what else does this protest entail?

This protest/demonstration is also a graduate student research project (hello, it's me, Hannah - I'm the graduate student). 

Using wearable technology to track my heart rate while simultaneously filming each bike ride, I am building a visual data map of transportation on East Stadium Boulevard that doubles as a social media campaign to promote community discussion*, safer streets, and multi-modal transportation in Ann Arbor.

*aka being a menace on NextDoor.com.

ok, but why transit? why bubbles? why you?

Like, why am I doing this? Listen, my life is better when I allow myself to run down the rabbit holes of whatever seems interesting, follow my creative impulses, and see where it leads me. Part activism, part research, part performance art; this is my natural response to the fact that climate change will kill us, nothing matters, I don't want to own a car, I don't want to get hit by a car, and I want to be the source of chaotic good for as long as I'm on this planet.

Here are some other reasons you may find acceptable/relatable:

1. A week after my own 2007 Toyota Prius crossed the rainbow bridge and I became a bike commuter Summer 2023, a truck driver tried to run me off the road near Argo Pond. They came within a foot and it would've been a hit and run. 

That same week another driver assaulted me on Industrial Avenue by hurling a fistful of cigarettes at my head from their car window. These events prompted me to start filming my bike commutes, which eventually spiraled into the project you see here. 

2. My own family suffers from inter-generational trauma caused by the devastating effects of car crashes. In 1962 a fatal car crash robbed my then 10-year-old mom of her beloved brother David (14) and her sister Denise (17). My dad lost his younger brother Doug in a crash in 1997. These fatalities and devastation are treated as normal tragedies, the price of owning and living with 4000 LB moving pieces of metal. The lasting consequences on those who are left behind is not often discussed, but the effects are felt through generations.

3. Money. The wealth gap experienced by Millennials and Gen Z is exacerbated by the need to own expensive cars in a resource-rich country that not only lacks, but resists, building safe bike lanes and public transit. 

Car-centric design doesn't exist because the USA is spread out, the USA is spread out because our zoning laws don't support middle-housing, car companies killed the railroads, and "freedom" is synonymous with driving. A car may be able to take up space on a road, but that doesn't mean that driver is entitled to that space. 

4. Bike riding is really fun, actually. Bubbles are too. Side note: If you find yourself irritated by a legal protest involving bubbles then you are going to look very silly indeed.