Spurred by another superficial review of Paris’ push for bicycle lanes¹, I decided to write out why I think so many of these takes are overly superficial, and thus fail to provide useful lessons when applied to other cities.

First, by way of background, I feel like I have rather unique vantage point of being trained in Transportation Planning (in Civil Engineering), paired with having lived and studied in all three of France, Canada, and the United States. On one hand, my schooling was in Utah, one of the few places in the US where they are still building urban freeways²; on the other, I spent three years in France (including 8 months in metro Paris) relying almost exclusively on public transit. In a word, I’ve lived and commuted in both.

From an art show this weekend:

Montain has no worries, yet the snow cap gives it white hair.
Water has no sadness, yet the wind made it wrinkle.

Perhaps in an era when everything is found on your blog via (Google) Search anyway, the disconnected nature of a digital garden doesn't loose as much against polished (and complete) blog posts as first glance would suggest.

Meditation is a sort of barbell strategy for life. Staring at your computer screen trying to decide what to do next is a waste. Either be in quiet contemplation, or taking decisive action.

— David Kadavy

Cool "spaceman" graffiti on a CN railcar! https://blog.minchin.ca/images/2025/IMG_4295-cropped.JPG

Spring is in the air...or at least the chlorine is in the (spring) water

Flâneur is a French term popularized in the nineteenth-century for a type of urban male “stroller”, stereotypically of Paris. What a delightful word!