Biking

I started biking regularly about a year ago. People who know me now might not believe me if I told them that, I went from thinking 2 miles was ridiculously hard to not shirking when I decided biking the 15 miles for work was going to be so much faster than busing it. Not only did I NOT stop myself from biking that 15 miles, I actually revel in it, the view of the lake with the sun rising over it, or setting on the other side of the city and the wind through my helmet are all things I enjoy and actually miss every day now that I'm not biking down to the south side of the city at least once a week.

Though I now love biking and bike almost everywhere, I still remember what it felt like to be a new, out of (biking) shape biker, and when I read this article I quickly realized that many people feel the same way I felt. I wasn't sure how to ride in traffic, or what to wear, nor was I comfortable signaling. But, with more education I learned that it's actually safer to bike in the roadway than on the sidewalk, and it's not too bad to just bike in normal clothes (though.. on those really hot summer days I just wore my running shorts and a t-shirt) if you want to. Not only that, with lights and a helmet, it's not unsafe to bike on the roads really at all, as long as I am alert for the whole ride and can be ready to yell loudly if I think someone is going to hit me.

I do still need to winterise my bike (ie: fenders!) and I want to find a back rack that works on my bike, but overall I think it's important to know you CAN bike almost anywhere in my city, and I think in any city. Drivers are not out to get you (except maybe a couple of them) mostly they just need to know what you're doing and what to expect from you. I always signal, unless it's not safe for me to take one hand off of the handlebars and I usually wear my helmet, but most importantly I look at the cars around me, and make eye contact with drivers when I think they aren't sure what I'm doing, that way I know they see me, and they know that I know they see me. I also always smile and thank drivers for doing the nice and safe things on the roadway. Not all bikers are evil drivers out there to kill drivers, and if a smile at a friendly driver will help reinforce that, it doesn't hurt me to do it.

I think that bikers in many cities, new and experienced, need to learn as much as they can about safety in the city on a bike, and need to be prepared. Chicago has a lot of really wonderful resources through the Department of Transportation and through Active Transportation Alliance, but there are many blogs, articles, and forums where people discuss all the different types of safety that can be taking into account for cyclists in a city.

Get riding!
R

Transportation!

Everyone knows I'm a huge transportation geek; and lately I have found so many exciting transportation opportunities that I can't keep them all to myself. I'll address three here, but there are so many more, I feel that the opportunities for transportation how you want it, when you want it, are all over, and we just have to learn how to take control of it!

First, let's talk about road trips. Most people in America take at least one road trip in their life (this is a generalized statement based on conversations with my friends, I did not use any data to come up with this). As I have gotten older though, and gotten rid of my car, the idea of a road trip seems so expensive and like such a hassle. I love driving on the open road, but I'm not going to rent a car to do that, nor would I want to own a car just for the purpose of the occasional desire to go on a road trip. This website (Auto Driveaway) provides a way around all of that. It does require a deposit from drivers, but it would be very interesting to drive someone's car from their current home to their new one through a semi-safe system. I was reminded by a friend that this is also an option through Craigslist, but that seems a little bit sketchy for me. This company could provide the safe middleman feeling not provided by Craigslist, and I think they must provide some sort of roadside assitance/solution for breakdowns that Craigslist definitely doesn't supply. There aren't too many people on the site yet, but once (or if) it takes off this could be an awesome way to get a cheap vacation in. You would still have to pay for gas and put down a deposit in case you break something major in the car, but that is a lot cheaper than renting a car and paying for all of those things, especially for the duration of a cross-country trip. And you wouldn't have to drive the car back home as you would if you owned the car, so it solves the problem of only having one week for vacation but wanting to get somewhere interesting on a road trip. I think this is something I will definitely have to try!

Second, who doesn't love the idea of bike share? It's a good way to have a bike in the city, but not have to deal with maintenance of your own bike or worrying about the bike getting stolen (I recently had a friend lose her bike this way) and so many other things. It's also an awesome way to see a city you're vacationing in. In Chicago the system doesn't totally work yet, but it's getting there soon. Washington, DC has a good version, and many people use it to travel around the city. However, there's a new innovation in San Francisco that might be a good option for hilly cities (or lazy people maybe?) and longer distances. Scooter share!  A group of young city dwellers decided they wanted to provide the freedom of bike share with the excitement of riding an electric scooter! Scoot Networks allows members to rent a scooter for $10 per hour with a $5 per month membership fee. They do require that you wear a helmet (California Law) but you don't need to have a motorcycle license, so most people could participate in the activity. I definitely think I want to try this out next time I go to San Francisco. The hills there might make me shy away from a bike share option (I'm used to biking on the flat streets in Chicago, almost to the lazy point of hating an overpass over a major freeway because it's too much of a hill for me) but this could be really fun!

