@meganL@mas.to
@meganL@mas.to avatar

meganL

@meganL@mas.to

Disabled Masters student @ UC Davis. Speaker on Accessibility in Higher Ed/Cycling/Plant Science. Speaker on carob.

#Accessibility #Botany #Cycling #SciComm #NoBot #NoBridge

Most of my posts are not asking for advice so please don't offer it unsolicited. When I'm asking for advice, I usually ask quite explicitly.

Banner = 2 UC Access Now buttons, with a seal that's a parody of the University of California's. It says "Let There Be Access > ADA" Profile = HG Peters drawing of Wonder Woman

This profile is from a federated server and may be incomplete. Browse more on the original instance.

ai6yr, to Aviation

If it occasionally sounds like we are being invaded by the Black Sheep Squadron in Moorpark/Simi Valley over the next few weeks... maybe! https://local.nixle.com/alert/11002521/

meganL,
@meganL@mas.to avatar

@ai6yr I can think of more appropriate ways to "honor" Reagan's passing. Of course, he had himself buried someplace restricted to prevent the public from trickling down on him...

meganL, to cycling
@meganL@mas.to avatar

Today's roundup of news from many places from Biking In LA. (Instead of "blind", read "many drivers have extreme cognitive dissonance as to how badly drivers drive"):

https://bikinginla.com/2024/05/20/many-drivers-blind-to-how-badly-drivers-drive-british-press-demonizes-bike-riders-and-building-greater-inclusion-in-bicycling/

@fedibikes
#Cycling #BikeTooter

meganL, to random
@meganL@mas.to avatar

Column: Inside the effort by two Beverly Hills billionaires to kill a state law protecting farmworkers

https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2024-05-16/inside-the-effort-by-two-beverly-hills-billionaires-to-kill-a-state-law-protecting-farm-workers

https://archive.is/wRB1y

meganL, to cycling
@meganL@mas.to avatar

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZDByoLRS9QA

meganL, to accessibility
@meganL@mas.to avatar

🧵 Even before I formed @ucaccessnow, I persisted through campus channels trying to get them to acknowledge that cycle racks ALSO have to be accessible, not car parking spaces. After months of brick walls with UC and my union, I got a meeting with the head of UC Davis TAPS, who

@fedibikes @disability @bikenite

meganL,
@meganL@mas.to avatar

proposed that instead of making all cycle racks accessible, I give them a list of my classes & they'd install accessible racks with "blue badges" at each bldg I had a class in.

I told them this was not a sensible solution. Not only would my classes likely be in different bldgs each quarter, making an inefficient use of funds & labor doing bespoke installations, but abled ppl (often NCAA athletes!) 2/?

@fedibikes @disability @bikenite

meganL,
@meganL@mas.to avatar

with upright bikes these racks were ostensibly made for, prefer the end spaces and take them first. They prefer the end spaces because these racks aren't even good for the bikes they prioritized: narrow upright bikes for typical-sized adults.

The inaccessibility of the cycle infrastructure at UC Davis was only one of many ableisms here & I went on to form UC Access Now, release the Demandifesto, and

@fedibikes @disability @bikenite

meganL,
@meganL@mas.to avatar

launch a form so coalition members & supporters throughout UC could pressure the Governor, the Board of Regents, and every UC chancellor to finally make the University of California accessible to the public that built it - including disabled ppl.

UC has stonewalled every step of the way. It has cherrypicked ideas from the Demandifesto and from our activism, implemented them without working with us

4/? @fedibikes @disability @bikenite

meganL,
@meganL@mas.to avatar

Worse, non-activist disability groups within UC are pulled in to give it the veneer of being UC just happens to be doing for the disabled community at UC and some folks within the disability community have been happy to take credit for UC Access Now's work and put UC's approval on their CV.

This is UC strategy. Ableist power does not want student-led activism to get credit or it will beget more.


5/?
@fedibikes @disability @bikenite

meganL,
@meganL@mas.to avatar

Cherrypicking from our work, not working with us, burying our name & work, and giving credit to moderate disability groups who gladly take the "charity" of UC instead of demanding their rights keeps power in UC hands and makes it harder for radical anti-ableists within UC to find one another & take REAL inspiration, not inspiration porn.

