Month: November 2017

Bikes4Life 

• Australian organisation that sends bikes to people in developing nations

Founder

• Ebony Butler from Melbourne
• Worked in the film industry and was inspired by a documentary she worked on about the lives of people in Uganda in 2009

Collection of Bikes

• Ask for donations of money but also of old bikes that people no longer use
  • Noticed high numbers of bikes went to waste in Australia every year
  • Advertise drop off points for bikes on their website –> locations in Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne
• The bikes are fixed if they need to be by volunteers before being sent off

Volunteer Work

• Have features on their website that allow for people to post about upcoming cycling events where they will be raising money for the charity
• Have programs for volunteers where they teach them about the work being done in different countries before taking them there to help distribute bikes

 

Both videos emphasized the importance of freedom of speech, but also understanding what this means in different circumstances. The crash course video looked into when freedom of speech can cause problems as it only protects you in certain situations which is something I had never thought about. He looks into how speaking out in certain situations, such as at work or school does not mean you are protected.  Stephen Fry’s video looked at civil disobedience and how that has been used throughout history.  He uses examples such as Rosa Parks and Ghandi to show how actions of civil disobedience and how they have been able to inspire people to make changes to laws in society as a result of their actions.

I think I found this project the easiest to present of the speeches I have made in this class so far because I felt like I knew a lot about the topic which made it easier. As a result I was using my notes a lot less than I have in the other presentations because I felt like I knew off the top of my head what I wanted to say and they became more of a reminder of what I wanted to say next than something I was directly reading off. Professor Hunt mentioned in our conference that interviewing people might also help me use my notes less because it is sometimes easier to remember a conversation than to remember something written in a reading which I found was true for this presentation as I could easily remember the conversations I had with my parents about their stance on bike usage in Sydney a few days prior. I think for my next presentation I want to work on using slides better, and rather than just having photos on them maybe put words on them as well to help me use my notes less.

For this presentation I decided to look at the communities I have been apart of within Australia as a whole and then the smaller ones within cities and states. Weiss’s reading about how different cyclists interact and some of the tensions between certain groups was what inspired me to think about this. The first thing I thought about this was the relationship between Sydney and Melbourne which are two of the biggest cities in Australia. Growing up which of the two was better was a constant topic of conversation, which was mostly a result of them being so similar and such big tourist locations. When the capital city was being decided there was so much controversy over whether it should be Sydney or Melbourne they ended up building Canberra in the middle of the two. Another example of this is the tension between the eastern and northern suburbs of Sydney, which again comes a result of the two being so similar and both in close proximity of the city. Going to school in the city there were people from both which made it a constant topic of conversation, where was better to go to study on the weekends or had the better beaches.

To link this to bicycles I looked at the issues regarding cyclists in Sydney as it is a constant topic of conversation both amongst people and on the news. Sydney has a really strong public transport that is easily accessible to everyone no matter where they live, meaning most people use buses, trains and ferries as their main mode of transport if they are not driving by car and as a result there are limited numbers of cyclists. The city only caters for those riding bikes in certain areas of the cities and in big parks through the use of bike lanes, as well as this laws are more lenient on whether or not they have to use roads or can ride on the footpath. I decided to ask my mum about her opinions on this because going to school in the morning it is something I vividly remember her constantly commenting on. She said that she is often frustrated by cyclists early in the morning. There are already more buses and cars on the road and a single cyclist trying to get up a steep hill can completely congest the traffic and add a significant amount of travel time. I spoke to my dad about the same issue and he said he doesn’t have a problem with cyclists for the most part, however he said it is frustrating when they will switch between the road and footpath constantly throughout their trip. In conclusion, I thought this was interesting because it shows how differently different places cater to cyclists. In a city like San Francisco there are so many facilities that benefit cyclists however in Sydney there is much less. 

I think I found this speech easier to present than the earlier presentations because it was about data that I collected myself so I felt more like I knew what I was talking about. I also tried to use my notes less in this presentation than I had in previous ones which I think worked to an extent. Rather than writing my entire speech out I just wrote out the main points which I think helped me to rely on them less. However, for my next speech I think I should focus more on the order that my notes are written out in because I think some elements of the way I wrote them out made them a bit confusing to look at when making my presentation.