Third, I'm going to look a bit into the future, at self driving cars. I know a lot of people have seen the video of Google's self driving car and, if they are like me, have imagined the simplicity of combining the freedom of a personal vehicle with the relaxation of a transit system (yes, I think it's relaxing to not have to think about traffic all the time and read or space out on public transit). This article is a really interesting point about it, these cars will probably not replace the traditional car, and why would they? If I had a driverless car I wouldn't ever want to pay for parking, the car could go find free parking by itself, or park back at home, or could be used by someone else while I don't need the vehicle. These vehicles could start replacing taxis, and paratransit, and possibly even low-ridership bus routes. Further, once these are easy to access and are able to provide affordable transportation to people around the country or world, more people may opt to use them instead of their own personal vehicles. These vehicles provide the exclusivity of a personal vehicle, by enclosing you in your own space and not forcing you into the public, but would not have to be privately owned. The opportunity for carpool companies to spring up also arises as these cars could return to a central location after taking many workers into their offices and for overnight storage as well as maintenance. I think there really is something to driverless cars, not to mention that they can follow much closer to each other allowing for more vehicles to use the same roadway space, but that wouldn't start being obvious until they are more widespread!

That's my transportation inspired rant for the day, so if you need to ship a car use Auto Driveaway and if someone asks you to help support driverless car research, please do!

R

How good is your sense of smell?

From Cosmos Magazine: The Science of Everything

Apparently, psychopaths have a worse sense of smell than other people. A group in Australia did a study and found that people with less empathy and higher scores on the psychopathy scale cannot discriminate smells as well.  They used people from a university, who got course credit for doing the study and ranked them on smell sensitivity, scent identification, and scent discrimination as well as empathy and a psychopathy scale.  They used people who ranked on the psychopathy scale who were non-violent members of society, so one person was disqualified for having a criminal conviction. 

The authors suggest that the front part of the brain (the orbitofrontal cortex) is involved in olfactory (smell) processing, and in human interaction (empathy, etc).  This article suggests that this could be a way to help determine if people are psychopaths even if they lie or learn what to answer on the tests.  This may not work, because many of these people may also have done drugs or smoked or been injured or experienced some other thing that would damage their sense of smell, unrelated to their processing center.  Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, and other neurodegenerative diseases or neural trauma may also cause this same result.  That being said, maybe we could test kids, before they have all of these olfactory insults, to see if they might have a tendency to be psychopaths.  We'll have the hearing, vision, and smelling tests in schools from now on! (side note: I don't actually think this is a good idea)

On another note.  Women tend to have a heightened sense of smell during the early stages of pregnancy (google it, it's everywhere). Maybe women become less psychotic during pregnancy, to fight the hormones making her seem like she is MORE psychotic.  Women do seem to be overly-empathetic while pregnant... 

Another thing to think about: women tend to have a better sense of smell than men, and be more empathetic, even when they're not pregnant.

S

Buses are cool

Everyone is talking about this, sharing it, and posting it, and damnit, I want to too!!

R

Gardening

You all know I'm obsessed with The Plant (a local urban vertical farming venture here in Chicago). But it made me want to really start a garden in my own place even more when we ate fresh edamame I picked from the outdoor garden last time I was there. Of course because of that I got into looking around at gardening ideas for an apartment and this one might just be one of my favorites! The article on GoodMagazine's blog talks about some other ideas, but this is the main focus. I think I could do it... I might need to borrow a drill or something, but I could set something up like this, I wonder if my landlord will think I'm crazy!

Also I just want a little shout out to this couple in Quebec and so many other people all over who are fighting to keep their gardens! I think if we want to garden in the city why should we not be allowed to?! Not only is it good for the soil (when done right) it helps reduce the dependence on imported goods and gives the city an amazingly eclectic style!  Good for you.