Anyway, tonight I saw more of the same on campus increased cycle accessibility, rationed out as "special needs".

6/? @fedibikes @disability @bikenite

meganL,
@meganL@mas.to avatar

Rationing out the space is both ableist and car-centrist. It says that disabled people's needs are "special" and must be rationed & policed by the university's Disabled Students Center & Disability Management Services and UC Davis TAPS...not that UC has multiple legal and moral obligations to make things accessible by default.

It also says that space must be maximized for drivers -

@fedibikes @disability @bikenite

meganL,
@meganL@mas.to avatar

not only untold square yds of dedicated single story auto parking space, but UC Davis driving employees parking on sidewalks blocking egress to & from bldgs simply because the abled drivers of air-conditioned vehicles want to park them in the shade of trees or don't want to walk 15 feet further to legal safe parking.

But the cycle parking must be packed in like sardines and inaccessible!!

@fedibikes @disability @bikenite @parkingreform

meganL,
@meganL@mas.to avatar

This is the 3rd installation of more accessible (but still not the equitable solution) cycle racks at UC Davis that I know of.

IT IS DUE to work I & later UC Access Now did.

UC Davis TAPS has never notified me when these are installed nor credited my work as the impetus. They would not have installed these without a lot of hard work (including the damage to my health) from me.

But keep fighting.

9/?

@fedibikes @disability @bikenite

meganL,
@meganL@mas.to avatar

UC fights you, drags its feet, buries credit for the enormously hard work you put into fighting them and working for justice...

BUT KEEP FIGHTING

This is not the equitable solution they should have adopted, but I guarantee you they would never have installed this had I not spent years fighting them in every venue I could think of.

They bury credit because they don't want you to know fighting gets results!

Unbury that credit. 10/?

https://bikinginla.com/2020/07/28/enough-a-fight-for-handicap-access-and-inclusive-bicycling-at-uc-davis-and-the-university-of-california-system/

@fedibikes @disability @bikenite

meganL,
@meganL@mas.to avatar

Make sure to keep @ucaccessnow 's name & work alive. Unbury the credit.

Make sure people know that fighting back works better than staying passive and silent. University of California does not want you to know that.

Ableists do not want you to know that. Car-centrists do not want you to know that. 11/?

@fedibikes @disability @bikenite

meganL, to cycling
@meganL@mas.to avatar

My favorite infrastructure photo yet!

I put the camera down so I could get a photo of the sheath with its bollard missing, and the SUV that is now able to get beyond it because UC Davis driving employees take these bollards out and (in this case) make them go missing. @fedibikes @mastobikes

ai6yr, to cycling

Some bozo ran over nearly every cone on the eastbound side of the demonstration bicycle lane here in Thousand Oaks. Must have been more than two dozen cones down. Drunk driver? Someone who doesn't like bicycle lanes? Or someone who has a grudge against cones? (ps. this is why separated, not coned off, lanes are better)

meganL,
@meganL@mas.to avatar

@ai6yr My money is on #2.

meganL, to fedibikes
@meganL@mas.to avatar

Yesterday I discovered the bollard from a major path entry to be missing again. I looked around to see if car-centrists had left it out for their convenience. Instead, I saw it tossed over a fence into a dry creek bed. I took a significant risk for myself to get it in the fading sunset light, hanging onto the fence for dear life. I managed to get it, toss it back over the fence, and reinstall it for safety.

We need non-removable bollards. @mastobikes @fedibikes
#DavisCA #CarCentrism

View from the path over a low chain link fence into a weedy dry creek bed. A thick hollow PVC pipe made into a bollard can be seen.
View standing over the bollard gate to a high traffic mixed use path in Davis, CA. Photo taken when I put the missing bollard back. The reflectors are oriented in the correct directions - one facing out into the street, one facing into the path.

meganL,
@meganL@mas.to avatar

@mastobikes @fedibikes Both UC Davis and City of Davis workers frequently leave the bollards out, not caring about the risk this increases for this high traffic mixed use path. This is the first time I've found the same kind of sabotage I see on campus where they toss the bollard somewhere people can't easily get it to put it back in. The 3 seconds it would take to take it out or put it back again is just too onerous, in their estimation. #DavisCA #CarCentrism

ai6yr, to cycling

Got my Saturday list done!

