Obesogenic Motorgenic Cincinnati

I want to do what is good, but I don't. I don't want to do what is wrong, but I do it anyway. - Romans 7:19

I believe this newly invented word obesogenic is helpful in thinking about how our environment and culture affect our individual bodies. I have had times in my life in which my environment was much healthier, and as a result I was physically much healthier.

For example, in 1986 (I think), I lived for a few months in Spain. While I was there, I had no access to fast food, junk food or even any dairy products. However, I ate whenever I wanted and drank whatever I wanted. I found when I returned home that my clothes were all loose and I felt fantastic. My tastes in food had even changed. Since then, I have tried to recreate that diet, but it is difficult because diet is so integrated into our culture and lifestyle.

I find more and more that the idea that we are all independent and that we are each as individuals totally responsible for our well-being to be false. Yes of course I am responsible for my own actions, but it is an acutely American way of thinking that disallows common action for improvement.

For example, I hate bike riding,... at least in Cincinnati. Yes the hills are one reason, but mostly I ride in the basin, so that is not the main reason. It is just way too dangerous, especially with children. And to take two kids with me on bikes is a huge ordeal. Just getting 3 bikes out the door with 3 helmets and bike locks and lights if it is dark, is just ridiculous. And downtown is not much different than many suburban areas (except that you have a garage to keep all the bikes). I really don't see that many suburban kids out riding beyond their cul-de-sac... because cars rule and it is too dangerous. Nothing like this.

I saw an item a few weeks ago a woman was prosecuted after her son was killed by a car while jaywalking. Frankly, I don't think jaywalking should even be a crime on any residential street. The prosecution of this poor woman is just an indication of how backwards American thinking is about walking vs cars. Cars rule, period.

We live in a motorgenic environment. Motorized vehicles rule our public streets and pedestrians and bicyclists are scared and pushed to the fringes. This attitude ruins cities. It destroys shopping streets, public spaces, streets and sidewalks.

Cars and walkers can only successfully mix if the actions of the car are restrained and the actions of the walkers and bikers are liberated.

We need to change from a motorgenic environment to a muscle-powered, socially oriented, pedestrian friendly environment.


‘We live in an obesogenic environment – a plethora of fast food outlets, reliance on cars, and offers enticing us to eat larger portions …’Professor Mike Kelly – as quoted in the Telegraph 8th October 2003

Join the movement to move your feet

Bike Videos

In honor of my youngest learning how to ride a two wheeler:







You gotta see the guy carrying 4 kids and the mother carrying a baby who pulls a fold-up stroller out of the carrier!:

Sidewalk Gas Pumps

This photo is of a common gas pump configuration found in some European cities. Compare this to the typical gas station which is hazardous to pedestrians.

 

 

I got this photo off of an email listserve last year and I cannot remember who took the photo or even what city it was taken in.

Why Walking Beats Biking

Things you cannot do while riding a bike:

-Hold hands
-Have a conversation
-Ride on Shoulders
-Find neat rocks
-Look strangers in the eye
-Find coins
-Window shop
-Play tag
-Leapfrog
-Daydream
-Pick flowers
-Play soccer with a stone
- etc etc

And for distances less than about 4-5 blocks, I find it is just as fast. Why go into the street and fight cars, especially with kids, when it is more enjoyable to walk?

Moving People vs Moving Cars NYC

"Once you realize that you can use your street to imporve the quality of life, the economic health of your city...I thin that's a transformative moment..." _ Janette Sadik Kahn, Commissioner of NYC DOT

After 3 year of implementing this plan, traffic fatalities are down 20%

Bike Rental Spreading

Montreal's Bixi system is successful and is expanding. Recently launched in Minneapolis, with plans for Washington, Boston, Melbourne, London...

Utrech Commuting Video

here is a link to the video.

This video shows a transit dance, involving mostly bikes, that is conducted without cyclists bumping into each other or the vehicles. Here we’d insist on much more room, “forgiving” bikeways, much the way we’ve built forgiving highways. Notice both bus, rail and delivery vehicles on the crossroad.

And you don't see much in the way of helmets, racing bikes, or spandex. Why do the Dutch have the happiest children, healthier longer lives, and have more sex? Is it all because of the bike culture?

National Bike Summit Quote

Today, I want to announce a sea change. People across America who value bicycling should have a voice when it comes to transportation planning. This is the end of favoring motorized transportation at the expense of non-motorized. -Ray LaHood

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David Byrne on Biking

In the NY Times today, David Byrne has a review of a book by Jeff Mapes: "Pedaling Revolution: How Cyclists Are Changing American Cities". And he apparently has a book coming out soon called "Bicycle Diaries".

...For decades, Americans have too often seen cycling as a kind of macho extreme sport, which has actually done a lot to damage the cause of winning acceptance for biking as a legitimate form of transportation. If your association with bikes is guys in spandex narrowly missing you on the weekends or YouTube videos of kids flying over ramps on their clown-size bikes, you’re likely to think that bikes are for only the athletic and the risk-prone. Manufacturers in the United States have tended to make bikes that look like the two-wheeled equivalent of Hummers, with fat tires and stocky frames necessitating a hunched-over riding position that is downright unsafe for urban biking and commuting. But that’s been changing for at least a few years now. Whew...

NYC Bike Lanes

Great video explaining the bike paths in New York City. The paths range from Class 1 which is a protected path separated from traffic with parked cars, to Class 3 which is a smaller, shared street. I have heard from associates in NYC that the pedestrian and bike friendly redesign that is expanding all over Manhattan is making the streets much more usable.

