@xtaran wonders about campaigns designed to boost cycling:
Q4. Given campaigns like #Frostpendeln, #30DaysOfBiking (this is happening right now!) or #Bike2Work: Which type of campaign motivates you most? Are you more looking for "as often as possible" (e.g. at least once per day, outbrave any weather) or more at the distance ("see how "much you cycle get within some period")? Maybe regular group rides similar to a #CriticalMass? Or something completely different?
@ascentale@xtaran A4. My personal goal has been minimize the amount of driving I do. Which I do by trying to never drive in town. For any trip less than a few miles, and I try as much as I can to either not do the trip, bike, take public transit, etc.
I’ve driven 2, maybe 3 times this year, it’s been great.
@younata@ascentale@xtaran yeh anna and i are like that too, we're more than that but we are down at about 1100 miles combined per year and hopefully less now that i've built this cargo system ^_^
@ascentale@xtaran A4: #30DaysofBiking is the first of any of those things I've done so I guess I'm going to lean into "this is best for me." But I'm a very utilitarian biker in that I use it like most people in the US use a car. Except you know, better in almost every way.
@ascentale@xtaran#BikeNite A4. Haven't heard of either, but great idea. I really love the posts I see here when people do a "Bike Bus" or other event that gets families involved and getting kids to school, etc. There are SO MANY people I see queuing up to drop their kids off to school where bicycling (heck, WALKING) to school would be faster for them.
@ai6yr@xtaran absolutely.. the school dropoff car lines are hard for me to comprehend, and we already have a decent number of kids who walk to our school.
@ascentale@xtaran I feel do dumb having done that for the kids when they were younger, now that I find myself getting to their schools in about 5 minutes on bicycle. (Used to sit in a car,. burning gas, for 30 minutes at a time to drop them off at those schools... and another HOUR to pick them up from school at the end of the day... literally 5 minute bicycle rides!!!!). I feel so bad I didn't figure that out sooner, when they were growing up. I also would have saved SO MUCH time. "I'll drive, I'm too busy, I have to get back to work, I will pick them up in the car" went the thinking at the time. #BikeTooter
The bus is to me what the bike is to you. For me it wasn't the time (which is about the same) but the stress of driving in morning traffic, looking for parking, etc. I used to walk into work with my heart already racing. Now I get a soothing morning walk on the way to the bus stop. #publictransit#carbrain
@figstick@LabSpokane@ai6yr@ascentale: At least since the beginning of the pandemic, riding with a bike is far less stress for me than to take public transport (at least inside the city). Can't stand so many people on such a small room anymore—even with an FFP3 (≈ N99) mask on.
@ai6yr@ascentale@xtaran Hmm, outside of riding the school bus on rainy days (not common in West Los Angeles) I biked or walked from kindergarten, through junior and senior high school. I don't remember my parents ever taking me to school or picking me up. And I'm glad of it. I enjoyed the freedom to leave school when I pleased (I often stayed late), ability to stop at a friend's house, or library on the way home.
@shuttersparks@ascentale@xtaran I did the same, but there was a sharp shift somewhere soon after -- I think there was some kind of thing based on fears of serial killers stealing your children off the street, combined with growing traffic...
@ai6yr@ascentale@xtaran Correct. Around 1990, police and prison guard unions began spending tens of millions of dollars on ad campaigns designed to frighten the public. This enabled things like 3-strike laws. Its main purpose was to ready the public and legislators for the unions' demands for large increases in funding and pay, which they received. At the same time, prison systems were redesigned not to rehabilitate and get people back into society but to retain them for as long as possible, increasing prison populations, which was then used to justify more prison construction, more law enforcement and corrections officers, so more members in the unions, more dues, more funding for ads and promotion, and so on.
Today it's all pretty much a scam designed to funnel taxpayer money into private pockets. The process began in California and quickly spread to most states.
@ai6yr@ascentale@xtaran A4. Chicago has adult commuter bike buses that run from residential areas to the central city, and while they start a little earlier than I want to, they're definitely in the slow roll have a good time with good people realm of activity. They run once a week down a few routes and are expanding.
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