For this presentation I decided to look at the evidence that my group collected in class at the Panhandle and compare it to the evidence I collected outside following that session. In the Huff reading there were many references made to the importance of not only viewing evidence in a visual way as it can by ue misleading. Through the use of graphs a speaker can sway the audience to see things a certain way by showing more or less significant drops in data through the way the numbers are spaced.

The evidence we collected at the Panhandle was on how many cyclists were wearing helmets, we did this in two ten minute sessions in the late afternoon on a Tuesday. In our first session we saw 49 cyclists, 38 of which were wearing helmets and 11 who were not which made up for a total of 29% not wearing helmets. In the second ten minute session we only saw 23 cyclists as the Panhandle became significantly less busy. Of these cyclists 16 were wearing helmets and 7 were not which made for a total of 43% not wearing helmets in the second session. According to Zompetti it is difficult to compare these two lots of statistics, this is because one is from a pool of people that is almost double of that of the second session. One observation we made is that when we collected data at this time majority of the people not wearing helmets were white males.

On a Monday morning I went back to the Panhandle to collect more data on cyclists. In a 20 minute session I saw a total of 45 cyclists of which 26 were wearing helmets and 19 were not. Unlike in the data collected in class I found that there was a mixture of both males and females not wearing helmets and many were on rental bikes, stopping and looking for directions on the maps attached to the bikes. This made it look as if they may have been more tourist at this time of day.

I think to get completely accurate data on helmet usage in the Panhandle it would be important to go for the same length of time but at different times of day. This would account for the different types of people passing through at different time whether it was for leisure or on their way to or from work in the city.

 

Point 1 – Huff and Zompetti Readings

• Important to not just use sources visually
  • Able to make gaps in data look more or less significant than they actually are through the use of graphs –> get the audience to look at things in a certain way
• Statistical Evidence
  • Important to see how big the pool of people the statstics are coming from is
    • Smaller amount of people could make for less reliable results

Point 2 – Collected Evidence

• In class at the Panhandle to see how many people were wearing helmets
  • 2 10 minute sessions –> 20 minutes in total
    • Done in the late afternoon
    • First session
      • 38 wearing helmets and 11 not wearing helmets
      • Total of 49 people
      • 29 % not wearing helmets
    • Second session
      • 16 wearing helmets and 7 not wearing helmets
      • Total of 23 people
      • 43% not wearing helmets
    • Majority of the cyclists at this time who were not wearing helmets where white males
  • Outside of class –> 20 minutes in the Panhandle in the morning
    • 26 cyclists with helmets and 19 without
    • Mix of both males and females not wearing helmets
      • Majority of the people not wearing helmets were on rental bikes and stopping to look at maps –> possibly more tourists at this time of day

The two main sources I used for this project were the readings by Weiss and Duarte. The reading by Weiss that discussed the ways that different cyclists interact and communicate which reminded me of the ways that different areas of Sydney interact and view each other. I also used sources from the NSW Government website, here I was able to see the different laws that have been implemented over time to help protect those who are cycling on the roads of Sydney.

For this speech I decided to talk about the area of Sydney I live in and how the community I am a part of differs slightly from other parts of the city. To link this to bikes I am looking into the problems associated with people riding bikes in Sydney. Unlike San Francisco very few people commute by bike which has resulted in less facilities such as bike lanes that cater to those who do use riding as their main mode of transport. As a result of this there is often tension between riders and those in cars.

The main source I used for project 2 was the reading by Huff which I found gave a really interesting perspective on the use of visual data. Huff discussed the ways in which visual data can be used to mislead an audience which is often done through the use of graphs. This can be done by leaving bigger or smaller gaps between numbers to make it look like there was a more or less significant drop in the data. This then linked to what Zompetti said in his reading about the use of statistics in a similar way. Zompetti explained that referencing only statistics as evidence can be misleading as you do not know what numbers are being compared on a larger scale, meaning that a sample of 10 people could be compared to a sample of 40 people without the audience being aware.