Lawrence Davies
@andrenascotica.bsky.social
330 followers 710 following 1.5K posts
Music, trees, birds, bees, bicycles. Newcastle, increasingly Huddersfield, working on an ecological history of sound amplification. Join a union, and tell the truth about climate breakdown. Born at 353ppm.
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Reposted by Lawrence Davies
dpcarrington.bsky.social
Climate action is the only economic growth story of 21st century, says leading economist Lord Stern

- Fossil-fuelled growth is futile as the damage it causes ends in economic self-destruction

#climatecrisis
Story by me
www.theguardian.com/environment/...
Climate investment is growth opportunity of 21st century, says economist
Lord Stern says fossil-fuelled growth is futile as the damage it causes ends in economic self-destruction
www.theguardian.com
andrenascotica.bsky.social
Lawn Rd, Gospel Oak (I think)
andrenascotica.bsky.social
Lawn Rd, Gospel Oak (I think)
Reposted by Lawrence Davies
greenelects.world
We are in an age where the Green Party are on the brink of surpassing the Conservative Party in membership.

The tide is turning against the status quo.
andrenascotica.bsky.social
I'm not entirely sure if I understand your reply but I guess what I meant was that the inaccessibility created by sticking these boards in the middle of the path, if unlawful, would be a good way to leverage getting them removed that would work well for everyone.
andrenascotica.bsky.social
Is this lawful? It's clearly inaccessible for people with mobility issues.
Reposted by Lawrence Davies
greenparty.org.uk
🎉 We've done it. We've passed 100,000 Green Party members!

📈 But we're not stopping there.

💚 Let's make hope normal again! Join the Green Party today!
Reposted by Lawrence Davies
greenelects.world
🚨| For the first time in its 53-year history, @TheGreenParty passes 100,000 members!

Under a new leader, @zackpolanski.bsky.social has galvanised a Green movement like no other.
andrenascotica.bsky.social
Ah yes, Aebersold's Acoustic Lydian Super Locrian.
andrenascotica.bsky.social
I read somewhere that "field" in this context (N Edinburgh/ Leith) means something quite specific, hence Orchardfield, Annfield, Janefield, etc. I forget now.
andrenascotica.bsky.social
*he thinks it's solely my responsibility. Which is, I think, what the OP is getting at. When drivers think "shared responsibility" means "pedestrian responsibility", because this is what road safety campaigns tend to emphasise, then you have a problem.
andrenascotica.bsky.social
Likewise, when I take issue with his bad driving and he tells me to F off and that I shouldn't be there, it's not actually because he thinks I'm being irresponsible. It's because he doesn't want me there at all, and that it's solely MY responsibility to make the situation safe.
andrenascotica.bsky.social
No you're missing my point. *I* feel like I need to be out the way of the car in my lane, to avoid getting hit. The driver ALSO feels like I need to be out of his way, not because it's safer for me, but because it's more convenient for him so he can drive faster. That's not shared responsibility.
andrenascotica.bsky.social
Ok I agree. But what of the bit of the OP where it focuses on the perception of pedestrians needing to take primary responsibility. As in, I have to avoid getting hit rather than a driver focusing on not hitting me? I think this is exactly the problem at work in my lane.
andrenascotica.bsky.social
Your point about zero sum is useful here. I completely agree, but almost any media coverage of a cyclist injury will invoke a zero sum argument, usually around not wearing a helmet. As in, a cyclist is hospitalised bc they were hit by a speeding car, but they weren't wearing a helmet so whoops.
andrenascotica.bsky.social
Because everyone should be responsible does not mean equal responsibility (I know you agree on this), but in practice this is in fact what many people think. To combat this, we need a road safety approach that intentionally focuses on drivers as the main harm creators.
andrenascotica.bsky.social
Agreed. I'm disagreeing with your response specifically. That doesn't mean I'm agreeing wholeheartedly with the OP. We have to have shared responsibility, but we can't just say "everyone should be responsible", because this cannot account for the profoundly unequal outcomes that exist.
andrenascotica.bsky.social
More, as you say. But when we have people driving fast and powerful machines around, even pedestrians who do the right thing are still at risk. The only thing we could have done to decrease the risk for ourselves would have been to not walk there in the 1st place, which is impossible, and wrong.
andrenascotica.bsky.social
We already have this with HGVs, eg with additional license requirements, tachographs, etc. The idea that the regular car driver needs to pass a test once and then is more or less free to drive how they want, running only the risk that they might get caught by a camera or traffic cop, is not enough.
andrenascotica.bsky.social
No but what I take from that is that campaigns that emphasise shared responsibility are insufficient. We need additional campaigns and measures to enforce road safety that account for the disproportionate impact that some road users will have.
andrenascotica.bsky.social
And again you point out the danger of working with exceptions, but the reality is that poor driver behaviour is ubiquitous, and this is well documented.
andrenascotica.bsky.social
Yes the former but that's precisely the point. It's specifically BECAUSE he was taking responsibility for his own safety that the driver felt emboldened to act in a way that increased the danger to him, by not slowing down. And of course there's no point at which the driver himself was in danger.
andrenascotica.bsky.social
Or, to paraphrase the urbanist slogan, we ask pedestrians to be vigilant and safe precisely so that people in cars can be careless and unsafe. Even when these might be the same person - all drivers are pedestrians at some point - the addition of the motorised metal box makes all the difference.
andrenascotica.bsky.social
So a pedestrian can enter a situation committed to the idea that responsibility is shared and act accordingly. But there are 1000s of people driving around in cars who believe the same thing yet act recklessly because of it, in spite of the fact that the outcome will ALWAYS be unequal.