[Music]
hello my name is acquit a Watkins I
teach physics robotics and an
introduction to aviation class in the
high school I’m here to talk to you
today about the fastest way to get
around a couple years ago I came across
this quote from Walden I said I have
learned that the swiftest traveller is
he that goes by foot and he was talking
about people getting around in the late
1800s a farmer would maybe work for
three days to save enough money to buy a
ticket to take a train somewhere but his
argument was well if that farm would
just started walking he would actually
get there normally today so the fastest
way is just to go ahead and just start
walking and so kind of start we think
about maybe in modern-day Atlanta maybe
the fastest way to get around would be
to walk or maybe even better to go by
bike so here’s a little snapshot of my
ride home on some days heading
northbound through Atlanta we’re all
pretty familiar with this and got me
thinking about maybe a better way to
spend my time but trying to balance
getting around town taking care of our
family and one thing I like to do is
work out two or three days a week so
like all good engineers I’ve put
together a spreadsheet and compare the
time it took for me to drive to work
drive home drive to the gym change my
clothes work out change my codes again
take a shower and drive back home versus
if I just hopped on a bike and just went
ahead and use as my form of
transportation and my form of recreation
and fitness and turned out actually save
time every week by biking to work so why
doesn’t everyone bike everywhere all the
time so there’s a couple concerns the
first one it takes too long well
according to my spreadsheet it doesn’t
actually take longer than if you if you
drove to work my kids I do have two
children go here to this school I do
drive them to school most days but I do
I’ll put some other families too it
takes them one or two days a week allows
me to bike to work showers I do shower
every day but you can shower at home or
fortunately there’s showers here at
schools I just shower once I get to
scrubber a cycling clothes but once I
get here I shower put on my professional
clothes and then start my day from there
but the big concern is always the danger
that land land of roads are very
dangerous so I want to talk to you a
couple minutes about the danger and a
perceived danger of cycling to get
around so if you look at the whole
country 35 over 35,000 people you were
killed in car crashes and they’re so
common that they’re actually not
reported on the news because the news on
reports things that are uncommon and so
many people year die on the on the
roadway and about 817 cyclists or killed
nationwide but if we look down at
Georgia about 13 thirteen hundred people
were killed by car and about twenty
three were killed while cycling and so
eighty-five percent of the cyclists who
were killed did not have a helmet on so
whenever I cycle always make sure I put
a helmet on to make sure my family wears
a helmet so only about four people in
all the state of Georgia died last year
from cycling who are wearing their
helmet so as many ways to interpret
these numbers but the way I chose
interpret them was maybe cycling isn’t
as dangerous as maybe we think it is
compared to other risks so according to
the CDC what’s actually going to kill
you so what’s actually going to get you
as heart disease cancer cardiovascular
things Alzheimer’s kidney failure and
unfortunately suicide these are top 10
killers in America and so many of us are
familiar research that says physical
activity and cycling will reduce the
risk of dying from many of these things
makes you more physically fit or
mentally alert and so bicycling to work
you’re greatly reducing your risk from
dying from the things that are actually
going to kill you and maybe you feel a
little better when you’re getting around
town so I used to work for aircraft
company and I work with students here to
build robots and we kind of have a
little slogan fast good and cheap pick
– you can never have all three but as I
was thinking about getting around town
in Atlanta I think maybe cycling to work
might be the one and only chance that
all three of these can be true at the
same time you can get there good you get
there feeling immensely more alert
immensely more healthy more physically
fit you get there cheaply maybe save a
little bit in gas and you can also get
there faster as well so next time you
have to get around Atlanta or go
someplace I encourage you to go the
fastest way walk there or maybe go ahead
and take a bike thank you very much
[Applause]
hello my name is acquit a Watkins I
teach physics robotics and an
introduction to aviation class in the
high school I’m here to talk to you
today about the fastest way to get
around a couple years ago I came across
this quote from Walden I said I have
learned that the swiftest traveller is
he that goes by foot and he was talking
about people getting around in the late
1800s a farmer would maybe work for
three days to save enough money to buy a
ticket to take a train somewhere but his
argument was well if that farm would
just started walking he would actually
get there normally today so the fastest
way is just to go ahead and just start
walking and so kind of start we think
about maybe in modern-day Atlanta maybe
the fastest way to get around would be
to walk or maybe even better to go by
bike so here’s a little snapshot of my
ride home on some days heading
northbound through Atlanta we’re all
pretty familiar with this and got me
thinking about maybe a better way to
spend my time but trying to balance
getting around town taking care of our
family and one thing I like to do is
work out two or three days a week so
like all good engineers I’ve put
together a spreadsheet and compare the
time it took for me to drive to work
drive home drive to the gym change my
clothes work out change my codes again
take a shower and drive back home versus
if I just hopped on a bike and just went
ahead and use as my form of
transportation and my form of recreation
and fitness and turned out actually save
time every week by biking to work so why
doesn’t everyone bike everywhere all the
time so there’s a couple concerns the
first one it takes too long well
according to my spreadsheet it doesn’t
actually take longer than if you if you
drove to work my kids I do have two
children go here to this school I do
drive them to school most days but I do
I’ll put some other families too it
takes them one or two days a week allows
me to bike to work showers I do shower
every day but you can shower at home or
fortunately there’s showers here at
schools I just shower once I get to
scrubber a cycling clothes but once I
get here I shower put on my professional
clothes and then start my day from there
but the big concern is always the danger
that land land of roads are very
dangerous so I want to talk to you a
couple minutes about the danger and a
perceived danger of cycling to get
around so if you look at the whole
country 35 over 35,000 people you were
killed in car crashes and they’re so
common that they’re actually not
reported on the news because the news on
reports things that are uncommon and so
many people year die on the on the
roadway and about 817 cyclists or killed
nationwide but if we look down at
Georgia about 13 thirteen hundred people
were killed by car and about twenty
three were killed while cycling and so
eighty-five percent of the cyclists who
were killed did not have a helmet on so
whenever I cycle always make sure I put
a helmet on to make sure my family wears
a helmet so only about four people in
all the state of Georgia died last year
from cycling who are wearing their
helmet so as many ways to interpret
these numbers but the way I chose
interpret them was maybe cycling isn’t
as dangerous as maybe we think it is
compared to other risks so according to
the CDC what’s actually going to kill
you so what’s actually going to get you
as heart disease cancer cardiovascular
things Alzheimer’s kidney failure and
unfortunately suicide these are top 10
killers in America and so many of us are
familiar research that says physical
activity and cycling will reduce the
risk of dying from many of these things
makes you more physically fit or
mentally alert and so bicycling to work
you’re greatly reducing your risk from
dying from the things that are actually
going to kill you and maybe you feel a
little better when you’re getting around
town so I used to work for aircraft
company and I work with students here to
build robots and we kind of have a
little slogan fast good and cheap pick
– you can never have all three but as I
was thinking about getting around town
in Atlanta I think maybe cycling to work
might be the one and only chance that
all three of these can be true at the
same time you can get there good you get
there feeling immensely more alert
immensely more healthy more physically
fit you get there cheaply maybe save a
little bit in gas and you can also get
there faster as well so next time you
have to get around Atlanta or go
someplace I encourage you to go the
fastest way walk there or maybe go ahead
and take a bike thank you very much
[Applause]
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