Bicycled to the library
Bicycled to a garage sale
Bicycled to the store (solely to buy snacks for the pet rabbits 🤔)

Saw some fitness cyclers
A few kids on bikes
No adults doing any utilitarian cycling
Eight bazillion cars (Nobody walks/bikes in LA!)
Annoyed the clerks in a store asking them where the nearest bicycle rack was (answer: nowhere nearby)

#BikeTooter

meganL,
@meganL@mas.to avatar

@jmccyoung @ai6yr And it doesn't mean that Berkeley doesn't have cycle lanes on big arterials. The Bike Boulevards are a codification of what Berkeley's cyclists were already doing. Then Bike-Friendly Berkeley Coalition advocated and worked with City of Berkeley to create the designation "bike boulevard" and worked to push through traffic calming measures. It was an evolution over time driven by cycle advocates.

Andres4NY, to bikenyc
@Andres4NY@social.ridetrans.it avatar

Man, in is way overdue for bike parking.

meganL,
@meganL@mas.to avatar

@Andres4NY True, but I also look at that photo and think there isn't much room for wheelchair users or pedestrians, either.

All the more argument to go no cars on that street.

ascentale, to random
@ascentale@sfba.social avatar

@pete asks about group rides with electric + non-electric cycles:

Q6. We have problems making group MTB rides work when eBikers join us for fastish-paced rides: essentially they’re too fast on the ups and too slow on the flats for group cohesion. Anyone have any tips for making mixed eeb/regular groups work?

]

meganL,
@meganL@mas.to avatar

@ascentale @pete A6. I think a problem with being inclusive in rides in general is that there can be a big difference in pace. One thing that might be helpful, depending on the design of e-cycles they're using, is that the e-cycle controls often make me forget that I have actual gears I can use within any given level of e-assist. (cont'd)

meganL,
@meganL@mas.to avatar

@AngelaAntunovic @ascentale @pete I should be more explicit as to how this applies to the question: if you're just using e-assist levels to switch when terrain gets harder or easier, the increment jump can be large. If you shift gears within an e-assist level before you finally feel forced to switch e-assist levels, the increments are smaller. It allows you to dial in your effort level better. And this might help with closing up the gap between e-cycles and acoustics on hills.

ascentale, to random
@ascentale@sfba.social avatar

@MartyCormack asks:

Q4. Most cyclists drive motor vehicles at least sometimes, and some more frequently.

How has your cycling affected the way you drive? Are you slower and more careful? Do you do anything differently when encountering cyclists on the streets?

meganL,
@meganL@mas.to avatar

@ascentale @MartyCormack A4. Not so much changed as formed it - I've been cycling ever since I was old enough to ride a bicycle unassisted. I learned to drive when I was 15 - 16. So I learned to drive as someone who'd already done bicycle touring on busy streets and rural roads.

Driver education tells us to look around constantly but lots of ppl don't do it. I do. (cont'd)

ascentale, to random
@ascentale@sfba.social avatar

This is a question from @RossA that I had missed from a while ago:

Q3. I'm currently struggling to find the ‘mojo’ to get out cycling regularly. What do others do to keep the cycling fresh and fun?

(If I've missed your question before, don't feel bad if you need to remind me as I have missed a few. Using the BikeNitePQ hashtag helps)

meganL,
@meganL@mas.to avatar

@ascentale @RossA A3. When I developed a lunchtime exercise habit back when I worked a 9 - 5 job, it really put me in touch with seasonal changes, especially of plants. I had to take the same route due to lack of time for lunch. So I got to observe changes in the same front gardens over the weeks. I learned a lot!

So I'd say that plant and/or animal spotting can really make it more interesting. I also do infrastructure spotting - "reading" our sub/urban and rural landscapes.

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