What are your thoughts about this conversation that has been going on that Kenyans are supporting Tanzanian music? Nuki angaliata streams unapatapale top something, top 10? At least nili ono me apia kwa one of those ones as the only Kenyan artist actually ulikwa pale top something, you know? And I was like, oh, at least we have further more over here, you know? How does that make you feel uki ona, you know? Top musicians when you ana kwa supported by Kenyans are not from this country. Noki felt good, but it's very sad, very, very sad. You know, nili kwa na argument flani, like at Tanzanian music ina evolve sana, ati jubi jwa kuna, ilikwa, ilikwa comments very petty as in Tanzanian music ina evolve jwa kuna low data. As in data uiko wakuna affordable data. Tuli angaliata, dea amontu kangaliata, amone isu kangaliata, ivani, they get most views in Kenya. You know ana, so it's not a... 2CG, justifier, amote, voteva. Aja nukambe, kituna trendsa ii, Bahati has never given a collaboration to a fellow artist in Kenya. Aja ii kwa, aukun oja ii pata someone featuring Bahati, ota o'i pata father more featuring Bahati, ota o'i pata father more featuring Willie Paul, hai jya happen. You know, alafu Bahati ndua me kama pana sema, ati we should support Kenyans, as in trafa kuja pamoja, nia iita oja ii pata kitukai yo. Willie Paul am pigangoma na BN, BN is one of the biggest artists in Kenya right now. BN am pigangoma na entu aju afura iiani, BN am pigangoma na iiani, BN am pigangoma na endovuku, nabadu oku koju, asia ono na nikao ki pigangoma na sisi, akun omali otafika, na iet, awando ako apola complain. What's up guys? Welcome to SPM Bars. My good name is Miskitinchi. This is Bars. It stars kindly subscribe before we get into this. Sindio, subscribed? Alright, I'm hanging out with the baddest of them all. He is known as a father maw from the boozy gang. Lakini saiziki dogo ame toambia, nika mawame wacha, takuana tu elezea. Father maw ni aze? Papua? Ehe, how you feeling? I'm good, I'm good, I'm good, I'm good. Ehe. How many hours do you sleep in a day by the way? In a day or in a night? In a night. Maximum like 6 hours. Maximum 6 hours. Really? Really, really. When do you record best? Do you feel like you record at night best amam chana? Chana.  Oh really? Ya, very. Na you sleep 6 hours una kwa kwa kifanyanini usiku? Usiku mostly una na kusatu kole ma usiku kwa pida video shoot. Alafu mostly usiku na na kwa kwa na mashaws. Kazi zango mobzuka ma usiku. Kweli. Usiku mostly na kwa kwa frame chana. But kuna bitu modu pasonu chana. Okay.  Tu na kwa una you're doing such a great job, congratulations. Lakin ni piya tumuona, Savara kidogo ni kama ame kupenda kidogo. Si jini ya, ame kupenda ame ni wewa umempenda. How is your working relationship like with Savara? Umempenda kwa mamoja. Oh, Nimbili. Nasa utasemaji sarubasi. Sasa saru mambuyake tuto umgeya. Mambuyake? Asi ni mwa kwa, si, si, not exaggerating, ni mwa kwa kwa na sana wengi. Aha. Most times, kwa suat ni umempenda naengu maka nae. Kani ni ukweli. Eksre ni umempenda naengu maka tano. Savara Nimbili. Siya ti, asi ni tu patana, ya, asi ni am a fan of Savara, he's a fan of me. Now, of course, you guys were in a group. We are using past tense because Leo Amanejana, you announced that you know you guys are no longer together. What happened to Mbuzigang?  Oh, really? Ya, ya, ya. Ukunakwa na ele, alafu, kwa kwa tatu, is very hard. Really? Very hard. So me, when I come to studio alone, na tu ilu kwa imi pangatuku jwa tatu, the two don't come. Asi ni me kwa struggle, tu me koneo struggle for the longest time. Kone ishwisha ikam, not even imu akatu last year, imu ikam. Asi ni broke up oteva, asi ni kwa struggle sana. So, tu kwa mwatu kila mtu, siya ti, we are enemies o roteva, but tu mwa mwatu ele, asi tu heza patana o tatu, heza patana o tatu, kwa goma, but sayi tu mwa mwatu kila mtu, no na. You've seen, I've been working on my solo project. Jofa's has been working on his solo project. I Fulish has been working on his album. On his album. So, na wana ni kwa nileo, ni mwa mwa kwa ambiya, asi ni kila mtu, asi ni mwa mwa kwa. Discipline issues, amani, ni nindo ili kwa reason sana sana. If you guys really wanted to stick together, mngi stick, lakini mka mwa. What was the real issue ni? Discipline issues, amani, ni? Kwa kwa sana tu mii ingi, kwa sana mii ingi, kwa sana mii ingi. Kwa sana mii na rituaje, asi ni kwa good friends, but me and Jofa's don't work together, visuri. Asi ni kwa na klikpwa. Mlu kwa muna kwa sana ni, ni mwade mama. Mika nwa kwa the Fulish well, but Jofa's say me, Jofa's labda kaleo siwe in the same song with Jofa's. Ndora say ma labda, se mem seatu kwa awili, but I don't think as in kwa group, tkwa pomoja, ni as a blend poa. As in... As a blend poa na vilim metua hitz, moto, moto, fadamo? That was for the, as in to ki answer. For now, as in ningomo, it's very hard. It... Unafa kwa, it's very hard. It's very hard to work as a group. It's very, very, very hard to work as a group. Yeah. Very, very hard to work as a group. Uksha say ma, it's very, very hard, itabidi tumeku amini. Now, you guys have released, you have released, you know, a couple of songs with Saru. What's your relationship with Saru?  What is so special about your relationship? Let me tell you one thing. We've never been with Saru, place, akuna kazi. You know, kitu atua, ataki kuwa na makusema. We've never, we've never been with Saru, place akuna kazi, akuna siku. I'm always with Saru, every time we are at work. As in, time to look at Tanzani, we went, as in, to linger live. Nkiliam mdunan say ma ma munkopamodja mkopamodja, nkiliam tansani akazi. Aa ya tukiyo, ma ma masatulu kwa kazi, tukiyo kopamodja, tukiyo ingia live. Inu mkopamodja, as in, all those assumptions manze, as in, manafaku reduce manze, tukiyo kazi, zitu kokazi. Mi an Saru bide, as in, sisi ma unaivo. The only time we meet, nji job. So akuna iotei mi, iokitu muna dani, we are just business partners. What do you like the most about her characteristics and her traits and her skills? Nimchiiki, tumia kona kona. She's very easy to work with. I can't handle her seriousness. So, no, no, no. The song I worked with Kamillion, Kamillion is very serious. So, nili ga gopa sana. No, mana, si kuweza kwa ni kakoras po. Aka nnim w Waka sheheneke siya. Apak lockdown nfits pod Kapito letters. Only business. We're talking about Kaske Vibaya. You know, CEO of MCSK Ezekia Umutua had something to say.  What are your thoughts or just comment on that? Not what to. Ni kama specifically her daughter, ah, his daughter atia daughter, his daughter, siku imbia, siku imbia mtu toa ake. Na, me don't, I have a lot of respect for Ezekia Umutua, misi na garage na, na moelewa, like any other father, Ezekia Umutua kuna write ya kusimia, evo bat. Mimi nikiwa na mtu toa angu, kuna, siyezimo ambia, uskia angu maza Jamaika, uskia angu ma Gospel ni ni, situ li grow up, a lot of people na jo na relate, uskia jam sessions, uskia DJ later, hot graba, akunam se li korrektati ni ni ni, na otem akunam se li se ma, uskia iu, siskia ii, unona. So, miya, the only advice I can tell ni, ya na fokumbia mtu toa ake, vilali se ma tunadvesi sa daughter wrong li, his daughter wrong li, uskia hingoma, niki ku pato kiskia hingoma, taku chaapa, kituka ii, unona, mimi, kuimani kariya angu lana pata, but kariya angu si ku advice, nituwa jwa zazi, vilua ata lewa toa, unona. Sasa, I have a lot of respect for Ezekia, but miya only did, iionga mimi nifikisha pali, niko sayi, niki imba adho isi, hinga fika pali niko. Sano nifikia place, ata Ezekia lans, zani yonga lewa, neza sayi mami am doing, aminu kwa, the right, niniwe, unona. Sasa niya, kwa si ata Ezekia lpeke, kwa zazi uote, unona, am directing the wrong message to their children, unona foku advice, like, don't listen to these songs, listen to this, unona yondo parental guidelines, unona, niki rentu advices, nafakpeo tewao. So mi, mi, mi, mi, I don't regret releasing, judat's the best thing I've ever released ever in my life, nola. Imenu sayi dia, Imenu sayi dia. Is that your, your best song so far? My best, my best. Ime changi lei fiaugu kabisa. Nice. How would you say it has changed your life? Like, I have no words as in a lot, a lot. Nima kwa, nima kwa in the music industry since 2019. Not that far, but imu waka, imu waka, I've made a lot of money from Kaskevibaya, wuki kumpia na tango 2019 and did it last year, this year. So, mi, aki ni ambi evo, I feel bad, ju, ni Kaskevibaya mi, fukisha palina foku fika, you get. All right, sounds good. What are your thoughts about, you know, this conversation that has been going on, that Kenyans are supporting Tanzanian music. Nuki angaliata streams una patapale, top something, top ten.  And I was like, oh, at least we have further more over here, you know. How does that make you feel uki ono, you know, top musicians when you are na kwa supported by Kenyans are not from this country? Nuki felt good, but it's very sad, very, very sad. Eh, you know, nili kwa na argument flani, like at Tanzanian music ina evolve sana, atijubi, jua kwa na, ilu kwa comments very petty, as in Tanzanian music ina evolve jua kwa na low data, as in, as in data uiko, tume, wakon affordable data. Tuli angalia, daimontu kangalia, hamonesu kangalia, revani, they get most views in Kenya. Yes. You know na, so it's not, to see, justifier ma ote, oteva, ajan kwa mbe, kituna trend say, bahati has never given a collaboration to a fellow artist in Kenya.  