The Final Lap

Number of Miles Ridden

I am very excited about the number of miles I have ridden over this semester as a commuter. The bike computer really helped me have an excellent measurable on how well my project went. On September 3rd, I started with 208.24 miles on my bike computer, as of November 26th, I am on 280.86 miles! That means I rode 72.62 miles just by commuting! I loved checking my mileage to see how far I had ridden. That number of miles is really incredible when you think about it.

Gas

What I really hoped to achieve was to reduce the amount of money I spent on gas. Unfortunately that did not happen. Although overall I drove my car much less than I did last year, I also went home more this year. To compare, I used my credit card statements from August, September, October, and November of 2011 and compared them to the same months in this year.

First let me explain how I used my car this year versus last year. Last year, I was carpooling to RedStepper practice with my roommates probably every other day for all of first semester. I also drove to the library because I had a lab at night and did not want to walk. Because I was consumed with RedSteppers (that's the IU dance team if you did not know), I pretty much did not go home until Thanksgiving in 2011. Now this year I pretty much only drive my car once a week, but I have gone home more often, and this requires a full tank of gas for round trip. I went home twice in August, did not go home in September, went home in October, and then home for Thanksgiving in November.

So unfortunately, this graph did not turn out as I hoped, but also the price of gas could also be a factor. The number of gallons purchased would have been a better comparable, but I do not have that specific information. Overall then, I rode my bike more, drove my car in Bloomington less, but drove my car home to Illinois more.

What I Learned and the Future

Basically I am very happy with the overall result of my personal project. I learned a lot about biking in Bloomington and commuter biking in general. At times it got frustrating or annoying when it was raining or when I was just plain tired and did not want to ride my bike. But overall I knew biking would be so much faster then walking, and I had to do it. Unfortunately, I did spend more money on gas and I never did go buy groceries on my bike. 

Now that it has gotten colder, I still ride my bike to work, I just have to bundle up a bit more. Wind is definitely a bigger factor on a bike. Once it does start to snow (and I really hope it does this year, I love snow) I probably will just start to walk to work. I do not want to subject my bike to the slush and salt on the streets and then track that all back into my apartment. 

Next semester I definitely will be riding my bike to work and elsewhere for two reasons. One I really like it, and two I basically do not have the option to drive because I cannot park anywhere without that pass. I guess that is how it should be. If we disincentivize parking, that only leaves 3 other options: the bus, the bike, or our feet. I would rather rely on myself then a bus, so its active transportation all the way for me.

This project really helped solidify my love of biking and really helped confirm that I hope to work in active transportation one day. I have basically been stalking all sorts of active transportation groups for jobs for after graduation. I have been really intrigued by The City of Chicago Bicycle Program, The Active Transportation Alliance, The Alliance for Biking and Walking,  and The League of American Bicyclists.

Bike The Drive, an annual event put on by The Active Transportation Alliance.  No cars here. Only Bikes.

My boyfriend, Kevin, and I riding down Lake Shore Drive on our Little 5 bikes. 

Bike the Drive is an event put on by the Active Transportation Alliance, where Lake Shore Drive is closed down to cars and open only to bicyclists. It was one of the coolest things I have ever done in the city of Chicago, and I would love to be involved with stuff like this. Hopefully my unique personal project will make a great experience for me to use when job hunting this winter. Wish me luck!

Wrapping It Up: Final Class Entry

Overall Course Reflections

Looking back, this has definitely been one of my favorite graduate classes. This is the type of stuff I want to be involved in when I graduate, not economics and statistics. I know all that is important but this is the meat of what I want to do with my life. I loved the wide range of topics we got to cover and wish we could have covered them more in depth. What I really would love to see would be specific courses taught about those topics in SPEA. A whole course on green building? Amazing! A whole course on waste reduction and recycling? Terrific! I would be in heaven!

The set up of the class was different from every course I have taken thus far, so that was refreshing. I liked that it was so open and not simply a lecture and take notes type of class. The fact that there were not exams always helps too.

