Amsterdam overwhelmed with bicycles

A bicycle can be a thing of beauty, as seen in the above photo from Denmark. And when a society makes bicycling safe and easy, as in Denmark and the Netherlands — countries I recently visited — hordes of folks use bikes.

They are, as more and more Portlanders are discovering, cheap, non-polluting and beneficial to your health.

That’s all to the good. But in Amsterdam, where the bike rules the right of way, I noticed what Amsterdam residents no longer apparently see. Bicycles in vast numbers clutter the otherwise gorgeous city. They are locked in tangled rows along the canals. Many seem abandoned. They litter the sidewalks. They seem to propagate over night in a maze of tubing and spokes.

They say that Amsterdam has one bicycle per resident. Don’t believe it. My unofficial count found that it has at least 10 per resident.

No bicyclist wears a helmet. Children ride on fenders and cross bars. And while pedestrians, bicyclists and motorists manage to mingle gingerly and make way for each other, all are on constant alert for mayhem. Among the jumble of bikes are the unrideable, crippled by tell-tale twisted wheels and bent frames.

A pedestrian trying to cross a major thoroughfare in Amsterdam must first negotiate the busy, red-paved bike lane, then scramble across the motor lane, then the trolley tracks.

That gets you half way across the street, where you may or may not find a safety island.

Then it’s back across the trolley right of way, the motorway, and the bike way until you find yourself on the sidewalk, where you often compete for space with a jumble of parked bikes.

I do believe that Amsterdam has reached and perhaps exceeded some kind of critical mass regarding the bike.

Then again, only a foreigner may notice.

It’s a little like our not seeing the blight of overhead utility wires in our own city. Amsterdam, like the other European cities and towns I visited, has buried them all. Likewise, billboards on highways are out of the question. Obviously the culture cares enough about the public space to protect it from blight — except for when it comes to bicycles.

One other cultural observation worth noting but apropos of I’m not sure what: famously free-wheeling Amsterdam also has made prostitution and pot legal.

Despite its chaotic jumble of bikes, the city thrives on its choices and freedoms.

Reality Check at Wilson High

A recent student-administered study at our local Wilson High School revealed that teens think their student peers are using more drugs and alcohol than they actually are.

The organization Positive Action Concerning Teens (PACT) is using the study’s results to give teens a reality check and to counter peer pressure.

The results show that Wilson students believe that more than nine out of 10 of their peers consume or have consumed alcohol. The actual number is six out of 10. The results also show that those who do drink, do so far less than is believed.

The study also revealed similar misperceptions about marijuana use.

The June issue of the Southwest Community Connection describes the results in a front page story.

One study's conclusion is that teen social norms — and sense of reality — are askew as it relates to drugs and alcohol. What kids THINK is happening, isn’t.

One thing is missing from the story — and presumably the Wilson study: The answer to the question “Why?”

Why the disconnect between perception and reality?

The question begs for an answer.

Here’s one: The media. How is teen behavior portrayed in the media, which consume roughly eight hours of the average teen’s day?

More exactly, how are teens themselves portrayed in the media? Screens are distorting mirrors. What do teens see when they become immersed in a screen world.

The late George Gerbner conducted a classic study of what heavy TV watchers thought the crime rate was and compared that to what “light” consumers of TV thought the rate was. He called the result “The Mean World Syndrome.” Heavy consumers of TV fare thought the world was a much more dangerous place than it in fact is. Those who used less TV, had a better sense of the crime rate.

I imagine that the same is true with perceptions of drug and alcohol use among teens.

One final point: Why didn’t the study include tobacco “drug” usage. Nicotine is as dangerous, or more so, than marijuana and alcohol.

Clearly peer attitudes and perceptions regarding tobacco usage are important at Wilson.

My own perceptions of teen tobacco use are likely distorted as well. I tend to not pay attention when I see teens NOT smoking, but when I do see teen smokers, I find that my reaction varies from anger to depression. It makes a distinct and influencing impression.

There’s a larger point to be made too. Just how well do our perceptions ABOUT ANYTHING, coincide with reality. And if there’s a disconnect, how do we explain it?

BIG topic alert.

Without getting into a philosophical discussion about the nature of “reality” and “knowledge,” the question is worth pursuing — if only to ward off delusion, distrust, paranoia and — peer pressure, whether among teens or adults.

Eight-point Side Effects without end

After reading yesterday's Red Electric post, one near and dear to me asked to see the package insert for my Istalol, the beta blocker I’ve been prescribed to ward off glaucoma. If unchecked, the condition leads to blindness.

She was concerned about my brooding over the doctor’s warning that the eye drops had, on occasion, caused depression. I had written in this space that, ironically, his very words were depressing.

Istalol’s insert, printed on both sides of a flimsy half-sheet, is not designed for those who going blind. You are reading this in 12-point type. The insert is written in what seems to be eight-point.

That looks like this.

Obviously the government or the drug companies, or both, don’t care enough to make side effects perfectly clear, even for those with 20/20 vision.

Once you get out the magnifying glass, you must scan, Holmes-like, through verbal pharmaceutical sludge.

“The precise mechanism of intraocular hypertensive action of Istalol is not clearly established at this time. Tonography and fluorophotometry studies in man suggest that its predominant action may be related to reduced aqueous formation. However, in some studies a slight increase in outflow facility was also observed.”

Perhaps the author of this rhetorical “outflow” of “predominant” verbal “action” was the same person who ordered it written in 8-point type. It’s not just hard to see, it’s nearly impossible to understand.

No wonder my doctor asked directly “Are you prone to depression?” and “Do you have heart problems?” As frightening and depressing as the questions were, at least I understood them.

Interestingly, the word “depression” is listed twice in the insert, but it is only one of dozens of “adverse reactions” reported, however rarely, by users of Istalol. Hallucination, confusion, anxiety, disorientation, memory loss. The list goes on and on: “nausea, diarrhea, dyspepsia, anorexia, dry mouth .... "

In fact the possible side effects are so numerous that I’m having trouble taking the warnings seriously. Then again, after two days of dropping this stuff into my eyes, I could be hallucinating, confused, anxious, depressed and suffering from memory loss.