Leaving the cave behind

2013-03-11

The other day I became fascinated with the idea that automobiles are the modern day cave. I wanted to explore this idea a little bit more so I discussed it with someone who I knew would bring me more ideas - be sure to check out Jessie's post Cars and The Cave where she takes a more abstract, philosophical approach to this topic.

Cars, trucks, buses, SUVs - all provide their inhabitants with everything humans have ever required of a cave:

• shelter from the elements
• protection from outside dangers
• a place to feel safe and secure
• a place to relax and consume calories with little risk of threat
• a place to create the preferred environment for idle thoughts

We've improved the cave by making it mobile. Moving caves! Just think of what our ancestors would have wished for and look at what's been accomplished in the modern automobile. It's all in there.

We've understood that sharing experiences and stories in a community is important and have also solved for a way to include everyone who wants to participate from the comforts of their automobile. If you don't have any passengers you can still participate in some semblance of community by listening to the radio, or communicating with a CB radio or cell phone. No one has to feel alone in their automobile, even if they are driving alone in back country roads. There is a great comfort to be had in hearing someone's voice.

So, what is there for me to complain about? We've adapted one of the oldest, most cherished controlled environments which has allowed humans to safely live and propagate, and we've improved on it! What can I possibly say that goes against this accomplishment?

Caves are complicated. Caves are also traps. There is a cost to giving up the outside world to go hide in a cave all of the time.

Our distant ancestors survived to have their lineage (us) advance to societal and technological levels they would find incomprehensible. We have so dominated our environment large and small that our population levels at a single city dwarf that of the entire world had just a few centuries ago. Our societies today are filled with wonders, continuously invigorated by new and fresh examples of human creativity and spirit. Despite all of this progress and momentum, we still have an instinct to rely on the cave model for making us feel in control of our lives.

There was something that our ancestors had to do in order to prosper and spread. They could not stay in the cave forever. While caves provided early humans many benefits in safety and the chance to grow, caves could not provide the ability to sustain humans in the long term.

Game is hard to hunt from inside of a cave. Crops don't grow well in the dark of a cave. How about inter-community commerce and trade? Exchanging of ideas, bloodlines, and cultures?

What about conditioning the body and mind? Building a healthy body that can stave off an entire category of diseases associated with stagnation and lethargy?

All of these things need to take place outside the cave.

Humanity could not have risen to meet the challenges of the world, to grow in the important ways that were necessary for success of the species, and eventually evolve into the societies that exist today if they stayed in their caves.

Automobiles like cars are modern day caves. All the benefits, and nearly all of the same drawbacks. To shelter yourself is also to be trapped within a boundary that prevents you from improving your condition.

To me, this is the most disturbing part: we all recognize the benefits we gain from our modern day mobile caves, so much so that we've blinded ourselves to the most painful flaws that have no simple solutions. Quite sadly, we haven't figured out how to deal with living in caves that can move!

Accidents, deaths, and plenty of other tragedies are a daily reality that we have numbed ourselves to until it happens in a way we can't ignore. And this doesn't even scratch at the large-scale disruptions that come from burning tremendous amounts of toxic chemicals into the air and water - I'm just exploring the human aspect here, the human experience, and how it interrelates with this modern cave concept. We are all lured by the feeling of safety and convenience our modern caves offer, and for that feeling we have let our individual and collective guards down.

Please, leave the cave every once in a while. It's important that you do. You don't have to take my word for it, look to our ancestors and see that when they left their caves they had something to show for it. Us.

Cinema, Cycling, and the Anti Hero

2012-08-22

We love this story. A strong-willed, charismatic, rogue protagonist with an alternative and edgy lifestyle that becomes involved in an ultimate challenge and finally rises to the occasion.

Premium Rush chase scene

We love this story when it is told in the context of embellished history, like William Wallace in Braveheart - back when Mel Gibson just seemed mostly harmless and not scarysad.

We love this story when it is told in classic works, musicals, and various movie adaptations, like Valjean in Les Miserables.

It's Vin Diesel in almost every movie he's been in. It's Aeon Flux, Alice in Wonderland, Alice in Resident Evil, Beowulf, Batman, Pac-man (the pill popper), Sanjuro Kuwabatake in Yojimbo, Aragorn.

We are drawn to these faulty characters because they seem more real, more like us. They are flawed in some understandable way, a way we can relate to. These characters are likable despite their human faults, and they become the kind of person you want to win, to bring back order and prove their worth to us, the audience that is now vested in their victory. In this story it becomes the audience that would now be cheated if the bad guys won.

But somehow, the bad guys won't win. Our fractured character, the anti hero, will win and be our champion.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt after crashing through a window on the set of Premium Rush

Cycling is about to get an new anti hero, and I for one have been wanting and waiting for this to happen.

The 80's had a good run of popular movies about bike anti heroes that bucked the traditional norm. There was Quicksilver which featured a bicycle messenger (hmm), BMX Bandits which had the best use of walkie-talkies ever of any movie, Pee-wee's Big Adventure - the best damn bicycle movie of all time.