Otherwise, I loved learning how to use Blogger. I had never used it before. My family even follows me to see how my personal project is going. Overall, I got to learn some new social media skills that will be important in the future.

Personal Project Evaluation

The personal project was a lot of fun. I enjoyed getting to challenge myself throughout the semester. Doing this project gives our class something to really work with while interviewing for jobs. If I apply for an active transportation job, I can tell them all about what it is like to bike to work, because I have personally done it. I talk a lot more about this topic in my final personal project blog. 

I wish we made more of an emphasis of updates on the projects in class. I am not going to go and read every person in the class's project updates on their blogs. I do not check blogs and stuff so I have no idea what is going on with everyone. It would have been nice if at least once we went around and talked about how our project was going.

Sustainability and Beyond

My perception of sustainability has changed for the better over the course of the semester. I have taken sustainability related classes (like E400 Topics in Sustainability)  before, and have worked and blogged in the field (like for the EPA about the Super Bowl), but this course offered me good amounts of information about multiple topics. Having the different ideas and opinions of my like-minded peers really helped shape my view of sustainability. Even now I find sustainability hard to describe.  It is not just preserving our resources for present and future generations. There are so many other factors that go into that.

Who knows, I might end up in DC working on this stuff!

Some of the topics we covered in class definitely painted a grim outlook for the future if we do nothing now, but learning about all the different ways we can overcome climate change and the like helps me realize that there really is hope, that there can be change, it just might take a while or some genius SPEA students to fix that. 

The biggest lasting effect that I gained from this class will be the experiences I had. My personal project of becoming a bike commuter is something that I can always talk about in interviews and can apply to whatever my future career ends up being (Especially important if I am in active transportation). On that same note, having been involved in filling out the Walkability Assessment can be a valuable tool to me in the future. 

I totally want a Victory Garden.

Of course I was able to integrate my knowledge of sustainable communities in my own life and I always try to integrate it into others lives as well, even if they do not want my input. I am trying to live a more sustainable life, which is sometimes hard when you are at school. There are things you just have to accept (like my apartment I am renting) and then there are things you can change (like how I am commuting to work). I have the knowledge though, to integrate more when I do start my own life outside of school. At that point, I will have the money and the knowledge to make the right decisions. And if I do not have the knowledge I need, I now know where to get it.

My cohorts have taught me that there are many new things I want to try! I would love to learn how to preserve and can food from the Farmer's Market, to eat more locally, grow my own food, compost, and should probably learn how to cook more too. It gives me confidence that if my classmates can attempt these things, then I can too! As I said above, these are some things I hope to finally focus on once I am done with school. 

Look Both Ways When You Cross the Street

Probably one of the biggest reasons people do not want to bike is for the fear of their safety. I completely see where they are coming from. It is scary to be this little exposed vehicle next to tons of steel and bone-crushing metal on the road. I have already had a couple close calls...

Times I Could Have Died on My Bike But Didn't
While riding home one day on 14th Street there was a car behind me eager to get around me. I was well aware that it was back there. I could hear it (one of the main reasons one should not wear headphones when you ride) and stayed as far to the right as I could without hitting the cars parked along side the road. As the road sloped up, the car decided to speed around me, all the while not able to see an oncoming car (obviously there should have been a no passing line in the road). Needless to say there was a lot of honking, swerving, and angry looks from the oncoming driver. All was fine, but seriously that could have ended terribly.

Another time I was about to make a left on to Indiana Ave. from 4th Street. I put my arm out to signal that I was turning left, but this car sped up to the stop sign on my left just as I was about to turn. I almost rode straight into this car because they did not see or decided to ignore my turning signal.

The overall take away from this is that cars do not know how to share the road with bikes. It would probably be a smart idea to include a "share the road" section in the drivers education curriculum if it  does not exist already. I surely do not remember learning that in drivers ed.