Here's a quick urban planning type article about urban agriculture too. I recently passed a community garden in my neighborhood (only a block from my new apartment!) and this makes me think that perhaps the small community garden helped to revive Pilsen, or that more could continue to revive it. There are definitely some empty lots nearby and I would love to start up a community garden. Maybe I should start working toward that for next season.

I like the article writer's point at the end that "We should celebrate the power of local projects like community gardens—but in doing so we should not forget that there are systemic problems in our economic and political systems that contribute to the desperation in certain urban centers. A green thumb alone can't get to the roots of gun violence".  It's true that community projects can help to bring people together and bring some peace, but it is not the fix-all problem. Similarly, I love that this man lived in the neighborhood and conversed with friendly neighbors, acknowledging that gang members are people too, they have families and friends and they continue to live their lives normally (mostly). I think media portrays these people not as people but as evil beings. If we start understanding their lives as they relate to "normal" life, maybe we will be better able to understand why someone ends up in a gang in the first place and where the root problems are, rather than fighting the gang as an evil being itself.

R

We live alone...or do we?

Klineberg writes more on the topic of Americans living alone

Recently, apartmenttherapy.com reviewed an article about Americans living alone.  The review seems like a more modern look at the situation.  The original article is an overview about how to deal with living alone and how this will affect the community of senior citizens who have lived alone for much of their lives, whereas the review discusses more how it affects the community in a positive way and introduces a short pro vs con list to consider.  Most of the comments, as well as in the article, people seem to think that safety (in an emergency) and financial stability are the two main advantages to living with someone.  A roommate helps with the safety part and less with the financial stability part than a partner.  The disadvantage of having a roommate (of whatever sort) is mainly personal freedom.  They also have some cool facts, like half of america is single and one third of households are single-occupancy households.

I realized that we (R & S in particular, but all of our siblings in general) have the best of both worlds. Each of us (S first and R more recently) have depended on the other for financial support.  S lived with R for one year, rent free, S made her bank account available for R to use as she needed.  Obviously S took a little of R's personal freedom...bunk beds make it a little awkward to have a boyfriend over, but, on those nights, the couch was very comfortable. Now we are living individually and know we can depend on each other for financial support.  We also talk to each other every day, at least a few texts each day, so if anything happened we would quickly realize the other needed help.   I don't think living alone provides the same social structure, we have to force ourselves to not become hermits and to get social interaction...not that that is too hard. And, we do it with financial stability and safety.  Maybe everyone should get a twin instead of a partner!

New York's planned micro apartments

Generally, it is becoming easier to live alone.  Bloomberg recently announced a plan to build an entire building of 'micro-unit',  300 square foot, apartments and there are similar plans in Boston and San Francisco.  

On another note: If you google living alone, most of the pictures are of depressed people, we need some people in there who are enjoying their personal freedom!

S

Feminism

I recently bought a book that is described as a "feminist memoir" of a woman in her mid 30s living in London. This book is amazing, and, while I always identified myself as a feminist, makes me want to stand up and start really acting on it. I want to write a book about what feminism is to me too! I don't always agree with this woman, she makes valid points, but I think that is part of what feminism is about.

She spends about 5 or 6 pages discussing underwear, complaining about thongs and bras (though, she is very adamant about bras being our friend and that she loves her bras, even though they hurt) and I like thongs (I remember when I didn't) and I think bras don't have to hurt if you buy the right ones, so I think that though she is in full support of "big undies" as she says, I prefer my stance to be that I am in full support of people who want to wear big undies wearing big undies. I think that feminism has been popping up all over the place lately too, and I want to jump on that bandwagon and scream about it to all of my friends, family, and random people who are willing to listen to me!

This article in GoodMagazine (yes, still one of my favorite online magazines to read) talks about why we need feminism and other articles that I've read recently discuss the issue that fewer and fewer women are identifying with the term feminist. I think that the term feminist needs to have a looser definition than what people associate with it, and I think one way to start working on that change of definition is to start talking about it. I also think that maybe we need to keep some of the aspects currently associated with the term, maybe we NEED a little bit of the loudness, and the brashness with the term. Women are making less than men, women are pushed into certain jobs and certain tasks because of their gender, and (yes) women are sometimes hired for their looks or NOT hired for their looks (as are men, I know). We need to start acknowledging that some of our struggles are not JUST about female freedoms and male/female equality, but about human equality.

In the spirit of the GoodMagazine article: I need feminism because it's who I am, and who I want to be.

R