Cycling on the AWPR and a weekend of protests

The AWPR still hasn’t opened. It has been beset by delays and no-one knows when it will open or even if it will open this year. Members of the Aberdeen Cycle Forum organised a protest about the new motorway and the failure to include provision for cyclists in a demo in September this year. We thought back then that the AWPR would open within weeks but it’s now mid-November and there are yet more delays.

The good news is that cyclists have been using it. Here are some Tweets I’ve seen recently:

If only the delays could last forever.

You may have seen in the news last weekend of the protest event in London which saw 6,000 people block five bridges to traffic. It was organised by a group I hadn’t heard of before called Extinction Rebellion. They want the government to take effective action urgently on climate change. They say marching with placards is failing and this is the only option they have left. It was a peaceful event from what I have read but caused a great deal of disruption to London traffic. I’m quite pleased there’s a group like this, brave enough to organise such an event. We are harming young people and future generations with every year we delay taking action. It’s not just that more carbon dioxide fills the air or that the earth is that little bit hotter than the previous year, it’s also the irreversible climatic feedback loops we risk activating. There is a point of no return and when action will be too late. The closer we get to that point the harder action becomes.  For older generations it’s in their best interest to do nothing since they will be dead before having to face the worst consequences. We need to listen to young people and do the right thing by them.

One of my French coworkers told me France also had a series of protests last weekend only these were rather different. They were protesting about the rise in fuel prices  which is practically the opposite to the protests here. The French protests got violent with one person dying when a panicked driver accelerated after being surrounded by protestors. I have no words. I have considered protesting here about the lack of tax on fuel. We ought to be raising fuel tax and weaning ourselves off fossil fuels. I’m glad I live here and not in France.