Sa, yo complain, mi intendi, mi yata mi si skiki, kitu oto na sema, juwata ni kiwa skia, kula vilotan saidiya, mi intendi, mi intendi, mi intendi, ni na saru, that's right, asia- ni ni rhoa labour, to plantilu kwa ni anga. nain printilu k идет за, и nantij 발라 ku ma很有abeto, top 10 Kenya. No, you get. Branduve Maina actually mentioned you as one of the few artists that she can do collaborations with. That tuit brought up a lot of reactions on social media. First of all all, we fill tagilu, kwa yiko list among the top artists paleh, 2nd of all, would you actually release such a list of people you would only do 2nd of all, would you actually release such a list of people you would only do? I love you, seein Nasujumbo na ikitwa hijash 2 abado To become 7 people, 7 artists in one song Na sujono, se wa tiyo ngele Natsukuna kuna An upcoming song Adi ho uju hi? It's an upcoming song Ayinviri, Joviol, Savara, Bensol, Novuku and Mandi It's a new song? It's not released yet But it's up on Instagram But it's up on Instagram See what it will post No, it's not released yet It's not released yet Is it possible? It's not released yet It's easy to work with It's easy to work with My chemistry with Joviol is perfect My chemistry with Savara is perfect My chemistry with Bensol is perfect I have been with Bensol since we came back Since we came back We have been talking with Bensol and Viri So, we combined to come to Moja So, we combined to come to Moja So, we combined to come to Moja It's amazing So, we have been talking to Bensol and Viri But we have been talking to Bensol and Viri We have been talking to Bensol and Viri So, we are ready We are ready We are ready to rambua We are waiting Thank you so much We can't wait to see The song you guys released See Dama Tumbe in Natoka 16th So, we can't wait to see what you guys have done On that song as well I want to sing it But I don't know I don't know I don't know Thank you for the more We are wishing you all the very best We can't wait to see all the next projects That you know release And congratulations for being on the top No words Alright guys, that was Bensol Thank you so much for watching My good name is Miskitinji Until next time, keep it at SPM Buzz


So my name is Bruno Armand. I'm actually the co-founder of Via Romana. We are a cycling experimentation agency based in Lyon, in France. And I will start my presentation, first of all, by taking a step back. It's important to understand our history to get a better grip of what happened in the last couple of weeks. I just wanted to show you a picture of the city of Grenoble in the French Alps in 1955. That's probably a picture that you've all seen or probably checked in the last couple of years. It's really to show you the impact that the bike had back in the days in France. We're talking a model share of approximately 20 to 30% back in the 50s and the 60s, as you can see here from this graphics. It has been slowing going down because of several causes that I'm going to detail real quick. The first one is, of course, the inception of the car and the innovation that it represented back in the days. But also, human sprawl that has been allowed by this technology, causing a relative lack of cycling infrastructure for France. This is just a quick map of showing you in red the cycling infrastructure that you can see in our country. This has nothing to see with what you can see in detail in this particular presentation on the Eastern Europe side, precisely. And that's a shame when you consider that more than 60% of all daily commutes done by French people is less than five kilometers. So we're talking approximately 30 minutes maximum biking commute. And of course, two-third up to 75% of all commutes are being done by car. That was back in 2015. So it appears that France, like in the Disney fairytale, France is a bit of a sleeping beauty when it comes to cycling usage. And I'm going to show you that this has been changing in the last couple of weeks. Why are we sleeping beauty? First of all, because we have a very prominent car industry. We have two national manufacturers, Peugeot and Renault, who represent millions of jobs. So it's difficult to go against such a lobby power. The second thing is that 85% of French people biking are usually doing it on weekends and for leisure. So commute by bike is not really in our blood, but that's maybe about to change. The last thing is that's an inquiry in 2017 that was made to ask people what are they looking for to develop more biking strategies. And they were saying that the network, the infrastructure is really for 80% of them really, really important. So safety and comfort out of the total sample of 113,000 responses that was done by the French Cycling Association in 2017. Safety and comfort is really important when it comes to cycling. So why has Sleeping Beauty opened her eyes lately? Well, first of all, a government plan back in 2018 was looking at creating more infrastructure. The idea was to create, have a model share for bike that would go from 2% up to 9% in 2024. So the government voted in 2018 a 350 million euro investment program for municipalities willing to roll out infrastructure, cycling infrastructure. And this will represent approximately 50 million euros per year until 2024. That's the first 150 cities that were a candidate and were retained in the first round of this call. Why do we see more interest regarding cycling infrastructure or cycling in general in France? Well, we have municipal election this year and that's the first time we've seen, and I will let Stein talk about this later on, but that's the first time we've seen municipal candidates talking about the bike plans during an election preparation. And that's very new for us. We've never seen that in France lately. This is the example of Paris, but we have the same in other cities too. The turning point for us in the last couple of weeks was of course the COVID-19 and I would say particularly this date of April 13, 2020. This was the date when our president mentioned that the confinement will start May 11 and that we will need to find alternative ways to move around the country or to move around in our daily life. So the Ministry of the Transport and Ecology mandated Pierre Seine, who is a high ranked politician, to find strategies to deploy biking at another level in the country. So he was in charge of being in contact with different cities and see what was the different challenges they would meet. From this point on, you see numerous Twitter coverage, but also press coverage meant a sample of temporary bike lane across the world. So we had the example of I think it was Germany here, also Bogota. These are all the examples you already know about, but this was new for us and it needed some coverage. So that was the first wave, so to speak. The second wave was actually to see a mayor, that's the mayor of Montpellier, a city of more than 100,000 inhabitants in the south of France. That's the mayor of Montpellier spray painting himself in temporary bike lane at the end of April. I think it was the 30th of April, 2020. It's very important to know that this mayor a year before was actually against some cycling infrastructure that the local association was asking for. A very powerful image to see first mayor spray painting is on cycling lane. This has been pushed by the local association called Velocité in Montpellier. That's the example that you see in the city of Bordeaux of temporary lanes. Most cities were going for very easy to go, easy to use spray, because it would take too much fuss to have a more sophisticated approach in such a small amount of time. The idea was how to find alternative way to car and public transportation for people. This is another example in the city of Wren. They added a couple of plastic bollards here, but again the idea was to go quick and easy. Some of them were agreemented with some information signs. This is another example in the city of Saint-Étienne in the south of France where they had put specific barriers as well to increase safety and comfort of cyclists. I will go quick on this. This is Steinspart. Paris, of course, has been prominent in offering new cycling conditions. The city of Lyon where I lived has been promised 82, that's not 77, 82 to 85 temporary lanes spread out in several waves. So first wave of 30 kilometers across the city, then another wave in July of 30 more in September, 25 kilometers added. That's something that's very prominent for the city. We have never seen that in other conditions. You have local association or most prominent French association for bike who has been putting this campaign together saying bike is my barrier reflex in order to push bike acceptance during and after COVID crisis. The coverage has been up to a main newspaper in France. This is a very well-known newspaper in France. For bike to be in such a ray of light is really unusual in France and I think this shows everything. A front page of the national newspaper doesn't happen all the time. The lesson learned from this first experience during COVID is that people need to have bikes in order to use it as a commuting mean of transport. There was a lot of, how can I say that? There was a lot of lateness when it comes to repairing your own bike, so the government needed to act on that front. Also, it's not because you create infrastructure that people would be automatically at ease when they are starting to cycle again. So mentoring was also a big point. The last point being how do you make sure that COVID is not just a light sparkle in people reflexes and that they're going to embrace change fully. That's why the government came with another response, which is the coup de pouze vélo. The idea was to make sure that your bike would be repaired up to a maximum of 50 euros through a local help of the national government. So you would go on the internet and register your own address to make sure that you will have a 50 euro voucher to use at your