of moving omnibuses.
It was probably a fair bit more leisurely than it looks on film but,
yes, it's well crowded and busy with traffic.

On 20/04/2020 19:18, soup wrote:
On 20/04/2020 13:22, Kelly wrote:
This is what it must have been
like in the Black and White movie days before the explosion of cars
and the swell people

You seen the 'videos' of city streets before cars?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cqCJJNioiGI

A typical scene to be repeated up and down the country?

Can you imagine all the horse sh excrement?

People seem to be walking about without having to step over anything.

Though it appears that even then pedestrians aimlessly wandering about
probably believed the cyclists they caused to swerve must have gone past
a red light.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dtRiMS34KxQ

On 20/04/2020 21:52, TMS320 wrote:

People seem to be walking about without having to step over anything.

Maybe they were just used to ploughing through it?

https://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryU...risis-of-1894/

On 20/04/2020 19:56, Kelly wrote:

I think, though, things look all the more mad and riotous because its
speeded up.

There is more than likely other pieces of film ,not so 'speeded up'.
That was just the first piece I found after a very brief search .

On 21/04/2020 10:24, soup wrote:
On 20/04/2020 21:52, TMS320 wrote:

People seem to be walking about without having to step over
anything.

Maybe they were just used to ploughing through it?

That is also not apparent.

https://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryU...risis-of-1894/



No doubt there were genuine concerns, but it talks about...

"large cities..." and refers to the problem of disease.

Pavements were provided in London and the act that people complain
cyclists don't obey goes back to 1835. If people had had to wade through
it, they would have worn boots and would not have had trousers and
skirts down to their ankles.

On 21/04/2020 11:19, TMS320 wrote:
If people had had to wade through
it, they would have worn boots and would not have had trousers and
skirts down to their ankles.

As did people in, e.g., American wild west towns where streets were seas
of mud (yes there were areas at the side where you could walk
[sidewalks]) in some places but generaly...

Day to day work arounds (back then) were not what I was posting about.
Someone had said the world pre cars must have been fantastic all I was,
meaning, to do was show that there have ALWAYS been problems in busy
areas (sometimes not so obvious ).