Grace Wen
@gracewen.com
53 followers 33 following 130 posts
Adult classical guitar student, vegan, heritage Mandarin language learner, indie author. Getting around by 🚶🏻‍♀️ and 🚲 and sometimes 🚌 whenever I can in metro Detroit. Enjoying my obscurity. She/her. Website: www.gracewen.com Stuff I write: shop.gracewen.com
Posts Media Videos Starter Packs
Pinned
gracewen.com
Even though I love getting around by bike, I'm still a transit + walking girl first. We need infrastructure that makes walking, biking, and transit as convenient as (or better yet, more convenient than) driving.
Tote bag with a map of the DC metro system.
gracewen.com
I was there this morning and he mentioned you and your Urban Arrow. Love having a utility biking hub like Ted's!
Reposted by Grace Wen
cathytuttle.bsky.social
A few months ago, a friend visited me in Utrecht. As we biked around to do daily errands, she kept saying, "This is like a dream. This is like a dream."

I do believe all cities the world over to soon come to their senses, limit car movement, and build a dream of safe, abundant streets for people.
gracewen.com
My bike morning: a brunch stop for vegan chik'n and waffles, riding another mile and dropping off my bike to get a hub dynamo and lights installed, then crossing the street to get a MoGo bike for a leisurely ride (is there any other kind on a bikeshare bike?😆) home.
A brown city bike with a small teal rear bag. The bike is locked to a circular rack the same color as the bag. Vegan chik'n and waffle sandwiches with garlicky kale and a small cup of maple syrup. An orange MoGo bikeshare bike with a seat cover. The front rack holds a small teal bike bag.
Reposted by Grace Wen
womensartbluesky.bsky.social
Artwork by Martha Rich, contemporary US painter and illustrator based in Philadelphia #womensart #Caturday
Illustration of a sitting cat facing right with colourful star and flower shapes over its body, a speech bubble above its head reads " Love ya, mean it", the background is orange
Reposted by Grace Wen
womensartbluesky.bsky.social
Tamara de Lempicka,
Blue Woman with a Guitar, 1929
Polish painter who created her work in an Art Deco style #womensart
Stylised painting of a white woman in a soft blue dress holding a round stringed instrument with a long neck on her lap and holding it as if playing
gracewen.com
I love biking to my Trader Joe's and bypassing all that parking nonsense.
gracewen.com
Cars are an invasive species.
Reposted by Grace Wen
americanfietser.bsky.social
PSA:

Cities can choose their traffic.
filmendefietser.bsky.social
Afternoon rush hour, Utrecht.
Reposted by Grace Wen
womensartbluesky.bsky.social
#Fox by Helen Ahpornsiri, who creates intricate collage artworks created with real pressed flowers and leaves. #WomensArt #Autumn #Fall
The upper half of a sitting fox facing left looking right created with small leaves in browns, orange and green all against a white background
Reposted by Grace Wen
womensartbluesky.bsky.social
Sybil Andrews,
The Gale (1930)
Linocut, Art Deco style print from the Modernist Printmaker
#ReframingWomenPrintmakers
Print with two stylised figures facing left holding umbrellas as if battling gusts of strong winds, behind the sky swirls in blue and white
gracewen.com
Orange Derp energy, big cat version.
Reposted by Grace Wen
michelemuse.bsky.social
There is still beauty in the world. (Detroit ‘s Fisher Bldg.)
Reposted by Grace Wen
filmendefietser.bsky.social
In Utrecht, the modal share of cycling for travel within the city is 46% on weekdays. Together with walking, the modal share for active transport is almost 80%, compared to only 17% for cars.

Today, the third Thursday of September, is known to be the busiest cycling day of the year in the city.
Reposted by Grace Wen
Reposted by Grace Wen
ohtheurbanity.bsky.social
I’ve mentioned it before but it’s happened again: a very large percentage of our child-related travel is medium-distance trips that don’t line up well with transit (so it’s barely faster than walking) but biking is literally as fast as driving.

Bike-friendly cities are family-friendly cities!
Reposted by Grace Wen
womensartbluesky.bsky.social
From ‘The looms in our bones’, Singapore based artist Izziyana Suhaimi, who works primarily in embroidery, often in combination with drawing #WomensArt
Drawing of a head and shoulders of a woman surrounded by embroidery of leaves and flowers
gracewen.com
We could've had the Vancouver Skytrain or the DC Metro and instead we have the People Mover.
gracewen.com
:stares at League of American Bicyclists:
americanfietser.bsky.social
If all you see in your city are middle aged men on bikes, then you've designed only for their comfort zone, excluding everyone else.
Reposted by Grace Wen
cathytuttle.bsky.social
The next time someone tells you adding good bike infrastructure will disadvantage disabled people, show them this short clip of an Utrecht bike street (fietsstraat).

Controlling cars makes access better for everyone, and opens public space to more of the public.
gracewen.com
:points to my pinned post:

Car dependency is a tax on everyone living in metro Detroit.
boixdelacroix.bsky.social
Going to any other major city and experiencing their public transit makes me sad about what Detroit could have had if it weren’t for racists in Oakland and Macomb counties and the death grip of the auto industry
Reposted by Grace Wen
metaverity.bsky.social
It would be fun to do a letter writing project using these stamps as a story within a story
clivethompson.bsky.social
Behold a lovely stamp sheet by Chris Ware ...

... where each stamp shows a moment in the day of a postwoman

apparently it's the first time anyone has tried to tell a story with a stamp sheet

item #1 in my latest "Linkfest" newsletter, free here: buttondown.com/clivethompso...
sheet of stamps in a 5 by 4 grid. Each shows a female postal deliverer walking her route and delivering mail, through the grid of a small town's streets. Each panel includes her interacting with different residents of the town, including children on the way to school, people shopping, and more. Different parts of the town show each of the four seasons
gracewen.com
Today I walked to pick up batteries, fancy hand soap, and vitamins. Passed 3 coffee shops, the weekly antique market, a bagel shop, and my usual falafel spot (among other places). Dense places are luxurious to live in!
gracewen.com
Also saw a lovely new-to-me mural by @toriartandco.bsky.social .
A mural with pink and red flowers and a branch of green and brown leaves on a pale brick background.
gracewen.com
More errands in a functional downtown: walking to a hardware store to get batteries, then through a park to a health food store for vitamins and fancy hand soap.