Down and up affects

A trio of men would be sitting at the bar, with the publican cleaning a pint glass behind, looking at the television in the corner of the room, which the other three could see.

“And in today’s 5pm news headlines…” The screen would flicker to a picture of a metropolis, presumably London, with traffic so still you may have thought it was a picture, if not for the pedestrians. “Driving Londoners are being continuously encouraged out of their cars and onto bikes, with improvements to the currently existing – though quite scattered and random – cycle highways, with much debate from each borough.”

The screen flicker from the busy street, with cars only moving a few meters with the statement, if not less. It now displayed a map, showing many squiggly lines, some blue, and some red dashes, with a smaller image identifying that the blue were the currently built cycle highways and the red being the confirmed and to soon be constructed highways.

“The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea have historically not allowed any of these aforementioned highways as have the majority of boroughs within the southeast of london, but after much debate, have conceded and allowed the construction of new highways.”

“Oh for goodness sake…” One of the men complained “I know this is going to hurt my business in London for a matter of fact, people won’t buy as many cars anymore.” A second chap joined in “As macabre as it may sound, it’ll also affect my company to some degree, these highways would pretty much mean that the cyclist will always win a case if they’re on the blue” Finally, the third one joined in, though seemingly with the opposite views “They’re building one practically right outside my cornershop! That means I’ll literally have more traffic and thus more potential customers.”

“Hooray for you…” The other two said, somewhat dejected. The Publican finally raised his voice, intaking the conversation as he wiped. “I wouldn’t worry you two, it’s not like the mayor or the boroughs keep their promises anyways,’least most of the time. In any case, your glasses look all empty, same again for all three of you?” They all nodded in unison, gently pushing the empty glasses towards the publican.