(The dog was a brown and white Jack Russell named Rocket. As usually happens in these encounters I retained no details about the human involved)

And it made me realise just how much cars isolate us from one another. Most normal people, once their own needs are met, are genuinely delighted to have the opportunity to help a stranger out and especially with something as simple as directions, and the enforced isolation of lockdown really taught me how important these tiny day-to-day interactions can be

And cars really do cut us off from one another, particularly in our own neighbourhoods. On my bike I can chat to other cyclists waiting at the traffic lights or hop off if I need to say hi to a friend I spotted on the pavement, help someone with a heavy bag, photograph an interesting plant or pet a cat on a wall. By hermetically sealing us all off from one another we miss all that.

Anyway, TL:DR today I met a cute dog and overthought transport infrastructure as a consequence. I found the farm building in the end too.

@afewbugs I agree, car culture is just another way of atomizing society. If governments really cared about the possible they’re sworn to serve, there’d be huge public investment in public transport, and incentives for either owning no car or at least keeping your cars outside the town

@rdrr I think the first part of that sentence is the cause of the problem really, sadly. We can do what we can with local city level cycling campaigns but the framework in which we can operate is set by central government

@afewbugs cycling can be great for the opportunity to say hello to people and just have simple interactions.