Excerpt from a story about Montreal's cycling advocate Clarie Morisette in the Globe recently: "While she soon found converts, Ms. Morissette was dismayed to encounter resistance where it mattered most -- city hall. It astounded her that city officials simply did not see the simple solution that bicycles potentially provided. "They have a mentality from the 1950s, the ones who believe the car must run -- at all costs," she told a reporter in 1991. And elected officials were even worse. Sensitive to public opinion, they issued banal bleatings about encouraging more bikes on streets and then did nothing.
"Their words sound so nice, but they are slow to act on them. They are still in first gear." CLAIRE MORISSETTE was born on April 6, 1950, in Ste-Anne-de-Bellevue, Que. She died of breast cancer on July 20, 2007. She was 57.
2 comments:
banal bleatings - great phrase.
Truck/car-free cycling somewhere svp
"And elected officials were even worse. Sensitive to public opinion, they issued banal bleatings about encouraging more bikes on streets and then did nothing."
So often the case, unfortunately. It just means that we, as voters, have to make them know they need to worry about OUR opinion too!
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