Cycling is good for you. This much is obvious. But what might be some of the lesser known benefits?
Here's a fascinating study (that I discovered through Lloyd Alter's blog), which looked at the association between active travel modes and brain health — specifically dementia risk. For this study, the researchers analyzed nearly 500,000 people in the UK and then tracked them for a median period of 13.1 years. How people got around was classified according to the following groups: non-active (like driving or taking public transit), walking only, mixed-walking, and cycling and mixed-cycling. This latter category is meant to capture people who cycle exclusively and who mix it with other forms of mobility.
Based on this, the researchers uncovered these cycling benefits compared to non-active travel:
19% reduction in all-cause dementia
22% reduction in Alzheimer's disease
40% reduction in young-onset dementia
17% reduction in late-onset dementia
Cycling was by far the best performing category. Why is that? Well, exercise in general is good for brain health. It increases blood flow and oxygenation to the brain, decreases cortisol levels (stress hormone), and reduces anxiety and depression, among many other beneficial things. But perhaps the most important feature for this particular discussion is that it's simultaneously a physical and cognitive activity. In other words, it's exercise, but your brain also has to do a lot of other stuff like balance the bike, avoid obstacles (such as car doors being flung open), and generally navigate an environment with many stimuli.
This gives new meaning to biking for brain health. And it reinforces the case that bike lanes are actually one part mobility infrastructure and one part public health initiative.
Here's a recent video from The Wall Street Journal talking about the "secrets behind hotel design." It's interesting in that it gets into some of the ways in which designers are shrinking hotel rooms and then making up for it with amenities. This is a strategy you'll find in many other real estate asset classes ranging from multi-family housing to co-living.
But if you scroll through the comments, you'll see that the responses are overwhelmingly negative. In fact, I was hard pressed to find any positive ones. Most people simply don't like the idea of hotel rooms shrinking and of not having the same amenities. This is not surprising. The comments are similar to what you'll hear people say about shrinking condominium suites.
At the end of the day, though, the strategy outlined in this video is designed to cater to a very specific market: young travelers (roughly 25 to 40 years old) who want to stay somewhere fun and social — and at a reasonable price. Room size is the lever that helps bring rates down. But it's not for everyone, and that's why hotel companies have so many different brands in their portfolio. It's so they can precisely target different customers and types of travel.
Speaking from personal experience, I can tell you that my wife and I have stayed in numerous hotels where the entire room was basically just the bed. Here's Tokyo from this past winter. And in one particular hotel in Paris, there wasn't even enough space for me to fully open my carry-on suitcase. If I wanted to open and close the window beside our bed, I had to first close my suitcase.
I'd happily stay there again. The place was well-designed, clean, had good bathroom products, was in a great location, and the pricing was reasonable, especially for Paris. As a hotel customer, I consistently value design and experience over square footage. And the market suggests that I'm not alone. Cool and reasonably priced is often a winning strategy no matter what industry you're in.
Touring and generally looking at buildings is, in my opinion, an important part of being a developer. Whenever I tour a project, I always learn something new. Because invariably, someone will say something like, "the building inspector made us do X." Immediately after you then email all of your project teams and ask them if they've run into this same problem. And then, hopefully, you're a little bit better than the last project.
This kind of knowledge transfer is a good thing, but I also think it's a reminder of just how opaque and fragmented information is within our industry. There's a lot of information and experience that simply isn't stored anywhere, other than in someone's head or deep on someone's hard drive never to be found ever again.
Sometimes it might be part of a firm's competitive advantage and they don't want to share it with others. That's fair. But in my experience, most people in this industry are more than happy to share what they know and where they've made mistakes. It helps us all get better. But might there be a more effective place to share this knowledge beyond individual conversations, conferences, building tours, and group chats?
There has to be. And my prediction is that it will eventually live on a blockchain.
Cycling is good for you. This much is obvious. But what might be some of the lesser known benefits?
Here's a fascinating study (that I discovered through Lloyd Alter's blog), which looked at the association between active travel modes and brain health — specifically dementia risk. For this study, the researchers analyzed nearly 500,000 people in the UK and then tracked them for a median period of 13.1 years. How people got around was classified according to the following groups: non-active (like driving or taking public transit), walking only, mixed-walking, and cycling and mixed-cycling. This latter category is meant to capture people who cycle exclusively and who mix it with other forms of mobility.
Based on this, the researchers uncovered these cycling benefits compared to non-active travel:
19% reduction in all-cause dementia
22% reduction in Alzheimer's disease
40% reduction in young-onset dementia
17% reduction in late-onset dementia
Cycling was by far the best performing category. Why is that? Well, exercise in general is good for brain health. It increases blood flow and oxygenation to the brain, decreases cortisol levels (stress hormone), and reduces anxiety and depression, among many other beneficial things. But perhaps the most important feature for this particular discussion is that it's simultaneously a physical and cognitive activity. In other words, it's exercise, but your brain also has to do a lot of other stuff like balance the bike, avoid obstacles (such as car doors being flung open), and generally navigate an environment with many stimuli.
This gives new meaning to biking for brain health. And it reinforces the case that bike lanes are actually one part mobility infrastructure and one part public health initiative.
Here's a recent video from The Wall Street Journal talking about the "secrets behind hotel design." It's interesting in that it gets into some of the ways in which designers are shrinking hotel rooms and then making up for it with amenities. This is a strategy you'll find in many other real estate asset classes ranging from multi-family housing to co-living.
But if you scroll through the comments, you'll see that the responses are overwhelmingly negative. In fact, I was hard pressed to find any positive ones. Most people simply don't like the idea of hotel rooms shrinking and of not having the same amenities. This is not surprising. The comments are similar to what you'll hear people say about shrinking condominium suites.
At the end of the day, though, the strategy outlined in this video is designed to cater to a very specific market: young travelers (roughly 25 to 40 years old) who want to stay somewhere fun and social — and at a reasonable price. Room size is the lever that helps bring rates down. But it's not for everyone, and that's why hotel companies have so many different brands in their portfolio. It's so they can precisely target different customers and types of travel.
Speaking from personal experience, I can tell you that my wife and I have stayed in numerous hotels where the entire room was basically just the bed. Here's Tokyo from this past winter. And in one particular hotel in Paris, there wasn't even enough space for me to fully open my carry-on suitcase. If I wanted to open and close the window beside our bed, I had to first close my suitcase.
I'd happily stay there again. The place was well-designed, clean, had good bathroom products, was in a great location, and the pricing was reasonable, especially for Paris. As a hotel customer, I consistently value design and experience over square footage. And the market suggests that I'm not alone. Cool and reasonably priced is often a winning strategy no matter what industry you're in.
Touring and generally looking at buildings is, in my opinion, an important part of being a developer. Whenever I tour a project, I always learn something new. Because invariably, someone will say something like, "the building inspector made us do X." Immediately after you then email all of your project teams and ask them if they've run into this same problem. And then, hopefully, you're a little bit better than the last project.
This kind of knowledge transfer is a good thing, but I also think it's a reminder of just how opaque and fragmented information is within our industry. There's a lot of information and experience that simply isn't stored anywhere, other than in someone's head or deep on someone's hard drive never to be found ever again.
Sometimes it might be part of a firm's competitive advantage and they don't want to share it with others. That's fair. But in my experience, most people in this industry are more than happy to share what they know and where they've made mistakes. It helps us all get better. But might there be a more effective place to share this knowledge beyond individual conversations, conferences, building tours, and group chats?
There has to be. And my prediction is that it will eventually live on a blockchain.
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