Biggest Pet Peeves
One thing I have definitely noticed while riding occurs at four way stop signs. I stop at the stop sign just like I should, but either cars or pedestrians walking across the cross walk basically pretending I do not exist. Cars also like to think that I never need to turn left. The reality is that once bikes are on the road, they are to be treated like cars, and this just does not happen, and I believe it is because people just do not know what to do. Educating drivers would be key to helping cyclists feel safer on the roads.

Below is a Drivers Education video put together by the League of Illinois Bicyclists. 

While riding around campus, and while walking there I have noticed numerous things about the other bikers and biking in general in Bloomington:

• YOU CAN'T RIDE YOUR BIKE ON THE SIDEWALK! IT IS ILLEGAL!! AND ANNOYING!
• Don't text and ride your bike
• You probably should not smoke and ride your bike either (I have seen this so many times its ridiculous)
• Keep your line while riding. Do not swerve around when on the street. If you can't keep your line, you don't have the core muscles to control your own bike and that is sad
• I spend a lot of time avoiding trash and debris in the bike lanes and on the side of the road

Safety Measures: Lights and Helmets

My new lights

Around the end of September I realized I would need to purchase some lights for my bike. I get off work at 8 o'clock and at that point it is not exactly bright out anymore on my way home. I picked up a set of lights at BikeSmith for $23. They attach and remove easily and don't look too obnoxious. Now I do feel a bit safer getting home because I know that cars can see me.

An appropriate location for wearing a helmet

Now I know it is important to wear a helmet. I know, I know. You are stupid to ride without one. But most of the time, if I am just riding to work down Grant St. (which is not very busy), I do not wear my helmet. I tried it once and honestly I felt really really weird  The concept of wearing street clothes and a helmet just messes with my mind. But wearing my kit and a helmet just makes sense. You do not go out on a ride without a helmet. I do not know what it is, but commuting just does not make me want to wear a helmet. I asked around to my cycling friends and some people suggested that it is because I might feel more confident with my biking abilities, and thus do not need a helmet.

I would agree that I do feel pretty confident about my bike handling skills. I am used to riding with 32 other people riding so close to me that I can touch them. That is what Little 5 is about: pack riding. And it can be very messy if something goes wrong. I guess when I am out in the street I am not surrounded by anything that will immediately make me hit the pavement, so I do not feel as concerned as I would be riding on the track.

You think you are afraid of riding on the road? Then check this out and you might be happy to be riding on the street....

I tried to think of a good example of what its like to not want to wear your helmet and this was the best I could come up with. It is like a soccer player and their shin guards. Shin guards protect your shins while playing, just like a helmet would protect your head. A soccer player would never be allowed to play without shin guards, just like a cyclist would never be able to race without a helmet. But a soccer player would feel silly walking around with shin guards on when they aren't playing in a game. Just like a cyclist might feel silly wearing a helmet while riding 6 mph in a bike line.




One more safety video!

COAP and CO-OPs

COAP

This week's reading is about making homes affordable. One of the examples I am sure many of you have heard of and probably have participated with is Habitat for Humanity. Although I have never personally worked with Habitat for Humanity, I know it is an awesome program because I participated in something similar called Christian Outreach with Appalachian People (COAP) as my church's annual youth mission trip.


Although Christian is in the name, it is an interdenominational non-profit corporation created in 1983 to help low-income families in Harlan County, Kentucky. The need is great in Harlan for many are living in remnants of coal towns with homes 30-50 years old. COAP's mission is "to help provide safe, warm, and dry housing with low and very-low income residents of Harlan County." To do this COAP constructs new homes and rehabs and repairs existing ones. This relates to when Roseland mentions...

"non-profit and citizen-run organizations can raise awareness of affordable housing needs within the community and can support individuals or families seeking to lower housing costs," (182).

