Contrary to what that website would have you believe, you don't ahve to be a complete piece to reclaim the streets. Try it. The majority of drivers value their cars too much to actually hit you.
I've never been a fan of the 'reclaim the streets' ideology. For a start, you're not going to win the sympathy of drivers by pissing them off. And you're never going to change the world by disrupting traffic. Due to the nature of modern society, most people are in their car because they have no other option. Disrupting their journey doesn't do anything constructive as far as I can see. And I say this as someone who really hates the car culture and thinks we need to do something about it pretty sharpish. Well, if civilisation wasn't doomed at any rate
It's direct action against car culture, the most simple and direct form you can take: refusing to acknowledge the car's right to exist. I can see their point, even if I know I'd hate them all in real life for being rubbish art-studenty tossers. Part of the reason I like Northampton is that we have such a hideously convoluted one-way system. It's like a little victory for the pedestrian, to remind motorists of their station in life. On principle, I agree that pedestrians should have as much right to go anywhere they legally can as car-drivers, and that the pavement-road thing is an encroachment on our humanity. But knowing that the sort of people who believe in this kind of thing are the same sort of people who show up at rock clubs doing circus tricks makes me feel all wrong and sad inside about it.
But like all forms of direct action, you have to ask what it achieves. I mean you could argue that dragging every driver you can get your hands on out of their cars and beating them to a bloody pulp is the most simple and direct form of action you can take, but I'm not convinced it'd be a good idea! I guess I'm slightly prejudiced as a rural driver who can't get from A to B with public transport. I do think all city and town centres should be pedestrianised, though. I'd also like to see other exclusion zones for cars with decent public transport links between them. Then again, I'd also like world peace and free pizza on demand
From my albeit limited experience of life and self-exersion, I find it's a lot easier to stand in the middle of a road than drag someone from their car. I meant to say "non-violent direct action". And considering the aim - to take back the road from the driver - it's pretty effective in the short-term. It's not achieving something that you can't already do, really; there's nothing to stop you from doing it, people just accept that it's naughty and don't. Urban drivers are rubbish. They get stressed out at the drop of a hat about problems which are mostly caused by the fact that your average motorist goes through a complete personality defrag when they get in their car, and acts exactly how you'd expect someone in a mobile half-ton impenetrable metal cage with fitted horn would act; like a tosser with a god complex. I'm all for anything which punishes them. I'm all for congestion charges and on-way systems and parking restrictions. If those things weren't pissing them off, they'd find something else to whine about. If you ever go to Cambridge, go twice; once with your car, and once without(on a train or something). OK, for the driver it's hell, but man, as a pedestrian, it's so nice to be able to wander around in a sort of labotomised haze and not expect to be honked at every few minutes (man I hate horns. If you want to find out how annoying they are, try walking around a shopping centre letting off a klaxon every time someone steps out of a doorway in front of you. The number of times you get punched squared is how annoying it is). It's part of the reason I'm resisting learning to drive. I'm enough of a tosser as it is.
I find it hard to vocalise my viewpoints on things like this clearly, for one i am still developing opinions after having been away from this country for so long. I do believe in many things on that site though disagree with many others ... cars are here and i for one us one .. though mine is more a communal vechile and we live in it and it takes 10 to 15 people on journies. THe CJA seems to have caused alot of seperate specific movements together. THe result of this is something like reclain the streets emcompassing the free festivals and anti car culture togethter .. i may be wrong there still researching these thing so feel free to inform me of things i may be confused about .. could take a while. these days the divide seems to be getting deeper between society and the likes of myself struggling not to just drop out .. i would rather work from my position with society rather than forever against it .. i have so much further to go ans soi much more to learn and it does dishearten me the deeper i go down the path. more later if i am about.
I will drive everywhere until we can have private compartments on buses and they pick me up at my front door at all hours of the day and night ... besides, the public smell funny
oh and slow down when you drive .. that way people can see you and admire your nice car and your pleasant smily faces rather than being run over by you and scared shitless. it only takes a second for your life to go horribly wrong ... doesnt it steve who nearly turned the car over on the way to glastonbury .. and you know i will forever be on your case about having to ruch everywhere on peoples arses people slow down ... enjoy the ride ... its often for more interesting than the destination
I see it as a simple matter of courtesy. Often while waiting to cross a busy road full of slow moving traffic, drivers will just keep slowly crawling forwards rather than stopping for a few seconds to let you cross... I think lots of people see their cars as an extension of their homes and so behave like they are at home and everyone else is intruding on their space. That's why when I have the courage to do it, I do what SelfControl was describing and actually walk out in front of cars in that situation and hold my hand out until they stop. Just to make the point. No it probably won't change the attitude of the driver but it makes me feel better! Many of our cities are designed solely for cars... there are places near where I live where there are long stretches of road with no pavements... there is an upmarket residential / shopping complex that it is impossible to get to unless you are in a vehicle - as a pedestrian, you have to actually walk on the road to get there. That's why I have a lot of time for reclaim the streets... the balance is hideously skewed towards drivers in urban areas especially.
I can identify. The sucky thing that America has over England is that, in England, it's almost impossible to drop out of society, because you jut have nowhere to go. But yes, I strive to be an obstinate bastard and impose my view of how the world should be on society simply by refusing point blank to accept that it could ever be any other way. If you can't do that, what's the point of being British?
Our lives have adapted around the internal combustion engine ... commuting, shopping, evenings out have all changed because we have personal transport. The world is not the same as it was when we all lived our days in the same village and never went beyond it unless we were willing to have a 4 day trek to go 100 miles That is why everyone from the upper classes to the working classes willingly give up thousands of pounds every year to keep their own personal transport ... You can't give the people something and then take it away on a whim, unless you can replace it with something more enjoyable ... and public transport is not enjoyable You cannot simply undo a century of adaptation and go back to horsedrawn carriages and penny farthings. But yeah, we should all slow down and enjoy the ride ... don't focus on the advertising that encourages us to drive fast and have the newest and flashest motor ... but mostly don't worry about upsetting other motorists as you toodle along at 20mph
I'm not saying the car should be just *blip* removed. But I do think that, as a race, we've afforded the car far more rights and far more control than it really deserves. Owning a car makes the problem of getting from A to B almost negligible, yet people let it become a disproportionately large part of their lives.
