Whingy Bloggers and Selective Evidence (Caredig i Natur)
November 16th, 2011 by Stephen
Caredig i Natur wrote an article (in almost illegible yellow text on a bright green background – yuck) titled “Whingy Car Lovers” in which they made this wonderful observation:
Update, Thursday 7th January 2010: Today at 8.45 AM there were only two vehicles in Llanbadarn on Primrose Hill, where there would normally be a hundred blocking the road. Also today the local schools were closed as a precaution due to ‘snow’, even though in reality it isn’t bad at all. This shows how much of the local traffic is school-run based, and therefore a bypass would do nothing to reduce traffic in Llanbadarn Fawr. More roads won’t fix a car-addicted culture, they just encourage it.
So based on this so scientific analysis, they have assumed that nearly all traffic in Llanbadarn Fawr is caused by the school run.
Except look at the date they chose. 7 January 2010. The Daily Telegraph headline for that day was “Britain’s Freezing Weather: Worst Snow for 50 Years Paralyses Transport Networks”.
Aberystwyth is close to the sea and sheltered by hills from north-easterly winds that bring snow. Consequently on 7 January the snow in Aberystwyth and Llanbadarn was not as bad as the rest of the country. The whole of the rest of the country though was white! Even Aberystwyth and Llanbadarn were frozen and had some snow.
Now Caredig i Natur’s point is that the empty roads indicate that no Llanbadarn bypass is called for because most of the traffic is school traffic and not through traffic. He conveniently forgets to mention that there was no through traffic at all on that day because all the roads in and out of town were blocked by snow!
It wasn’t just the schools that were shut (because the teachers, support staff and many children could not get in). Everything was shut. Offices that were open were all but empty, and staff had walked in where they had got in at all. I myself could not move my car for the whole of that week despite living in Aberystwyth itself.
Such terrible sloppy misrepresentation of the facts does no one any good. Caredig i Nature? Angharedig i’r gwirionedd. (Kind to nature? Unkind to the truth).
Table of contents for Caredig i Natur
- Caredig i Natur, Angharedig i Blant
- Caredig i Natur (CIN): Who Controls the Past Controls the Future
- Caredig i Natur (CIN) Angharedig i Bobl
- Cycle Paths – Caredig i Natur’s Confusion
- Is Public Transport Best? Caredig i Natur (CIN) Gets it Wrong
- Whingy Bloggers and Selective Evidence (Caredig i Natur)
- Caredig i Natur and Cycling on the Pavement
- Caredig i Natur and Confirmation Bias
- Caredig i Natur and Dishonest Reporting
That is ridiculous.
How do they expect people to take them serioulsy when they make statements like that?
Unbelievable! I took a look at that website and it was full of self whingers all patting each other on the back and complaining about everyone else. I don’t know why you are bothering with them, coz this blog is worth a million of theirs.