The state of some homes

What was always stressed to us was that Harlan County is one of the poorest in the nation. The median household income for the county is $26,582 for 2006-2010, compared to $41,576 for the state of Kentucky. This is also compared to the median household income for Monroe County of $38,137.

Hanging on Their Front Porch

I participated in a COAP mission trip every summer while I was in high school. We drove the 12 hour drive in 15 person van caravans to Harlan for a 40 hour week of pure physical labor. Our groups would be assigned to different homes throughout the county to do different projects such as roofing, siding, painting, landscaping, and carpentry. I can honestly say I have build a handicap-accessible deck and have roofed a home. The families who lived in the homes we were rehabbing were sometimes very grateful, interacted with and welcomed us into their homes, and some never came out to meet us at all.

A couple times my group had wonderfully gracious home-owners who would come out and talk to us every morning when we got there and bring us cookies and drinks when it was 90 degrees and we were sitting on the roof. Most of the time they were older couples, or in one case, a little old lady who couldn't afford to patch her leaking roof. These people were amazing, and are mainly the reason I came back year after year.

Taking a Rest Before Getting Back to Work (I am on the very end)

And CO-OPs

Roseland defines cooperative housing as an alternative that provides shared facilities, help with childcare, meal preparation, a sense of security, support, and a feeling of security (181). Tenants own their own homes but share responsibilities and participate in planning within their co-op community. 

Unfortunately, Roseland mentions that most co-op developments are occupied by more affluent households than low-income families. That seems really weird to me. But fortunately, Bloomington is home to Bloomington Cooperative Living, whose mission is to foster an economically, ecologically, and socially sustainable society and is also a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt provider of low-income housing.

The co-op is founded on the seven Rochdale Co-operative Principles:

1. Voluntary and Open Membership
2. Democratic Member Control
3. Member Economic Participation
4. Autonomy and Independence
5. Education, Training, and Information
6. Cooperation Among Co-operatives
7. Concern for Community

Thirty-six people live in four houses in Bloomington Cooperative Living. Payments are about $485-585 and include rent, meals (made from local and organic ingredients), utilities, internet and other expenses. What a deal! There are also 5 hours worth of chores a week, which is a slight downside. But overall the co-op experience sounds awesome to me, and definitely would have been a viable option for me if I knew it existed. It has some of the perks of living alone, but also the perks of having a family around.

Interestingly, Purdue has Cooperative living on campus, but it is kind of like a cross between a sorority/fraternity and a co-op, compared to the one we have in Bloomington. They have 7 houses for women and 5 for men. They have recruitment and they participate in homecoming, but there are no national affiliations like sororities and fraternities and also no housekeepers to clean up after you. I know IU is tight on space, but I think co-op houses are a neat idea on a college campus. You get the bond of cheaply living together with people your age and you get to participate in all that college stuff without actually being tied down to the Greek system.(I was in the IU Greek system, so I can say this).

Of course what does this have to do with sustainability?

It seems odd that we would be talking about affordable housing in this class, but the idea is very simple. It is hard to focus on living a sustainable lifestyle when you cannot even afford a lifestyle at poverty level. Those people in Harlan literally could not afford to put a new roof over their heads, or even to build a wheelchair ramp so they could get in and out of their home. Those kinds of needs take precedent over sustainability needs. The goal then is to make housing affordable so they can spend less money on their house, less time worrying about it, and more time understanding the benefits of a sustainable lifestyle. 

This can be related to what we learned in Sustainable Development, called the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC), which depicts that as income increases to some turning point, environmental degradation will decrease.  Or degradation per capita rises with affluence up to some affluence and then it declines. The basic idea is if we help low-income residents increase their affluence, we can decrease environmental degradation.  The reason environmental degradation will decrease is due to a couple reasons: environmental awareness and increase in regulations, rich people invest in cleaner technologies, and rich people have more money to spend on environmental protection. 

Whether or not the EKC holds, it is important that we help low-income residents be able to afford their own home. Once they have their own physical home, they can then start to worry about their other home, planet Earth.

