Public Spaces – Carbon conscious COVID dodging family travel

e-bikes

Electric bicycles are a game changer. A reasonable commute distance increases from 5 to 20 km (if the infrastructure exists). Hills are not an issue. No need to wear exercise clothes and shower upon arrival, unless you want to make it a work out. Seniors and people living with disabilaties can participate. Kids and cargo can come along. E-bikes can replace vehicles for many trips.

The cost of an e-bike ranges from ~$1000 to ~$10000. The Nova Scotia government started offering rebates for electric vehicle (EV) or bicycle purchases in 2021. 4-5x as many ebike rebates have been sent out vs EV rebates! There is a noticeable change on the streets of Halifax.

Rebates

Here are a couple of examples from our trip.

We observed a number of charging stations/storage spots along our route from Vienna to the UK.

Within a week of arriving back in Canada we purchased an electric pedal-assist cargo bike that can carry two children, one adult and/or cargo. We had sold our mini-van before the trip, so we now rely on this bike, regular bikes, walking, car share and transit to get around. We (not including our teenager) are loving the freedom and cost savings that come with this active lifestyle. 1330+ km to date.

Short Crosswalks

I am keen to share examples of some of the great infrastructure we observed while away on our big trip.

Roads have been built in the past to get drivers from point A to B as fast as possible, with little regard for vulnerable road users like pedestrians, cyclists and those using mobility devices. I recall reading a Tweet where a child asked their parent why the sidewalk always ends, but the road never does. Great point, kid! Municipalities are working on this problem, but until dangerous roads are the exception and not the norm, we need to keep talking about ways to improve.

Often, when we cross a street, we need to look for right, then left, then again right turning drivers to make it across safely. Depending on the direction we are crossing, the left turning drivers are coming at us from behind. Designing shorter road crossings, especially ones that cross a stretch of road where vehicles are only going in one direction, helps a lot.

Here are some examples including using lighting, refuge islands, bump outs, texture, road markings, signs and signals to slow drivers.

Post-trip blog TO-DO list & Vending Machines!

Happy New Year! Here is an eclectic post, to get me started again after a long hiatus.

We arrived back in Canada in late August and have been very busy adapting to our current reality of working, job searching, volunteering, school, activities & socializing. Adapting to this faster paced lifestyle after 2.5 years of the pandemic has been hard for the parents, but we take comfort in seeing the kids thrive back at home. Thankfully, we did not ruin their lives by taking the trip as may have been suggested once or twice!

As the COVID-19 pandemic soldiers on, we are a year behind our peers in adapting to the “living with COVID” phase here in Nova Scotia. We managed to avoid infection until early December, but we were fortunate to be able to contain the spread to one member of our household. Adapting to life at home sure would be easier without this elephant in the room, but here we are.

We spent the last four months of our trip cycle touring from Austria, through parts of Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, France and England. It was such an as awesome experience overall. Can’t wait to get back on the EuroVelo and other routes in the future.

Rather than continuing on with the chronological approach to my posts, I have divided up my photos into categories that may evolve into posts. Who knows when I’ll be able to write about all of this, but here is the list of potential topics:

For today, I’ll share a few vending machine photos. Most of the machines were located in walkable areas, except for the pizza machines, which were often in parking lots. I like how the dispensers could help small business owners reach more customers and/or keep consumers in smaller towns, rather than having to travel to shop. Bicycle tire inner tubes on the EuroVelo routes could really make someone’s day!

flowers in ‎⁨Chenoise-Cucharmoy⁩, ⁨France⁩

That’s all for now, except to say that I am on chapter two of the book “Curbing Traffic, The Human Case for Fewer Cars in Our Lives” by Canadians Melissa & Chris Bruntlett, and absolutely loving it. There may have been tears of joy. Read it!

Favourite Things: Austria on the EuroVelo 6 from Wein to German border 01-12 April 2022

As soon as we arrived in Austria after spending 2 weeks in Athens and 3 months in Thailand before that, we were blown away by the fantastic public spaces. Playgrounds & cycle paths & public art everywhere. This post highlights some of the cool things spotted as we cycled the EV6.

Solar PV panels were a common sight:

Saw a few of these micro grids/work stations?