But, it's been a while since modern movie-making magic turned it's focus back onto the bicycle in any fictional, non-comical way. The trailer for Premium Rush has fixies, messengering, law-flaunting, thrilling chase sequences, and our anti hero is wearing a helmet through it all.

I wonder how many jokes will be made, in movie and out of movie, about Wilee wearing a helmet.

I wonder how long it will take for there to be some newspaper or news site story that ends up basking in the sweet stench of the vitriolic comments section, as it always does.

I wonder if I'll have to defend the concept of this movie in conversations with friends and colleagues, who will no doubt ask me next Monday if I saw that new movie about a crazy bike messenger guy who saves something.

Of course I'll be going on opening night, tagging along with some other fixie riders as we celebrate with Geekhouse Bikes (who built one of the bikes used for the movie) and Superb, two local area hand-built bike manufacturers, as well as the Boston Bike Messenger Association (BBMA).

Marty from Geekhouse Bikes shows off the Premium Rush bike they built

I'll also be going the night before it opens, for a screener event that a friend of mine scored tickets for.

And just for the record, I've been riding around in a red shirt and black shorts on my (hybrid, then later my fixed gear) bike for roughly two years, but it was in no way inspired from when I first heard of this movie being made, it is a complete coincidence.

Me, in red shirt black shorts next to my fixie

Map of flight N48DL

2012-04-22

This is a sibling post to my thoughts during my analysis of flight N48DL, the purpose of this post is to share some of my analysis, as well as the data I produced. I am not involved in any official capacity to research the cause of the crash of flight N48DL on April 19th, 2012.

Here is a graphic showing the original flight plan and the actual path of the flight.

Original filed flight plan and flight path of flight N48DL.

This is another view of the flight path which shows the westward descending and eastward ascending flight pattern.

Horizon shot of flight path, original and last amended flight plans. Altitude drops during westward orientation of the plane on the loops.

Below is an embedded Google Map of some of the data, as well as more graphics produced using Google Earth. The full dataset I worked with to produce these images is available at the bottom of this post.

View Larger Map

Some of the software the FAA uses to model flights several hours into the future requires the latest available intention of each flight. The intented path of the flight is filed as a flight plan. The original filed flight plan will usually be returned somewhat altered to avoid weather, restricted zones, and other aircraft flight paths. Over the course of a flight the flight plan may be amended with updated information which allows the traffic flow programs to recompute and predict potential issues in the air space several hours in advance. The next graphic shows the final amended flight plan for N48DL, which takes into account much of the behavior of the flight so as to model other flights around it.

Last amended flight plan and flight path of flight N48DL.

This is another horizon-oriented view of the flight path which shows the loops.

Alternate horizon view of flight path of N48DL..

The information contained in this KML file is in the public domain and anyone may reproduce my efforts provided they go through the steps of acquiring the flight information. I have worked to translate the original flight plan, last amendment to the flight plan, and position information into a format which can be viewed in Google Earth and Google Maps.

To use the file in Google Earth you may either download it by right-clicking on the link above and saving the file locally, or by referencing it as a URL by copying the link location. To use it in Google Maps paste the link location into the search field, or click this link where I've done that work already; it may be helpful to unclick the checkbox next to the folder name "Flight points of N48DL" as these provide time and altitude information in a way that can clutter the map. Alternatively, you may use this link which is to a version of the data omitting the individual flight path data points with time and altitude information.

Bike lane salmon

2012-03-23

Earlier today my coworker Bill and I were riding back to our office from a lunch outing in Harvard Square. At one point he bumped into me in a manner recently joked about by local area artist-blogger @bikeyface in a post about being surprise-bumped from behind by another cyclist. Bill made contact with me because I slowed suddenly and with a slight panic when I realized I might get crashed into by a bike salmon in the lane we were in.

Nothing too terrible happened this time, and I managed to keep my curses contained to my inside-voice. This little stretch on Eliot St in Cambridge has two vehicular lanes and a bike line in one direction (the one we were going in) and one lane in the other direction (which she wasn't using). It's often quite packed with traffic, and I was happily surprised there wasn't a car right next to us adding complication to the situation - I can only imagine whoever was driving near us was sharp and saw what was coming their way, and did the right thing by slowing down. The wrong-way rider did not do the right thing, which would have been to stop and get out of the way as soon as the error was realized.

So, what happened here? Why did I find myself nearly running head-first into someone doing a fantastically ridiculous thing?

The weather this past week has been extraordinary, and the seasoned cyclists out there know that with the onset of spring comes a surge in the number of riders on the road as bikes are dusted off and folks set out to enjoy the newly favorable riding conditions.

This uptick in the number of riders includes with it some of the less experienced, and somewhat less law-abiding, riders. It's generally much safer for cyclists when there are more of us on the road (increased visibility and awareness), but sometimes this carries with it increased risk on a more localized level. As an analogy, when there's more bees trying to get into and out of the hive, chaos reigns and focus shifts from one maintaining one movement style to adopting a sketchier, less predictable form. Harvard Square is the hive, in this case.

