Lesson # 2: the Fisher Library is Phat and Philly is Phit

The Fisher Fine Arts Library is officially my favorite building in the world. I studied up there today and twas great. I felt fancy. Don't know if you can tell from the picture, but the graduate carrels are perched in a narrow cat-walk type space above the main library. I read Jane Jacobs, Allen Jacobs (Great Streets) and Kevin Lynch (Design of cities?). I feel officially on my way to being a planner.

I also biked a lot today. There's a path that runs next to the river which is quite scenic. It goes about 20 miles up to Valley Forge National Park, but I only went about 7, up to Falls Bridge. I did my sketches for class along the way. There are quite a few parks and benches and picnic tables and various other interesting places to stop throughout the ride. It reminded me of biking through Minneapolis with Carrie. It seems like a very effective way to allow city-dwellers to get a breath of fresh air and feel like they're "out of the city" without having to travel too far. So whoever designed it: kudos to you.

Realization of the day: I haven't been in/on any form of motorized transport in five days, which is probably the longest span of time in my life. This blows my mind. Now that I don't have a car, walking and biking and maybe busing or subwaying (not a word, I know) are my only options for getting around. I'm used to it already. Biking is pretty fun. It's a very efficient form of transportation. It's about twice as fast as walking, and for a commute it ranges from 2/3's as fast to just as fast or faster than taking a bus or car depending on traffic/rush hour, etc. Additionally, and this is my favorite part, if you commute by bike (or by foot/rollerblade/etc.) you are incorporating exercise into the fabric of your life. It's not this chore that you have to set aside additional time for. It's how you get around. I think that is the core of why Americans are so much fatter than everyone else. Besides city dwellers, most of us drive EVERYWHERE. Then we rush off to the gym for an hour to get in our cardio. This might sound like madness, but, what if rather than walking on a treadmill or biking on a bike machine, we were doing the same things in real life in order to get somewhere?

I know I wanted to concentrate on transportation in grad school, and I think I still do (although urban design is edging in.) But this crazy idea of biking is bringing new things to my attention. Mass transit (train transit especially) is excellent for bringing people to and from the city. But for getting around the city, mass transit must be treated differently. Most people don't like using buses because they're stuck in the same traffic they'd be stuck in in a car. Trolleys and subways are cool, especially for big cities, but for the average commute within the city, those require quite a bit of infrastructure to move people relatively short distances. I'm thinking bike traffic needs to be better incorporated into plans for city transit.

So, thoughts for the day: bikes are sweet, bike paths that go on for 20 miles are sweet, non-motorized commuting is sweet, the Fine Arts Library is VERY sweet. The only not sweet thing: it's fun to explore all of these things on my own, but...part of the fun of finding sweet things is sharing them. So...if you're reading this you should come visit me so I can impress you with all of the sweetness in my new city.