{"id":10525,"date":"2023-03-15T19:51:47","date_gmt":"2023-03-15T19:51:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cyclox.org\/?p=10525"},"modified":"2023-03-15T19:51:47","modified_gmt":"2023-03-15T19:51:47","slug":"whose-freedom-are-we-talking-about","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cyclox.org\/index.php\/2023\/03\/15\/whose-freedom-are-we-talking-about\/","title":{"rendered":"Whose freedom are we talking about?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Robin Tucker<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Robin is Co-Chair of CoHSAT<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s talk about freedom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On 18 February, around 2,000 people descended on Oxford to protest for freedom and against traffic filters. The demonstration included slogans promoting climate-change denial, anti-vax, anti-semitism and racism, but we\u2019ll leave those for others. What concerns us here is their view of \u2018freedom\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

In 1882 American J. B. Finch said \u201cYour right to swing your arm leaves off where my right not to have my nose struck begins.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

As we examine it, this group\u2019s view of freedom is a selfish and destructive one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Freedom\u2019 to drive?<\/h2>\n\n\n
\n
\"Nose-to-tail<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Start by looking at the traffic. Lots of it, isn\u2019t there? Freedom to drive results in traffic jams every day, and so people lose their freedom to move, stuck in queues of their own creation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These drivers exercising their \u2018freedom\u2019 also take freedom from those in the 32% of Oxford households with no car, as well as others who aren\u2019t driving. Because of traffic increases, bus services have slowed to 8\u201310 mph in the city, slower than a bicycle. Because this increases costs, bus companies have had to reduce some services.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two-thirds of Britons consider the roads too dangerous for them to cycle. This removes their<\/em> freedom to choose transport that is free of high fuel, service and environmental costs. Children have lost the freedom of independent travel that I enjoyed in the traffic-light 1970s and early 80s. In many places it\u2019s even hard to cross the road.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Freedom to die?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

For some, the loss of freedom is even more severe. In 2020, Ella Kissi-Debrah died at the age of 9. She was the first person to have air pollution recorded as a cause on her death certificate. Her mother now campaigns to reduce air pollution. The ways that cars make us less active<\/a> also contribute to the 1 in 6 deaths, 100,000 a year, across the UK that are linked to physical inactivity. And, in the 10 years to 2021, we\u2019ve seen 17,000 road casualties<\/a> in Oxfordshire, with 258 fatalities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

I\u2019m not saying that everyone should stop driving, but there\u2019s a balance here and we need to be aware of the costs and the damage as well as the benefits that drivers gain.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

How can we make transport fair?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

So what to do when more people want to drive than there is space for? The current laissez faire<\/em> approach only works for people with time to burn. It messes things up for buses and the small fraction of people who are dependent on cars for their mobility. Might it be better to prioritise certain users (e.g. those disabled people who rely on cars, buses that transport far larger numbers of people than cars) and then share out the remaining road with an allowance, so the traffic can flow?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reducing traffic overall in this way would make it more appealing to walk, use a wheelchair or cycle \u2013 all of which cause less congestion and harm. Just like traffic lights at a junction, putting in place restrictions brings a fairer balance of freedoms. You may have already recognised this as the traffic-filter plan<\/a> for Oxford.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Freedom that doesn\u2019t cause harm<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

So when you hear someone talking about freedom, ask yourself: \u201cIs this true freedom, that doesn\u2019t take from anyone else?\u201d If you are cycling down a quiet lane, or across the city, you\u2019re not using resources, you\u2019re not causing delays. A selfish view of freedom puts personal convenience before the loss of freedom for others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To help children experience the freedom of cycling in a safe environment, even before our roads are fully engineered, Oxford, like many cities, hosts Kidical Mass events. In these rides a mass of cyclists, including experienced ride leaders, creates a safe space for children to cycle. Cyclox and partner organisations are holding Kidical Mass events<\/a> on 26 March , 7 May and 24 September 2023. We\u2019d love to see you there.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Robin Tucker<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s talk about freedom. On 18 February, around 2,000 people descended on Oxford to protest for freedom and against traffic filters. What concerns us here is their view of \u2018freedom\u2019.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":10527,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"cybocfi_hide_featured_image":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6,4],"tags":[26,5,31,7,112,76],"class_list":["post-10525","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-on-yer-bike","tag-active-travel","tag-blog","tag-ltns","tag-on-yer-bike","tag-traffic-congestion","tag-traffic-filters"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cyclox.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10525","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cyclox.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cyclox.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cyclox.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cyclox.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10525"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.cyclox.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10525\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cyclox.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cyclox.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10525"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cyclox.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10525"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cyclox.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10525"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}