Posts Tagged virginiabeachva
Quotes of the week v.2
Here’s some more stuff that piqued my interest over the past week. While I find most comments on the internet to be extremely immature, the Slashdot moderation system really makes the good comments float to the top, producing a lot of good insight. I have to say that whoever came up with the Slashdot moderation system had a real stroke of genius.
Executive Compensation
Slashdot recently covered a story of a Sun employee commenting on the golden parachutes received by executives as their failing company was acquired by Oracle. Debates ensued in the story comments as to whether or not greed and apathy drives executives to place little effort into keeping their businesses afloat, completely disregarding the interests of employees and even shareholders. It reminds me of this Ambrose Bierce quote which I remember being narrated by Leonard Nimoy in Civilization IV:
Corporation, n. An ingenious device for obtaining individual profit without individual responsibility.
One of the commenters of the story gave a blunt analogy:
To make it easier to understand and to make a more basic explanation, let’s replace “money” with “food”. Let’s say that the executive in charge of Sun has a machine that makes food for thousands of people. He runs the machine so poorly that it breaks down, and thousands of people no longer have access to the food it provides. In the process of breaking the machine, he manages to engineer it so that the very last time he runs the machine, it makes enough food to feed him, his family and his friends’ families for a couple hundred years if they manage the food he created properly.
It sure seems that executives certainly have the opportunity to obtain massive individual profit with little responsibility. Hopefully, for each story like this, there are hundreds of executives that run their companies well and think about their employees when making decisions.
Show me your papers…
In another Slashdot story, users commented on the heavy-handedness of Verizon blocking internet access to a popular website. Verizon alleged that a denial of service attack originated from the domain of the blocked site, which prompted comments that such attacks could be construed as terrorism and must be thwarted by corporations and governments. While I can’t really argue against the actions of Verizon or governmental involvement in stopping DDoS attacks, one commenter posted the following in response to increased governmental involvement on the internet:
When I was a kid it was popular to point to various things in the USSR like the inability to travel freely without “showing your papers” as evidence of totalitarian oppression. Here in 2010 “showing your papers” is as American as apple pie!
Oddly, I agree with the concept of this statement but not necessarily in the context of the internet. Air travel comes readily to mind. Nothing screams “show me your papers” more than flying. International travel is even worse, with arriving travelers powerless to stop searches of their computers and other electronic devices. What was once fun is now excruciating now that I’ve got to remove my shoes, take half of my stuff out of suitcases and into plastic bins, shuffle through metal detectors, and fumble for my ticket and ID. It really dampens my enthusiasm about going to Sweden in April.
Lowering the bar in Virginia schools
Virginia legislators have been desperate to get more Virginians into their public universities, even at the expense of revenue and quality of the student body. In the article, one legislator commented that he knew of several students with 4.0 GPAs that were denied entry to Virginia public universities. Well, when you loosen the grading scales in primary and secondary schools, there are going to be more students with higher GPAs.
I find it amusing that at one end, Virginia Beach students are whining that the grading scales are too strict and prevent them from gaining admittance to college. At the other end are complaints that too many 4.0 students are not admitted to Virginia colleges. Instead of high school students working harder to get into school or doing something that sets themselves apart from other 4.0 students, the prevailing wisdom is to just lower the bar. Fortunately, it appears as though the attempts to force 75 percent in-state enrollment is halted for now.
Those condescending liberals…
A piece written by a UVA politics professor argues that liberals are much more condescending than their conservative counterparts:
American liberals, to a degree far surpassing conservatives, appear committed to the proposition that their views are correct, self-evident, and based on fact and reason, while conservative positions are not just wrong but illegitimate, ideological and unworthy of serious consideration.
From postings on the internet, musings from friends, and from stuff I’ve heard around my college campus, I agree that liberals seem to be increasingly intolerant of any dissenting opinions. Everyone just drinks the Kool-Aid and can’t reason independently of news columnists or political party leaders. Nobody tries to understand all sides of an argument and understand the reasoning of the opposition.
Are cyclists really to blame?
The city council in Virginia Beach recently discussed adding bike lanes to new and existing roads within the city. Nothing will probably come of this, but it would sure be nice to see something on Shore Drive. The prevailing attitude against cyclists is too great for the city to provide any bike-friendly infrastructure. Infrastructure, as in bike lanes and traffic sensors that can detect bikes on the road, not debris-strewn, manhole-pocked “bike paths” separated from the road. Not to mention that such paths are usually filled with pedestrians and no self-respecting cyclist would risk hitting one at 20+ mph by using the path instead of the road.
The prevailing attitude of drivers comes in two flavors. First, they argue that the speed differential is too great to make cycling safe. This may be true, but shouldn’t drivers be paying enough attention to deal with any potential obstacles? Any driver should prepare to see a downed tree around the next corner or be aware that an oncoming car could turn left in front of him. As a cyclist and driver, I think about these things constantly on the road, but it seems that most drivers do not. Despite being the most dangerous method of transportation, most drivers think that accidents happen to other people but not to them.