If this isn't worth being sustainable, I don't know what is

Benefits of Biking

Photo by Mark Land. All rights reserved

There are a lot of benefits to riding your bike. I get to spend time outside on our beautiful campus (which is great when it is nice out and no so great when it is raining), I get to be active, and I get to save time since it is faster than walking. The overall costs of biking have been minimal since I already have my own bike in good condition. That is a benefit too!



Where do I go?
From my apartment to work is 0.56 miles, which I ride there and back, which is 1.12 miles. I ride to work approximately 4 times a week, which means I ride 4.48 miles to work alone. I feel that it is really important that I choose active transportation to get to work because I am a trainer at a kickboxing gym. I need to set an example for our members that they can incorporate biking into their lifestyle as well. Otherwise, I mostly ride to the SRSC, the bank, the library, and the Union.

What do I Save?
The two biggest things biking helps me save is time and calories. I can get to work in about 6 minutes on my bike. I would not drive anyway, since there is no where to park, and since I don't have my pass anymore, my only other option is to walk. Biking helps shaves off half the time it would take to walk to and from work.

In terms of calories, I know I am not biking far, but it is better than the sedentary lifestyle of driving my car. I did find this intriguing fact from the Rails to Trails Conservancy over the summer while interning with BCOS, "Most American adults gain weight gradually, typically about two pounds a year, or an excess of about 100 calories a day. Just bicycling or walking for less than 30 minutes a day would be just enough to burn those extra calories and keep body weight stable." Crazy right? This type of information could really be valuable for those who are weight conscious.


I also save on gas money! For the month of September I did not fill up on gas at all.I probably would not have in October, but I went home over fall break and that required a full tank unfortunately.

“Bicycling is a big part of the future. It has to be. There’s something wrong with a society that drives a car to work out in a gym.” –Bill Nye the Science Guy

Quick Project Update

I have kept you guys pretty updated on what is going on with my bike commuting, but here is some physical evidence of what I have been up to. I started with 208.24 miles on September 3, and now I am at 251.39 as of October 8th. That is 43.15 miles of commuting! Amazing!



Friends of Al

What do you instantly think of when someone mentions climate change? Melting ice caps and stranded polar bears? Cracked, dried up riverbeds? Hurricanes and intense weather? I think of something a little different when someone mentions climate change....

 I think of this guy. Al Gore.

Al Gore and climate change go together like peanut butter and jelly. Thinking of one makes me think of the other. Al Gore and "An Inconvenient Truth" must have came out at a very influential time for me. It was 2006, and I was a sophomore in high school. I was just starting to figure out what I wanted to do with my life . I purchased "An Inconvenient Truth" on DVD. I have watched it more than once, and tried to get my friends to watch it with no success. I guess you could say Al Gore convinced me to go to SPEA. Oh Al. I even sported this "Friends of Al" bag as my backpack in high school to show my support. 

Yes, I still have and use this bag.

My autographed copy of "Our Choice"

I even met the guy. Once. For about 2 minutes. He came to the Borders in downtown Chicago for a book signing for his book, "Our Choice." It was the Tuesday before Thanksgiving of my sophomore year of college in 2009. I skipped all my Tuesday classes and came home Monday just so that I could meet Al Gore. I was estatic! My dad and I waited in line for approximately 4 hours on that cold November morning. I am pretty sure it was misting. I was so excited as the line twisted and turned, getting me closer and closer to my main man. And then it was over. He signed my book so fast, I have no other memory other than standing at the table. The book signing was eventually interrupted by protesters protesting about Mr. Gore's work. You can see what happened in the video below around minute 1:30. 

Action and Delay
If "An Inconvenient Truth" does not scare you into doing something about climate change, below is something else that can. I did tweet this video earlier, but I feel it is relevant to these readings. It creates a visual for Pacala and Socolow's conclusion that, "in confronting the problem of greenhouse warming, the choice today is between action and delay" (180).

