After watching “My Drunk Kitchen: Thanksgiving Turkey” and “Performance” I realized that youtube voice is not possible in all youtube videos.  In “My Drunk Kitchen” she uses youtube voice by emphasizing her words but in “Performance” MC Spandx isn’t using youtube voice because he’s rapping for most of the video.  For me I feel like emphasizing my words and syllables more would be a good idea so everyone in the class would be able to understand what I am saying.  I feel like over stressing my words too much might just seem weird and make my classmates (or anyone I’m going my speech to) think I speak weird and that might distract them from the message of my speech.

The Legality of Riding a Bike

For my S3 presentation I want to speak about the consideration of bikes and how they are subject to the same laws concerning motor powered vehicles.  I believe this type of consideration should be changed based on the fact that to ride a bike one does not need to go through any testing or be a certain age.  Therefore bike riders should not be subject to the same laws and fines that apply to motor vehicles.

In “If Kant Were a New York Cyclist” talks about how he believes that cyclists should not obey the traffic because they are not predestines and are not motor vehicles.  I think that in the cases Randy Cohen describes where he only breaks the traffic laws when there are no pedestrians or cars in the area that could case harm to himself or that he could cause harm to.  If this is the case I do not think someone should receive a ticket if they do not hurt anyone.  In “Is It OK to Kill Cyclists” Daniel Duane expresses his concerns with the help of facts show casing the alarming rates which cyclists are being killed.  Both articles contradict because one tells cyclists to break the rules of the road and the other tells cyclists to be care and watch out because at any moment they could unexpectedly be hit by a car.  Cohen talks about how in Amsterdam there are many bikes and they have their own set of rules.  I visited Amsterdam this summer and there is an extremely big bike culture.  When i traveled all throughout the city everywhere we went there were people riding bikes and also hundreds of bikes chained up on the sidewalks.  I don’t know which author i agree with on one hand I don’t think bikes should have to stop at stop signs but also I wouldn’t want to get killed by a bike.

David Byrne in his chapter about San Francisco in reality does not really talk all that much about the city itself.  He touches on the landscape of the city describing the hills and how a cyclist could potentially get almost anywhere in the city without going up a super intense hill.  This is an important fact for him because he is riding his bike and personally I would not want to be biking up some of the steep hills I have unfortunately had to walk up with great difficulty I might add.  Byrne is detailed oriented but not on the topics that a reader might expect.  His chapter is supposed to be about San Francisco but he spends a majority of the chapter describing San Francisco and the Bay area as the place where start up companies come to expand and become successful.  He talks about the Silicon Valley and the garage where HP was started.  I felt like he writes in a similar way that he thinks.  His sentences and the way he describes things seem like they are not said in a very academic way but instead just any thought that comes to his head.  In this way his chapter makes connections to things that a reader may not have though of on their own.

He describes a few places he visits throughout the city and the Bay area including Taqueria Cancún located in the Mission District which is known for its great mexican food.  It seems that because his chapter is titled San Francisco he should go into detail describing the area surround the restaurant and then go into detail about their food and the atmosphere but instead he writes two short sentences that barely give the reader and idea of the place he is talking about.  I think that the whole point of him riding his bike around the city, and to other places, is to slow down and take in the sights that he wouldn’t be able to see from a car or any other motorized mode of transportation.  He should spend his time describing the taqueria but instead he just skips over the place like it didn’t matter.  This type of writing again focusing on mostly the way Byrne thinks shows the reader just a taste of San Francisco and makes them want to dig more and research more about the city to find out what they missed by just reading Byrne’s chapter

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For the S2 presentation I like how we had a separate presentation to express to the class what we were going to present the next week.  I was unfortunately absent from the class where we were informed about the presentation presenting what were were going to present (thats confusing isn’t it?)  I had no idea what Professor Hunt expected but I tried my best to find a topic I was interested in and also concerned bikes.  When I stumbled on this super cool company which produced retro electric bikes I was interested and intrigued.  After I made my presentation and presented to the class I felt pretty confident on my topic.  It was a different take on bikes and I felt like my presentation presenting what we were going to present was successful and I would have no problem making my real presentation for the following week.  Fast forward to Monday night when I was doing my homework for day 13 of class.  As I was reading one of the assigned readings I suddenly realized that my topic on stylish electric bikes might be interesting to me but it was not enough to be able to talk about these bikes for four minuets.  I suddenly changed my topic and I really didn’t know what I was going to do to be able to finish with my speech in time.

I realized I still wanted to talk about electric bikes but instead of some very random company I wanted to talk about the law aspect of the situation.  I researched and created a speech that I believed was a great representation of my view on bikes.  For those of you who do not really know anything about me I want to be a lawyer and am even involved in one of the undergrad law programs offered by USF, because of this I realized this topic was better suited for me.

