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one of the biggest things I& #39;ve taken out of my education is that almost without exception, the technical solutions to most problems already exist - we just don& #39;t implement them for political reasons. That said, this is dope as hell and a good bike lane is always *chef& #39;s kiss* 
https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="đČ" title="Fahrrad" aria-label="Emoji: Fahrrad"> https://twitter.com/CyclistBartek/status/1384641192793608192">https://twitter.com/CyclistBa...
in this case the problems being automobile use and the resulting:
- environmental devastation
- public health disaster from physical inactivity
- endemic traffic injuries and deaths
- incredible drain on government funds for car infrastructure
- environmental devastation
- public health disaster from physical inactivity
- endemic traffic injuries and deaths
- incredible drain on government funds for car infrastructure
I don& #39;t use "political" in the pejorative sense, by the way. I think that& #39;s trash and it annoys me when people say "don& #39;t make this political," every decision is political and it& #39;s dishonest to pretend otherwise.
I think that for a lot of lefties, my original point about technical solutions is sort of & #39;common knowledge& #39; but I think it& #39;s worth repeating
Green energy & jobs, socialized childcare, public ownership of housing, and yes, good cycling and public transit infrastructure cut through issues of climate change and public health like a hot knife through butter (to say nothing of racial & gender equity!)
so the idea that we need to, or even *can*, innovate our way out of binds like the climate disaster or racial oppression without changing social relations & the way we distribute power is completely myopic and actually is driving us off the cliff actively
I went into school thinking I would become an urban planner because of the incredible power of transportation and housing infrastructure to improve the lives of people in such powerful ways, but I& #39;ve felt more and more horrified as this whole concept has dawned on me
talking to engineers, planners & researchers whose brains are full of this incredible life-giving knowledge, who have systems *ready to go* that can save the planet for my kids, that can lift up people who are getting hurt so bad by our status quo.
& just feeling hopeless watching them, implicitly or explicitly, throw their hands in the air and say hey this would work except for the market, or there& #39;s no funding, or the developers would never build it that way - we can& #39;t do the right thing because the status quo prevents it
I& #39;m just here to say that I love bike lanes as much as the next guy, but that the technical fixes themselves will *never* solve the twin crises of climate disaster and racial discrimination/white supremacy on their own.
the only way those technical solutions will get implemented to a meaningful degree will be if a coalition of social movements, *especially* organized labour, creates such a serious political crisis for the state that we actually see established power structures shifting.
I wish it wasn& #39;t the case, but anything else is wishful thinking https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="đ" title="Nachdenkliches Gesicht" aria-label="Emoji: Nachdenkliches Gesicht">
we got it tho https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="đȘ" title="Angespannter Bizeps" aria-label="Emoji: Angespannter Bizeps"> dm me if you& #39;re trying to get moving on this stuff
socialists reading this thread