The second argument is that cyclists do not obey the traffic laws. Several of the comments in the above article whine about cyclists blowing through lights and turning in front of cars. I admit I started out as one of the cyclist mavericks drivers complain about. It wasn’t long before I realized that if I wanted to stay alive, I couldn’t just go through a light despite the lack of cross traffic. A car I couldn’t see would more than likely appear out of nowhere. Even as I follow the rules, plenty of cars come out of nowhere and now I pretty much expect oncoming cars to turn in front of me and to pull out in front of me when I approach an intersection.
There seems to be a double standard when it comes to drivers and cyclists. If I so much as tear through a yellow light, someone will yell or honk. I could almost guarantee that driver probably blew through several red lights himself in the past week. Just sit at a busy intersection in Virginia Beach and just count the cars that go through red lights, turn right on red without stopping, or don’t use their turn signal. I’ll bet that within a few minutes there would be more violations than those performed by all cyclists in the city for that day.
An ad-hoc report linked from the Freakonomics blog seems to back this up: in studying over 2,500 cyclist-involved accident reports, vehicles were at fault more than 90 percent of the time. Most cases occurred when a car stopped at a stop sign or red light would pull out in front of a cyclist who had the right of way. This happens to me at least several times per week. The study was performed by a Canadian physician and the police reports were from Toronto, so I could only imagine the situation is worse in the United States. The report goes on to say that Toronto cyclists are six times more likely to die than a cyclist in the Netherlands. It also reports that despite the existence of poor weather, Ontario non-cyclists are most discouraged from getting on their bikes due to the lack of bike-friendly infrastructure and antagonistic drivers. Lastly, the report cites evidence linking the lack of cycling to an increase in health problems and obesity.
Of course, the study was performed by a cyclist, posted on a cycling team website, and was not peer reviewed. The statistics may be an upper bound for the number of driver-induced accidents. There is also the DOT-endorsed Hurt Report, which was a similar study involving motorcycle accidents in the Los Angeles area. In the Hurt Report, drivers were at fault 66 percent of the time in motorcycle-involved accidents. In this case, all of the investigators just to happened to be motorcyclists, so it also may be difficult to draw valid conclusions.
Regardless of whether or not the statistics are valid, it pays to be extra careful when cycling in the age of texting and driving. As drivers have become more distracted over the past years, I definitely have experienced more near misses. The extra vigilance I have gained while on the bike has also been a significant help as a driver. If today’s antagonistic drivers had spent more time on their bikes as kids, they probably would make the roads a much safer place.
Avoiding road rage: We’re all on the same team
Pattern recognition is a strong advantage of the massively parallel human brain. We are so good at it that we make up patterns where none truthfully exist. This may be my “face on Mars”, but now that I’ve done some a decent amount of cycling in and around Williamsburg, I’m starting to notice something. On some days drivers would be especially mad, with me being on the receiving end of a few horn blasts, gestures, and snide comments all in the same ride. Then there would be other days where I would go the same route at the same time of day and other drivers would give me plenty of room. Nobody would scream a thing and sometimes even a few drivers would wave at me. Why is this? I’ve got some ideas.
My first observation is that weekends are worse than weekdays. This seems counterintuitive, since one would think that weekend drivers aren’t rushing to or from a job and would be more patient. Maybe the rage just builds during the week and people just want to let off some steam. I will say the traffic is definitely worse on the weekend. I’m betting that slower travel times in combination with a greater pool of possible angry drivers is probably why I get more grief on weekends. However, it isn’t just that the increase in road rage is correlated with weekends. In the past few months, it became apparent that another factor was at play.
I’ve now realized that weekend or not, I’ve never had any nasty encounters when I’m wearing my William and Mary jersey. Cycling clothes are expensive: comfortable shirts and jerseys require me to lay down a least $70, so I’ve only got a handful of jerseys and shorts. All my other jerseys are solid colors and unbranded except for one, which has the school livery. I wind up wearing it a few times every week since my clothing options are limited, and when I go out in it, nobody would even think of touching me. With the William and Mary jersey, it’s like I’m wearing a Superman costume, but with any other jersey, I might as well be Lex Luthor.
This is quite a strange observation, but research has shown that any small similarity between two strangers can help form a strong bond between them. In a recent study, Manchester United fans primed to think about their team loyalty were more likely to help a stranger wearing a Manchester United shirt than a stranger wearing the shirt of a rival team or no team logo at all. When you have a bond with someone, no matter how small, you are more likely to help them if they are in trouble or respect them if they are biking on the road.
Another observation of mine is that the magic jersey has no power in Virginia Beach. I’ve gotten just as much grief wearing it there as I have with other jerseys. There just aren’t enough people that can identify with it as there is in Williamsburg where nearly everyone has some relationship to the school. As a professor or staff member, you don’t want to hit one of your own students. As a student, you wouldn’t want to injure one of your fellow classmates. As a local, you wouldn’t want to insult someone who lives down the street. Even tourists stay well away, knowing I’ve got ties to this place.