local repair shop. This would also be used to finance an hour and a half up to two hours of mentoring lessons with someone who would take you to a course or who would take you to your office for free. Last but not least, cities could be financed up to 60% for a temporary parking installation. So that was really an interesting help by the government. This was announced in April 29, 2020 for first batch of 20 million euro grants. Less than a month after that, the minister that you saw before, Elizabeth Bourne, Minister of Transportation and Ecology, tripled that amount to make it 60 million euros because it was so popular. France also announced an Academy of Cycling Jobs in order to train several hundreds of new repair persons per year because we have a big lack in that particular segment. And we have also announced two months in advance, a mobility plan for world commutes that will offer to be reimbursed up to 400 euros per year if you go to work by bike. So this was supposed to happen two months from now, but it was a release beginning of June. The result for France after this COVID is actually almost 30% average back use increase across the country between May 1 and May 31 as compared to last year. We have recorded more than a thousand kilometers of planned temporary bike lane. Some of them have been undergoing some deception, but I will show you that in a minute. And we have, to my knowledge, more than 100,000 bikes already repaired, but that number is evolving very quickly and I'm pretty sure this is a conservative number. The question is, are we really living at 1970s moments as compared to what happened in Holland? You might see all these interesting numbers and believe, okay, France is on the rise, it's going to happen, we're good to go. It's not that easy and change is when it's happening at such a large scale. So this is my third part, why we should remain cautious about all this. First of all, we already see bad habits emerging again in the country. This is an example of the city of Lyon, but has been happening in many cities. You have people who don't auto drivers who are having a hard time understanding the signage or who are just ignoring the fact that they are there. So you see people not necessarily behaving correctly. Second thing, I will explain this comic real quickly, it says 15 billion for car, 10 billion for car, for plane, 10 billion for car and only 50 euro for my bike. This is to show you that the French government is massively upholding the car and the aero industry and there are still some critics about the amount of help that was offered to the cycling industry for mobility alternatives. Another remarks that was made is that there was a lot of focus on cycling, maybe too much for some people. People were asking much more walking alternative as well on top of cycling and this has led some municipalities maybe to overlook the potential for walking as well in particularly in dense area. So you see more and more municipalities looking to implement for summer terraces and places to to rest in the streets as compared to only go through area for bike and moped. This is for example in the city of Nantes, they have been enlarging many terraces in the center and offering for almost free the ability to borrow owners to extend the actual terrace and close some streets to cars. Change is never linear as Marco would say. As you can see, there was a couple of projects that were cancelled, temporary bike lane that were cancelled in France. Not only in big cities, Marseille, Saint-Étienne, Exemple-Vance but also in smaller ones where you would believe change would be easier to happen. This is for example a protest that happened in the city of Nice alongside a very busy area with a very brand new bike lane and you had the people from the area who strongly opposed this lane which makes it, you know, difficult to envision change in a permanent basis. On the other hand, local association and institution have been very dynamic and useful to uphold change. For example, you have several region also several cities who can finance up to 600 euros the purchase of a new electric assist bike and we're talking foldable bike, cargo bike, any type of electric bike. So this is something that's really interesting specifically when you have prices that are going much lower these days. I will leave that to Stein, but you have a very prominent association in the Paris region pushing temporary lanes through communicating on their websites their location, for example. And this is an also an example from a prominent association in the city of Lyon offering travel time maps for any point of the city scattered around the area. So this is a pretty big area we're talking a metropolis of total 2 million people and 60 borough and 60 cities. But this is interesting for someone who wants to be able to take bike for any type of trips. Last but not least, Cerema is a national institution has been very helpful in providing webinars tools. This is for example, temporary cycling lane tool guide. This is a temporary walking areas guide. So you can see that there's a lot of documents, a lot of data that is being offered for free to municipalities willing to embrace change. My conclusion would be, is it just a shift of paradigm? Is it a shift of paradigm or just a light sparkle? I think time will tell. I think what we see is that there is room for change, there is interest for change. The many local association has been pushing a lot change to happen for many years and they see something big happening. So let's hope that by the end of next year we'll have interesting numbers to show. I can tell for the city of Lyon traffic of bike is gone plus 50% since the end of the confinement. So that's great. And we're looking to double that number by the beginning of next year. So imagine doubling the numbers you had beginning of 2020 in 2021. And this is again a conservative hypothesis. Another thing is that small city needs to be assisted through time. We see a difference between big cities who have the mean of change and smaller cities who might be a little bit more reluctant because they don't have the density because of a lack of political will or lack of resources. We really believe there should be a focus on small cities willing to change as well. Last but not least, it's about involving citizen in making change happen in their own city, particularly pushing on walking and street quality of life and not only about mobility through cycling. Cycling is a Trojan horse for change to happen in the city. So here we are with our sleeping beauty. Let's hope that she doesn't goes back to sleep anymore. It has been mostly pushed through national law legislation and strict recognition. France is a very centralized country.  So far it has been working well. Let's see what this holds for the future. Thank you very much. My name is Stein van Ooster. I'm a Dutch-French national. I lived half of my life in the Netherlands and the other half in France. And I'm the founder of a small bike association in a city south from Paris, Fontaine-Rose, 24,000 inhabitants. And I am the spokesperson of the new, let's say the Paris Bike Federation, which is a huge region, 12 million people. And we have over 38 member associations at this point. And it's a recent federation that actually is the key to the success we're currently living. I'll give you some, I'll do it in three parts as well. And then I would like to react at the end to do a very interesting presentation of Bruno if possible. Just to give you a feel of what's happening concretely in the streets, then I'll show you some maps. And then I'll try to tell you if we have time, the human story behind it. Because this is not about infrastructure, only this is about people. This is where it started. This is right next to Paris in Montreux and Saint-Monday. These were the first Corona lanes that were created. Let's see if I... I'm not going to talk about Lyon. I just chose these because they're bad examples in my opinion because they're central bike lanes. Please never choose central bike lanes because people, they feel uncomfortable. We can talk about that later, maybe. This is what we're fighting against in Paris and in every city where there's no bike infrastructure. Look at this bicycle here right in the middle. It's actually a video that I could show you. This is what many intersections currently look like in France. It's unbelievable. Of course, in this situation, no person who never biked before will hop on a bike. But this is about to change. Look at the next picture. This is the very first kind of Dutch bicycle intersection in Corona style in France. And it's in Moise Le Sec, which is a city east from Paris. And it's also a video that I could show you. You can see how the bike is protected from the cars. And this is absolutely revolutionary. If we would do this, everybody would be able to bike there. This is another example also in the eastern suburbs of Paris. I mean, this could never have happened before because it would have taken too much time. This is also the super revolutionary. This was done last week. It's an impossible place for the bicycle to go. It's a roundabout. It's the Pompadour roundabout. It's a highway look kind of setting. But the region, actually the département, which is a kind of a province, decided in its cooperation with us to make it accessible to bikes.  