The Social Consequences of Hypermobility

[marzjennings]

Well I enjoy my hypermobility, and I don't see it slowing down in retirement as the wife and I have plans to keep traveling as long as we can. Plus, I see human interaction through travel, even some of the crass touristy stuff, opportunities for learning about other people and their lives which you can't get from a screen or a book. I worry that isolationism is a catalyst for shifts to the right in many countries political spectrum, and that getting out there and being a part of different cultures, even for just a weekend break, can help off set some of that.

We've encouraged our daughter to travel, taking her to 16 countries already, with plans for India, Japan and Greece in the next 3 years, before she graduates from Uni. I've done some fantastic bike tours in different countries (and back home in the UK) and won't mind doing a couple more. And I'm flying home to the UK a couple times a year to catch with family and doing up a flat we plan to retire to. And where I plan to show my wife all the place I know and don't know across Britain.

I don't mind airports and flying, I just see it as an opportunity to catch up on my reading while I spend hours in a seat either waiting to board or squeezed into a cheap seat at the back.

 

[PedallingNowhereSlowly]

Just don't consider the externalities of all that travel.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

That will probably die down as the novelty wears off or someon tries a "prank" that is illegal in their host country.

Latter already been happening a while

 

[All uphill]

I love long holidays away, and don't care if its a UK holiday or Australia; wherever and whenever my neighbours go away for a few weeks is alright with me.

The peace and quiet for us staying at home is heaven.

 

[marzjennings]

Just don't consider the externalities of all that travel.

I have, I do and I will continue to consider and understand the externalities of all my actions, and I've yet to exclude international travel.

 

[Andy in Germany]

Just don't consider the externalities of all that travel.

To be fair, you can argue the same about private motorised transport.

 

[Drago]

Well have plenty of time to consider the matter when half of us have houses on fire, and the other half's houses are under water.

 

[Dogtrousers]

There are two distinct things going on here. One is Day-to-day mobility by car. Where do you work, shop, socialise etc. We've been building a car based society in many parts of the country since maybe the 60s, with the decline of local amenities, the construction of housing with no shops or anything like that, and out-of-town shopping. We've built a society in these areas - on the fringes of cities - where if you live there you (pretty much) need a car to function. Some friends of ours live in rural Warwickshire and we used to stay there dog-sitting*. It was so frustrating that the nearest place you could buy a paper or some teabags was over an hours walk there and back (or a bike ride along a pretty horrible A road).

The other is holidays by plane. This is much more optional. My wife and I avoid flying as much as possible and travel round Europe a lot by train. This is more driven from disliking flying and liking trains than environmental concerns, although that does play a part. Unfortunately Finland, which we visit most years, is out of reach by train. We've done it once (train to Rostok, ferry to Helsinki, train to Rovaniemi - but there are quicker ways) and it takes a rather long time.

I'd say the first (the construction of car based society) is the more intractable of the two problems.

* No dog to sit any more. RIP Girvan

 

[PedallingNowhereSlowly]

To be fair, you can argue the same about private motorised transport.

Which is equally untennable for reasons of congestion alone.

I'd say the first (the construction of car based society) is the more intractable of the two problems.

It certainly is if there is no will to do anything different.
I'd also say, in a lot (not all) circumstances it was optional. I believe people make their choices without thinking about transport. Or they make them thinking 'I can' rather than 'I should?'.

 

[Drago]

When it comes to transport choices and the motor car, the word "need" very often takes on a new and rather opaque meaning.

 

[Dogtrousers]

When it comes to transport choices and the motor car, the word "need" very often takes on a new and rather opaque meaning.

True, but in some areas of the country we have tended to build a society where it's really difficult to get by without a car. Not-the-car is always the most troublesome option. Oddballs like my late mother are few and far between - she used to walk 4 miles into town and get the bus back with her shopping, and refused all offers of a lift.

Where I live in London it's quite different. I use my car less than once a month probably, because everything is in walking distance and public transport is good.

 

[Drago]

In many cases  difficult actually means too much expenditure of effort or sometimes simply mildly inconvenient.

There are places in the UK - scottish higlands, Dartmoor, etc - where life without a car would be onerous, or at least unduly difficult.

But that is very much a minoroty. For the rest of us it comes down to a simple desire for maximum convenience with the minimum expenditure of effort rather than any genuine barrier to staying alive without one. This is sadly so entrenched that even many keen cyclists, those who have at their disposal the very solution to their transport conundrum, decline to acknowledge it.

Until I moved recently I was 7 miles from the nearest civilisation and managed fine on just a bike for most of that. If some unremarkable (albeit very good looking) middle aged geezer with a wonky hip and knackered liver can do it then there's no genuine reason at least 8 out of 10 other adults couldn't do so.

Most of what we hear are excuses and rarely bear scrutiny.

 

[Andy in Germany]

In many cases  difficult actually means too much expenditure of effort or sometimes simply mildly inconvenient.

There are places in the UK - scottish higlands, Dartmoor, etc - where life without a car would be onerous, or at least unduly difficult.

But that is very much a minoroty. For the rest of us it comes down to a simple desire for maximum convenience with the minimum expenditure of effort rather than any genuine barrier to staying alive without one. This is sadly so entrenched that even many keen cyclists, those who have at their disposal the very solution to their transport conundrum, decline to acknowledge it.

Until I moved recently I was 7 miles from the nearest civilisation and managed fine on just a bike for most of that. If some unremarkable (albeit very good looking) middle aged geezer with a wonky hip and knackered liver can do it then there's no genuine reason at least 8 out of 10 other adults couldn't do so.

Most of what we hear are excuses and rarely bear scrutiny.

I've noticed this too. Unfortunately because of the way our society works, the convenience of a car is seen as "normal" so people make decisions that make them reliant on cars without thinking about it.

Then when the consequences of these choices are pointed out they respond "But I need my car."

As @Drago says, for the most part, we don't. I've lived for longer than I care to admit without a car, and that in semi-rural and rural areas.

That said, this is partly to 'offset' (if such a thing is possible) our use of air transport; this is because some time ago I went and married someone from Japan, and she has this unreasonable idea that we should visit her family on occasion.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

Indeed you despair when 39% of parents are driving kids to primary school, when it’s less than one mile from home. Even post primary school it’s still 29%. This is Northern Ireland stats.

 

[Drago]

Do t start me on school runs. I walk Mini D the 0.6 miles to school, and halfway there I see people reversing off their driveways to drive their kids what is for me the final 300 meters. Fat, lazy, selfish, polluting fools raising a new generation of fat, lazy, selfish, polluting fools.

In 31 years of doing school runs I've only driven twice - once because my lass had her foot in plaster, and once because I was taking her to school, straight from an early doctors appointment some miles away, and I'm proud of that.