You can cycle in the rain. Just plan and get the needed equipment for it.
Also allow me to point you to Mexico City - you can’t imagine the hell it is for car drivers when all the things you mention happen (rain, protests choking half the city, and the subway shut down due to either failure or a strike). I’m talking literally 4-5 hours to get to your in-the-city destination; I once spent 2 hours driving half a kilometer and it was only raining. Just in case your actual point is “it’s better to drive as you’re less vulnerable to an eventuality with public transport or alternative mobility”.
Yeah man, damn Europe is limiting businesspeople to do business! If they just let go of all these stupid laws that protect the population, a few people might get really rich! Why wouldn't they want that?
Imagine having a brain so polluted by partisan politics that a thread about public infrastructure and cars is derailed into "france is being invaded by islam" in literally two comments...
Unplug your brain for the twitter matrix and go outside my dude, there is a whole life out there that isn't populated by grumpy terminally ill people who think everyone is plotting to slit their throat at the first opportunity
The unions want negotiations towards better pay and conditions, sometimes these demands are pretty transparent grift or make things unsafe, but usually they're just "Give us more money" and like, yeah, give them more money.
An example of making things unsafe: One of the railway unions took strike action to preserve 12 hour shifts for signallers. That might seem counter-intuitive, who wants 12 hour shifts? Well, you work 3 x 12 hour shifts, that's your week = 4 days per week off. Whereas if the safety reform demands max hour 8 shifts that's only 2-3 days off, so of course affected signallers hated that.
Why was it unsafe? Well humans can't really work 12 hours. We get bored & our minds wander, if it's dark and warm we fall asleep or stumble around dazed. And a signaller's job is normally pretty calm, you could do it half asleep and it'd be OK. "Ding ding" that's the last city express, pull 18, wait a beat, press buzzer, pull 19 and 25. But, sometimes it gets very exciting very fast, and that's why it's a job for a skilled human. "Ding ding" - the express, pull 18, it sticks, uh, what? Pull harder, still sticks. Er... now you should be wide awake, that express at 100mph is about to reach a Danger signal, is it because there's really danger? What should you do? But you are tired, it's been a long day, release 16 and that'll fix it right? Now 18 moves. But wait there's a loud noise and this needle is deflected, what did I do? And now the phone is ringing. We've just de-railed the back half of the slow coal train that was still crossing right in front of the express we've just given a green light. Hope nobody dies.
Overground, National Rail, DLR, the Elizabeth line, trams and buses are all working. And the few parts of the tube network that don't have any nearby heavy rail services (eg. the Hainault loop on the Central line) are mostly still running.
Sure, the non-tube services are (much!) busier than normal but this situation is actually a great demonstration of one of the most important factors in making public transport useful: route redundancy, so that if one is suspended for whatever reason there are reasonable alternative options for most journeys.
i am totally an advocate of the 15 minute city, but the strike thing is a genuine problem, it's total blackmail. yes, they are asking for better working conditions, but then you look into the details and it's because early retirement age has been raised from 56 to 58 and days off have been reduced from 28 to 26. that sort of thing cannot be indulged. i'm getting to an age where i know seniors in my european side of the family that have been retired longer than they have worked, but insist they deserve their yearly vacation. that social contract meme is real.
Taipei has warm temperatures year round that mean everything is dry quickly. It's quite a different situation when your socks get soaked in < 15 degree weather.
I cycled a reasonable distance to work (about 25km a day) here in sunny Scotland and rain wasn't really a problem, or snow - but cycling in really high winds isn't a great idea.
Edit: To explain - I was cycling on a that was on top of an embankment and a strong gust of wind unbalanced me at a bad moment when a lorry was passing - I actually hit the lorry with my shoulder and was knocked back upright again. This was all quite exciting at the time.
You can cycle in the rain. Just plan and get the needed equipment for it.
Also allow me to point you to Mexico City - you can’t imagine the hell it is for car drivers when all the things you mention happen (rain, protests choking half the city, and the subway shut down due to either failure or a strike). I’m talking literally 4-5 hours to get to your in-the-city destination; I once spent 2 hours driving half a kilometer and it was only raining. Just in case your actual point is “it’s better to drive as you’re less vulnerable to an eventuality with public transport or alternative mobility”.
Those darn Leftists! Imagine the paradise if we made protesting illegal and just let corporations and government have full control over our lives.
