On Bicycles, and.... what else is there?

I've been super-busy with a new research position at the University of California at Berkeley. This has been fun, but leaves little time for blogging. But I made time to do my first-ever change.org petition, for the Board of Supervisors ban smoking on San Francisco sidewalks . I've written about this before when I was exposed to smoke while waiting in line at the Bicycle Film Festival. Well, it turns out smoking is already banned for waiting in lines on sidewalks, so I was already justified there in asking the smoker to take it elsewhere had I chosen that approach. But in many cases exposure to smoke on sidewalks is just as unavoidable, in particular for small children who aren't free to go where they want. In some cases the child is even in a stroller being pushed by a smoking parent. This has become a bigger issue with me since I started running more. When running on a sidewalk, running the gauntlet past a group of sidewalk smokers is unpleasant in addition to p...

Waiting in line last night on the sidewalk for the Bicycle Film Festival , people tightly packed along the building waiting for the doors to open, a chatty fellow behind me lit up a cigarette. Cigarette smoke is something I'm rarely exposed to for more than a few seconds, and despite the steady wind, the smell of the fumes was physically sickening, not to menton a tangible health risk. In fact, just typing this the next morning reminds me of the queasy feeling in my stomach as I tried my best to maximize my distance from him without losing my place in my line. What to do? Politely ask him, as a favor, to stop? Inform him that such behavior isn't acceptable (that option probably doesn't work so well, in my experience). I probably should have done the former. But instead I waited it out, resolute that if he tried another, I'd speak up. Fortunately one was enough for him. San Francisco likes to vigorously pat itself on the back for being anti-smoking, and indeed i...