{"id":231,"date":"2017-09-08T15:08:27","date_gmt":"2017-09-08T19:08:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.davidhowardpsychologist.com\/blog\/?p=231"},"modified":"2017-09-08T16:21:10","modified_gmt":"2017-09-08T20:21:10","slug":"if-you-build-it-they-will-come","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.davidhowardpsychologist.com\/blog\/?p=231","title":{"rendered":"If You Build It. . . They Will Come"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Perhaps we\u2019re starting at the wrong end of the horse \u2014 or bicycle, in this case. The awareness surfaced as we watched a tall, thin, and articulate man on a Ted stage chronicle his journey from a diagnosis of Crohn\u2019s Disease \u2014 that predicted an increasingly debilitating four or five years of \u2018life\u2019 \u2014 to a vital, engaged, and active life-style a few years later. His story was much more than a personal testimonial to the life-altering, life-saving reacquaintance with a bicycle. He outlined a template for change that we could all heed. The link following will take those interested to the Youtube posting: <\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"474\" height=\"267\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/KTT7i3SKpMQ?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>As I bumped along one of my favoured egresses, heading out of Stratford into the countryside for a near-daily ride, I had lots of time to reflect on his comments. Figural in Tony Desnick\u2019s talk were very persuasive numbers. Some, of course, catalogued the familiar apocalyptic arc we seem to be describing for ourselves as we consume and sit or passively transport our way to a point where the machine stops \u2014 personally and globally. A few other figures stuck \u2014 and resonated \u2014 as well. He noted that fully half of the trips we take in a car are for journeys of 3 kilometres or less. He pointed out that, even in \u2018bike friendly\u2019 cities in the US, something under 5% of the working population will use a bicycle to get to work. And he contrasted this numerically and pictorially with established bicycling countries in Europe \u2014 Denmark, the Netherlands, where, in the case of the latter, some 19,000,000 bike trips are taken daily. Finally, he made a compelling argument for a, forgive me, road map that would, could invite such salutary change on this side of the Atlantic. <\/p>\n<p>Implicit in his presentation was the old saw that biking is good for us. And equally, that driving is, if not bad for us, at least more stressful, environmentally unfriendly, expensive, slower, and, in many cases, unnecessary. Hard to argue that the outcomes of embracing built in exercise, cheap transport, even speed of commute are undesirables. <\/p>\n<p>Where the white hats and black start to become a little less distinguishable is safety. Significantly extended life expectancy and disease symptom remission are fine \u2014 except when 25 pounds of CCM meets 2000 pounds of F150. Desnick notes that Amsterdam has not always been cycling heaven or haven. Where bikes now outnumber cars in the order of 60:1, the ratio historically was reversed \u2014 with all the attendant risks to that solitary cyclist that are sadly representative of urban biking in this country in 2017. The transition required a dedicated initiative to make the city a safer place ride! The other benefits followed. <\/p>\n<p>Seven years ago I started cycling in Europe. First France, then the UK, and now most often in Italy. I was \u2018struck\u2019 by the widespread deference paid to bicyclists by motorists. Nearing the bottom of a particularly long and winding descent \u2014 of the order of several kilometres \u2014 my companion and I became aware of a tour bus, the \u2018third man\u2019 in our little train down the mountain side, waiting patiently until it could safely overtake. No horns blaring or angry gestures. Just a friendly salute as he passed.<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.davidhowardpsychologist.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/York-cycle-map.png\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/www.davidhowardpsychologist.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/York-cycle-map-300x224.png\" alt=\"York cycle map\" width=\"300\" height=\"224\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-232\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.davidhowardpsychologist.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/York-cycle-map-300x224.png 300w, https:\/\/www.davidhowardpsychologist.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/York-cycle-map-1024x765.png 1024w, https:\/\/www.davidhowardpsychologist.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/York-cycle-map.png 1504w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><br \/>\nEqually \u2018impactful\u2019, and echoing Amsterdam\u2019s efforts, is the \u2018bike friendly\u2019 infrastructure of many of the cities. The little dots and dashes on the above map identify active cycle routes in York, a northern UK city of some 200,000. It constituted the first major centre I would venture into on a cross-England ride in 2012 \u2014 and I had some trepidation over same. Narrow, twisting, hopelessly confusing and sometimes cobbled lanes more resemble a labyrinth than a street plan \u2014 and so I\u2019d anticipated a painful and frustrating journey from outskirts to my city centre B &#038; B adjacent the Roman walled \u2018old town\u2019. Instead I found wide, mostly paved pathways, well-signed and car-less, that led me alongside River Ouse to my destination. Paths clearly marked distinguishing and dividing cyclist \u2018lanes\u2019 from pedestrian footways. Twenty