I tallied people passing through two sections of Beacon Street, and I couldn’t believe the traffic! It makes sense, because it’s a wide road, with bike lanes most of the way.

163 bicyclists in an hour!

I found this especially interesting because I’m taking a Program Evaluation class this semester. This data collection instrument is nice and simple, but at the same time it would be easy for a collector to miscount while trying to keep track of four directions of traffic. (Once I had 16 people walk through at the same moment.) If the city wanted completely accurate statistics, they could record the intersections on video and then have two separate people tally the results. Of course, that would be far more expensive, and since this study is relying on volunteers, I’m assuming it must not be well funded. This is definitely good enough for a quick and dirty method. However, if I were conducting the study, I would probably want more training of the volunteers and maybe simplify the forms to only include pedestrians and bicyclists.

I’ll be interested to hear how they apply the results.

Please ignore the rust.

I feel like an idiot, because I knew the chain was loose. It had slipped a few times and even fallen off once, but I was able to get it back on relatively easily. I made a mental note to take it to Cambridge Bicycle to be tightened, but I just didn’t get around to it.

Luckily there was a bike shop just a few blocks away from where this happened (ATA Cycle). They’re going to do some serious maintenance on it, and I’ll pick it up tomorrow. I should really learn to so some of this myself, but as you can see from the rust on the chain, I can’t even be trusted to do the simple maintenance that I do know how to do. What can I say? I’m not a gearhead. I don’t have the urge to fix my own car; why should I want to fix my own bike? On the other hand, I do take my car in for regular check-ups…

The microaethalometer's the one on the left.

To do this, I’m wearing a messenger bag while I’m biking, with a microaethalometer inside and an intake tube snaking up the strap and clipped near my neck. A separate GPS unit tracks exactly where I am when a specific measurement is taken, to point out any particularly bad spots.

One of the most common reasons people give for not wanting to ride bikes is that they’re worried about breathing in exhaust. This study will try to document whether that’s a legitimate worry. Personally I think being sedentary on the bus is far worse for me than any exhaust I might inhale, but I guess I’ll have to see what the results are. Stay tuned.

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I don’t think I’ll be able to make the February date, but hopefully March. I’ll let you know what I find out.

Mittens are warmer than gloves.

Bringing the bike inside overnight thaws it out again for the morning, but the ride home’s really frustrating.

Advice is pretty consistent on how to prevent this problem: store the bike in a covered shelter (preferably an unheated one) and wipe it down and grease it after riding in bad conditions.

Unfortunately, I only have outside bike racks at work, I don’t have a garage or shed at home, and I can’t store it in the apartment. It’s not that I would mind it underfoot so much, or the mess it makes on the floor in bad weather, but Oliver tries to escape whenever we open the door (stupid cat). I don’t dare keep it open long enough to wrestle my bike through every night.

Any advice? For now I’m just pretending it’s a fixed-gear and leaving it in second, so if it gets stuck there, I don’t mind. But I’m worried this is having a terrible effect on the bike. I’m definitely seeing rust, and that’s probably why water got into the cable in the first place.

Luckily I don’t have to worry about my brakes freezing, since I have a drum brake on the back. (I love coaster brakes.) There’s no cable to freeze, and it’s enclosed, so ice and snow can’t get in as easily. The front wheel has a rim brake, which could freeze, but I really only use the back brake. At least I won’t have a brake failure while I’m slowly riding home in first…

One year ago: Looking ahead to 2010

One of the many many classic cars in Havana.

My guidebook had said (yes, I am Ms. Guidebook) that Cuba is quite environmentally conscious. While the country might not have a good record of preserving its natural resources, its energy use is low. Globally, the three major sources of carbon emissions are transportation, heating/cooling, and meat production, and people in Cuba are generally parsimonious with all three.

• Transportation – Cars are either from before 1959 or imported from Europe/Russia/China, and there aren’t that many of them. Very few cars means that most everybody takes public transportation or walks. The bus system in Havana is extensive, with new articulated buses from China to meet the demand. I don’t know how often they run, but every bus stop was crowded with waiting people and the buses always seemed filled to capacity—or more. I even saw people hanging out open doorways as buses drove away. I never actually rode in one, but truthfully I’m not sure I’d want to. Even at the worst rush hour in Boston I’ve never seen the subway that packed.
• Heating/Cooling – Havana is warm enough that heating doesn’t seem to be an issue. Everyone kept apologizing that it was winter, but that really just meant I needed to wear a long-sleeved shirt outside at night. I’m sure it gets really hot in the summer, but the majority of the buildings seem to be 50 years old, thus before air conditioning. So they’re built to be naturally cooler than boxier modern buildings. Ceilings were higher—to draw hot air away from people—and it seemed that every floor had a balcony to act as a warm-weather living room, catching the ocean breeze. I wonder if it’s actually comfortable in the summer.
• Meat – I was worried that as a vegetarian I’d have a hard time in Cuba, but not at all. Beans and rice seem to be a staple, cooked in different ways and with side dishes of tostones (fried plantains) or yucca. Pork was also a regular feature at a lot of meals—once, a whole roast pig—but I was able to avoid it. I’m not sure if this is how Cubans eat on a day-to-day basis, but I was told it was traditional.

From all this, I assume that the average Cuban would have a far tinier carbon footprint than the average American (including me). However, it seems to be by necessity rather than by choice. While we might want to encourage public transportation use, natural cooling, and diets light on meat, we have to find a way to convince people who have the ability to choose otherwise.

Of course there are many environmental issues, too. For one, tourism is a major business, and if my experience is common, the source of a lot of carbon emissions. I drank bottled water the whole time, to avoid parasites in the tap water. I also took taxis, usually older cars followed by noxious clouds of exhaust. And my hotel room was a boxy building that was overly air conditioned.

All in all, it was a really interesting trip, one that made me both grateful for what we have and horrified at what we waste.

One year ago: Squeegees—Not Just for Windshields Anymore

Two four-hour round-trip plane trips emit more than a ton of CO2. This is the difference between, say, driving a hybrid rather than a regular car—or going vegetarian rather than eating meat—for a whole year!  It really makes me think about how a few big choices can outweigh a thousand little ones. I try to concentrate my efforts in order of efficiency (most impact, least effort; most impact, most effort; least impact, least effort; least impact, most effort) but sometimes I get distracted by day-to-day stuff.

Obviously, choosing not to fly would save a lot of CO2, but what if it can’t be avoided (or it’s important enough that you really don’t want to avoid it)? There are a few things we can do to minimize the effects of plane travel.

• Book nonstop flights – Up to 50% of fuel is used in takeoff (depending on the length of the flight), so it’s better to only do this once.
• Don’t fly short-haul – In addition to improving the takeoff/flight ratio for fuel consumption, shorter trips are far more efficient by bus, train, even car, than by plane.
• Don’t take the red eye – Airplane exhaust trails have more of a greenhouse effect at night.
• Offset your travel with carbon credits – I don’t generally think that carbon credits actually make up for reducing carbon used in the first place, but it does help assuage my guilt a little. Just make sure to buy them from a reputable company. Native Energy is my favorite, but TerraPass is another good one.

Don’t worry—I’m not such a Debbie downer that I’m letting my worries about my carbon footprint ruin my trips this month. I’m sure I’ll have a lot more to share when I get back.

One year ago: To Save Energy, Use the Dishwasher?