9th March 2017. Gods of the road.

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Thursday 9th 38F, 3C, misty and overcast. Denmark's talking heads in Copenhagen are making it easier for local councils to reduce some speed limits to 40kph.[25mph] It is presently very difficult for local councils to get permission to reduce speeds from 50pkph [30mph] even when there are traffic blackspots. The sociopath's absolute right to speed everywhere must be rigidly adhered to even when they pollute enough to shorten Danish children's lives.

These new, completely fictional speed limits might have saved some lives. If, anybody ever bothered to adhere to them. A busy village with multiple schools adjoining the road, several busy supermarkets and a dying row of small businesses already has one of these completely fictitious 40km zones.

It also has bright LED 30kph [20mph] signs for the junior school's closing time. These driving sociopaths won't even slow down to [the national speed limit] to let a bunch of small children cross as the drivers speed [illegally] past the school entrance! Their need to speed is always greater than all other's right to survival. [60kph] 40mph is the average speed right through this several kilometers/miles long, chain-built village. A few speed bumps or even cameras would do wonders but they are not allowed in driver-friendly Denmark.

This same village is heavily trafficked by international juggernauts taking a short cut to and from the motorway. The alternative, trunk roads provided nearby, would add a few extra miles or kilometers but allow comfortable travel at greatly increased speed. But, hey, it's far more fun taking sharp, blind corners, on a blind-humped, narrow road in a six or seven axle lorry with one hand surgically welded to their mobile phones and their ear. Much better than getting bored on a long, straight, wide road with no houses within only 1m [3'] from the edge of the crumbling asphalt!

I once mentioned here a Mercedes 2-seater speeding through the village at 60mph. The very next day I saw the first and only police car I have ever seen in this busy village in 20 years. Their patrol car was sitting in a yard opposite the junior school. Speed cameras in this village alone would easily repay the Danish national debt. But the sociopathic driver is god in Denmark. It is a hideous blasphemy to criticize them or limit their freedom to break the law. Besides, when they are caught [rarely] the fine is extra income for the talking heads to waste on more nuclear weapons and subsidizing pig farmer's pollution and illegal/lethal gamble with sack fulls of MRSA and antibiotic resistant, human beings.

Lest thee think me biased as a cyclist, I also drive and have done so for decades. The traffic in Gravely Blighted makes Danish drivers seem like saints. Or [living] gods of the road. Though I think I remember reading recently that there were 500,000 speeding offenses in Denmark last year out of a TOTAL population of only 5million including non-drivers, children, cyclists, prison inmates and the elderly. Many Danish city dwellers avoid car ownership because cycling is faster and more convenient thanks to the excellent cycle routes provided almost everywhere. City-style public transport is available but rather expensive.

Walked to the village and back. Then rode north with a tail wind. Was cruising at 18-19mph quite a bit. Nothing like a beneficial wind to make one feel younger, stronger and fitter. Coming home was harder work being heavily loaded into the headwind. Lots of different birds of prey about today. Only 12 miles. Dry but grey and still quite misty. Rain in the mid-late afternoon again.

 

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