One should not have to worry about someone on a bike going the wrong way in a bike lane. A bike lane with multiple, easily visible markers pointing in one, and only one, direction.

Yet, here she was. Quite nonchalant about the danger she was putting other people into.

Good luck to you all out there, and be aware of everything around you. And please, don't ride the wrong way in a bike lane.

Bike lane safety

2011-12-27

Sadly - very sadly, I heard after I got home today that a cyclist was struck and killed in Cambridge near MIT campus. It was on Vassar St off of Mass Ave, an area which I've heard of bike accidents happening at before despite the fact there are bike lanes all around, and so much bike traffic I can't imagine anyone being oblivious to their general, persistent presence.

Not like this. Damnit, I hate hearing about another cyclist's death.

There's a lot that goes through my mind on nights like this one. I can't imagine what awful news it must be to receive if you are the family of this victim. Or, a close friend. A significant other.

I know, that people driving their cars/trucks/SUVs aren't (mostly) psychopaths who want to cause harm to others. I know, that when a driver is involved in a situation where someone dies, they are not prepared for the guilt that follows.

So many times tragedy comes, and it could have been prevented. I can't say tonight what happened in Cambridge, what might have been done differently, what could be learned to keep this from happening again.

Earlier in the evening I had already begun working on a video when I read the news, and it seemed more poignant and timely to patch it together. I'm no wizard with editing, I didn't overlay any audio, I didn't even put in any credits. I just want to point out some of the absurd behavior I come across quite frequently, and if you identify any of these hazards as something you can avoid contributing to, I'd be grateful. And, not doing one of these things may save someone's life, even mine.

In this video I am showcasing bike lane interlopers and vehicles that increased the risk to my safety in lieu of a few seconds of slowing down, or finding an actual parking spot. In the first three minutes I had my lane cut off from me twice by vehicles that didn't appear to check and see if the space was safe to swerve into (and, without providing a signal of their intent to pass around an obstruction). This is the most dangerous move I typically encounter; though, the lane parkers seen later on can make things risky as it forces me into the road where I get to then intermingle with two-ton rage machines.

(More after the break, in the complete post.)

Yes, those are license plates listed at the end. I considered reporting them, but honestly I know that will end up going absolutely nowhere. I'm positive that the police have their focus on other things, and often it's more disturbing than someone double-parking in a bike lane. Worst things are being done.

I just wish that more drivers wouldn't find this to be acceptible behavior.

I'd like it if there was a way to submit picture and video evidence of bad road users somehwere so that it could lead to points or suspension of a driver's license. I don't think public shaming is sufficient, as they're in public when they toss my safety to the curb.

My thoughts are scattered and hurt as I scan everywhere looking for information on tonight's painful, mortal reminder. I want to know what happened, what went wrong. I want to not know who it was, and I feel ashamed for being so selfish as that. The truth is, every time I hear of another cyclist's death, I feel my own form of loss and I don't think I'd keep control of myself if it was someone I was close to.

Be safe out there. Slow down. Don't kill anyone.

Is that really so hard?

Helmet cam

2011-12-18 21:53

Last month I purchased a camera I could attached to my helmet. After only two days of wearing it on my commute I caught a near-hit in Harvard Square. For a more complete description of the near-event, read the full post.

I try very hard to be visible and predictable when I ride. In the video I took, I was passed by a car too closely, less than a foot away; I was planning on passing the pair of riders ahead of me but slowed down as I knew I couldn't make the maneuver. The cyclist right in front of me opted to pass the one in front of him without looking around to see if it was safe to do so, and without giving a signal. I could tell he was going to do this by his speed and slow drift leftward out of the bike lane - the car didn't budge, and the result is a very near-hit.

If you look carefully you can see the mirrors actually cross each other on the vertical plane. An inch from contact. It's possible that mirror-to-mirror contact wouldn't cause the cyclist to fall, though the whole situation could easily have been avoided by the car not trying to pass when it was unsafe to do so. Legally debatable: the cyclist should have right of way as he was ahead of the car; he should have signalled his intent, but his intent was also obvious.

The car driver had already broken the law when she passed me too closely. In Massachusetts the law requires a space of three feet, and she was less than one foot away when I was overtaken. The cyclist needs to be more careful how he rides, and the driver needs to recalculate her trade-off between getting to the next red light and endangering other road users.

Transportation blog

2011-12-18 15:38

This blog space will be used for my stories and thoughts about transportation.

As a bike commuter, I anticipate many posts in the future regarding the struggle for safety during my rides in and around the streets of Boston, Cambridge, and Somerville.

To illustrate the dangers I face as an exposed road user, I've recently purchased and have begun using a helmet cam. Coming up soon will probably be some pictures and videos to share my experiences with the world.

But, not everything will be about bikes. I work for a company that specializes in flight tracking and information. There are many people working in this industry, with different aspects being their focus. Sometimes the challenges faced deep down in one industry mimic the challenges faced elsewhere, and I think there will be some posts in the future which could be applied generically.

Until then, ride on!