Wendy Tran
POINTS TOTAL
- 0 TODAY
- 0 THIS WEEK
- 197 TOTAL
participant impact
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UP TO30minutesspent exercising
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UP TO110minutesbeing mindful
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UP TO5.0meatless or vegan mealsconsumed
Wendy's actions
Action Track: Healing & Renewal
Eat Mindfully
I will eat all of my meals without distractions, e.g., phone, computer, TV, or newspaper.
Food, Agriculture, and Land Use
Reduce Animal Products
Plant-Rich Diets
I will enjoy 1 meatless or vegan meal(s) each day of the challenge.
Industry
Reduce Single-Use Disposables
Bioplastics
I will avoid buying and using 5 single-use plastics and instead replace them with durable options.
Transportation
Go for a Daily Walk
Walkable Cities
I will take a walk for 40 minutes each day and take note of the infrastructure that makes walking more or less enjoyable, accessible, and possible.
Transportation
Test Drive an Electric Bike
Electric Bicycles
I will test drive an electric bike at a local distributor to see if it makes sense to use one in place of my car, or to extend the area I can cover by bike.
Participant Feed
Reflection, encouragement, and relationship building are all important aspects of getting a new habit to stick.
Share thoughts, encourage others, and reinforce positive new habits on the Feed.
To get started, share “your why.” Why did you join the challenge and choose the actions you did?
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REFLECTION QUESTIONTransportation Test Drive an Electric BikeHalf of all trips made in the US are three miles or less; 72% of them are driven. Private vehicles account for 60% of trips of a mile or less. Do you often drive short distances instead of biking or walking? If so, how might incorporating an electric bike into your lifestyle help you make more climate-friendly choices?
Wendy Tran 5/02/2021 10:49 PMDuring this past week I had been staying in San Diego with my brother and as a challenge for the both of us, I encouraged us to use his car as little as possible. While at home, I often find myself driving short distances instead of biking or walking mostly because the streets around my hometown are not very “walkable” or “bikeable.” However, while in San Diego, specifically in the La Jolla area, I noticed that the sidewalks were wide and there were a lot of bike lanes. Additionally, my brother owned 2 electric bicycles, which made it a perfect opportunity to start this challenge! While I was there, we mostly walked to places that were about 1 - 1.5 miles out from his apartment. This definitely helped break up my day and partake in physical activity since recently most of my days have been filled with zoom meetings. For further distances, like the beach, we used the electric bike. Not only was riding the electric bike fun, but it also was surprisingly efficient. It took about 6 minutes longer to get to the beach by electric bike compared to a car. However, if you factor into account looking for parking, it ends up being about the same amount of time. I think I would get an electric bike in the future in order to reduce my carbon emissions; however, I would have to consider how “bikeable” the city I’m living in would be. Since my brother lives near the UCSD campus, the streets were built in a more accessible manner for walking and biking to accommodate the large population of college kids. Living in LA, I don’t think that is necessarily always the case. Just looking at the streets around Westwood, I’ve noticed how hilly the streets are and how they are also often filled with potholes. This would not make for a good bike ride; however, I can try to walk and utilize public transportation more to reduce the amount of driving short distances. The streets are also very busy and biking around the city seems more daunting. I hope that in the future cities are planned out better such that there is more accessibility to public transportation and streets for pedestrians. This would not only encourage those to drive their car less, but would make for a “healthier” community as more people would be able to get out and walk more.-
Alexandria Weinberger 5/04/2021 6:08 PMHey Wendy! This sounds so fun! Sometimes I see people in the motorized skateboards and scooters around Westwood and think it looks so fun! But you're definitely right, I would be way too scared to ride around on a bike like that in Westwood. The roads are really hilly and the drivers can be crazy sometimes. I've noticed that a lot of beach areas have the same bike lanes and accessibility that you saw in La Jolla. Cities like Santa Monica, Venice, Manhattan Beach...etc, all have bike lanes. It's also really appealing to bike to the beach or places like those if possible since parking is always insane anyways! I also hope Westwood makes it's walkways and roads more accessible to bikes and smaller transportation in the future. -
Wendy Tran 5/02/2021 10:51 PM
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Wendy Tran 4/15/2021 9:41 PMWhy am I here?Like many others in this class, I took ENG COMP 100W to fulfill my Writing II requirement in order to graduate this spring. Nonetheless, out of all the other Writing II classes offered this quarter, I specifically chose this one because I wanted to learn more about interdisciplinary writing. I often find that when reading scientific research articles about molecular biology, they all have a very similar format. I haven't taken another English class since freshman year so feel as though I have been reading the same types of papers, and quite frankly, I want new kinds of material to read. So after learning that we were going to use interdisciplinary research to "own our perspective" and also address the climate crisis, I was excited. Often times while going through the motion of school, I get caught up in all the things I have to do in a day or a week and forget to take step back and reflect.So far this class has taught me about reflection and how certain actions go on to not only impact me, but others and the planet. As a result, I am here in order to learn more ways I can take action to lead a more sustainable lifestyle. What concerns me most about the environment is how heavily it will impact the health and quality of our lives as well as the lives of future generations. I have already seen the damage that climate change can have on our lives after a horrible fire burned down a large portion of my hometown back in 2017. Even in LA, we have seen more cases of wildfires and days where we are advised not to be outside due to the AQI being too high. Because of this, I am concerned that we will no longer be able to enjoy and experience all of the beautiful things that nature has to offer. I have always tried to be conscious about my waste as well as my carbon footprint, but I feel that I have lost sight of that due to COVID and have not done enough. I'd like to join this challenge to jump back into action and take action against the climate crisis.
Below is a photo of me in Lake Tahoe. While we were there, I was able to enjoy snowboarding, sledding, hiking, and all of the beautiful nature that surrounds it. I hope more people take action against the climate crisis and that we are able to continue enjoying Earth.