Accurate Statistics

I was out the other night and I glanced down the Harvard Mall.



There were a few cars navigating the narrow road, but what really struck me was how many bikers were out.   I started ruminating as I listened to the band playing in front of Cellar Door.   We're missing the whole point in our discussions about how bike friendly ABQ is.   Yes, we should pay careful attention to the bike commuters, but if the number of commuters is the only metric by which to measure how bike friendly or bike embracing Albuquerque is, then we've screwed up. 

Here's some quick math.  For argument sake, let's say I average 7 hours of sleep a night so during a week I'm spending 49 hours a week sleeping, and let's say I average 8 hours a day working and have 2 full days off...no surprise that's 40 hours a week.   A week has 168 hours in it.   Thus if you subtract the number of hours worked and the number of hours slept, you get79 hours that are pretty much not really accounted for.   Now, just getting back and forth to work adds another sort-of definable metric, commuting.   Let's say that the average person spends about two hours a day commuting to and from  work.   Thus now we subtract 10 more hours from our weekly total.   That leaves 69 hours that people have to eat, recreate, socialize, exercise, etc.   Now what if, as I suspected from the other night, that all those bikers that were buzzing up and down Harvard did that all the time.   What if the bike was their main source of "get around" transport?   What if a good deal of those people actually drove to work, then we'd miss their numbers when planning a way to make the city better for bikers?   I speculate that there are more people who bike (for recreation, entertainment, errands, etc.) than we realize.   I speculate that by using commuting as the standard metric for how successful, how mainstream biking is, we're missing the real story.  

The real story is most people spend only a fraction of their time at work, thus why is increasing the number of bike commuters the main goal of a lot of bike organizations?  

The Things I Carry

Forgive the Tim O'Brien reference, I am just a regular person who decided to give up her car and will now have things I must carry.

There are some days that take me from one excursion to another, being out of the house from 8am to 8pm. In the old days (those days with the auto) I had a built-in closet: my trunk or back seat that I could rely upon. During the rainy season (uh, or day), I had a handy umbrella or raincoat; during the winter, a heavy coat; in case I get the urge to sprint, a pair of running shoes; in case of a particularly inviting patch of grass, a pair of juggling balls; get caught in traffic, a few books....you get it, I liked having certain things--just in case.

Well, now the trunk/back seat is gone and I must be more purposeful with the things I carry. Having a year carless, I have had lots of practice forgetting the "essentials," and now I know better what to call "essential."

The Things I Carry:
1. My headlamp. I have a light on my bike, but I like the security of my headlamp. My light still isn't bright enough to aid my night vision and I still don't trust the night drivers in this city.
2. My raincoat. Although it is Albuquerque, and although we find ourselves in another historic drought, when we have that one 10 minute downpour, I am ready.
3. My bike repair kit and extra inner tube. I have that little pouch on the seat post, so my extra inner tube is always available.
4. My pump
5. Loose change in case I forget my pump and need to go to a gas station for air
6. Loose change/cash in case I forget my lunch or need a snack for the ride home
7. A reflective vest. I haven't worn it much, but, much like in the early 90's when my mother wanted me to take a cell phone on long trips (just in case) despite the fact that I would often forget to charge it up and often left it in the trunk or back seat- I do at least carry the vest with me.
8. An Albuquerque bike map. I don't have an I-Phone or other fancy devices to "google" bike maps, so this comes in handy. For example, the other day when Don and I were riding back from a book store near Wyoming and Paseo del Norte (after first biking the 22 miles to Corrales) we needed to insure that our "ride down hill" would be as direct as possible. Sure enough, the map came in handy--we took Wyoming to Osuna, then went on to Pennsylvania, took the overpass onto Constitution, to Washington and to Silver where we were fortunate to pass by a much needed fuel stop--(Tractor Brewery). We made it in no time thanks to the map.
9. My lock and key (of course).
10. Lots of pens, scrap paper, lip balm, sunscreen...the kind of stuff I usually had in my back seat or car floor...just cause some habits are hard to break.
11. My saddle bag is also my purse, so my keys, wallet, etc.
12. Oh, and even if I get hit by a car and the helmet cannot be guaranteed to protect me from great harm, I bring and wear that helmet anyway (I won't have anyone give me that "I told you so" look).
13. Water bottle
14. Sun glasses
15. an extra layer-always
16. extra sun glasses, in case I forget my other sun glasses.

Of course, there are nights when I go out without my saddle bag and I simply have a purse. In that case, I carry the headlamp, the keys to the lock, my wallet and usually my raincoat-just in case.

These are the things I carry....

Bus Trip to Denver

So after trying the Mexican Bus (which is one of the earliest posts on this blog), I decided to take the trip to Denver via Greyhound basically because it was not too bad of a walk from the house to the bus station.   I think I knew this, but I technically rode a Los Americanos Bus and I believe the two companies are owned by the same parent company (one being an "American" bus and the other being a "Mexican" bus).  Not that I noticed the difference.

There were only 3 options and since I actually want to get to Denver in a reasonable amount of time, I chose the bus that left at 2 AM. 

Now some observations:  The 3 options for leaving is really not surprising.   In my air travels to Denver there is a pretty limited selection as well.

1) The quality of the bus station (the bathrooms were disgusting) shows either that the traffic they get is incredible or their cleaning/maintenance crew needs more help or is incompetent.   Now it would be too easy to say that maybe the clientele doesn't know to respect public infrastructure.   And to that I'm calling, "Bullshit."  I doubt that your political affiliation, size of your pocket book, religious affiliation, even choice of addiction really matters when it comes to how you use the bathroom.   Sometimes, defecating is messy.   Thus, the disgusting bathrooms suggest that the management just basically doesn't care.   And why should they care?  The bus riding clientele probably isn't going to complain.

2)  Now I generally felt safe, but the bus needed some work too.   I didn't have an armrest, there was no soap or sanitizer in the on-board restroom, the sink didn't function, and the engine made this loud whine that would've drowned out any headphones if I'd bothered to bring any.  

3) At one point, I was actually surprised to see two men actually sleeping on the floor of the bus as we were travelling.   Given the limited leg room and uncomfortable seats it was pretty easy to think that maybe they had a good idea.  

4) I was clearly a minority on this trip, which is actually refreshing, but it does strike me as strange when all the little kids persist in staring at you.   My guess is that they don't get too many white folks on this thing?  

Now I'm not going to draw too many conclusions because they all seem pretty obvious, but I do want to propose some questions.

What message are we sending when we fail to maintain public facilities?   When the relative comfort of our customers is disregarded?   Why are the people riding the bus (myself included) valued less than a person who would fly?