You see the separation between cars and bikes. You see the, how do you call it, the buffer zone that cars have to turn around so that they really see the bike very well. You see a bus platform that is extended so that the bus doesn't have to cut the bicycle lane so that the bus platform can go to the bus so that the bikes can continue their path. You see a bicycle stop signs. Here it is formally clear that the bicycle has a priority, which is not at all usual in France. This is really progress. It looks a bit messy, but this is the difference between being able to bike or not. This is another picture I just took actually a couple of days ago on a brand new street. I'll show you this picture to see how revolutionary it is. This is what was just created by the same provinces with whom we are trying to set up Corona infrastructure. This is a failure because you just see some, what we call Bonn C Club. It's just a little strips, bicycle strips with zero protection. Of course no child will ever use this and it was just created, but it's because this had to go through a very long negotiation process and then it popped up. Nowadays in the Corona era, we immediately have everybody around the table so we avoid these kinds of mistakes because everybody is there to say, stop, please don't do that. This is emblematic. This is very symbolic. This is a national highway number 13 that connects the biggest business district of the Paris region, La Défense, to Paris. And for many years it was absolutely impossible to ever imagine a bicycle lane on it. And then just in 24 hours, we agreed with the state because it is governed directly by the state to make it cycleable. And here you go, look at this. There's a little boy bicycling on a national highway. This would have been absolutely unimaginable some time ago. This is another example in Paris. It's also revolutionary. Why? Just because of these five little poles, you know, that makes it a little bit Dutch intersection like before there was no protection. The intersections were just some no man's land where cars just throw themselves in and the bicycles, they just have to find their way out. Here the bicycle can quietly stop and is protected from the cars that are also turning right. This is another innovation that Paris put in place. It's the delivery zones that are in between the bicycle lane and the motorized flow. So you see this little bus can no longer access the other, I can show it here. It doesn't have to access this zone because it was just closed and it cannot park here. So this is a really nice innovation. And this is another innovation. This is the extended bus platforms so that the bicycle can continue its path and the bus can quietly stop and the cars can still continue their itinerary. Now I'll show you six maps to show you the story of what happened in Paris. This is the current state of affairs of the Paris Region Bicycle Network. And it's a so to speak bicycle network because it's not a network, it's confetti, it's little pieces that are there that are just thrown on the region. And the bicycle associations, it started actually in my town here. I invited some bicycle associations to get around the table to see what we could do together. I work for the Dutch government. So in diplomacy, I'm used to bringing countries around the table to create coalitions and I thought, hey, let's do the same thing with the bicycle scene. And we sit together and we realized something that we never realized by ourselves, namely that in our region we cannot go from one city to another on a bike. We were always fighting for little bicycle strips within our city, but we forgot the big picture, which is the region that we should make bicycle. So we said, hey, let's sit, let's, let's take a step back and let's see where we would put the bicycle lanes if we want to make our whole region bicycle. This is what it looks like on a UMAP, on an open street map. We got nine bicycle lanes, seven of which are in red and two are blue because they go along the rivers, Seine and Marne. So this is the plan that we drafted together to make our region bicycle. And we thought, well, this doesn't look very sexy. So let's make it look nice. And here you go. This is what we drafted with some professional help because we are a super big network. So we have lawyers, designers, we have everything we need. And here you can see really what this transportation network looks like. And now comes the most important part of my explanations on this network. The reason why this worked so well and why the politicians accepted it is because it is a copy of the real way network of the region. It's exactly the same thing. It has the same line, same number of lines. The lines have the same color. The name is the same because the metro network is called RER. We also call it the RER, our bicycle network, but we call it the RERV from Velo, that means bike. And we just, the little differences that we have the Seine and the Marne line, but basically people who look at it, they immediately know that this is a network and not just some bicycle path for leisure. And this is the map that Bruno just showed us because what I showed you here, it's a concept for now. Politicians said, hey, we want to finance it, but it's going to take some time. Well, now we need to start immediately because of the corona crisis. And so we send letters to all the departments around Paris, 12 million inhabitants, and they agreed to create some corona bicycle lanes. But for us, it was important so that the people could see where they run, where they are. And so on this map, you can see the, in gray, the plants. Well, it's already old now, but if you go to the website of the Collective Vélodie de France, this Bicycle Association, you can find this in real time. Here you see the plants and in red you see the ones that are created and in orange too. The red ones are actually already there and the orange ones are the corona cycle lanes that are created. So this really helps people to see that actually they never realized that they lived so close to their job on a bicycle distance. This is just a visual tool that people need to get around. And now I'll go to my last part, which is the human story behind it. It started on one May 2018 in my city. As I said, I said, well, let's invite people. Let's just get to know each other. Let's get around the table and have a nice lunch with a nice glass of wine. And then give everybody the opportunity just to present him or herself and her associations. What do you do? What are your challenges, etc. And then in the second part of the day, we decided to identify some ideas that we can work on together. And that generated so much energy that we immediately realized that we needed to do this on a regional level. This was just so fantastic. And so the next step was this. There's a bigger bicycle federation, one of the bicycle federations in our region. It's MDB that said, well, we are going to organize some negotiation sessions in which we're going to try to put all these bicycle associations around one table and to get to agree on a charter or on some values that we would like to present. So this is one of these meetings. It was very symbolic. It was very powerful because bicycle associations, maybe especially friends, they don't agree on many things. And our challenge was to agree. And we managed to do so. And another powerful instrument that we have as a bicycle association. It is this guide that was made by one of our bicycle associations. It's Parianselle. They said, well, let's go to the Netherlands to see how they were able to create a bicycle infrastructure on which everybody can bike safely. Even a child that's seven years old and just write a little book about it. That's what they did. Here it is. It's online. You can download it. It's free. I mean, would be nice to give some money because they made it in their own time. And it shows pictures from France and from the Netherlands. So you can immediately see why things are working in the Netherlands and why they don't work in France. For example, the intersections that I just spoke about. So this is also a big asset of our network. And then this is, I think it's my last picture. This is where the RERV started. With a couple of people who said, well, this is the map. Let's start drawing literally with markers to see where we're going. And so this is just to show you that when citizens like you and me decide to work together and to draft an idea that they really think is able to transform a region. And if they can present it in a professional way with some professional help with some employees possibly because one of our federations has employees who could really help us to do the job because we're just people who do it in our free time. And it just worked out and it's becoming very big. Yeah, this was the last picture of my presentation. How many minutes do I have left? Two. Okay, then let me just, I think what is important to remember from this is that it's really the power of the citizens. Instead of waiting for politicians to have a brilliant idea and start talking to us about it. Well, we saw, let's start ourselves and let's just do it just like the Netherlands because the current guide, the co-guide, it was actually a version that was made on the basis of what citizens made. So I really have the impression and maybe it's a nice way to end this presentation to react to what Bruno just said. I think indeed that we're reliving some kind of 70s moment where citizens stick together where we also have a kind of oil crisis, the yellow vests crisis that we've gone through some time ago. And this is basically an oil crisis because all the prices are getting higher and that's why it got sparked. It's also a road security crisis. More and more people, they're sick of the fact that they cannot just use an alternative to the car in a safe way on the street. I mean, that's also what Bruno showed very well with this national survey that was done that really unveiled