Date: Saturday, 26 October 2013
Hot drink of choice: Cappuccino
Total mileage: 15km (including my commute)
Ride details/report:
Heads up, this ride may not qualify, as it was on a working day. However, as the country is facing a severe "superstorm" warning tomorrow and Monday (my normal "weekend") and the winds are already picking up, I am almost certainly not venturing out on a bike in the next two days. I therefore respectfully request a substitution day this week. Of course, if this "superstorm" turns out to be a damp squib, then I'll be out on my bike and more than happy to submit another ride as a conventionally qualifying one in place of this.
So to it. I am in fact working today! I am in charge of a four-day project involving counting everyone using one of our local National Cycling Network routes. Our survey point is situated where the cycling route intersects with a footpath between a housing estate and the town's main park, which borders the main downtown shopping route. It's an extremely popular walking route. We are counting everyone using both the footpath and the cycling route at this junction, and recording each user according to gender, age bracket, mode of transport and destination (as they leave the crossroads). Additionally, we are conducting random interviews with users, asking where their current journey started and where it will end, the purpose of their journey, whether it involves another mode of transport (e.g. car, bus, train) and finally, whether they could have used a car but didn't and if so, why they didn't, in particular teasing out any reasons why they may have actively chosen not to use the car in favour of walking or cycling instead.
I am managing a team of about 15 staff and volunteers, running in shifts from 7am to 7pm. My partner Adam (who is a volunteer) and I are responsible for setting up the site each morning at 6.30am and tearing it all down after 7pm each evening and transporting everything back to my workplace for storage until the next survey day. We have no choice as to survey days - these have been designated by The Powers That Be, with a goal to measuring differences between weekdays and weekends and also between days falling within the school term and those during school holidays.
Phew! It's a lot to keep track of!
So how does coffeeneuring come into this? Basically, last Tuesday I worked 14 hours straight. Today, I was determined not to do that, but to be "on call" and occupied at my leisure nearby. So at the end of my first shift, I decided to go for a coffee. On my bike. To a nearby pub. Adam had some errands to run but agreed to meet me there when he was done.
So I cycled through Grove House Gardens to the Gary Cooper pub (part of the Wetherspoons chain), locked up my bike and settled at a table outside where I duly had my cappuccino. Oh, and a full English breakfast. As you do!
If I peered across the park in the right direction, I could just make out, through the trees, the hi-viz vests of the two members of my team on duty conducting user counts and interviews at the time.
And if I lined things up just right, I could get a photo of my coffee, my bike and our survey site.
By my own standards, I don't think this ride should qualify as a coffeeneuring ride, but in the face of the dire weather forecast, it is likely all I have to offer over this weekend.
How does the jury rule?
** EDITED @ 20.40 to add: Based on our cycle ride home over the past hour... there is no way I will be riding in winds any stronger than tonight's!
Ride details/report:
Heads up, this ride may not qualify, as it was on a working day. However, as the country is facing a severe "superstorm" warning tomorrow and Monday (my normal "weekend") and the winds are already picking up, I am almost certainly not venturing out on a bike in the next two days. I therefore respectfully request a substitution day this week. Of course, if this "superstorm" turns out to be a damp squib, then I'll be out on my bike and more than happy to submit another ride as a conventionally qualifying one in place of this.
So to it. I am in fact working today! I am in charge of a four-day project involving counting everyone using one of our local National Cycling Network routes. Our survey point is situated where the cycling route intersects with a footpath between a housing estate and the town's main park, which borders the main downtown shopping route. It's an extremely popular walking route. We are counting everyone using both the footpath and the cycling route at this junction, and recording each user according to gender, age bracket, mode of transport and destination (as they leave the crossroads). Additionally, we are conducting random interviews with users, asking where their current journey started and where it will end, the purpose of their journey, whether it involves another mode of transport (e.g. car, bus, train) and finally, whether they could have used a car but didn't and if so, why they didn't, in particular teasing out any reasons why they may have actively chosen not to use the car in favour of walking or cycling instead.
I am managing a team of about 15 staff and volunteers, running in shifts from 7am to 7pm. My partner Adam (who is a volunteer) and I are responsible for setting up the site each morning at 6.30am and tearing it all down after 7pm each evening and transporting everything back to my workplace for storage until the next survey day. We have no choice as to survey days - these have been designated by The Powers That Be, with a goal to measuring differences between weekdays and weekends and also between days falling within the school term and those during school holidays.
Phew! It's a lot to keep track of!
So how does coffeeneuring come into this? Basically, last Tuesday I worked 14 hours straight. Today, I was determined not to do that, but to be "on call" and occupied at my leisure nearby. So at the end of my first shift, I decided to go for a coffee. On my bike. To a nearby pub. Adam had some errands to run but agreed to meet me there when he was done.
So I cycled through Grove House Gardens to the Gary Cooper pub (part of the Wetherspoons chain), locked up my bike and settled at a table outside where I duly had my cappuccino. Oh, and a full English breakfast. As you do!
If I peered across the park in the right direction, I could just make out, through the trees, the hi-viz vests of the two members of my team on duty conducting user counts and interviews at the time.
And if I lined things up just right, I could get a photo of my coffee, my bike and our survey site.
By my own standards, I don't think this ride should qualify as a coffeeneuring ride, but in the face of the dire weather forecast, it is likely all I have to offer over this weekend.
How does the jury rule?
** EDITED @ 20.40 to add: Based on our cycle ride home over the past hour... there is no way I will be riding in winds any stronger than tonight's!
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