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Righteousness
Bunks
Australia Veteran
Righteousness - the quality of being morally right or justifiable.
Twice in the last year or so I’ve almost been hit while walking on the footpath. Once by someone on a bike and once by someone on an e-scooter.
Now whenever I see someone on one of these vehicles riding on the footpath I want to yell at them.
Right speech?
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Comments
Cyclists on the road are my bugbear. I feel like you as I have had cyclists damage my car in transit for shits and giggles. Sharing the road with them is a massive teaching moment for me. I'm down to muttering to myself and catching myself mid-act and feeling regret. But somedays I don't want to regret it to be honest.
There is no doubt an appropriate and skillful use of righteousness. In my opinion righteousness requires some level of moral certainty and I think there is an over abundance of people with certainty of their position in the world today, and thus an over abundance of righteous people, all with different points of view. Are they all righteous? How can we live together in a diverse world with everyone claiming the moral high ground?
I don't know that I'm right, I'm probably wrong about something, or at least it takes all sorts of people with differing dispositions and interests to make the world work. I'm someone who cares primarily about truth and balance, those require a decent amount of epistemic humility, which kind of runs counter to the moral certainty clarity required to be righteous.
It’s interesting as I’ve never had a problem with cyclists on the road. But I know a lot of people do.
I just don’t want to see them on the footpath
Round here, there are not many cycling-lanes. Where there are, I cycle on these lanes. Where there aren't any, I cycle rather slowly on the footpath and never hit anyone. I'm afraid to cycle on the street, it seems far too dangerous. So to confuse matters further, you might look at cyclists on the footpath as choosing the safer option and extend your compassion to them. The cyclist and e-scooter that hit you were most probably reckless - but with that attitude driving on the street they might be severely injured or dead. Just my perspective.
It seems to me that what is required is a good network of "medium speed" lanes for bicyles/scooters/rollerblades/etc.
You’re right. Both incidents happened very early in the morning and they were going way too fast. I was the only pedestrian around.
Please be careful on the footpath. I’m sure you are
I drive, walk, cycle & e-bike with varying degrees of awareness.
The sense of autonomy we assign for ourselves in whatever mode of travel we utilize, often seems to be an adversarial interaction waiting to happen.
What clearer litmus test of a practice's effectiveness can be found than in how we can potentially carry the grace of our meditations' stillness into activity and back...or not?
Sometimes yelling is appropriate....but that messaging can often get misread when the speaker acts like a cat that's just been waiting to pounce on the next mouse that appears.
This is slightly off the righteousness path ....but...
I think...
If a path is signed as a no/cycle path then cyclists should simply stay off it.
If a path is signed as a mixed usage path then both pedestrians and cyclists using it should be attentive to the speed and distancing safety needs of the other.
No walking or riding side by side when that action forces others in any direction to give way for anyone's safety.
When Path users meet they should attempt to stay to the same side of the path that the local car drivers have to.
No wearing of headphones or earbuds by a cyclist or pedestrian when it prevents them from being aware of another's approach.
If you have to use your phone, step off the path.
and I've probably broken every one of these courtesy or sanity path suggestions
Where I live it is illegal to ride a bike or escooter on a footpath unless it is sign posted as a mixed path (which 99% aren’t) or you’re riding with a child under 12.
I feel my righteousness arising again just re-reading this post 🤣
There is probably some appropriate way to speak up towards those using the pedestrian path. I can't speak for everyone, but for me a scolding, moralistic tone likely would get rejected by my brain. I'm thinking a more measured, but still forceful tone might be better received?
Some people will be eternally recalcitrant, but I think most people care about how other perceive them. Just the act of speaking up is probably doing as much as you might reasonably do that could have an impact, aside from some deeply involved community activism to get better enforcement.
Dear friends of the Unrighteous,
As we may know some of us are always wrong in the rite way
https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Malamatiyya
Never blame the message only the massager ...
... and now back to the endless recycling ...
It scares the living shit out of me when I'm hobbling along 'walking' my dog - in my fashion - and I suddenly get overtaken by a cyclist who had neither the common sense nor the courtesy to alert me of their presence. In all the times I've been overtaken by a cyclist, only ONCE did a young lady approach me slowly, with an 'excuse me'... At all other times my dog gets provoked into a frenzy of barking and chase, leaving me decidedly unbalanced and on edge. My language is more often than not, appropriately colourful...! OM MANI FUCKING IDIOT!!
This can be a thornier issue than some might know.
My e-bike has tires with an aggressive 4'' width of tread that sounds a lot like an angry swarm of bees so the only folks I get to sneak up on either have a hearing impairment, their own sound system going on, or are myopically isolated from the present environment they are walking in.
But.....
One of the more common complaints that cyclists have about ringing bells or horns is that pedestrians still get startled and what's worse is a surprisingly large portion of them then jump in response in the wrong direction making a collision possible where a silent passing could have been accident-free.
Obviously, the width of the path is a factor in all of this, as are the pedestrians who are lost in their own mind and get startled by being uncomfortably jerked back to the present by a ringing bell or horn. Here, the pre-warning of the cyclist is often met with insults.
When a cyclist gets enough grief from pre-warned pedestrians, stealth mode can become a favored option for how it reduces the time they have to put up with another's verbal abuse.
Being aware for other people, animals and lastly but not yeastly ourselves … is the Bodhi Way.
Bonus track …
The uploaded has not made this video available in your country
Boo hiss…
Well said!
Where I am in Canada, while there are trails,paths etc, cycling and scooters seems to use the road with the cars. Okay while I don't object, it would be nice if they would follow to same rules of a motorist if they want to ride there. (Like stopping at stop signs, stop lights etc) Same as a footpath, it's called that for a reason. FOOT path. Use your feet!
I’m feeling righteousness welling up again 🤣
Well said