I ought to get another William and Mary jersey. Wearing it on a weekday is probably my best bet for avoiding road rage.
The government we deserve
While I was running back to my apartment, I passed an old guy on the sidewalk walking in the other direction. The second I passed him he unleashed the nastiest gas I think I’ve ever heard in public. I still can’t believe he actually farted at me.
A local study says that almost one third of young professional Williamsburg residents intend to leave within four years. Although those polled stated that they liked the area, the main complaint was that the cost of living was too high and average pay was too low. This area just isn’t geared towards younger people, especially those who are recent college graduates. Instead, Williamsburg is focused on retirees and tourists, and those that aren’t in those groups get gassed.
Why? Because those in the local government are mostly older or retired and own businesses that cater to tourists. And who elects them? A dominant contingent of older workers and retirees. Since the most of Williamsburg thinks that anyone under the age of 30 is a nuisance, the government reflects this position. The government and locals protest any affordable or student-oriented housing. An effort is made by the city to prevent homeowners from renting out their properties. The noise ordinances have been strengthened. And of course, there’s the arcane three person rule, which effectively limits housing options for young professionals with a low income. As a student or young professional, you either live elsewhere or live with four or more people illegally. You just hope city officials don’t sue you or randomly inspect your residence to see if more than three unrelated people are living together. The city council even wants to remove the 24 hour warning before inspectors show up at your residence. What happened to the fourth amendment?
Younger people come to live in Williamsburg in two ways. They either grew up here or graduated from William and Mary with a local job offer. I’m more of the second category: I don’t think anyone my age would willingly move to Williamsburg unless they had existing ties here. The environment is just too oppressive for most people my age, with plenty of animosity.
Anyone would think that a grassroots effort could be made to at least get more student friendly officials in local government. It’s hard to do that when the voter registrar blocks student voter applications. Recently, the registrar allowed students to register in Williamsburg, which allowed a student candidate to run for office, but enough AARP members went to the polls to ruin his day.
So here in Williamsburg, most people get what they want out of their government: preventing fewer students and younger professionals from living within the city limits.
A similar situation exists with another local government I am familiar with: Virginia Beach. An overwhelming majority of Virginia Beach residents hate cyclists. Though two deaths have occurred in the past two years, drivers are still bloodthirsty. Recent efforts by cyclists to lower the speed limit on some of the more well traveled cycling routes only serves to make the driving population more enraged (the comments on these articles are insane). The roads aren’t safe for cyclists in Virginia Beach because of high speed limits, it’s because of drivers’ attitudes. Most drivers in Virginia Beach think no cyclist has any business being on a road, and the position of the elected government reflects that. When a cyclist died after being hit from behind, the Commonwealth’s Attorney decided not to prosecute the driver. Furthermore, thanks to the city council, there are no bike lanes in Virginia Beach. A more cyclist-friendly government would promote the installation of bike lanes and provide a more friendly environment for cyclists. Unfortunately, since most residents see bike lanes and more cyclists as an infringement of their personal space, they elect officials that share the same position they do. As a result, we get the situation we have now, with animosity building on all sides.
We elect the government that we deserve on all levels, even at the state and federal level. State governments are running out of money and making huge cutbacks in an attempt to balance their budgets. California is so desperate as to hand out IOUs instead of tax refunds. Since the federal government sees the power to tax its citizens as an indefinite line of credit, there is no mandate to balance the budget and the federal deficit is spiraling out of control. People complain that essential government services are being cut while the federal government is incurring serious debt. However, these people are no different than the government they deride. With almost half of all Americans spending more than they make each year, many voters are in no position to complain: they elected a government that acts just like they do. If people were able to make better spending decisions on an individual level, I would imagine the government they elect would do the same.
Somehow, people expect elected officials to be held to a higher standard then those that elected them. However, those in office act the same way everyone else does, bringing along all the same weaknesses and quirks. Though nobody in Williamsburg runs for office with the position to evict students and young professionals, it happens as a matter of course since those that vote share that belief. Since most Virginia Beach residents are on a crusade against cyclists, elected officials end up adding fuel to the fire. While most Americans acknowledge they have poor spending habits and wish to improve and never do, those in our state and federal legislatures do the same thing. Don’t expect the government to save you from anything since your failures are the same as theirs.
To Michael X of XXX Towing:
It isn’t my fault that your life sucks, so don’t take it out on me.
Today marks the third time in two months that you have nearly run me off Rochambeau Drive with your tow truck. I don’t appreciate it: as a cyclist I am permitted to use the travel lanes in the same way as you. You are someone who makes a living through driving, yet your level of professionalism on the road is abysmal. While the law may look the other way when killing cyclists in your hometown of Virginia Beach, I doubt a second killing will go unpunished.