Ask Women to Boost Urban Cycling

... An emerging body of research suggests that a superior strategy to increase pedal pushing could be had by asking the perennial question: What do women want?
...
Women are considered an “indicator species” for bike-friendly cities for several reasons. First, studies across disciplines as disparate as criminology and child ­rearing have shown that women are more averse to risk than men. In the cycling arena, that risk aversion translates into increased demand for safe bike infrastructure as a prerequisite for riding. Women also do most of the child care and household shopping, which means these bike routes need to be organized around practical urban destinations to make a difference.

...In the U.S., most cycling facilities consist of on-street bike lanes, which require riding in vehicle-clogged traffic.... And when cities do install traffic-protected off-street bike paths, they are almost always along rivers and parks rather than along routes leading “to the supermarket, the school, the day care center,”...

.... A few municipalities are beginning to implement a “second wave” of strategies aimed at broadening the cycling demographic. ... a Women on Bikes program targets such concerns as fixing a flat tire.... also building its first cycle track—a European-style bike lane that is separated from cars and pedestrians...

Ahead of the curve may be New York City, where about five miles of traffic-protected bike lanes have recently been installed. Credit goes to the new Department of Transportation commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan, who is upending the department’s long-standing focus on trucks and automobiles. ... “A woman cyclist became head of the DOT, and wonderful things started happening.”..
-Scientific American Magazine - October 16, 2009

Chic Lego Bikes

- buy this bike here

I don't ride bikes much. I used to. I used to ride all around running errands, and going to meetings. But my bike got stolen a few times, I never was good at repairing them, and then came kids... And with the kids it was lots more time consuming, and more equipment needed, kids seats, helmets, u-locks, baskets. It takes a lot of equipment to haul an adult and 2 kids around on a bike in the city, and I would just assume walk if I can.

But my wife has been very adventurous with the bikes, taking both kids out numerous times on pretty long treks through the city. Our 8 year old is pretty competent and seems to know how to ride safely around city streets. Next year our daughter will learn, and then maybe I'll start adventuring out again with the family.

But please check out Cycle Chic seems dedicated to snapping awsome photos of stylish young people on their bikes (style over speed, yeah). Their latest post notes that Lego now has a bike/skate shop.

ps: sorry I missed the Super-Bad Bike Show

Also enjoy my shaky video of a quick ride thru Washington Park in 2007. The lap after that short film, we crashed on top of each other, partially because I had a hand on a camera and not a brake. Bad dad.

Carbon Free Central City

"Chris Smith, well-known (in Portland, OR) for his work as a streetcar and bike advocate and for his run at a City Commissioner spot last year, stopped by our office yesterday to share more about what he calls a Carbon Free Central City Mobility concept..." Read more here.

Polar Bear Bike Ride

I will NOT be doing this, even with my new bike and all...

Queen City Bike Polar Bear Ride - January 3, 2009 @ 10:30 AM

One loop around the Winton Woods Bike Trail (approximately 2 miles) wearing the minimum amount of clothing that is legally allowed; shorts for guys, shorts and sports bra for gals. Gloves and booties will be permitted, and a helmet is required. Weather will NOT cancel this ride! Meet in the main parking lot by the Harbor...

Street Food - It's What's for Breakfast!

A cross-cultural urban adaptation of the ubiquitous food cart. It's the ultimate Rube Goldberg device.

The board of health will likely have something to say about the proximity of live poultry in an open cage to the food prep area, the lack of sanitization and hand wash provisions, and BATF will have an issue with the barrel length of the shotguns, so these waffles will be available for a limited time only.

Get yours today!

The Velib

Good article on the bicycle rental system in Paris.

Obama on Portland Transit

It’s time that the entire country learned from what’s happening right here in Portland with mass transit and bicycle lanes and funding alternative means of transportation.

Read More

Also, Obama is currently polling 8 points ahead of McCain in Ohio.

Bicycle Auto Park

This doesn't make much sense to me. The advantage of riding a bike is that you can go right to the front door with it, not park it a few blocks away in a garage. In Japanese:

Walkable is In

Nothing gets the point across better than a simple drawing like this by the New Urbanists:

 

On the subject of walkability... no other mode of transport compares in ease or pleasure. A few days ago our family took a nice bike ride to Newport. The ride was a lot of fun, but I was struck how much more complicated and difficult it was than our usual walk to the Library or Fountain Square. You can't really carry a conversation while biking, and one kid requires a special seat with a seatbelt, both require helmets that they have trouble with, add some mechanical difficulties, and then trying to park them in a safe spot and carrying the helmets around all adds up to a strained day. Really, nothing beats a walk.

Bikes in Portland

I promise, I'll get to the streetcar posts soon. Until then though, here is evidence of the extensive bike ridereship in PDX.

A typically crowded bike rack:

 

Bike rack at the Public Library. I noticed several homeless people carts tethered to the racks here:

 

Bikes at Powell's Books:

 

Bike lockers in city center:

 

Biker and bike on the light rail line. A hangar is provided.

 

Families biking on the riverfront on Sunday morning:

 

Bike racks and bike lockers at suburban rail station:

 

Bike racks are everywhere, and are coordinated with the other street infrastructure. Here are trees and bike racks providing separation from cars, by the Chinese Gardens: