More ranting in the press

I'm amazed nobody's picked up on this one yet:

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2006/06/14/1149964604277.html

There's a contact email too: [email protected]

I spotted it this morning but it's been madness here today so I've just found time to scratch myself. Got to love the last sentence though:

"The road is not there to share. It is for cars. Footpaths are for pedestrians. And bike paths are for bikes, if there is any room left."

I honestly wonder whether this is a troll in print.

 

Oi, you down the back, pay attention!

http://www.cyclingforums.com/t346248.html

 

yep.... stop it, or you will go blind, eventually

 

There is no need to wonder - Ms Devine likes to see her name in print. Ignore it and it _should_ go away.

R

 

Resound wrote:
> I'm amazed nobody's picked up on this one yet:
>
> http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2006/06/14/1149964604277.html

For those on Usenet, the thread "Miranda Devine strikes again."

> I honestly wonder whether this is a troll in print.

Of course it's a troll.
--
Cheers
Euan

 

I love the article. Esp this bit;

 

The bike as COOL! Now available here http://www.bicyclesforever.com.au/ every one should own one of these. When bicycles take over the world these will dominate through sheer numbers. In India one Hero bicycle is produces every 9 seconds.

CC

 

Now in a new improved lite-weight model! Only 20kg of real steel!

 

On Thu, 15 Jun 2006 10:52:16 GMT, Euan wrote:

> Of course it's a troll.

It's an op-ed piece and she is paid to write articles that attack the usual
positions of the leftwing media, e.g. Elizabeth Farrelly writing in the
same paper (the Age in Melbourne doesn't even bother to consider non left
wing opinions on its op-ed page so it probably comes as shock to
Melbournians). It is just an opinion, she can hold one if she wants.

Her facts are correct and she will argue rationally. Though she very
selective about which facts she uses as it makes it easier to write columns
that attract attention.

Bikeplan 2010 was a political stunt. The Carr Government promised a $250m
intergrated cycling system to buy Green votes in Marrackville. All the
funding and work was pushed off 20 years into the future and what was built
was generally a complete debacle and waste of money.

For example the latest on the Rhodes to Macquarie Park cycle route that was
promised by 2004 (IIRC, though the RTA has buried the plan so you can't
download it anymore to check) is that the section along the railway from
Meadowbank to Eastwood was abandoned by the RTA last year under Costa since
the NSW Government is going broke. The section linking the Shrimpton Creek
section south to Quarry St isn't going that well either. One block's worth
has just about been finished, after over a year spent on construction. The
next block has been cancelled, after RTA funding was secured, by Ryde
Council because the local residents protested. They have managed to get the
easement it was going to run through fenced off to keep other people out
and protect their privacy.

And of course if Ryde Council would fix up all the chicanes, speed bumps
and other traffic pacifying devices then the roads would be fine to cycle
on anyway.

Cycle lanes through Lane Cove and along William St were used as an excuse
to shut down lanes and stop cars using public roads. The Williams St
closures managed to completely screw up access to the Eastern CBD from the
Eastern Suburbs (a business I work there whose customers come mostly from
the Eastern Suburbs lost 25% of its business and is going bust as a
result). The Government has now been forced to remove the cycle lanes,
which will cost taxpayers tens of millions of dollars in compensation to
the Cross City Tunnel operators.

The cycle lanes through Lane Cove seem particularly useless because it is
bad place to cycle through and the Government appears to have abandoned the
sections from Wicks Road to Lane Cove and Lane Cove to the Harbour Bridge.

It has also been revealed the Government had the Lane Cove tunnel include a
two lane section heading East (the operators wanted 3) to deliberately stop
people driving to the CBD.

They also are forcing motorists to pay for a cycleway on the M7, one that
goes up and down and winds back and forth, is shared with pedestrians who
have right of way. Instead everyone cycles on the shoulder, across all the
exit ramps, which will probably result in lots of cyclists being severely
injured costing the community lots.

It's all fairly typical of the infrastructure planning of the Carr-Iemma
government: pander to lots of competing special interest groups and then
blame the media when the spin spins out of control.

dewatf.

 

dewatf wrote:

> Her facts are correct

lol

>and she will argue rationally.

ROTFLMPO.

 

dewatf wrote:
> On Thu, 15 Jun 2006 10:52:16 GMT, Euan wrote:
>
>> Of course it's a troll.
>
> Her facts are correct and she will argue rationally.

Will she? Look forward to that day. Her piece was utter garbage, full
of ad homien attacks with no logical structure. I learnt more about the
politics of road engineering from your post than I did from Miranda's
rantings.
--
Cheers
Euan

 

On Sat, 17 Jun 2006 14:44:45 GMT, Euan wrote:

> Will she? Look forward to that day. Her piece was utter garbage, full
> of ad homien attacks with no logical structure. I learnt more about the
> politics of road engineering from your post than I did from Miranda's
> rantings.

Email her and you will find her reasonable.

There is just as much left wing ranting from Adele Horin etc. in the
opinion pages of the SMH and Age. That seems to be more an issue of what
op-ed is about, its supposed to inflame people and fill the letter's page.
The SMH will publish procycling stuff of Farrelly and Putcher, but will
also run Duffy and Devine procar pieces.

Writers who can put out one or two columns of that stuff week are higly
valued by the paper (and they pay them a fortune (I did some work on the
Fairfax superannuation account). They aren't experts in what they write
about (for that they get pieces by indepedants that they only pay $800-1000
for but which people are happy to supply because it gives them a platform
for their opinions).

dewatf.

 

They could save themselves a lot of money by lifting snippets from Usenet.

 

***canned laughter***

 

On Tue, 20 Jun 2006 12:48:09 +1000, EuanB wrote:

> They could save themselves a lot of money by lifting snippets from
> Usenet.

Then they don't hold copyright and could be infringing it.

What they do is start blogs so their their readers provide the content for
free, however, the signal to noise ratio has been too low and there have
been serious defamation and abuse issues. Thus they need to be moderated,
which is labour intensive and makes them editorially responsible.

In the mean time independant blogs are gaining more and more influence.

dewatf.

 

cfsmtb wrote:
>
> dewatf Wrote:
> >
> > Email her and you will find her reasonable.
>
> ***canned laughter***

Someone has not paid enough attention...

Tam

 

cfsmtb wrote:
>
> dewatf Wrote:
> >
> > Email her and you will find her reasonable.
>
> ***canned laughter***

Someone has not paid enough attention...

Tam

 

cfsmtb wrote:
> cogcontrol Wrote:
> > The bike as COOL! Now available here http://www.bicyclesforever.com.au/
> > every one should own one of these. When bicycles take over the world
> > these will dominate through sheer numbers. In India one Hero bicycle is
> > produces every 9 seconds.
> >
> > CC
> >
>
> Now in a new improved lite-weight model! Only 20kg of real steel!

heh. We host their website

Clunky, huh?

 

cfsmtb wrote:
> cogcontrol Wrote:
> > The bike as COOL! Now available here http://www.bicyclesforever.com.au/
> > every one should own one of these. When bicycles take over the world
> > these will dominate through sheer numbers. In India one Hero bicycle is
> > produces every 9 seconds.
> >
> > CC
> >
>
> Now in a new improved lite-weight model! Only 20kg of real steel!

heh. We host their website

Clunky, huh?