that, that people are just sick of it. That people started talking about it, that we're having a global debate, not a global but a national debate about safety. And also the fact that the traffic jams, I mean, the region where I live, I mean, it's always stuck. Whether you have one lane or six lanes, they will always be stuck. So if you really add up all these things, you get to a situation where you can change things on the condition that you're many people, that you're well organized and that you know what you're talking about. And it's these three things that we put together in the Collective Philippe de France to create change and that change is now happening in the Paris region. Thank you for your attention and over to you, Meredith. We have a few questions that have come in and maybe we can just sort of throw them out to both of you and you can both react. So one was about this, this sort of idea that this is a window of opportunity and I, this also comes up an interest of mine too that, you know, is this, are these sort of tactical changes a response to only the pandemic or is there actually a more underlying urgency that that is being responded to. And then what is the future of the changes? How are politicians and organizations, advocacy organizations, citizens group, community groups, how are they supporting, you know, or facilitating the ideas of bringing this to a more permanent situation. So what, what do you guys have any insights into into this question? You want to start Stein or should I go ahead, go ahead. So to thank you to answer the first question. I can say with almost certainty that we wouldn't have seen this rhythm of change so fast without COVID. Absolutely certain. There was some plans to make things happen, but at this level. You know, usually what you've seen in the city of Leon just the lines, the yellow lines on the surface. It took them three weeks to agree on how it should be done. And they did it very quickly because it was COVID and it was an emergency. Usually it would take weeks, even more weeks or month for this to happen. So this amount of change took so much effort. Because of the COVID, I'm almost sure that it wouldn't happen that way if it wasn't for the sanitary crisis. So that's the first thing. Is it going to be permanent afterwards? I think Stein can answer this particular part for Paris, but I know in Paris they have created this Rue de Rivoli. Central access where you have two third of the street, which is now booked only for bikes and people using the streets and not using cars. And they're looking to make it permanent. City of Paris today announced that if the current mayor is going to be elected again, she will make a 30 kilometers an hour area all across Paris. So change might happen. COVID definitely pushed the cycling message. Then it's for us to see the acceptance of the public, which seems that sometimes change is not linear, and also how the politicians are going to react in embracing change. Just to add to this, I think Paris is not the most interesting. Paris is the most spectacular. Paris is the locomotive. It's the, how do you call it? It's the engine of the train. That is why Paris is interesting. But the biggest revolution is actually happening in the banlieue, in the suburbs. That's where the tensions between the cars and the bicycles will be highest because the pressure of the cars, the car lobby is bigger. Because you see these four lane highways that are now just two lanes for cars and two lanes for bicycles. And of course there are much more cars now in waiting in a traffic jam than bicycles. So there we have some struggle and some explanations to give. And that is what we do with citizens. We don't sit and wait for the politicians, but we go out every morning to count the bicycles that pass by. We do bicycle countings, really. We have 40 counting points and we publish the data. And what we've proven it's absolutely unbelievable is that after the first counting, I made a video. And in that video I said, because I want to be honest, I said I saw few bikers. But when I counted them, I realized that actually the model share was very high. It was higher than 10%, which is even more than what the region has as an objective. So it's just because the bicycle lanes, as you all know, it's an optical illusion. Of course they take so little space that you don't see them. So that's one thing. With regard to the future, in Paris it's going to stay. I'm completely convinced of that. In the suburbs it's going to be a bigger stripe. Actually, as we were speaking, there's a big conference with mayors going on because they're already writing letters because they want to stop it. So that's going to be something.  It's because of the governance. It's not very sexy, but that's why it changed. Because before, when you made the bicycle lane, you had to go all the way from the citizen to the mayor, to the department, the province, to the prefect, to the minister, etc. And that takes months, years, and then you had to start drafting it, etc. Now all the people are sitting around one table with one goal that they have in common, namely we need bicycle infrastructure now. So instead of waiting 20 years, we just started with just a scrap bike lane, a proper bike lane, and we adjust it as we go. And that is why it worked out. Great, thank you. We have a more operational question, one about how the bike lanes actually emerge. So is it from parking space that's been now restricted? And what happened from how did that operationally occur? And any other emphasis on sort of this idea of park and ride or park and pedal for those who are driving from rural areas into towns and cities? Do one of you have an insight into the operations? So in the city of Lyon, where I'm living, what I can see is that most of the configuration that's been done is really painting on the road. And it's not about reconfiguring parking spots, or I'm not aware of them yet, but parking is a very sensitive political issue still in France, particularly in big cities. And I'm not sure the politician were looking to go on this particular fight on top of what was already out. So the idea was really to go quick. As Stein mentioned, really use the pop-up bike lane, temporary method, agile method, and do what was there. When it comes to park and ride, I know there are still thoughts in there, but it's difficult because some of them are not being used. And a few of them are very saturated. You come out at 7am in the morning, they are already full. So it's still an ongoing process when it comes to park and ride, but for sure it's going to be one of the next plans and the next challenge in the future for cities. What I can just add is that in the Paris region, it's mostly done on big avenues that are alongside public transportation lines because the rationale behind it is that you unburden public transportation. So you look for big avenues, national or provincial highways, to just take up two lanes out of four or more. So it's rather easy to do. Sometimes if it's a smaller road, you just make it a one-way road, but that's already politically very sensitive. And in Paris they have the power to do it because 60% of the Paris families don't have a car, but in the suburbs it's quite difficult. Yeah, so speaking of these smaller communities, we also had another question of what if maybe it was to Bruno, if you can give more detail about the kinds of support and assistance needed for these smaller French cities and suburbs? Yes, I believe what you've seen about the city of Nice can be transposed in some cities as well. Usually the way it was done, the pop-up bike lanes was very top-to-bottom, meaning there was an emergency, we had to find a solution, so politicians decided and they put the technical team on and it was done. For smaller cities, you have to, as Stein mentioned, to build a consensus. It's important that you put all the people around the table, a representative for retailers, representative for cultural associations, social associations, and make them speak. Particularly when it comes to matters such as how do kids go to school by bike? Well, you have to make sure you have the school around the table, et cetera, et cetera. So it's an ongoing process and it's to be done at a very local level with everyone around the table. If you do it too quickly, as we've seen with the city of Nice, you are facing potential backlash and you have people who are going to go after the pop-up bike lane. You know, some people were going saying that we're not building this for only two or three cyclists or they are not being used or they take too much space. If you don't put these people at the beginning of the reflection of the discussion, they are going to be the facto opponents of your projects. So I would suggest working in teams with each representative in smaller cities. The good thing is in smaller cities, things tend to happen quickly because the layers that Stein described is smaller. So you can have quicker decisions. And what you can add when you're talking about smaller cities that just even smaller cities, they are parts of a bigger puzzle. So what you need to show them is that they're part of this bigger infrastructure.  It's still super small, 1,300 inhabitants. And I had to go to school five kilometers away.  