Municipal compost pick up:

Recycling bins are large and accept household and public materials. This is very helpful for travellers, people out & about and tenants (so they don’t have to depend on landlords to participate).

There are so many playgrounds and each one is unique:

The Spitz Airbnb that I mentioned in the last post (with the bike storage room) also had what I think are ground sourced heat pumps:

Having drinking water accessible to all is so important. Why not make it beautiful?

Retractable bollards allow pedestrian/rolling streets to let in vehicles when necessary.

This is an insect hotel to support biodiversity. We first saw these in Toulouse, France.

This is a waiting area to catch a shuttle across the Danube River (Donau).

Clean and free public washrooms are vital.

I love this apartment building courtyard in Linz. Dryers are not a thing in Europe. Tons of communal space to dry your laundry here, plus extra bike storage!

This pipe has a new life (?) as a place to sleep for the night. There were also toilet & shower rooms made using concrete pipes.

On demand electric hot water in a grocery store bathroom. Electrification of everything puts us on the path to net zero.

And last, but definitely not least, an electric robotic lawn mower. We saw a few of these in action.

EuroVelo 6 in Austria from Wein to German border (01-12 April 2022)

I’ll break my observations in this area into two posts; one on cycling infrastructure and one for all the other awesome public spaces we saw. I loved Austria and want to return for more cycling, sightseeing & music. This part of the EV6 is one of the highlights of all the EV routes, but I won’t focus on the scenery here.

We spent 6 days in Wein (Vienna) preparing for our journey and then started our 4-month bike touring adventure on 01 April. It was COLD! With the springtime gear we had, I recommend waiting until mid April. I had problems keeping my toes warm and if we had a flat tire or whatever, we were not dressed for standing around.

More like Christmas on our second night on the trail. Good thing we weren’t camping!

What we remember the best from cycling in Austria (I am writing this 4 months later) is how the route was so well marked. If there was a detour, signs specifically for cyclists were posted. We appreciated this even more in hindsight as no other countries we visited excelled at signage.

These signs made me smile, as they are all for cycle paths! Incredible.

These were taken at an Airbnb we stayed at in Spitz. A huge bike storage room was available and it came with outlets and a shelf to plug in and hold e-bike batteries.

These pics are all taken in Melk where we took a rest day to avoid rain.

20 km/h streets where pedestrians, drivers & cyclists share space

Along the EV6 services are provided for cyclists’ needs.

Cycling to the grocery store is a normal thing to do. Often, good racks are provided.

Lastly, here are a couple cycle lane/path pics.

Linz: Space & signals for pedestrians & cyclists

Wien (Vienna), Austria cycle infrastructure 25 March – 01 April 2022 🚲

In Vienna, we could cycle anywhere we needed to go (including a big box store commercial park) on bike lanes & paths. Dreamy. This took some route planning and a willingness to go a longer distance, but it was worth it to keep our 3 kids away from vehicular traffic and enjoy the ride, stress-free.

Interconnection seems to me to be the key to great cycle infrastructure. In Vienna there are intersection signals & paths just for bikes. No need to dismount and walk across pedestrian road crossings.

Bike signal and space to ride across the intersection and into the bike path

Safe & easily accessible bike parking is also very important. No one wants to take too long to get their wheels out of the “driveway”.

We were able to store our 5 new-to-us bikes in our Airbnb courtyard.

I thought this was funny as I found the city so amazing for walking & cycling. The grass is always greener!

Next up, cycle touring on the EuroVelo 6!

Wien (Vienna), Austria safe & clean public infrastructure, 25 March – 01 April 2022🚶🏾‍♀️🚴‍♀️🚙 🐎

As I write this we are over 3 months into our adventure of using bicycles as our primary mode of transportation. We are now in England having cycled here from Vienna except for a train journey from Passau to Frankfurt in Germany (and the ferry across the Strait of Dover).

We flew to Vienna from Athens, as our research indicated that it would be a good city to purchase used bicycles in, it is on the EuroVelo 6 route, and the price was right. (Unfortunately, the logistics of getting through Eastern Europe safety overland proved to be too difficult/expensive, so we chose to fly to the safe biking routes.)