6 Degrees
Even more relavent is the video below done by National Geographic. It profiles what will happen with each degree of warming. One degree may not seem like a lot, but man it sure is. And 6 degrees? We do not want to go there. Both videos were ones we watched while I TAed for E162 Environment and People.

Breaking Climate Change Down

Pacala and Socolow Stabilization Wedges 2004

All of that may seem really daunting. And it is. But what we need to do is create strategies that break it down to make it seem a bit more accommodating.  That is usually how I tackle a big project. I make lists of what I need to do based on importance. What we need to do here is break down climate change to make it more manageable for us to handle. The planet's fate is in our hands! We cannot just attack it in an unorganized fashion.

A perfect example of breaking it down is Pacala and Socolow's Stabilization Wedges. I first read about these in the Human Behavior and Energy Consumption (HBEC) course last semester. Each wedge of the triangle becomes a task on our list of things to do. Each wedge represents an activity that reduces emissions into the atmosphere (175). Some examples of the wedges are CO2 capture and storage, renewable electricity and fuels, efficiency and conservation, fuel-switching, nuclear fission, forests and soil. Once we cut carbon emissions by one-fourth in buildings and appliances projected for 2054, we can cross that off our list. For those of you who are list-oriented like me, it feels really good to finally cross something off once you have accomplished it. So one wedge down, 6 more to go. It is equally important that we keep our list at 7 wedges. We do not want to add more things to our to-do list, we want to finish what we have first. As Pacala and Socolow state, if carbon emissions were to grow 2% per year, then we would need 10 wedges. If carbon emissions were to grow 3%, then we would need 18 wedges (175).

National Geographic

We learned in HBEC that CO2 in the atmosphere can be compared to filling up a bathtub with water. For CO2 atmospheric to level off, "stabilization at any level requires that net emissions do not simply remain constant, but eventually drop to zero," (175). Just like a bathtub is going to keep filling with water unless the water is shut off.

Breaking it Down Even More

While the Stabilization Wedges are large, emcompassing tasks, we can always break them down even further to the mitigation and adaptive strategies Roseland mentions in Chapter 13. Mitigation strategies focus on reduction, while adaptive strategies respond and adapt to the changes that are expected. While the Stabilization Wedges are something that might be handled at a national and global level, mitigation and adaptive strategies can also be applied at a local and personal level. The study by Bulkeley et al. (2009) found that municipal programs seek to adapt and mitigate through changes to the built environment, transportation, and public services.

Mitigation and adaptive strategies reminded me of Gardner and Stern's, "The Short List" of tasks Americans can do to reduce their energy consumption. They address the fact that U.S. households account for 38% of national carbon emissions through their direct actions. And best of all, they break each task down by how much energy is saved. There are two types of tasks they present: curtailment and  increased efficiency:

• Curtailment 
• Curtailment means using less of the existing energy equipment. This is an everyday behavior that costs you time. Additionally, this behavior is not necessarily visible. An example is turning off the lights or your electronics.

• Energy Efficiency
• Increased efficiency involves more energy efficient equipment and installation at a higher initial one-time cost. It costs money instead of time. This type of behavior is more visible, such as purchasing a Toyota Prius.

Gardner and Stern 2008

As you can tell from the table, sure you can turn down your thermostat and save 2.8% of energy every day for the rest of your life. Or you can increase your efficiency by installing attic insulation and ventilation one time and save 5.0%. Overall, in the long run, you will save more energy and reduce more carbon emissions by focusing on efficiency-improving actions. 

So I end today's blog with a quote from Gardner and Stern, reminding you that you too can reduce climate change.

"Research on public attitudes and opinion on climate change and energy conservation indicates that a near-majority or majority of Americans believe that climate change is real, that it is caused by human action, that reduced energy use is part of the solution, and that personal actions can contribute to reducing climate change."

-Gardner and Stern "The Short List"