General Road and Highway Discussion

[Acitta]

Of course it’s a serious question. You seem to be saying that it is believable that one of those SUV owners might find their property incapacitated and think to themselves something like, ”hmmm, maybe I should get rid of this vehicle; I’m glad those people were so generous as to give me that suggestion”. But in order to believe this, we have to believe that if you found your bike similarly incapacitated you would think similarly kind thoughts about the people who did it.

Now I’m not you, but I’m having trouble believing that you would consider, even for a second, that you were the problem in that situation. So why would you expect those SUV owners to consider the same possibility?

While bike theft isn't entirely analogous, I think it's close enough to prove that at a larger scale these "protests" could have the desired effect. I don't have a single bike I'm willing to lose, and so any trip that would require me to lock my bike outside is a trip I probably won't take by bike. This is despite me being an advocate for cycling and it hasn't changed my mind on the issue it all, but it has still affected my behaviour. In fact, I actually bought a folding bike specifically to make more trips by bike while not having to lock it outside, so it also influenced my purchasing choices.

Obviously the objective of bike thieves isn't to stop people from cycling (probably the opposite, so they can steal more bikes), but the effect is still the same.

Then how do you get around? Do you take public transit to do your shopping rather than take your bike?