How lucky were we?! Right away Vienna felt like an oasis. Bike paths and pedestrian infrastructure & playgrounds everywhere. We stayed near the Prater amusement park, so not even in the downtown core. These first few photos are from the huge Prater park.

We saw so many great playgrounds around Vienna, and later along the EV6.

We walked ~6 km to get to the used bike store that we ended up purchasing 5 bikes, 5 helmets and 2 locks from. Once we were on the bikes, it was a lot harder for me to take pictures. Here are a few cool things I was able to snap photos of while walking that day, 26 March.

Too much good stuff to talk about. I’m going to have to do a second post on the bike infrastructure specifically. Here are more pics of miscellaneous good ideas in Vienna:

Signs directing people to public toilets (though not always free)

Athens public art (10-25 March 2022)

The obvious attractions of the Acropolis, the Acropolis museum etc. are ticketed, but there is a lot of history/art to see just walking around in the city.

Graffiti is everywhere in Athens. When we were at the Parthenon preparing to take a family photo a staff member rushed over to make sure we were not getting spray paint out of our bag. I’m certainly not in favour of tags everywhere, but some of it is quite beautiful and/or gets the message across!

Athens public spaces (10-25 March 2022)

There are cars everywhere (parked & driving) in Athens, so walking and cycling around the city isn’t awesome. There are other positive things about the city to highlight (and even some great walking streets).

As cars are parked in every available curb side space, these parkettes offer a welcome reprieve.

The transit system is electric (busses, subways & trams).

There are free public toilets available.

Playgrounds & recreation facilities are privately & publicly funded.

I’m going to do a separate post on public art. To wrap this one up, here are a few more miscellaneous highlights.

Athens is full of low rise residential buildings, some with retail space at street level

Bangkok Favourite Things (infrastructure, mobility, parks, waste management, art)

I am writing this post 2.5 months after leaving Thailand for Western Europe, where the infrastructure is often amazing. The things I will highlight in this post may be taken for granted in Europe, but I do not see all of these examples yet at home in Nova Scotia.

We were in Bangkok, a city of 10+ million people, from 18-25 February and 6-9 March 2022.

Bangkok has a network of e-tuks available for hire through the MuvMi app. I tried to use the service, but it didn’t seem to be available for the 5 or 6 km journeys that we needed to cover (designed for shorter trips).

Walking can be tricky in the city, as sidewalks are often narrow or non existent, and crossing the street can feel impossible. The good news is that once you decided to step onto the roadway (at a crosswalk at least) I felt like most drivers were paying attention and would stop. 🤞🏻🤞🏻🤞🏻

Very useful! Time available to cross is tight.

I would not cycle in Bangkok (nor would I drive), as I am not familiar with the rules of the road nor the particular cultural driving behaviours, and separate bike paths are not common. I was happy to see some infrastructure for bicycles around though.

Recycling was not often possible at the hotels we stayed at (beyond water bottles). Perhaps the waste from our rooms was separated later? Clearly the city has the facilities to recycle and compost (but public bins were uncommon).

They had a place for every type of waste at the tourism festival at Lumphini Park

I found finding a free public washroom much easier in Thailand in general than in Europe. (I did have to pay a small fee at Queen Sirikit Park.)

Additional washrooms for tourism festival at Lumphini park.

Lumphini Park has a playground (albeit sponsored by Michelin), a bball court, a gym and of course, free public toilets.

I love public laundry facilities and am now used to hanging our clothes to dry. I’ll be investing in a good indoor drying rack (in addition to our clothes line) so we can use our dryer less often when we get home.

And finally, a few examples of public art. We saw the same picture of this boy in Chiang Mai.

Next stop, Athens!

Sukhothai infrastructure

We stayed in Sukhothai, Thailand for 16 days in February 2022.

Our hotel was about 1.5 km from town where most of the restaurants were, so we rented bikes for daily use. The main roads were dangerous for biking (especially with kids), but we were able to make use of the bike path & quiet streets to minimize our time on the main roads.

