Road Witching

I have been fascinated by the concept of civil disobedience to invoke change ever since I was a kid. We see examples all the time in our society where people willfully and arrogantly disobey laws to create a change they want to see. Depending on the subject this willful disobedience to laws is either accepted or met with scorn.

Now many in our society don't see any form of civil disobedience as acceptable nor do they see civil disobedience going on daily and that to me is the real shocker. Since we talk a lot about bicycling on this site you might be thinking I am talking about bicyclists running red lights, well that is not were I am going with this but I do want to point out that much of cyclists disregard to laws is the result of the lack of accommodations for bicyclists, this has been supported by studies. So civil disobedience by cyclists is a protest about the lack of accommodations for the general public on public streets. This form of protest is just as valid if not more so then motorists protest against speed limits.

Somehow through civil disobedience the legally defined maximum speed limit has been redefined as the minimum speed limit and you are a inconsiderate jerk unless you are diving speed limit+15mph. Through civil disobedience most public roads have become as expressway like as possible (accommodating fast through travel, high speed turning lanes and prohibiting [in spirit of design] bicyclist and pedestrian traffic.) As a society this is what we demand with one and only one exception, the road in front my house but I should be allowed to go fast as I want on the road in front of your house. It is within this self-centeredness of the protest for car only roads that things are starting to fall apart but we still have a long ways to go.

So the problem is how to successfully protest against a successful protest? Well Ted Dewan has ideas about "spontaneous mischief" and other guerrilla traffic calming concepts, in one case he paints a crosswalk on a street where pedestrian fatalities have occurred complete with painted flattened bodies and smashed pumpkins for heads. In this 20 minute video there are some very entertaining ways presented that could help change peoples mind about what is the purpose of the "space between houses" (formally known as a road.)
http://www.howwedrive.com/2009/04/02/room-rage-and-other-tales-of-citizen-traffic-calming/