I hope you show a little more respect the next time we meet.
Rome Trip: Lightning Strikes Twice
As I sit here back at home writing this, a lone book sits high on the bookshelf, looming over me: “What Are the Odds,” by Mike Orkin. An apt title for the past five days, which were probably the longest five days I’ve had in quite awhile. What are the odds that I would get screwed on the way over and on the way back from Rome? The odds were pretty good.
The mess with the delayed flight from Norfolk keeping me home for two days was frustrating, but at least I was at home and not stuck in Philadelphia. At least on the second attempt I made it without any problems. After three days of walking and my SECON presentation, I was tired and jet lagged and ready to go home. I knew that on my trip back that anything could happen. I’ve had enough experiences with cancellations, delays, and lost bags to know that with each flight I was rolling the dice. On this trip, my number came up twice.
I got up at 6:30 AM Rome time, or 12:30 AM in Virginia. The train station was right across the street from the hotel, but it took almost 15 minutes of walking to get to where the train was. There were 30 platforms, some of which were behind others, so it was quite the walk with my suitcase out to the train. Fortunately, my dad and I bought tickets before we left at a machine so I didn’t have to waste time figuring out how to get a ticket. One wheel of my suitcase started to come apart and made quite the racket as I dragged it around everywhere.
The train left on time and got to the airport on time. I entered the airport terminal the same way we left and assumed that the ticket counter would be just inside. A sign said there were concourses A, B, and C. My dad and I arrived at C, and it appeared as though I would leave the same way. A monitor said the flight was on time.
I tried to find the ticket counter. There was a whole sea of them just inside from where the train dumped me out. A directory listed all the airlines and where the ticket counters were. It said US Airways: counter 511. But, the ticket counters in the terminal only went from 200 to 400. Where was 511? Looking around in disbelief, a small, out of the way sign said US Airways ticket counters were in “Terminal 5″. Terminal 5? How did that line up with concourses A, B, or C? More importantly, how does one get there? Another small poorly placed sign announced that a bus outside would go to Terminal 5. I went outside and found the sign for the bus and waited. As I waited a crowd began to form by the sign. It got bigger and bigger and the bus wasn’t coming.
Finally, the bus came and we packed in. Half the line got left outside. The bus wound its way all over the airport for ten minutes before arriving at the secret Terminal 5. Since I had web check-in and printed my boarding pass at the conference, I didn’t need to stand in line. I got my passport checked off and was put back on another bus to the terminal I started at.
When I got to the gate there wasn’t much going on but soon all the seats were packed and a large Italian family sat next to me and had a loud and heated conversation. Some of them hovered over me as they conversed loudly. Either the concept of personal space is nonexistent to them or they were trying to get me to leave by being obnoxious. It was probably a bit of both: I got up and found another seat next to an American couple who complained about the only coffee in the place was a bar that served only espresso shots. They really wanted their brewed coffee. I didn’t blame them.
The flight back to Philadelphia left on time and arrived on time. I had a window seat, but there wasn’t much to look at but clouds and bits of the ocean beneath. We crossed over the Alps and parts of France, but the clouds covered most of that too. Most of the transatlantic trips I’ve taken had the ocean blanketed by clouds. I’m not sure why this is.
The flight was nine hours, the longest I’d ever taken, but my sister took one that was something like 16 or 18 when she went to China. Nine was uncomfortable enough. I watched a movie, read several hundred pages of a book, and went to sleep. Everything cramped up. Fortunately, the flight attendants came by frequently with drinks.
Since I was near the front of the coach section and had carried on all my bags, it was easy to get off the plane and get through passport control and customs. I was through all that within 10 minutes, and fortunately customs did not ransack my computer looking for contraband. I would have had quite the fit if they decided to do that. I’m hoping these warrantless searches go to court soon.
I arrived in terminal A-West in Philadelphia, and the Norfolk flight left from at the far end of terminal F. My dad says this is about a two mile walk. There is a shuttle bus, but since I had been on the plane for nine hours and hadn’t run or biked in four days, I wanted the exercise. I had to go back through security again at F, but it wasn’t too bad. I had plenty of time: I got through customs at 3:30 Eastern time and my plane to Norfolk didn’t leave until 5.
Then the problems started. At the gate for the Norfolk flight, it was announced that the plane would leave 30 minutes late. A whole pile of people at the gate had missed earlier Norfolk flights and would be standing by for this one. Fortunately, I had a seat assignment.
5:30 came and went and the plane never arrived at the gate and the agent disappeared. Some pilots in uniform came to the gate who were commuting home and whined about the lack of agents. With no plane and no agent, 6:00 came and went. Then, another passenger for my flight who walked down the hall to the departures monitor said the flight was cancelled. Panic ensued.
Getting hold of my parents, I was able to learn the reservations number from the Internet. Apparently the plane got stuck in New York due to weather and they just decided to drop the rest of its flights. I asked the agent about other flights. No flights had seats through Norfolk until 3 PM the next day. No flights had seats through Newport News until the next morning. Despite complaining about my outbound screwup, the reservation agent said I would not be compensated for a hotel room due to weather. The agent booked me on the early morning Newport News flight and I thought about going to one of those Special Services desks and complaining until they gave me a hotel for free.
I talked to my parents again and again, using the power of the Internet, learned that I could get to Richmond. Surprisingly, my mom said if I could get to Richmond, she would drive the two hours to get me. There was a plane that left at 6:25. If I hurried, I might make it. Unlike the Norfolk flight, this flight was a mainline flight and left from C concourse and I was in F. I raced to the shuttle bus and got on the bus which happened to be just about to leave.
As I was on the bus, my phone rang: my adviser. Thinking I was back home, he told me that the session chair said I had made it to the presentation and that it went well. This was the worst time to be discussing this: I told him I was about to be stuck in Philadelphia. He couldn’t believe it. We talked some more about what a mess the travel was and then hung up and got off the bus.
I raced through the terminal and crashed into the check in desk at the gate for the Richmond flight. The plane was there. Two agents were there, one of whom told me to slow down as I mashed into the desk and my bags fell on the floor. I told them my story about the canceled flight and my rebooking and asked if I could get on the plane to Richmond. After a minute of typing, I got a new boarding pass and got on the plane.
The plane closed its door early and we pushed back before 6:25. We got away from the terminal and stopped. Out the window, the taxiways looked like a parking lot of airplanes. They were everywhere. The pilot got on the PA and said weather was preventing takeoffs to the north, but we were going to leave to the south. The problem was that all the northbound planes were in the way and couldn’t move. He sounded less than optimistic about getting out of there anytime soon.
We waited and waited some more. A girl got up to use the bathroom. When she came out, the whole plane smelled of cigarette smoke. A flight attendant came by and asked if she had been smoking, of course she denied doing so. A guy behind me said he was on a flight where someone next to him smoked in his seat and when the plane landed, the smoker was arrested.
7:00 PM came and went and we sat there, looking at the gridlock. A few planes took off. My legs were hurting from all the sitting. I called home and my dad couldn’t believe I was still sitting on the taxiway. My mom had already left for Richmond.
As we sat there and whined about the delay, I learned the guys across from me were also refugees from the Norfolk flight. They had missed an earlier Norfolk flight and were going to stand by for mine until it was cancelled. Like me, they had called someone to come and pick them up in Richmond and drive them back to Virginia Beach.
7:45 passed by and we had moved across a runway but were still stuck with planes in front of us. The captain came on again and said the control tower had slowed down departures to one plane per 20 miles. I hadn’t seen anything take off in almost an hour. It was starting to rain. If a storm came over the airport, that would be the end. We would go back to the gate and hundreds of people would be spending the night in the airport, myself included.
Finally, by 8 PM, planes started taking off again at regular intervals, but the captain told us we were way back in line and it would still be another 25 minutes. Unbelievably, my mom had already arrived at the airport in Richmond and was waiting in the terminal. By 8:50 and after two hours of waiting, we were in the air. Fortunately, it was a short flight and we were in Richmond by 9:30. As we were deplaning, one of the other guys from the Norfolk flight said he was going to flip if his bags didn’t make the plane. Good luck.
My mom met me in the Richmond terminal and it was a quick drive back with no traffic jams. Finally, after midnight and nearly 24 hours of traveling, I was back home. I slept like a rock and it felt great to get out on the bike this morning.
Perhaps I should write letters to US Airways and the DOT. What this will accomplish, I don’t know. Maybe I’ll get a small voucher to use for my next trip, which will stay well clear of Philadelphia. There had better be direct flights to Boston when I go to WASA. I took one when I went to IC4As in 2007, but it might be different now. It seems that the solutions to these travel nightmares may be mitigated by:
- Re-introducing more mainline flights. Apparently, regional jets are more prone to maintenance issues and do not handle weather as easily.
- Add more capacity. With every flight oversold, one cancellation creates a huge cascade of stuck travelers that cannot be rebooked onto the next flight. Adding more mainline flights will help this.
- Add more point to point flights or stagger departures and arrivals at hub airports. It seems that planes leave or arrive at a hub simultaneously, leading to huge traffic delays. Southwest has a good model to follow for this one.
- Reduce capacity through hub airports that are prone to weather delays. It seems that if someone so much as spits in Philadelphia, the whole place shuts down.
- Provide better customer service to help stranded travelers. I only found out the plane was canceled when another passenger told me. With no agent at the gate, the only option was to call the reservation office. Airlines should guarantee that a passenger will arrive at his or her destination within some fixed, reasonable time period or else provide a full refund.
Fortunately, I have time to recover from this before my next plane trip in August. If my next paper gets in to RTSS, I’ll only have to go to Washington. Maybe in the meantime, I’ll actually be able to get back to doing research since the last couple weeks have been spent mostly dealing with this trip.
