When starting to write about a subgroup of cyclists I was afraid that I wouldn’t have enough information to write about. The research seemed too slow and unproductive, and the details used to seem non-existing. At first, I tried to observe the behavior of cyclists in a calm, protected area. But it did not seem to be enough. Hudson Greenway was too calm of an environment, to show the hectic life of cyclists. However, as time went, I started paying more attention to the things I’ve never noticed before. After doing the second fieldsite observation, I realized how much was happening on the streets of New York City. Only with a patient observation of a congested area of Union Square, I could truly find a research question that I wanted to answer. After seeing aggression of commuters on the streets of the city I realized that certain negative behaviors were explicitly directed at delivery workers. This is how the desire to find a possible answer to why reinforcement of laws is so unfair to delivery commuters came up.
Before going to fourteenth street and third avenue, I have not thought about difficulties that delivery workers have to go through. Every-day biking did not seem like a big deal. However, the research that was done opened new doors that showed the struggles of working on the streets of NYC when having a bicycle as the only mode of transportation. I knew that cycling infrastructure was not very convenient, but only after learning more I found out exactly what was wrong with it and what could be improved.
Doing a fieldsite observation is something I have not done before. It taught me to pay attention to the smallest details that wouldn’t have been noticed otherwise. I focused on a specific group of people that was also vaguely related to me. But being a cyclist commuter, I used to believe that I know all about the difficulties of biking in the city. Only after seeing the differences between a regular bike commuter and a delivery commuter I was able to appreciate the work that people put into delivering hot food in New York City.
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