minutes and I was in front of St. Peter\u2019s Gate! A trip that would have taken three times as long by car, and featured multiple wrong turns \u2014 if I ever did arrive \u2014 and elevated blood pressure. (Full screen image: click on media)<\/p>\n<p>Stratford likes to characterize itself as a smart, welcoming, proactive, healthy and active community. Donning my rose-coloured glasses, I, too, see myself as tall, dark, handsome, and youthful. No harm in cultivating a little benign fantasy. The link below is to a \u2018beautiful document\u2019: The Stratford Bike and Pedestrian Master Plan Report \u2014 I\u2019m sure there\u2019s a good acronym somewhere in that mouthful \u2014 available for public viewing and drooling somewhere in early 2014:<\/p>\n<p>https:\/\/www.stratfordcanada.ca\/en\/playhere\/resources\/Recreational_Programs\/Stratford_Bike_and_Pedestrian_Master_Plan_Report_web.pdf<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.davidhowardpsychologist.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/Screen-Shot-2017-09-07-at-9.33.55-PM.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/www.davidhowardpsychologist.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/Screen-Shot-2017-09-07-at-9.33.55-PM-300x243.jpg\" alt=\"Screen Shot 2017-09-07 at 9.33.55 PM\" width=\"300\" height=\"243\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-230\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.davidhowardpsychologist.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/Screen-Shot-2017-09-07-at-9.33.55-PM-300x243.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.davidhowardpsychologist.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/Screen-Shot-2017-09-07-at-9.33.55-PM-1024x830.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><br \/>\nConcepts are good. Plans are necessary. And where would the world be without its consultants and consultation? In the spirit, however, that sooner or later, to be of value, the rubber needs to hit the road \u2014 be it running shoe or bike tire. I\u2019ve taken the liberty of extracting one of the several \u2018visions\u2019 of our bicycle friendly city from said report. Together with, as everyone who sat high school English exams will appreciate, a compare and contrast exercise, viz. Google\u2019s portrayal of current reality. A quick squint at the City\u2019s 2014 projection (together with a Captain Midnight decoder ring to fathom all the dots and colours) suggests an interconnected realm of cycling Shangri-la. Google, in its inimitable style of showing \u2018what is\u2019, suggests a world slightly less contiguous, a little less replete, decidedly less idyllic \u2014and, oh yeah, less colourful. In short, the orphaned green lines are \u2018what is\u2019. (A friend has suggested renaming the black ellipsoids \u2018Dan Mathieson Parkway\u2019 \u2014 to get a \u2018feel for the area\u2019, try bicycling along   the respective stretches of Quinlin and O\u2019loane Roads \u2014 but don\u2019t forget your pump.)<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.davidhowardpsychologist.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/Screen-Shot-2017-08-30-at-9.30.52-PM.png\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/www.davidhowardpsychologist.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/Screen-Shot-2017-08-30-at-9.30.52-PM-276x300.png\" alt=\"Screen Shot 2017-08-30 at 9.30.52 PM\" width=\"276\" height=\"300\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-228\" \/><\/a><br \/>\nTo return to Mr. Desnick\u2019s thesis, he cites the importance, the necessity of building an environment that invites cyclists into it. One wherein byways are dedicated and constructed to a useful end. One where cyclists are more than resented interlopers on roads proprietarily defended as the motorists\u2019 domain. One that is safe. He refers to the Midtown Greenway in Minneapolis, a \u2018bicycle expressway\u2019 that traverses the city as an example of just such a project. It put me in mind of our own \u2018midtown greenway\u2019 that too stretches from east to west \u2014 and may just be something more than a blue ellipse on a Google map. Hopefully in my lifetime. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Perhaps we\u2019re starting at the wrong end of the horse \u2014 or bicycle, in this case. The awareness surfaced as we watched a tall, thin, and articulate man on a Ted stage chronicle his journey from a diagnosis of Crohn\u2019s Disease \u2014 that predicted an increasingly debilitating four or five years of \u2018life\u2019 \u2014 to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.davidhowardpsychologist.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.davidhowardpsychologist.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.davidhowardpsychologist.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.davidhowardpsychologist.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.davidhowardpsychologist.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=231"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.davidhowardpsychologist.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":235,"href":"https:\/\/www.davidhowardpsychologist.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231\/revisions\/235"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.davidhowardpsychologist.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=231"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.davidhowardpsychologist.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=231"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.davidhowardpsychologist.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=231"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}