Category: Travel

My actual travels, those I aspire to, and those of others

Boston sights

I have really been enjoying Boston. The city has a nice scale to it – Sasha and I have been able to walk everywhere so far. The architecture is pleasant and interesting, and the people have been universally friendly. There are many parks and pleasant watercourses to walk along. I could definitely imagine spending a worthwhile and enjoyable few years here, doctoral acceptances permitting.

Yesterday, we saw some engaging sculpture, architecture, and video at the Institute of Contemporary Art. Especially notable were some infinitely reflective installations, made using semi-silvered glass, as well as some whimsical but sometimes horrifying biological paintings, an intense video about Chinese migrants in England who drowned collecting cockles, a kind of exploded charcoal bonfire suspended in air, and the building itself. In the evening, we saw Ravel, Stravinsky, and Shostakovich performed by the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Ravel’s ‘Ma Mere L’Oye’ suite was pleasantly pastoral, and Shostakovich’s 5th Symphony was amazing. Sasha pointed out to me that Stalin insisted on the piece being called: “An artist’s creative response to just criticism”.

Sasha is heading back to Montreal now, but I have a couple more days here. Today, it is back to Harvard for a meeting (and to pick up 24 green Pilot G2 pens!). I am also planning to have a look at some libraries, bookstores, and coffeeshops in the area.

Things to do in Boston

On Sunday, my brother Sasha and I are taking the bus down to Boston. Our plan is to explore the city for a few days.

Does anyone have suggestions of interesting or unusual things to see or do in Boston?

Similarly, does anyone have recommendations for affordable accommodation arrangements? Something like a clean and well-located hostel would be ideal.

Related:

Demonstrating British Columbia’s beauty

One of the big reasons for opposing the Enbridge Northern Gateway pipeline is because of how 200 oil tankers a year would threaten the coast of British Columbia.

I think everyone who has seen that coastline understands its beauty and ecological importance. At the same time, I suspect the idea can be made more salient for people by showing them photos and video of the areas that could be affected if the pipeline goes through.

It’s not clear what the most effective approach would be for reminding people about what is at stake. Really there is a spectrum of possibility, ranging from fantastic shots taken by talented photographers on top-notch gear and shown in magazines and galleries to amateur shots taken by visitors and ordinary British Columbians and uploaded to Facebook or Flickr.

In all likelihood, many approaches will be tried simultaneously. For my own part, I have been thinking about a potential photo show that would incorporate photos of the B.C. coast as well as photos from the successful protests against the Keystone XL pipeline, which took place in Washington D.C.. Toronto may not be the most appropriate venue for that, since people here don’t have much of a personal emotional stake in the integrity of west coast ecosystems.

Perhaps I should try and find the time to set up yet another website, where people could contribute photos from B.C. and explain why they oppose the Northern Gateway pipeline…

Risk/efficiency trade-offs in pathfinding

Finding my way to a new building, it struck me that two major strategies are possible in urban pathfinding. You can try to follow the most efficient path or you can try to minimize your odds of getting lost. Call those the ‘efficiency’ and ‘reduced risk’ approaches.

Each has some level of appeal. Nobody wants to take an unnecessarily circuitous route, when there is a shorter one available. At the same time, it is foolish to take a path that is nominally shorter but which involves much higher risks of getting lost or having other sorts of trouble.

Shortcuts are a classic example. They speak out to the part of us that seeks efficiency, but they carry special risks. When you deviate from the conventional path, you open the possibility of arriving much sooner than you would otherwise, but you also open the possibility of arriving much later or not at all.

Personally, I am willing to trade a fair bit of efficiency in exchange for simplicity. Even if I can conceivably save time by cutting corners, I prefer to stick to simple routes that I can remember and understand. Subways are good for this – they don’t take you as close to your destination as buses often might, but they are easier to understand.

As an aside, the worst ever solution to the risk/efficiency problem is the ‘try and buzz the head waiter’s home island with your cruise ship‘ strategy. In choosing people to captain cruise ships, there should probably some process to screen out those with such reckless tendencies…

Roundabouts: faster and safer

Anyone who has lived in the UK is probably familiar with roundabouts: a type of intersection that does away with traffic signals, in favour of rotation around a central area.

They may be a bit confusing to the unfamiliar, but they apparently have large advantages in both safety and speed:

One of their main attractions, says Mayor Brainard, is safety. The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, an independent research group, estimates that converting intersections with traffic lights to roundabouts reduces all crashes by 37% and crashes that involve an injury by 75%. At traffic lights the most common accidents are faster, right-angled collisions. These crashes are eliminated with roundabouts because vehicles travel more slowly and in the same direction. The most common accident is a sideswipe, generally no more than a cosmetic annoyance.

What locals like, though, is that it is on average far quicker to traverse a series of roundabouts than a similar number of stop lights. Indeed, one national study of ten intersections that could have been turned into roundabouts found that vehicle delays would have been reduced by 62-74% (nationally saving 325,000 hours of motorists’ time annually). Moreover, because fewer vehicles had to wait for traffic lights, 235,000 gallons of fuel could have been saved.

Perhaps we ought to see more in North America.

Does anyone have experience in cycling in roundabouts?