52 degrees this morning . Walk (no time, accidentally “paused” walk rather than ended)
17 degrees less than the previous day. However, I had very little coughing, which was good.
Listening to book on “Mindfulness”, which I think would probably be better read than listened too. It has some interesting observations, it is just hard to listen to it and pull it all together. “There is a little too much “vapor think”, but there is also some good ideas but my mind tends to start wandering during the vapor think and doesn’t come back for the good ideas.
I guess a lot of life is like that, there is so much “vapor think” and just flat lies the you tend to ignore or at least not recognize the truth.
Reading “Street Smarts”, by Samuel Schwartz. He postulates that “narrow streets”, with cars parking on both sides (where cars have to wait to go through). is good for increasing “walkability” etc and better traffic control.
He gives Portland as an example which frankly is not one of my favorite cities, in fact I could care less if I ever go there again and probably won’t.
I really feel like the “narrow street” fad is nothing more than a sell-out to the developers, allowing them to make a lot more profit at the expense of future homeowners.
In my opinion, the narrow streets are probably ok, IF there are decently width separated bike/pedestrian lanes on each side of the street. I don’t mean the little 3 feet lanes, but good sized lanes with separation by a barrier of some sort.
Not likely to happen, but I can dream a little!
Actually, China was a perfect example. While I realize the culture (as far as the number of people riding bikes etc.) is a lot different, the separated bike lanes were usually landscaped (in the sense of having high bushes etc.) that separated the vehicle traffic from the walking/bike/scooter lanes.
On the other hand, it may be a matter of “if you provide it they will come!”.
The addition I live in has relatively narrow streets. While there are sidewalks, the sidewalks are pathetic as far as the width etc., so a lot of people use the streets. However, the sidewalks are used a lot by walkers etc., so they are good there.
The addition was an early attempt at “walkability” and it is a lot better than most neighborhoods I have lived in, including newer neighborhoods.
As I have mentioned before, it is the “last mile” (actually the last 1/4 mile or whatever) that is the major problem for mass transportation.
If I can take a train or bus and get off close to my destination I will probably take it, if I have to walk a mile, I probably won’t take it.
Some of that is resolved by buses with bicycle racks etc. but a lot of places are still not bicycle friendly.
I do strongly feel that even if you can’t resolve the problem, you can start on resolving it for the future, which means all new roads etc. would have separated lanes for bicycles and pedestrians etc.
That’s it for now, Tuesday, April 12, 2017
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