What can you get to within a 15-minute walk of your house?
A recent YouGov survey asked Americans what they think they should be able to get to within a 15-minute walk of their house.
Of these choices, I can currently walk to all of them from my apartment, aside from a university (no biggie, I'm not currently studying, although there is a Tafe within walking distance), a hospital, and a sports arena.
How many can you get to with a 15 minute walk from your house?
A nearby city call these crossings as "Gora¹ Lanes", an attempt to make walking fun, attractive, and accessible to more people.
From the screenshot² below, it's something like an arty zebra (or "continental") crossing, and I saw minimal use of crossing:markings=artwork in #OpenStreetMap, and taggable with crossing:markings=yes.
Stuff like this bothers me. If cars, pedestrians, or cyclists use the crossing and the road that it crosses over, painted lines and way finding markers need to be consistent and clear for safety.
It’s fine to paint a crossing like this at an entryway to a museum or library, but not on a road.
Driving 8 hours round trip today to pick up one person, and I'll never understand why Americans think this is more convenient than my colleague taking a train.
In America the train costs as much as a plane ticket. Driving is cheaper.
Damn, is it that bad in the states? I just did a quick lookup for Toronto to Montreal by train, and it’s about the same price as driving (maybe less, depending on the cost of gas that day).
But the convenience, and not wasting two people’s lives, makes it totally worth taking a train.
No doubt!! You have to consider several factors, and sometimes, taking a car is the best option. But as you say, it works out better when you have an entire family.
The OP only described one colleague who could have used the train on their own, rather than a single car for two passengers (one of which wasn’t part of the travel). I guess in the OPs case, you’d have to also consider whether they were being paid work hours for that drive.
So in this case, I think a train (assuming it was accessible and economical) would have been the better option for the OPs colleague. LOL
Can someone recommend a good resource for getting a neglected bike back into riding condition? What tools I need, what sort of parts I should check if they need replacement, so on?
Is it an older bike (vintage) or some that was purchased in the last 5-10 years?
If you don’t have any tools, I’d personally suggest getting a bike tool set, which should cover much of what you might need. I would normally just buy whatever tools I need for the task as hand, and build up slowly, but it can be annoying if you don’t have something.
Tools are an investment, so if you don’t plan on doing bike repair after this one is done, it may be cheaper to send to a local bike shop to get worked on.
The youtube channels RJ the bike guy (vintage bikes) and Park Tool are some of the best I’ve used. But I’ll often search for info and see what several channels say, since some techniques can differ slightly.
Good for you!! I restored my son’s 30 year old MTB last year after he outgrew it, and had ridden it all winter and for all errands… put something like 1100km on it, and it wasn’t even my main bike!
This past week, I did end up buying a larger frame (also 30 year old) MTB that I spent a few days working on, and it rides like a dream now. I’m going to be using this bike a lot!
I hope you enjoy that Schwinn! RJ The Bike Guy is absolutely the place to learn about vintage bike repair, as he covers stuff you’ll likely see in your bike. But Park Tool is also very concise and will be a huge asset.
Does anyone know what is a good cycling computer? All I need is good GPS/mapping features that doesn't connect to my phone what so ever. I don't need fitness functions at all
This is the way. I’ve been using an older Samsung phone for this purpose, and not only does it offer fitness tracking, but the navigation options are far better than anything a bike computer could offer, since there are dozens of apps available to suit every need.
There are caveats with a phone, though. Battery life isn’t as good as a bike computer; they are not easy to read in the sun; they aren’t quite weather resistant, especially in sub-zero temps (mine gives charging errors or shuts down when it’s too cold).
All I need is good GPS/mapping features that doesn’t connect to my phone what so ever.
As others have pointed out, a throwaway phone would likely work best for this use case.
I use an old Samsung phone with OSMAnd (uses Openstreetmap data), but it can also run whatever other mapping software I could possibly need. For example, we had a local community ride, and they required us to use Ride with GPS, which I never used before. No problem. A bike computer with GPS nav would have made this more difficult.
If you plan to ride for more than 3-5 hours at a time, a phone may not be best, unless you’ve got it connected to a powerbank.