
Ghost Biker

Today again saw a FridaysForFuture rallye in my hometown. This time in good weather, a god crowd came, cheered, walked and had a die-in in the pedestrian zone.
It was a joy to see that today not only students were there, but also their teachers, parents, grandparents and friends. The oldest lady in the march was 82 – the grandmother of the organizers.
With the elections for the European Parliament already in full swing, the rallye had a second message additionally to the call for climate protection: Go, vote!
From what I read, a 11 years old boy was killed here by a lorry.
Mind you, this crossing has street lights, but especially right-turning lorries are a well known danger for cyclists, as their drivers claim to have not sight at the waiting cyclists but nonetheless just go on, trusting that cyclist cling to their dear life more than to the observation of traffic rules.
…which I do as well, and only this morning I have yelled at a inattentive driver, who was misunderstanding his green traffic light as giving him unrestricted right of way even when turning right.
To reach cleaner air in our cities and to step forward in our fight against the (according to #46-1 Chinese-invented) climate change we need more, much more bicycle and public transport in our cities, at the cost of traffic space for cars. But not many want to risk their lives on a bicycle because traffic planners still apply last centuries’ rules when it comes to allocate room between cars, cyclists and pedestrians.
As a father of three, the death of a kid hits me deeply. It is time to wake up and make our cities a livable environment for the majority of the citizens, not only for cars.
The trinity of our times in Bavaria: Catholic Church, Synagogue and The Seven.
Astonishing enough the influx of mostly muslim refugees brought a new closing of ranks (or maybe one-sided embracing) between the conservative Bavaria and the jewish culture, astonishing as Europe has a long and distasteful history of antisemitism.
The third in the trinity is “The Seven”, the building with Munich’s highest real estate prices and probably the lowest utilization – from my office window usually I see between 80% and 90% dark windows. At the same time we find more and more cars as makeshift accomodations. Capitalism rulez!