*Note that there are thorns everywhere so you cannot take your bike off of the asphalt, ever! We had a number of flat tires to deal with before we figured this out.*

The bikes we rented for two weeks are normally rented to visitors of the historical park for a few hours. Exploring the ancient temples on bikes was magical as we could relax & explore in the car-free spaces (two of our days).

Some main roads have wide shoulders for motorcycles & bikes.

Outdoor mask mandate enforced by municipal staff.

Mauthausen Memorial

From Linz, Austria, my teenage daughter & I boarded a regional bus to the former concentration camp. We had attempted to visit two days prior en route with our bikes (we were cycling along the EuroVelo 6), but that proved to be too complicated. It’s a good thing we went back without time pressure, as we spent 4 hours there, and would have stayed longer if we didn’t need to catch the last bus home.

I don’t want to say too much because I feel it would always be the wrong thing. If you ever have a chance to visit a concentration camp memorial, I recommend it. I had wanted to get to Auschwitz on this trip, but that will not be happening. I am thankful that our cycling route provided a opportunity to learn & remember in Mauthausen.

An app was provided as a free audio tour (entry is free as well). The sound did not work for us, but we were able to read the text. Download MauthausenAudioguide if you’d like to learn more about the numbered photos below. The app guides you through 24 pages in total.

Never again? 🕊

3: SS & community teams played soccer beside dying prisoners

Parthenon Marbles, Athens

A bit off topic here. I’ll file this one under Public Spaces. This story is well known, but was news to me.

I had been listening to a ABC/CBC podcast while in Thailand (December to March) called “Stuff the British Stole”. One of the episodes was about marble carvings destructively taken from the Parthenon by Britain’s Lord Elgin about 200 years ago. So it was interesting to be aware of this history when we ended up in Athens (we were there for 2 weeks in mid March 2022).

Here is the podcast: https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/stuff-the-british-stole/losing-your-marbles/13572980

The short story is that the Parthenon Marbles were looted by Lord Elgin when the Ottoman empire had control over Greece. They are now housed in the British Museum in London. The Hellenic Republic government and many individuals have been campaigning for their return ever since.

I recall that we saw many Greek antiquities at the Louvre as well when we were there in September 2021. The Louvre houses a Parthenon Marble panel as well (no photo).

Here is the Parthenon at the Acropolis in Athens in the distance & close up:

At the Acropolis the facts of the theft are stated on this panel in the last paragraph:

Another day, when visiting the Acropolis Museum, we watched a short video detailing the Parthenon Marbles on display at the British Museum. As detailed in the podcast, the Acropolis Museum was purpose-built to house all of the Parthenon Marbles. It is a beautiful facility.

I wondered who this was, presented outside the Onassis Library. It is Melina Mercouri. When serving as Minister for Culture and Sports, she fought hard for the return of the Parthenon Marbles. I hope that someday soon they are returned!

Chiang Mai, Thailand infrastructure, public art & COVID-19: 9-30 Jan 2022

We spent nearly 3 weeks in Chiang Mai. In general I found the city a bit restrictive because there are very few parks and sidewalks are crowded. Here are the highlights from the parks we did spend some time in:

To cross the street in the city you have to be aggressive i.e. walk out into the traffic and hope they stop. Luckily they do have buttons to push that stop the traffic on demand (theoretically, they get a red light but not all drivers acknowledge it). You (sometimes) get a warning on how many seconds you have to wait, then a yellow light, and then you’d better move it for the 11 seconds or so you get to cross.

Bike infrastructure is not common, but it does exist.

Chiang Mai University (CMU) no problem, just use the sidewalk 😆

There is a lot of beautiful public art around Chiang Mai.

Covid-19 spread is prevented wherever possible, while the country remains open for business including tourism. Our family received 1 free vaccine dose and paid for 1 privately while in Chiang Mai. There is an outdoor as well as indoor mask mandate.

A few other highlights around town:

Ao Nang infrastructure highlights, (Krabi, Thailand) 18 December/21 – 09 January/22

Until now I have posted public spaces observations on my Twitter profile @lecwhite (you can see them by selecting the media tab). I’ll continue on here, and possibly add pics later from our time in (mostly) France, Belgium & the Netherlands in the fall. I have a lot of catching up to do! We are now back in Europe after 3 months in Thailand 🇹🇭.