Tag Archives: health

Six Points on Hedonic Bicycling

Posted on by jqr

I posted the following on Streetsblog, in the depths of a comment tree. The original post postulated the existence of a reserve army of bicyclists, waiting for safety interventions. I generally do not agree with this notion.

I like the points I made below; I think they are good and are worth having in a more accessible place.

I disagree with the fad for using the safety frame to discuss getting people in the saddle.

First, bicycling is super safe as it is, so there’s nothing to apologize for. And safety in numbers actually works, so the more people engaging in the safe activity of bicycling, the safer it is for the marginal person in the saddle.

Second, bicycling has health and life-extension benefits that people can take advantage of immediately, so not pushing back on people who complain that bicycling is dangerous is actually harmful to health, because it’s depriving people of the opportunity to live healthier lives.

Third, most people have access to some kind of bicycle, especially with bike share, so they can really start bicycling this afternoon or tomorrow.

Fourth, New York has many destinations that are convenient to bicycle to, so the opportunity to get in the saddle and replace auto or subway trips with bicycle trips is evident.

Fifth, bicycle facilities are unevenly distributed around the city, with more of them in rich areas like Manhattan and Brownstone Brooklyn, so counting on the authorities to build ‘better streets that look and feel safer’ as a bicycling promotion program will just perpetuate the idea that bicycling is for rich people who have plenty of other transportation options.

Sixth, bicycling is a joyful, creative, problem-solving activity that deserves to be actively promoted to everyone, not reserved for some “fearless” subset of the population. I personally don’t understand why so many people consider passively accepting people’s excuses for not getting in the saddle as bicycle advocacy.

Despairing season for riding a bicycle

Posted on by jqr

Across so many different domains of our lives, private and public, this dynamic seems to hold. We say we want something, often something very noble and admirable, but in reality we are not prepared to pay the costs required to obtain the thing we say we want. We are not prepared to be inconvenienced. We are not prepared to reorder our lives. We may genuinely desire that noble, admirable thing, whatever it may be; but we want some other, less noble thing more.

The above quote from The Frailest Thing blog sounds quite illuminating as a reason for why people don’t get in the saddle and ride. I picked the quote with the notion of arguing that well intentioned folks value the concept of riding a bicycle instead of driving a car, but they are not prepared for the inconvenience. I even went to the trouble of compiling a 10-point list of how my bicycle commute was so pitilessly inconvenient and frustrating, without even mentioning the possibility of being killed or maimed by errant automobiles. That was to buttress my argument that people had good reason for not getting on their bicycle and riding, and for preferring to use their motor vehicles.

But upon reflection, that kind of post is not what this week deserves. Since making that list, I was diagnosed with pinkeye and stayed home for most of three days. As a person therefore who is today recovering from both conjunctivitis and my umpteenth upper respiratory infection of the season, I am intrigued by the concept of a vehicle that shelters you from the elements during the journey.  How about  a “health wagon,” with a roof, a heater, and adjustable windows to permit ventilation? Now sit that atop an internal combustion engine that could handle the weight of the health wagon, and navigate along a network of speedy roads, and I think it’s an idea that could really be popular.

So if I declare, “I can’t ride on Monday,” it’s not because I because I am looking for excuses to hide out in my (notional) health wagon, it’s because I am truly afraid that I will never get well if I keep riding my bicycle.

Ultimately as a gesture of respect and empathy we have to take people’s decisions to get in their cars as genuinely reasoned and worthy of acknowledgement. Advocates like me are often unable to do this, partly because of fundamental attribution error, partly because our own enthusiasm blinds us to the limits of our transportation mode choice.

 

 

Fang fix

Posted on by jqr

Went to the dentist today. Dr Quinn is a friendly guy and I know him
socially, as if there were indeed circles of society here at the
secret city. I popped part of a filling off the other day while
wolfing down salt pastiller, and immediately I knew I had to go
get it fixed.

 The good news is that I am an excellent flosser and that good flossing
technique saved the enamel directly encasing the nerve, so I don’t
need a root canal. The bad news is that most of tooth no. 18 is now
actually that ceramic they use to replace it. I feel kind of funny
about that; as if my left ulna and humerus were made out of
papier-mâche or something.

 Still, the dental visit, coming before lunch, messed up the workout
schedule. I desisted on the morning’s run not fully cognizant at the
time (4:20 a.m. for cryin’ out loud, who would be?) of the condition
awaiting my afternoon: Dr. Q told me to go home and take an analgesic
stat, and then I missed lunch at the refectory because my mouth
was still numb at 2 pm when they closed, and I decided I didn’t want
to go earlier and chance biting through my numb tongue.

 Of course, once I had skipped lunch, I neatly psyched myself out of
going biking (I would have been fine, if anything a little logy, but
that’s not a killer) which I justified to myself by blaming the missed
nutrition and the slim possibility of something going wrong in my yap
while out riding in equal measure. Taking a second analgesic pill, at
three p.m., didn’t help persuade me either. On to tomorrow, as I
listen to Duke Ellington’s Far East Suite and finish up The
Wreck of The River of Stars.