Get Rich Quick: It’s too good to be true
After nearly ten months of work, I finally submitted a paper for review. At the end of next week, I go to Rome to give a conference presentation on work I had started over a year and a half ago. Research, like many things, takes a lot of time and effort to reach a milestone. There are no shortcuts to accomplishment, no matter what some sleazy TV salesman will tell you. People set out with dreams of instant gratification only to face the reality that only time and effort will provide them with reward. Instead of foraging on, they give up. In some cases, when faced with the prospect of immense effort for a small chance of success, others will just cheat. Why is this? What can be changed to provide motivation for long term efforts?
I recall a discussion in the locker room after cross country practice about a teammate I had never met. I don’t recall his name, but this guy had graduated before I even got to college. John, one of the well respected fifth year seniors said this guy wanted to go to NCAAs as part of the seven-man travel squad, but only “wanted to travel to the course, warm up with the team, and get a t-shirt.” He did not want to actually run the race. This guy never made the travel squad to NCAAs. To him, and many others, it’s all about instant gratification without any of the work. Running competitively isn’t like a movie where all the hard work is abstracted away and all that’s shown is the glorious win over the evil opponents. To date, our team has qualified for every national meet since 1997, one of only five schools. To do that takes considerable effort and years of training for hours every day. You can’t just fast forward to the good parts.
The zeitgeist of today is marked by a lack of intrinsic motivation to undertake any long term efforts. In Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell cites James Flynn’s work on how Asian students work harder and longer on problems than their American counterparts. Given a tough math problem, most American students will work on it for only a short while before giving up. This ethos carries over into other areas. An article in the New York Times states that 95 percent of blogs are abandoned, many of which only have one post. The torrents of traffic and commenters envisioned by these blog posters just doesn’t happen overnight. They think blogging fame will come immediately, but it doesn’t. It takes time to build a reader base. More to the point, the blog also has to have content that people are willing to read. I’ll be surprised if many people read this post or others like it concerning my opinions and everyday life, but most of my traffic comes from my software troubleshooting/debugging and knee microfracture posts. Even in my little corner of the Internet, I have made gradual traffic gains over the months. People just don’t swarm in overnight:
Apparently, the same is true for Twitter: most users either abandon their account after signing up or just make one post. Again, the problem boils down to effort: few are willing to make the effort and post meaningful content at frequent intervals. Followers just don’t appear because you signed up. Like blogs, it isn’t just the frequency of posts, but the value of the content: I really don’t care what you ate for lunch today. I especially don’t care that you got a front row seat at the Apple Developer’s Conference after waiting in line since 4 AM. Most Twitter posts aren’t much better than spam. To attract followers, the posts have to carry some value to those beyond a small circle of friends.
Everyone just wants the massive blog readership or the Twitter following, but couldn’t care less about the content required to generate such traffic. Sometimes, when the desired outcome can’t be achieved with lackluster efforts, many try to lower the bar. Currently, there’s an effort in Virginia Beach to relax the public school grading scale from 7 point to 10 point. Parents think this will even the playing field with other school systems that have switched to a 10 point scale, but it’s really just lowering the standards. Parents want their kid to get in to his or her college of choice and to do it by studying less. Also along these lines, a state representive recently proposed that more in state students should be accepted to Virginia public universities because a constituent complained that the acceptance standards were too tough and he didn’t get in. I’m guessing that this “constituent” was probably the representative’s kid. What is the real secret to getting in to your college of choice? It isn’t done by getting easier As or by pushing out extremely well qualified out of state students. Work harder, and anything can happen.
It’s pretty bad that so many people give up when they realize some effort is involved. It’s worse when people lower their standards of success when their current efforts are clearly lacking. Believe it or not, there are even worse characters out there that will do anything to get instant gratification: cheaters. Instead of working hard for ten months researching state-of-the-art, tweaking out a system design, implementing the design, testing the design against existing works, and finally writing and submitting a research paper, some people are willing to cheat. A recent study reports that an astounding 2% of researchers fake their results. In a similar instance, some colleges are willing to fudge the statistics to improve their rankings. They play with class sizes and give peer institutions poor reviews to improve their standing. Instead of improving the school in an honest way, taking the time to hire more and better qualified faculty, increasing employee pay, and attracting better students, Clemson faked its way up 16 places in U.S. News reviews.
What is the real solution to this lack of motivation? How can more people motivate themselves to post regularly on their blog? How can people stick with something and work hard enough to achieve just rewards? Some slick researchers tried paying students for earning good grades. This approach improved state test scores by nearly 40 percentage points. Did money provide the motivation for these students to work harder and longer on their math problems and not give up? Apparently. Proponents of this system argue that the “real world” functions much in this way: perform better and get paid more. But money can’t be added as an outcome in every scenario. How many blogs or Twitter accounts are raking in the dough? Almost zero, I would guess. Instead, people need intrinsic motivation to produce results over the long term. I don’t write this post because I envision piles of Internet surfers reading and commenting on this. I do it because there’s satisfaction in organizing my thoughts and ideas and writing them down. I don’t care that nobody else will read this, but if someone else finds it interesting, then more power to them.