After I gave my presentation on Thursday I actually felt like I did horribly.  When I wrote out and rehearsed my speech I felt great.  I believed I knew the material very well and it was something I was super interested in.  When I stood up and gave my presentation for some reason I became very nervous, more than I usually do.  I was stumbling on my words and did not look at my notecards once which probably wasn’t the best idea.  I do not remember everything I said but I know I left out major parts of my presentation and information that I spent time researching and learning.  I know most people are posting on their blogs that they felt they did better during this presentation but I felt or actually know I did worse.  I think that as time goes by and I learn more about everyone who I am in class with I become more nervous.  I think that it is easier to make speeches to groups of people that you do not know, in this case there is no emotional connection and therefore easier to concentrate on a presentation.

When Brianna was speaking about how Uber is training their drivers to be more bike conscious and be able to share the road especially in a bike derived city like San Francisco.  Even though I talked about electric bikes and the laws concerning these modes of transportation I believe both me and Brianna talked about how vehicles other than manual powered bikes need to learn how to share the road and also how people themselves need to be accountable for their actions.

For my next speech I want to be even more prepared than i have been for my last two speeches.  I want S3 to go so smooth that when I get up to talk I do not even need to make notecards because I know the information so well.  In conclusion I know I did not do a great job on my speech but for next time I know what I need to work on.

Today I went to the USF Speaking and Writing center during their office hours.  I wasn’t there for long maybe about 15 minutes but in that short amount of time I learned a lot about how to conclude my speech because that is what I have been having trouble with.  The girl I worked with, I didn’t catch her name, but she was very nice and helpful in telling me what strategies I should use to end my speech.  I liked how the Speaking Center is run by students and not some professor or speaking coach who judges my style of writing.  I think I would defiantly go back to the Speaking Center to not only work on projects for this class but for my other classes.

In my final rehearsal video I felt like I knew my speech better but also since I had my speech right next to me and I could look at it whenever I wanted I feel like i heavily relied on that.  I stumble over my words because I can see that what I say does not exactly match the words that I use in my paper and for some reason even though I know on the day of the presentation I will not be about to say exactly what I wrote in my speech I want to get semi close to the same words. Going forward I will try to work on being okay with not using the exact same words from my speech but getting the general idea across.

In this video I felt better about knowing the content of my speech because I did not look at my paper that often.  I still feel like I need to know my facts better because I feel like I spend time searching my paper for the correct fact.  Other than that I feel like this rehearsal went pretty well.

For this practice I feel like I did not know my speech at all.  Barely just wrote it a few hours ago and in this video I am just reading off my paper.  I feel like in my next rehearsal video I should try and not look at my paper unless I need help with facts or statistics or in general if I forget a certain line.

Hi my name is Ashley Rice and I want to talk today about the safety of electric bikes.  Some say electric bikes are the way of the future but should they be?  With technology advancing more everyday it seems logical for modes of transportation to also continue to advance to create more mobility and convenience to the rider.  With the increased use of electric bikes politicians need to create more adequate laws to target the growing demographic.

In the US the use of electric bikes since 2005 have risen about 35%.  With this increase, law makers understand that new laws need to be put in place to target the e-bike community.  In 2015 Governor Jerry Brown signed A.B. 1096 which clarifies the regulation of e-bikes in California.  This bill states that there are three different types of e-bikes classified by the speed a certain e-bike can reach.  Only the lowest level of electric bikes which can reach the speed of about 20 mph is allowed on bike paths.  Most importantly, e-bikes will no longer be regulated like mopeds even though the same rules of the road will apply to both e-bikes and human-powered bicycles. E-bikes will not be subject to the registration, licensing, or insurance requirements that apply to motor vehicles which could seem like it would create problems.  How would a driver of an electric bike be held responsible by the law if they were to get into a serious accident and harm themselves or even other person?

E-bikes are not only popular in the US but the trend originated in China and Europe.  In Switzerland the amount of e-bike riders increased as did the amount of e-bike related accidents.  From 2012 to 2013 the amount of e-bike related accidents rose 25%.  In 57% of those cases the accident was caused by the biker losing control of his bike.  This poses the question are e-bikes really safe?  If an e-bike can reach 20 MPH the same speed at which many cars are driving, then should it be considered a bike?  If this is the case 14 year olds should not be allowed to operate e-bikes just like they are not permitted to operate cars.  Even with a helmet the rise of e-bikes has also brought the rise of accidents and deaths.  Some accountability has to be present and I believe the only way to do this is to require e-bike riders to obtain a valid driver’s license so at least people on the road have some piece of mind.

With the initiation of AB 1096 at the beginning of this year it may seem that California is jumping on the trend of the e-bike but I think it is a little too soon.  The amount of accidents due to the increase of electric bikes sharing the road has increased by 25% and will continue to rise.  Creating accountability and peace of mind is very important to keeping our roads safe.  I believe that e-bikes are not best for safety of the roads right now because there are not enough regulations put in place to keep e-bike riders and others who share the road safe.  With more laws and restrictions placed on e-bikes I believe that they could become valuable modes of transportation that would create more mobility for bike riders.  I encourage you to think about should be done to make our streets and e-bike riders safer?