But when you can show that you can connect these cities and have all the children go to this school in the other city on a bike, that completely changes the situation because five kilometers, it's just the distance that you can easily do by bike. And I think that that is the challenge to see. And the governance in France has not made that way, but because a mayor is only the boss of his or her own streets. So it's not very interesting for that person to think about streets outside the city. And that's where the citizen power comes in. That's where the citizens have to say, hey, okay, I live in Fontenay-Rose, but I work in L'Eile-Rose. So please make a bicycle lane in between us. And for that you need the citizens to put really literally the mayors around one table and to get them to talk together about bicycling. It's already quite something for mayors to have a meeting at the same time because they're important people, etc. And then also talk about a strange topic like bikes. You know, for that you need a lot of noise and that is what we made in a very professional and serene way, I have to say. What's interesting to see after this COVID crisis is that even before mayors used to five years ago laugh at you a little bit when you were talking about bike policy. Now they listen and they almost put it in their program for the municipal election or they put it as a centerpiece of the program. So, mentalities are changing slowly, but they are changing. And it's very encouraging when you see the states of what it was about five years from now. Great, yeah, and maybe on that note of governance and, and orgware, are there any, is there any insights about how the, how the tactical approaches have been delivered in terms of, you know, how they're making the changes on the ground? Are they using, you know, volunteers? Is it just based on, you know, staff capacity? I mean, staff resources already really tight for a lot of municipal cities. And so how are they, you know, how are they mobilizing? How are they mobilizing their, their, their own staff and community? Do you want to reply? Yeah, even that is, that is fluid. We see, for example, that the provinces who are competent for the province roads, the departmental, they can't, they can't do it all because it's too much work. So they agreed with other layers. It's a bit complicated in Paris region to help each other out, which would be imaginable just, just some time ago. But as these other, this other administrative, administrative layer also has to find some political interest because other elections are coming up. They're interested in doing so because these mayor, they want to show off, they want to show that they're capable of looking at the future and have a real vision in favor of the bike. To answer your question, Meredith, most of the configuration you've seen were taken care of by the municipalities. Although we see some actions, pop-up actions in Paris, for example, beginning of this week, Stein might confirm that with me. They have located small panels because you had the lanes, but you didn't have any signals to show the pop-up bike lane. So they have put this 330 signals across Paris on the main lines that are following the metro lines, just as Stein was saying. And now you have a color code and you follow the line all the way through, which is very comfortable when it comes to bike riding. And that's a pure citizen initiative. It was done by Paris-En-Salle. Because what I just showed you, it's the RERV. It is the big regional bicycle network. But in Paris, you have the metro. Everybody knows the metro. That comes from the word metropolitan. And this bicycle association drew a vilopolitan, the bike metro, which is the same thing. It's also a network, but on the surface with bicycle lanes. So again, they did the same trick that we did with this regional bicycle network. They made a copy of the metro network with the same colors, and they just drew the lines on the streets. And now actually, just as you said, they also put up these signs. And it's something that we are completely in this bubble. We know that it exists. We see this map all the time. But the people who you want to reach, they have no idea that it exists. So you need to use all the power you have to get the message out there. And that means that you need to go literally in front of the eyes of people to say, here, that's where you are. That's where you can go with the destination, with the color, with the arrow. And that is how you slowly, slowly get people to use this infrastructure by making it visible. It's so obvious, but still it's super important. We had a few people join. I think maybe sometimes got mixed up. But just a reminder that this is going to be this whole meeting has been recorded and it will be up on the Urban Cycling Institute YouTube. YouTube channel. So for those who have missed some of the conversation, you can join there. We have maybe one more minute. I have to go pick up my children, but in a few minutes, but I have made Stein and Bruno co-hosts. So you guys can all continue the conversation together in a more informal atmosphere. But maybe one last question that's come in is that, you know, we do know a lot of research has come out on the benefits, the economic benefits of cycling. But maybe there has been some new, you know, new exciting evidence on these tactical measures and, you know, the economic benefits for neighborhood communities. Do you know of any reports that have come out recently showing this type of data that could then benefit others who are trying to convince decision makers? I am aware of a report. 2003 reports. That's kind of a long time ago. That was showing 10 to 15% increase in terms of monthly expenses for people coming by bike as compared to people coming by car. That was in 2003. Now I know that someone from the Ecology Authority, Mathieu Chassignet in France, is leading some works in that particular case. So he's talking cycling and walking. What does that do to businesses? But I can refer to this study to people who are interested. I don't have the number in my head, to be honest. Yeah, I love this question because of course it's all about the money. But the funny thing is that strangely when you talk about money in a bicycle situation, people don't listen. Because actually there is a report.  I mean, it's a huge amount. It's just completely crazy. You know, and so I would say, I think I tweeted it saying something like, well, this is the report. As of this report, you know, we should just start building the bicycle infrastructure. But it doesn't even become the topic of a conversation, strangely. It's because I think that the real barriers there in our heads, they're in our heads that in France, I'm talking of course that the bicycle, it's leisure, it's sport, it's complicated.  You can tell that you get money for free, even then people will not start biking. People will start biking. When you create the bicycle infrastructure, just as was done in Paris, and you see more and more people hopping on the bikes, and that is what is happening now. And I think that will be much more powerful than, you know, the many numbers we have. We know that the traffic jams in Paris, they cost something like 22 billion euros per year, because people are doing nothing in traffic jams. We know that road insecurity cost 50 billion euros every year, because of, you know, all the accidents, etc. And the fact of sitting all day on the chair and not moving also cost 17 billion euros every year. But these numbers, I mean, we use them, but the best advocate of a bicycle is the bicycle itself.


represents Gene Lockhart and Robert Rockwell. From Hollywood, the mutual network in cooperation with Family Theatre presents the victim, starring Robert Rockwell. And now here is your host, Gene Lockhart. Thank you, Tony Lafranco. Family Theatre's only purpose is to bring to everyone's attention a practice that must become an important part of our lives if we are to win peace for ourselves, peace for our families, and peace for the world. Family Theatre urges you to pray. Pray together as a family. And now to our transcribed drama, The Victim, starring Robert Rockwell as Dan. Friends, you've probably heard the expression, no real harm can come to a truly good man. Well, I can give you living proof of that, and I'll go one step further. I'll say a tremendous amount of good can come from being associated with such a man. Take me, for instance. I'm just an ordinary guy with a much better than ordinary wife. I've got a happy home, a respectable job, and my neighbors all seem to like me. But things were not always as they are now. In fact, at one time, things were pretty bad. I was always fighting with my wife, so my home was anything but happy. My neighbors, well, most of them wouldn't even talk to me. The truly good man, who happened to be my father, helped bring about the changes for the better. When this all started, he was living with us, my wife and me, in our home in the little town of Criteria, about 50 miles out of Los Angeles. Excellent flap jacks, my dear, excellent. You want some more, Dan? No, I've had about all I can hold. Perhaps Daniel could...  Put it right there in the middle of that syrup. I'll make them lighter next time. I'm sorry. It's all right. You like them this way.  