Aside from writing these inane blog posts, it is intrinsic motivation that keeps me working on long research projects. It’s what gets me up in the morning with the hope that I’ll be able to run normally again after knee surgery. I run slow, go out every other day, only go ten minutes, and feel terrible, but I know if I do it enough I’ll be able to run faster and longer. By keeping at it and going one step at a time, things will get done.
Go back to New Jersey
You are not wanted here.
Every time I go somewhere on the bike I haven’t been for awhile, a vast swath of forest has been chopped down to make way for yet another neighborhood. The frequency at which these neighborhoods pop up way out in the middle of nowhere reminds me of Neal Stephenson’s Snow Crash, where he speaks about the insane pace of new development:
“[Neighborhoods] all have the same layout. When creating a new Burbclave, TMAWH Development Corporation will chop down any mountain ranges and divert the course of any mighty rivers that threaten to interrupt this street plan — ergonomically designed to encourage driving safety. A Deliverator can go into a Mews at Windsor Heights anywhere from Fairbanks to Yaroslavl to the Shenzhen special economic zone and find his way around.”
What does this mean? It means that people will come to fill these new houses, regardless of current financial issues. As long as developers keep building, the people will keep coming. The population of James City County has tripled in size in the past 30 years. Places that were once lonely two lane roads have been widened to four lanes with 15 traffic lights within a one mile stretch. It is clear that the urban planners around here graduated at the bottom of their class. From here, it will only get worse, with more large tracts of farmland rezoned as commercial, ready for the razing. The locals are up in arms, but like most municipalities, the ones here turn a blind eye to the natives and only see tax revenue from more people and businesses.
The people are coming. Where do they come from? Certainly the current residents don’t just shuffle around to the new houses, and there aren’t that many foreign immigrants. Instead, the new residents are pouring in from the Northeast. In Colonial Williamsburg, nearly every car is fixed with a New Jersey, New York, or Pennsylvania license plate. They come here as tourists. They come here as students. They get a taste and then they move here. They move here and they bring their jackass Northeast attitudes with them.
Those who have lived in Williamsburg most of their lives are decent people. They drive older, well maintained cars and give me plenty of room out on the backroads. The Northeast transplants infect this place like a plague, driving hulking Suburbans and dragging around trailers with 30 foot boats. Accelerating from a light last week, one came up on me with the side mirror just inches from my face. With an extra wide, monolithic boat in tow, I knew I would be a red smear on the boat if the guy continued to pass me. After giving him a hard look through the window and screaming at him to get into the passing lane, I narrowly averted disaster. Today I was nearly creamed again by a minivan that was close enough where I could reach through the window and shake some sense into the passenger in the front seat. Later on, out in the middle of nowhere with no other cars around, some guy in one of those massive luxury pickups laid on the horn and tried to get me to move into the dirt. There was nobody out there but me and the truck, with the road nearly three lanes wide, yet these people have to prove they are better than me since they are driving a car. My old teammate, Adam, was run off the road last week by yet another jerk. He crashed and is in a sling for two weeks. Despite gobs of other cyclists out, those who come here from the nasty Northeast just don’t care.
I remember my first experience with this attitude when I stayed with one of my teammates in Rhode Island for a race in Boston. We were out running on the sidewalk near his house on the day before the meet. We got to an intersection and started to cross when someone made a turn right into us. We were paint on the car. After yelling at the guy, my teammate told me not to do that, since “they’ll pull a gun on you up here.”
These Northeast transplants are why Virginia Beach is so bad for cyclists. Everyone that lives there is not from the area; they are in the military or were in the military and they all come from the places that start with “new.” New Jersey. New York. New England. They really need a “new” attitude, especially as they start to move to once quiet places like Williamsburg.
Lying in wait…
On the weekdays when I go out on the bike, I never see many other cyclists out. I see about one cyclist every other day and also get run down by the same FedEx and UPS drivers every day. I wonder why the population of a small neighborhood in the area of about 15 square miles gets FedEx and UPS every day. Maybe it’s drugs…
The weekends are different: there are gobs of cyclists out on the back roads, making it seem like a highway of bikes. A few years ago, it was never like that. I wonder where they all come from. I’m sure some of them get up really early on the weekdays, but I think a lot of people drive from Hampton/Newport News and Richmond to get out of the more populated areas. There’s no way all those people actually live around here. On an average weekend in Virginia Beach, I never see anywhere near that many cyclists.
With the exception of running into Adam out in the middle of nowhere a few weekends ago, I just ride by myself. It’s a rare occasion that someone else comes along that goes along with me for awhile, so when they do, I take advantage of it and try to get them to get up and go. There was a guy last week that sat on my wheel for awhile, but didn’t really make any effort to take over. Adam was in a whole other league when I rode with him, and really put the hurt on me up a couple of hills.