Yeah man, damn Europe is limiting businesspeople to do business! If they just let go of all these stupid laws that protect the population, a few people might get really rich! Why wouldn't they want that?
If the union strike is so inconvenient, management should agree on a deal promptly.
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Can’t say I’ve ever heard anyone equating unionized workers to terrorists.
It actually happens quite often in France coming from right-wing politicians.
Strikers are "hostage takers", demonstrators are "vandals", etc. It's all part of the theatre to discredit opposition.
Interesting. Thanks for sharing!
Is that a demand any group has actually made of him?
It actually was under Chirac. But you can transpose that logic to any hostage situation of your choosing.
Well, inshallah.
Imagine having a brain so polluted by partisan politics that a thread about public infrastructure and cars is derailed into "france is being invaded by islam" in literally two comments...
Unplug your brain for the twitter matrix and go outside my dude, there is a whole life out there that isn't populated by grumpy terminally ill people who think everyone is plotting to slit their throat at the first opportunity
Definition of straw man argument.
The unions want negotiations towards better pay and conditions, sometimes these demands are pretty transparent grift or make things unsafe, but usually they're just "Give us more money" and like, yeah, give them more money.
An example of making things unsafe: One of the railway unions took strike action to preserve 12 hour shifts for signallers. That might seem counter-intuitive, who wants 12 hour shifts? Well, you work 3 x 12 hour shifts, that's your week = 4 days per week off. Whereas if the safety reform demands max hour 8 shifts that's only 2-3 days off, so of course affected signallers hated that.
Why was it unsafe? Well humans can't really work 12 hours. We get bored & our minds wander, if it's dark and warm we fall asleep or stumble around dazed. And a signaller's job is normally pretty calm, you could do it half asleep and it'd be OK. "Ding ding" that's the last city express, pull 18, wait a beat, press buzzer, pull 19 and 25. But, sometimes it gets very exciting very fast, and that's why it's a job for a skilled human. "Ding ding" - the express, pull 18, it sticks, uh, what? Pull harder, still sticks. Er... now you should be wide awake, that express at 100mph is about to reach a Danger signal, is it because there's really danger? What should you do? But you are tired, it's been a long day, release 16 and that'll fix it right? Now 18 moves. But wait there's a loud noise and this needle is deflected, what did I do? And now the phone is ringing. We've just de-railed the back half of the slow coal train that was still crossing right in front of the express we've just given a green light. Hope nobody dies.
But this is the exception not the rule.
Only the tube is affected by the strike.
Overground, National Rail, DLR, the Elizabeth line, trams and buses are all working. And the few parts of the tube network that don't have any nearby heavy rail services (eg. the Hainault loop on the Central line) are mostly still running.
Sure, the non-tube services are (much!) busier than normal but this situation is actually a great demonstration of one of the most important factors in making public transport useful: route redundancy, so that if one is suspended for whatever reason there are reasonable alternative options for most journeys.
i am totally an advocate of the 15 minute city, but the strike thing is a genuine problem, it's total blackmail. yes, they are asking for better working conditions, but then you look into the details and it's because early retirement age has been raised from 56 to 58 and days off have been reduced from 28 to 26. that sort of thing cannot be indulged. i'm getting to an age where i know seniors in my european side of the family that have been retired longer than they have worked, but insist they deserve their yearly vacation. that social contract meme is real.
Taipei moves on scooters. It also rains a lot. Every office has hangers in the stairwells for rain ponchos. Adapting to rain seems very doable.
Taipei has warm temperatures year round that mean everything is dry quickly. It's quite a different situation when your socks get soaked in < 15 degree weather.
Don't they have rain coats in London? :-)
I mean I feel for you but cycling in the rain is not that big of a deal, greetings from the Netherlands
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I cycled a reasonable distance to work (about 25km a day) here in sunny Scotland and rain wasn't really a problem, or snow - but cycling in really high winds isn't a great idea.
Edit: To explain - I was cycling on a that was on top of an embankment and a strong gust of wind unbalanced me at a bad moment when a lorry was passing - I actually hit the lorry with my shoulder and was knocked back upright again. This was all quite exciting at the time.
Agree about high wind - that does make it miserable.
"you're not made of sugar", as my parents would say.
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You don't need to make up weak hypotheticals. There are rainy places that move just fine without being car-centric.