> What stops someone doing the same thing with the car, motorcycle or scooter?
For the car:
> In a car you're always in a compartment, and because you're used to it you don't realize that through that car window everything you see is just more TV. You're a passive observer and it is all moving by you boringly in a frame.
> On a cycle the frame is gone. You're completely in contact with it all. You're in the scene, not just watching it anymore, and the sense of presence is overwhelming.
* Robert M. Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry Into Values
When I started riding motorcycle, I remember having this amazing feeling of being connected to my environment. Even though I was on the same roads and going the same speed as when I was in a car, it was wonderful and quite inexplicable.
You stop at a sign or light, and you put your foot down. You have the wind at your face, the sun on your back. No radio, no cell phone beeping at you. You wave to motorcyclists coming from the opposite direction.
Not that riding is without its dangers or downsides, to be sure, but it can be wonderful.
For the car:
> In a car you're always in a compartment, and because you're used to it you don't realize that through that car window everything you see is just more TV. You're a passive observer and it is all moving by you boringly in a frame.
> On a cycle the frame is gone. You're completely in contact with it all. You're in the scene, not just watching it anymore, and the sense of presence is overwhelming.
* Robert M. Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry Into Values
* https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/313360-in-a-car-you-re-alwa...