When someone comes up on me, it’s kind of unnerving. It always happens when I’m just tooling along with not much else around but some farms. They sneak up without me hearing or seeing a thing. I’ll be looking out at the road ahead or just thinking about something when suddenly there’s a “ker-chunk” from someone right behind me shifting gears. I just about jump out of my skin. Then comes the typical greeting from the other person, though sounding friendly, really means: “I’m about to kick your ass.” That means it’s time to go.
Today a girl came up on me on a triathlon bike and did that, scaring the crap out of me as usual. I got on her wheel when she passed me and then overtook her again going up a couple hills. Unfortunately, she didn’t stay with me for long, but I have a feeling it’s because she didn’t want to, not because she couldn’t keep up.
Mainly I just bike for the fun of it, not to really punish myself. I did that with running for ten years, so right now I’m just out to have fun. But, now I’m starting to miss that competition that existed just from running with others on a daily basis. I got a new pair of running shoes this week and was planning on running after one of my rides, but time has been a bit of a limiting factor with the paper I’m working on. Today with really hauling butt for about 30 minutes in the middle of the ride, I was completely wiped to do anything more, but at this point I’m just making excuses. I think just running again with some of my old teammates is enough of a motivating factor to get me to start running again. I get asked by someone every week when I’ll start again. I’ve had several professors even ask me.
I said earlier that I wanted to be running by the summer. Time is getting tight. It’s time to get out of my comfort zone again.
The Drivers Are Ruthless
Now that I’ve been biking on the roads again for about a month, I’m again coming to grips with being the target of of road rage. About once a week in Williamsburg, I’ve gotten some kind of gesture/horn/scream from someone. People need to relax.
It’s bad enough that several times every week I get one of those “Oh crap!” moments where a car is about to pull out in front of me or run a red light and hit me. This morning, for example, someone at a stop sign didn’t look in my direction before nearly pulling out into me. No more do I even think about going through a stoplight. I stop at every one and really make sure nobody is blowing through the yellow before the light turns green. I’ve had too many close calls when following the rules to justify taking any more risks.
I think the pervasiveness of cell phones and texting is making things worse than it ever used to be. A few weeks ago I was out on a lightly traveled farm road when a massive Suburban speeding in the oncoming direction swerved into the my lane. Through the windshield I could see two hands and a cell phone at the top of the steering wheel. Luckily, they corrected and went back into their own lane.
The attitude of most drivers is that cyclists have no business being on the road. The attitude of most cyclists is that the cyclists have a right to be there. I think “right” is too strong a word. Like a driver’s license, it’s more a privilege. As many before me have said: there are drivers that shouldn’t be driving, and cyclists who shouldn’t be cycling. However, cyclists who follow all the rules still get more than their share of grief. It seems that the main reason drivers hate cyclists is that they hold up traffic. Drivers can’t stand having to wait behind a long line of cars at 25 mph because a cyclist is in front. But, that isn’t any excuse to keep them from the roads, and especially not an excuse to get angry at the cyclist. A cyclist in a 45 mph zone during a typical rush hour will hold up a car for what? 20 seconds? I can’t remember having to wait much longer than that when driving behind one.
I ride at least two feet to the left of the edge of the pavement to make sure I’ve got plenty of space to maneuver in case something happens. I also prefer to be away from the edge since that is where all the nails, rocks, and glass are ready to slice my tires to shreds. Legally, I could ride right down the middle of the lane. I try to stay out far enough so that cars don’t do something stupid and try to squeeze between me and a car in the lane next to mine. Sometimes I get crap for that, but it’s better being safe.
When I was in California, in the Bay Area, every single street had a bike lane. Every single intersection had a magnetometer to specifically detect bikes. Traffic was way worse, but people were way nicer. Back east, we don’t have those niceties, in both the infrastructure and the people. In Virginia Beach, the best they do is put down an extra-wide sidewalk along the road, peppered with protruding manholes and construction debris. It’s actually illegal to ride a bike on the sidewalk in Virginia Beach, but there are no bike lanes to be seen. In Williamsburg there are a few, which do make a difference when the road is busy. More bike lanes would help, but the problem is that with 90 percent of the constituents having the “no business on the road” attitude, no local money would ever be spent for cyclists.
For now, I will try to limit my time in Virginia Beach so I don’t have to bike there very often. Last time I was there, on the weekend, it took less than three minutes from when I started to get the middle finger. Some guy on a motorcycle leaned on his horn while I was on Atlantic. It wasn’t as bad as this incident a few years ago, but it was still pretty insane, especially since a guy got killed recently on his bike really close to where I go. The terrible attitude towards cyclists really comes out in the comments section of that article.
Until everyone learns to get along, it will be tough going on the bike. I really should just start running again.
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