CityCyclingEdinburgh was launched on the 27th of October 2009 as "an experiment".
IT’S TRUE!
CCE is 15years old!
Well done to ALL posters
It soon became useful and entertaining. There are regular posters, people who add useful info occasionally and plenty more who drop by to watch. That's fine. If you want to add news/comments it's easy to register and become a member.
RULES No personal insults. No swearing.
I don't understand why people WANT huge great cars.
3 or more kids?
cos the Jones' have one?
weekends spent skiing/surfing/other activity where you "need" lots of stuff?
perception if you are high up you are likely to be safer when you crash cos you were on your phone?
Didn't someone report in a thread somewhere recently (perhaps a colleague) that they needed a really high-up seating position so that cars' lights didn't shine in their eyes?
The amount of moulded plastic padding in cars is making their interiors less spacious than it ought to be. When I was small we had a Lada estate, which was very small by today's standards but very roomy due to there being space wasted on insulation or padding. After that we had a first-edition Nissan Prairie (before they added a central pillar and crumple zones), which was internally effectively enormous and could store drum kits and multiple instruments/amps in the back whilst still having room for half a band.
"cos the Jones' have one?"
Pretty much.
I don't understand why people WANT huge great cars.
Also, the manufacturers have sneakily been increasing the size of each model year-on-year - it's one way to get your customers to "upgrade" without realising it.
E.g. A new VW Polo is now larger than the original Golf. And a new Golf is more than double the volume of a Mk1 Golf. If you want something the size of an original Vdub Polo, you need to buy a VW Up! Confused?
"Small cars, small profits."
I think the Ford company first coined that.
I think its something to do with safety cars have been getting bigger and heavier, and less interior room for the size of car as airbags and the metal structure of the car more beams and thicker beams crumple zones
Re safety, I listened to "The World at One" segment on this and the motoring apologist attributed increased size due to "pedestrian crumple zones." However you parse that phrase, it's worrying.
I grew up as one of four kids - at one point all four of us plus two parents travelled Scotland in a green Citroen 2CV*... (We did eventually end up with a Mitsubishi Space Wagon with the "third row" of seats - but not sure that car was bigger than a lot of the shiny 4WD New Town tanks I see taking up acres of parking space today...)
*naturally called Kermit
Vehicle lengths:
Mitsubishi Space Wagon 2001 = 4.6m
Citröen 2CV = 3.86m
Audi Q7 = 5.05m
BMW X5 = 4.89m
Land Rover Discovery = 4.97m
Mercedes GL-Class = 5.14m
Top 10 new cars 2015:
Ford Fiesta = 3.98m
Vauxhall Corsa = 4.04m
Ford Focus = 4.56m
Volkswagen Golf = 4.34m
Nissan Qashqai = 4.37m
Volkswagen Polo = 3.98m
Vauxhall Astra = 4.37m
Audi A3 = 4.46m
MINI = 4.13m
Vauxhall Mokka = 4.28m
So nothing that's really popular gets quite as short as a 2CV, though a couple of super-minis get close. You can see how car lengths are slowly creeping upwards though...
Not only lengths. Widths & heights too.
Classic Mini dimensions:
L: 3.05m, W: 1.41m, H: 1.35m
Volume of enclosing cuboid = 5.8m3
-----------------------
BMW Mini Countryman dimensions:
L: 4.10m, W: 1.79m, H: 1.56m
Volume of enclosing cuboid = 11.4m3
(almost exactly double the volume)
"Not only lengths. Widths & heights too."
Of course, but the reason for changing parking spaces is the length of cars.
I have an estate car as it's easier to get my bike in it :)
Classic estate cars e.g.. the Volvo 240 at 4.84 metres (and the contemporary equivalent the V70 at 4.83 metres) are not as long as the SUVs noted above.
"
On Tuesday MSPs on Holyrood’s Health Committee will hear expert medical opinion about the impact that inactive lifestyles and excess weight is having on Scotland’s health.
"
As usual, no mention of integrating physical activity into daily life, e.g. as transport.
As many here know, the choices that your child might make are a reflection of their parents interests.
I'm using screentime now to lament lack of activity. Then I will lazily cycle from shop home. I should walk but takes too long.
Christmas of course raises the vital role of the consumer to new level. Our 'mini-me's' see parents glued to their phones. Thanks to Kindle book reading means more screen time too. Children learn a lot in our relentless tech culture. New cars have built in wi-fi I hear. The substitute home is a place of warmth, security and entertainment. Travel time is not wasted and many children will have no idea of how good using their own efforts would feel moving around town Wi-fi is the one thing the family will share of course.
Basically this time of year is a diversion to sell a lot more of the same lifestyle that make people unfit and demotivated the rest of the year. New Year then is a selling point for getting fit again - at a price. If not that then a foreign holiday.
Exercise is a commodity and the less of it easily available the better for private gyms.
Safe family cycling should of course be a health issue but sadly not enough politicians understand the benefits. The good work of PoP has of course made it a topic at least and there are allies of active travel in almost every party.
Exercise is a commodity and the less of it easily available the better for private gyms.
Yep - and for the sales of fitness programmes, fad diets, advice of health "gurus" etc. I mean, I suppose the ability to monetise everyday movement via fitbits etc. might act as a counterbalance, but perhaps "find a way to market it" isn't / shouldn't be the solution to all social ills...
An utterly trite article from Miles Briggs MSP. The first time I heard of him was when he gave a terrible speech at PoP. He's not done anything to change my impression of him since then.
Herald article is guff as well "you can't outrun a bad diet".
Well, yes you can - my brother in law has a terrible diet, eats chocolate bars and crisps, drinks coke and eats zero veg.
He is a marathon runner and is extremely slim.
While I disagree with his diet on health grounds, for anyone to discount exercise in favour of simplistic calorie counting is incredibly short sighted.
An utterly trite article from Miles Briggs MSP.
I just got a calendar through the door from him. Says he does lots of surgeries year round, but they're not on the calendar in question, which is blank. Think he might not be the sharpest sandwich in the toolbox, but I'm going to phone him anyway because I need an MSP and it might be amusing.
Public Health England is worried about the health of Britons.
What's the betting the answer will turn out to be gym membership, surveillance and hectoring for the afflicted?
"
As many of us think about New Year's resolutions to get fitter, John Beattie looks at why our elite sporting success isn't translating into a healthier population. Our top athletes are winning more medals than ever, but the general population isn't becoming more active.
The theory was that mega-events like the London Olympics and Glasgow Commonwealth Games would inspire a generation to become healthier. John hears from elite athletes and ordinary folk about why that hasn't happened and what it might take to get us off the sofa.
"
If there was ever a theory that huge sporting events led to long-term uptake of sport then it has been tested to destruction over the last 30 years.
It's hard to tell if it was a theory or an aspiration...
Bradley Wiggins has said that seeing Chris Boardman was the 'inspiration for taking up cycling when he was 12'
Other successful athletes have said similar.
That sort of evidence may well have been used to justify more large scale sporting events.
Extrapolating that to say 'and it will inspire the general public to exercise' may well have been used by sports organisations looking for (government) money.
Whether Govs were gullible, conned or just wanting it to be true so they didn't have to take tough decisions is an open question.
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