No, next time I'll make them lighter. It's all right, Daniel. I really don't mind. Now, honey, Daniel, I suppose you want them just medium. Oh, anyway, it's all right with me. I wanted to talk to you. I was having a chat with Mulvaney yesterday. Mulvaney? Who's Mulvaney? Oh, you know, Daniel, for goodness sake, who in this town doesn't know the chief of police, John J. Mulvaney? Oh, him. I hope you're not in trouble, Dad. Oh, I know. Oh, then what's up? He offered me a job. He offered you a job? Doing what? As a policeman. You're kidding. Not at all. After all, you certainly can't say I haven't had experience. Westfield Police force for 26 years. And 20 years of that on fixed station traffic duty. Mulvaney thinks I'd do a good job for him. Oh, brother. Wouldn't be like that drag web, fella. Drag net. Yeah, drag net. In fact, I'd probably be doing traffic work again. Being at the local grammar school at closing time to see the children cross the street, you know, things like that. Helping kids across the street. That's great. You need a full-time boy scout to help you across the street. I thought I might get a room near the station. Well, aren't you happy with his dad? Oh, it's not dad, but, well, it's just not right for you children to have me living with you. The man ought to earn his own living. Not be sponging off his son and daughter-in-law. Look, will you do something for me, Dad? What? Will you just forget it? Oh, but son. Daniel makes good money at the jewelry store. And you're pretty far along to be thinking about going to work again, you know? I still have a lot of good years left. Well, of course you have. I wish you wouldn't say that as if you'd expect me to pop off at any moment. I'm surprised at that, Mulvaney, for even offering you the job.  Sure, you're past the retirement age. How did you tell Mulvaney that? There's a shortage of young men applying for police jobs in his town. And my experience means something, you know? Look, Dad, let me put it this way. Let's just say Mary and I want you to spend the rea- Well, the good years you've got left comfortably, peacefully. Without having to worry about anything. But I want to go. Dad, will you just forget it? But, Mulvaney. Now, let's not talk about it, huh? It wouldn't work in 100 years. Well, it's not exactly as though it wouldn't work, Dad. You might even turn out to be a good policeman. But Daniel and I just don't want you to have to work. We want you to be happy. Enjoy some well-earned leisure, don't we, Daniel? No work, but be happy. Now, let's hear no more about the subject, OK? All right. And another thing. In your 26 years as a policeman, you didn't exactly set the world on fire, if I remember correctly. That's the real reason, isn't it? Didn't they call you no pinch Jenkins? All heart and no badge? I always did my duty as I saw it, Daniel. Now, let's not even talk about it. Let's just forget the whole idea. Well, you say so, Daniel. Well, I say so. More coffee, Dad? I suppose so. Daniel, you want some more? Coffee. Oh, I don't think I've got time. Hey, what time is it, anyway? Well, according to my watch and chain, it's approximately. It's 6.45. Yeah, that's about right. Any time for another cup? I guess so. Fill her up. Don't forget to stop by the cleaners on your way home tonight. Cleaners? Pick up your blue suit. Oh, I can stroll down and pick it up for you. Just a minute, Dad. Look, Mary, why must the suit be picked up to date? Oh, didn't I tell you we're going to the Andersons tonight? The Andersons? Great. Just great. Well, I thought you knew about it. It's nothing special, Dan. Ellen just thought we might want to play some cards or something. I can call them until. Oh, no, no, no. We'll go to the Andersons tonight. Well, if you'd rather spend a quiet evening at home, then. If you want to go to the Andersons, we'll go to the Andersons. Well, I think maybe we should stay home.  No, no, no. You told him we'd go. We'll go. If I might make a suggestion. Please, Dad. Daniel, I don't want you doing anything just to please me.  We're going to the Andersons. That's what you want to do, and that's what we're going to do. Brilliant. Really makes no difference to me one way or the other. Good. We'll stay home. Now, Mary, there's no use being childish about this. Hey, there's a cracker jack of a picture at the Globe tonight. Why don't you call it a draw? Dad, will you let us handle this, please? Doesn't concern you. Well, you don't have to take it out on Father. What? You heard me. Children, if you were just. Dad, will you please just stop trying to fix things? Daniel, now, that was downright rude. That's no way to speak to Father. Well, he's my father. I'll speak to him any way I choose. And for your information, it was not rude. Not in the least. Oh, Dad, how can you say that? Now, look, must we start the day with a fight? Why this all the time fighting for crying out loud? Well, most of it stems from what you might call unselfishness of a type that- Not that, please. I'm sorry. Mary, where'd you take my suit? You won't need it. You work hard all day, so we're going to do what you want to do. We're going to stay home tonight. Oh, no, we're not. We're going to do what you want to do. We're going to the Andersons. Now, where? Dad, will you pick the suit up for me? Sure thing. Thank you. Now, if nobody minds, I'm going to work. Daniel, I do not intend. I'll see you tonight. Goodbye. So, Mulvaney, I picked up the suit. They went to the Andersons, and because of both of them, were more or less powdered all evening. Everybody had an awful time, including the Andersons, whom I strongly suspect will not be inviting them back. And who do you think got to blame? Who? I did.  Well, that's as sad a tale as I've heard all day. And the upshot of the whole thing is that they don't want you to take the job. That's just about the size of it. They're bound and determined to keep me from working, even if it kills me. Eddie, my old friend, you're in dire straits. You think maybe they're a fragile discretion? I mean about the no-pence business. Well, Daniel tried about one thing. I didn't exactly set the world on fire before, but I don't really think that's it. I think perhaps I'm just a victim of their unsurpassedness. The same kind of unsurpassedness they're killing each other with. Well, can't you talk your son into seeing the wisdom that you're moving out, taking the job, fatherly advice? Fatherly advice? Daniel hasn't taken any advice from me in years. I guess I disappointed him by not being the tough cop a policeman's son might expect his father to be. So in a manner of speaking, I made my bed a long time ago. Well, are you going to be content with that? What do you mean? Well, you're going to take it. Well, I don't know, because I've got much choice. Well, why? Well, Vainie, there's enough dissension in that house without me making more. Sounds to me like you're already living in the middle of a prize ring. That and the marriage is headed for the rocks. What happens to you when they break up? Oh, I don't think. Well, at least I certainly hope that won't happen. But if it does, what happens to you and then, too, who do you think will get to blame? Well, it's voting you might be right. I don't see how anybody could blame me. They blamed you for bringing home the suit. Yeah, that's true. You said yourself that it certainly doesn't do a marriage any good to have in-laws around all the time. If I didn't believe that, I'd have said no to your proposal right away. We've been friends for quite a while, haven't we, Edgar? Yeah, the best friend I got in this town. You got any faith in my opinion? You know I have. Well, I think you should take the job. I swear I never worked so hard to hire a man in my life. You really think that it'd be for the best? I do, if you'll have as much faith in yourself as I have in you. All right, I'll do it, Mabini. Where do I sign? When I got home from work that night, I found a police car parked in front of the house. First, I thought something was wrong, something the police had come to take care of. But I didn't have that idea for long, because when I got in the house, there was my father in a policeman's uniform with a big 38 strapped to his belt. First, I was too surprised to say anything. In fact, it wasn't until after dinner that we went into it. And then we went into it with a vengeance. And that's the whole story. Great show. How could you do it?  Dad, I've made up my mind.  It's the only way out. Oh, I couldn't do a thing like that. And besides that, I like being a policeman again. Oh, brother, he likes the idea. That's all right, Dad. If you want to throw away your reputation, then ours too. Throw away my reputation and yours too. What am I way of thinking a policeman is a very reputable thing to be, very reputable. Dad, even when you were in your prime, oh, I'm sorry to have to say this, but isn't it true? Even when you were in your prime, you were never a very good policeman. You're a long way from your prime now. What do people say when they see you out in the middle of some busy intersection trying to direct traffic? Oh, there's Daniel Jenkins' father. Isn't it a shame that his children can't take care of him? But I won't be on traffic duty, after all. Mulvaney gave me a radio car. Well, didn't you see it when you came in? Why, it's a beautiful thing. And it's got to. It's all right, Dad. If you're going to go through with this here brain masking, we certainly won't stand in your way. We work in slaves so that you can enjoy your retirement, so that you can spend your time in leisure. But if that doesn't mean anything to you, well, it's all right. That's perfectly all right. Well, I won't be a hypocrite and say I'm doing it just for you two because I'm not. Retirement isn't any fun. Man needs to keep active for his own good. And I do think it'll be better for you to have me working, keeping the place of my own instead of living here. You could get pretty tired of me, you know. I'll be around for quite a few years. Of course you will. Now, I do wish you wouldn't use that tone of voice when you say that, my dear. I'm sorry. Laughing stock of the neighborhood. Well, as long as you would. No, maybe I better not go into it. Never mind. No, say it. Finish what you were going to say. And as long as we're being honest with each other, we're facing facts, should you call it? Yeah. I don't think anything I might do would affect your stand in this neighborhood. Oh, now, Dad, how