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The impact of vacation by car

Every year, the same information returns relentlessly. It makes headlines in newspapers and news programs: there are traffic jams! Miles of traffic jams. It's summer, people go on vacation. Work more to earn more, ok, but you have to leave your small town: pollution, noise, congestion, that's enough! Take the car and let us in, far, far away! Pollute more to avoid further pollution.

We can thank motorists who go on vacation with their nice car, they contribute greatly to the growth of the auto and oil industries. And GDP growth will be that much greater. We know that already, rubbing our hands.

And that auto lobbies vigorously assert the freedom of movement. Where is it, this freedom of movement, with nearly 850 kilometers of traffic? Is it really nice to spend hours in the middle of the exhaust (with all the health consequences that entails) to vacation on the coast?

The holiday death toll. In total, 1,478 people were killed in July 2011, against 1,371 in the same month the previous year, an increase of 1.5% from July 2006. But do not worry, even with radar, more police on the roads, and all problems will be miraculously solved! The machine is running wild: highways, speed, stress, traffic jams, accidents ... no doubt the car is there.

Kicking the car: an emergency. Detoxification to the car is an absolute emergency. The reasons are numerous. Yet millions of people continue to take their cars. Whether to get their bread, their cigarettes (500 meters from home), bring the kids to school, go shopping or to visit family, friends ... So long as there is one drop of oil on the planet, motorists will always find a reason to take the car. Even for a holiday.

It is repeated often, but apparently that is not enough. It must be said that television (a real propaganda tool which 95% of the population watch) does not help. The TV is flooded with ads, especially for cars. Under these conditions, it is understandable that critics of car companies is not obvious for television channels.

Speaking of pollution, about 750,000 people in China die prematurely each year in that country, mainly because of air pollution in large cities. Of course, the World Bank report, a collaborative effort of several years with Chinese ministries, was immediately censored by Chinese authorities. Sixteen of the twenty most polluted cities worldwide are in China. The Chinese will soon regret having sold their bikes to scrap these monsters. Napoleon said: "When China awakes, the world will tremble". It should now rectify this aphorism as follows: "When China awakes, the world will stink". After several years of unbridled growth revolving around 10%, we can say that China has awakened. And the damage is there. A sad proof among others: in China, the white dolphin of the Yangtze River is no more. The species became extinct, not having resisted pollution and river traffic.

Rising fuel price has not changed the behavior of citizens: shame, to believe that the fuel is not yet expensive enough. When it is very very expensive (hopefully, anyway this increase is inevitable), maybe people will stop wasting this natural resource and return to reality: no, oil is not an infinite resource. The fear is just that this realization comes too late ...

Getting rid of the car, it is easy. It is often said that the car is faster than the bike. The bike does not go from 0 to 100 km/h in 6.5 seconds. Damn! But in town, there are lights, pedestrian, car plugs ... they can rarely drive fast. Cycling is often faster for short distances. Studies of urban travel also show that the majority of car trips to town are short, only by one person with an empty casket. Therefore stop false excuses like, nothing can be transported by bicycle.

Yes, but outside the city? Motorists argue that one can go anywhere with the car. Well, by bike too! In addition, a bicycle, it merges with nature. You can stop to watch the scenery. We take advantage of the landscape. We breathe clean air (we try, sometimes). By car, it is enclosed in its metal cage, out of reality. The AC is background pollution and prevents the driver to be in contat with the outside. He cannot take the time to enjoy the sights: he must forge ahead, he is always in a hurry. In the end, the car destroys nature (highways, pollution, animals killed ...) that the motorist has yet come to see ...

On the other hand, with a well equipped bike (rack solid side bags waterproof handlebar bag ...), you can easily transport the equivalent of a huge camping backpack. It also encourages taking only the bare necessities. No huge investments to go on vacation, after all.

Frankly, what's the point of a holiday by car? Even if you hate cyclists because you drive a fast car, there are trains and buses that go almost everywhere, and Mother Nature has endowed you with a pair of legs to walk. Why pollute the landscape that we want to see? Why spend so much money to move from point A to point B? You really like the caps, pollution, noise, accident risks?

Happy Cruisin'!
Cappy