“Beyond a certain speed, motorized vehicles create remoteness which they alone can shrink. They create distances for all and shrink them for only a few. A new dirt road through the wilderness brings the city within view, but not within reach, of most Brazilian subsistence farmers. The new expressway expands Chicago, but it sucks those who are well-wheeled away from a downtown that decays into a ghetto.” EnergySpeedEquityTransportationMobilityUrban PlanningUrbanismExpressway Book:Energy and Equity Source: Energy and Equity
“Avec un vélo, l'homme peut partager les bienfaits d'une conquête technique sans prétendre régenter les horaires, l'espace ou l'énergie d'autrui. Un cycliste est maître de sa propre mobilité sans empiéter sur celle des autres. Ce nouvel outil ne crée que des besoins qu'il peut satisfaire, au lieu que chaque accroissement de l'accélération produit par des véhicules à moteur crée de nouvelles exigences de temps et d'espace.” EnergySustainabilityEquityBicycleCyclingMobility Book:Energy and Equity Source: Energy and Equity
“A low-energy policy allows for a wide choice of life-styles and cultures. If, on the other hand, a society opts for high energy consumption, its social relations must be dictated by technocracy and will be equally degrading whether labeled capitalist or socialist.” IfsHandsChoicesCultureEnergySocialStylePolicyLowsRelationWideAlternativesCapitalistConsumptionSocialistDegradingLife StyleEnergy PolicyHigh EnergySocial RelationsEnergy Consumption Author:Ivan Illich
“Even if nonpolluting power were feasible and abundant, the use of energy on a massive scale acts on society like a drug that is physically harmless but psychically enslaving. A community can choose between Methadone and "cold turkey"-between maintaining its addiction to alien energy and kicking it in painful cramps-but no society can have a population that is hooked on progressively larger numbers of energy slaves and whose members are also autonomously active.” IfsUseEnergyCommunityNumbersColdDrugMembersSlaveAddictionPopulationPainfulActiveScalesAliensAlternativesMassiveTurkeysMaintainingKickingHookedCrampsKicking ItCold TurkeyMethadone Author:Ivan Illich
“The bicycle is the perfect transducer to match man's metabolic energy to the impedance of locomotion. Equipped with this tool, man outstrips the efficiency of not only all machines but all other animals as well.” MenWellsEnergyPerfectAnimalToolsMachinesEfficiencyBikeBicycleCyclingBikingCyclists Author:Ivan Illich
