D&F 9/01/24
To catch you up on my life since I last sent one of these in June, I rode my bike a lot, started a new job at the same company, went to Portland for the finalXOXO, and got COVID. Second time’s a charm! You can read all about the festival at that link, but broadly it was fun and overwhelming and well-masked.
My secondary goal in going to Portland was to test my bike bag for a pending trip to Japan to ride around Kita Kantō with my pal June. My bike made it to and from Oregon in good condition, and packing was pretty simple so I’ll consider the whole thing a win. There’s a really special feeling I get from flying to a new country, unpacking a mode of transport, and visiting cities under my own power. I would probably do more bike travel in the states if our massive high speed cars and trucks weren’t ubiquitous. An annual trip to Japan to ride feels like a good salve for my US car woes though, so I’m stoked I can afford it time and money-wise. I’ll report back after the trip with the route, pictures, and stories. In the meantime you might like these travel tips.
Summer is nearly over, and so is the slow news time, so links are back!
Links
Shitty car owners and bad faith arguments are why we can’t have nice things. Pedestrians and cyclists buy more, and visit more restaurants and shops than car owners, but the owners of those stores just assume everyone drives like they do:
Consider a 2021 study in Berlin, in which researchers asked 145 shopkeepers and over 2,000 shoppers about travel behavior. The share of shoppers who drove was 15 percent below what shopkeepers predicted, while the portion who took transit, walked, and biked was higher (by 8.1 percent, 6.2 percent, and 3 percent, respectively). Similarly, a 2011 study of Dublin concluded that business owners overestimated the percentage of customers arriving by car and undercounted those who didn’t. The same bias has been observed in Graz, Austria, and Bristol, England.
It sucks that Manhattan’s congestion charge went away, but much like any attempt to keep from melting icecaps and saving air for future generations, the rich and powerful are the problem, and everyone else will need a lot more empathy and community sentiment before much changes.
flash cut to a late night informercial Does this ever happen to you? Do you think you’re awake all night and little gremlins are holding open your eyelids? You’re not alone, well, except for the gremlin part. As someone with insomnia, I enjoyed reading this piece, and learning more about how sleep perception reflects rest, though one of the studies is wild:
The researchers exposed people to a distressing emotional experience for three days in a row: they had to listen to a recording of themselves singing—often out of tune—to karaoke, which aroused shame. As measured by their physiological responses, normal sleepers felt less distress after a night’s sleep. Those with disturbed sleep felt more.
Extra extra, giving people money makes their life better, and cascades into positive societal effects. UBI? It’s good.
On a final car note, this story of the lost dream of hydrogen cars is fun. I’m looking forward to when Elon stops making electric cars in a bid to go against the “woke”, thus hopefully putting a real nail in the coffin of idiocy he’s constructed.
Closing
This is my last day of Paxlovid (that shit works, go figure), and I’ve mostly escaped the iron taste I had last time. I’ve mostly shut myself into my house since I landed and tested positive, and I really miss bicycling and seeing trees. I tested negative and am hoping to at least go grocery shopping tomorrow, and maybe go read in a field. The latest COVID vaccines dropped at CVS and Walgreens, and I’ve got one scheduled; I suggest you do the same. Here’s to the leaves falling, and days getting crisper soon, space cowgirls~