BY BICYCLE: 56% - 9,609.6 Km / 5971 mi

BY CAR: 44% - 7,441 km / 4,623 mi

On my own car: 1,566 Km / 974.3 Mi

Car Trips w/Others: 5,873 km / 3,560 mi

Ohio to family and eclipse  2,253 km / 1,400 mi  

Chicago for Marc memorial  1,609 km / 1,000 mi  

OKC to family for ThxG    1,609 km / 1,000 mi  

To KC to a baseball game  402 km / 250 mi   

I definitely travelled more than usual in 2024: 3 big trips when it would usually be at most two, often just one. But, I still put a pretty good majority of all my travel - 56% of it - on my bicycle.

The 9,606.9 Km on the bicycle represents a total of 19 gas station boycotts in 2024: over 250 gallons of gas not bought, not burnt, not released as CO2. Over $1,200 saved in fuel, parking, & maintenance, and about 500 Kilograms of carbon not released into the atmosphere. I love to ride my bike, it's my favorite direct climate action!

I live in a rural-ish exurb. Like many areas post-Covid, there's been lots of growth and new housing. Obviously, I feel the way the area is growing isn't sustainable or good planning long term. Common critiques by residents are road infrastructure, EMS/fire service, medical facilities, crowded schools, lack of good paying jobs, etc. There is a bit of good work regarding sidewalks, a (tiny) bit of public transit, but pretty much everybody has to drive and there doesn't seem to be much thoughtful planning. IMO.

It's tricky because most people hate seeing farms/woods turned into cheap tacky corporate built housing, but at the same time, the US desperately needs more housing. I don't think the answer is "don't come here" or "we're full." Especially when many that say that are former transplants. You can't get your house then shut the door. However, we can't keep on plopping thousands of new homes (likely multiple cars/people per home) in a matters of a few years, and do nothing to improve the roads or local infrastructure. The local government hears all these points from residents, yet chooses to do how they've been doing. Doesn't help when developers serve in some local gov positions.

Most don't have the answer. The want to farms to just sit there for the view and disregard how their house was also a former field/woods. How do we approach this from a progressive standpoint? The USA has a massive housing shortage, and many are just moving here so they can afford a nice place for their families. Nobody could be barred from moving to an area, but I don't think my area, or the country as a whole, can sustainably continue this rapid suburban growth without accommodating it.

How do we approach the shortage vs the devastation it does to communities and natural spaces?

Hey guys! We're engineers/designers from France, and we've built the Ultimate DIY Battery that you can repair and refill!

It works with 90% of the bikes/motor brands on the market, so I assumed that some people here might be interested, if they got a non-functional batteries but they still want to use their e-bike?

We believe that everybody should have control about stuff they own, and we should fight against planned obsolescence!

Here are a few videos about our founder on the battery itself, why we built it, and how to assemble it:

• VIDEO: what is the Gouach Battery
• VIDEO: presentation of the pack
• VIDEO: presentation of the fireproof and waterproof casing

Here are the juicy bits: https://docs.gouach.com

We'd love some feedback from the e-bike DIY builder community

Oh, and it's launching as a Kickstarter in September and there is an offer for early-backers here https://get.gouach.com/1 for a 25% discount on the battery!

(EDIT: You can follow us on Instagram, Facebook or Twitter to get the latest news!)

Navigating the City: A Parent's Guide to Using Public Transit with Small Children

I wrote this blogpost to help other parents cross the chasm from private cars to public transit. Do you have any other tips for using public transit with kids?