by Pablo Neruda I was walking down a sizzling road: the sun popped like a field of blazing maize, the earth was hot, an infinite circle with an empty blue sky overhead.
The Industrialisation of Traffic: Why Bicycles are Faster than Cars – Ivan Illich The model American male devotes more than 1,600 hours a year to his car. He sits in it while it goes and while it stands idling. He parks it and searches for it. He earns the money to put down on it and to meet the monthly instalments He works to pay for gasoline, tolls, insurance, taxes, and tickets. He spends four of his sixteen waking hours on the road or gathering his resources for it.
Cycling offers such a contemplative environment, the silence within. Here is a brilliant article by Ivan Illich who argues that silence itself, like so many other Commons, need to be protected, defended. Computers are doing to communication what fences did to pastures and cars did to streets. (Ivan Illich)