can you say that? It'll make us look absolutely ridiculous like we're putting you out to work. Of course it will. If your own quarreling doesn't lower your stock with your neighbors, I don't see how my actions would. Father, what a terrible thing to say. No. No, he's got a point. He does not. Oh, yes, he does. We do argue a little. Discussions, perhaps. But I wouldn't call them arguments. Some of the wild brandy-gans that go on around here and you wouldn't call them arguments, that shows you how much you know about it. Daniel, if there are fights, I certainly don't start them. Well, I see what I mean. There you are. Got another one started already. So don't worry about what my actions might do to your reputation. I'll be living in another part of the town anyway. So all this is really much to do about nothing. What's done is done, no changing it. So for my last night here, what do you say we do something pleasant? Today, I know what we'll do. Let's watch television. Isn't it about time for that fella, that Tin Pan comedian? Let's see. What's his name? George Gable? Deadpan, and his name is George Gable. Gable. Oh, yeah, that's fella. Dan, why don't you see if you can? I'm much too upset to watch television. Oh, I don't know, Dad. I just don't know. Are you going to bed? Might as well. Well, all right. What is it? It's nothing. Well, it must be something. What's on your mind? It's all right. I'll do it. You'll do what? Well, take the garbage out so the collectors can pick it up in the morning. Oh, well, I forgot about that.  I'll take care of it. No, no, no. I'll do it. No, I can do it. You go to bed. It's all right.  Now, just cut it out. I'm doing it. No, no, no. I can do it. Oh, what's she trying to prove? Sometimes she makes me some mad. I could chew nails, railroad spikes, maybe trains. Oh, fine. That's all I need. Quiet, you. I said quiet. One more yap out of you, and you're going in this bucket. Huh. What are you like that? He understood me. Well, at least somebody in this neighborhood understands me. Hm. Look, only it's quiet tonight. It's a quiet neighborhood. I bet dad's right. But they can hear us fighting all over the block. I stood there for quite a few minutes that night, and I did what was for me at that time some pretty heavy thinking. I decided not to try to block my father's decision. He moved out the next day, but one of his hopes sure didn't pan out. He didn't make things any better between Mary and me. He'd drop around during his off hours once in a while, maybe watch a little television with us, maybe listen to something special on the radio or play a little cards. But we could never get in to talk about how things were going with his new job. We got that one night when we were coming out of a movie. We ran into his boss, Chief Mulvaney. Isn't that Mr. Mulvaney, Daniel? Huh? Where? Right there. Oh, yeah. Oh, Chief, Mr. Mulvaney. Yeah. You remember me? Offhand, uh, oh yeah, Jenkins, isn't it? Hey, working the bizarre jewelry store. Yeah, that's right. This is Mrs. Jenkins. How do you do? How do you do? Just come from the movie? That's right. Something you wanted to see me about? Well, as a matter of fact, there is. You want to tell him, Dan? Oh, no, no, that's all right. You do it. Well, perhaps you'd better... Oh, no, no, go ahead. Be my guest. Well, Chief... Mr. will do nicely. Well, Mr. Mulvaney, you hired Dan's father a few weeks ago. Edgar Jenkins? That's right. Well, we'd like to know. Well, how is he doing? Why don't you ask him? Well, we did. Won't tell us a thing. I see. Well, Mr. Jenkins, your father is doing very well. Exceptionally well, I'd say. He is? His first day on the job, I took him to a scene of an accident on the freeway. But he frightened in three cars, Mr. Right then and there, he asked for a car and freeway duty. You put that old man in a police car on the freeway? Why not, Mrs. Jenkins? He's a good policeman and an excellent traffic man. The way to make an excellent traffic man better is to put wheels under him. Age doesn't make any difference as long as he's in good physical condition. And he's been doing a good job? In the past three weeks, he's given out better than 300 tickets, made at least two dozen arrests, all of which got convictions. And there hasn't been an accident in his area on his shift. I call that doing a good job. Now, if you'll excuse me, nice meeting you, Mr. Jenkins. Oh, Mr. Mulvaney. Yes? Just one more question. What is it? Well, I don't quite know how to phrase this. Would you say he's better than average? I mean, he was a policeman for about 26 years before. Mr. Jenkins, aside from a poor memory for names, which is a failing a lot of people have, I believe he's one of the best all-around men I have. I don't know, maybe he wasn't always. Maybe he just took a long time learning the business. Maybe he's trying to prove something to somebody. As I said, I don't know. But whatever it is, it's making him considerably better than average. Is that what you wanted to know? That is. Well, then, good evening. Mary gave me one of those side-long looks. Maybe you know the kind of look I mean. It's one way a wife can say to her husband, you've been lying to me without ever opening her mouth. And I suppose I began to wonder myself. If Chief Mulvaney thought my father was such a hot-shot policeman, well, then maybe he was right. Maybe I'd been wrong all along. I got my answer a week later. I was working in the store, and Mary had just dropped in with my lunch. Not a usual thing. But old man Ellers, who owned the place and usually worked with me, had been called away on what he'd been led to believe was an emergency. Two peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and some of that cake we had last night. Anything to drink? I couldn't find a thermos, really, Daniel, if you'd given me a little more notice. How could I give you more notice? Ellers didn't get called out till 11 o'clock. Well, I suppose I could get you something at the drugstore. Yeah, a bottle of milk or something, huh? Hey, buddy, how about a little service? Oh, right away, sir. I'll have your milk by the time you're finished with the customer. Fine, that'll be fine. Oh, make it chocolate, will ya? Yeah, all right. Now what may I do for you, sir? Your, uh... Your boss here? Well, not just now. Perhaps I can help you? Yeah. Yeah, I think you can. I'm interested in diamonds. Big stones. And I'm gonna play with this. Your gun? That's right, now. Don't put your hands up and don't move unless I tell you to. Uh, I won't. Believe me, I won't. The truth of the matter was I didn't have to. The button for the silent alarm, the direct calling system to the police station was right by my knee. They were shaking, but still I managed to push the button with only the slightest change of position. When I said don't move, I meant it. What'd you do? Nothing. I didn't do a thing. I guess I'm just a little frightened. Good. That way maybe you'll stay alive. Now move like I tell ya. All right? I want you to walk right down the middle of that oil to the door. We gotta close up shop for a few minutes. All right, now move. Slow. Slow. Don't touch a thing.  A cop! You punk! You pull the cops! You might as well give up. Not as long as I've got a hostage! No! Oh, no, no. You're not going to use me! There! Oh, I made it. I made it. Hey, what's going on here? Dad! Police! Get the police! Hey, what's the matter with you? I am the police. Did you get away? He's still in there. I knocked the gun out of his hand. It went out of the counter. But he's got it again by now. What's going on here? Going behind that fender, playing cops and robbers. I never saw anything so ridiculous. Get back here. Oh, now, really? Get back there. There's a man in there with a gun. Huh? There's no back way, as I remember correctly. Yeah, none. Are you two kidding me? Get down and stay down. Dad. Dad, those people. Don't worry about them. They'll keep their distance. There's really a robber in there? There sure is. Hey, you in there. You haven't got a chance. Smile your hands up. Not a chance, Pop. Suppose you come and get me. I suppose I'll have to. No, wait. When do you get some help? Till the others come. Wait for some others. I got the call. I kept it in my radio car. It's my pinch. You want me to wait to have somebody else do my job? Oh, but Dad. You get me the Winchester out of the car. It's on the bracket under the seat. And get the package from the glove compartment. Yeah, the rifle, the package. Right. If I have to shoot, I don't want to miss. All right. Dad, wait for help. You don't have to prove anything to us. Well, we want you to come home. Here's your rifle. Thanks. The package. Right here. Daniel, I was just telling Dad. Yeah, I heard. It goes double for me, Dad. You could get killed trying to make an arrest with that guy. Now come home with us. Why should I? Why? Because we... Oh, because we love you. What else? Move back into your house. I think I'd rather face a man with a gun and go back listening to your arguments. We'll stop arguing. Really, we will. Oh, how can you? You don't even know why you do it. Hey, make you play, copper. I'll be right with you. I'm taking care of a little personal business. If you want to know the main reason for your fights, you play childish games with each other. Each of you trying to outsell sacrifice the other just to feel the temporary glow of self-righteousness that follows. Oh, those little games. When one of you pretends unselfishness, just to see the other unhappy, to see the other become the unwilling receiver of that untrue, un-Christian charity.  Even if you could stop, I wouldn't move back. In trying to win your respect, I want a little respect for myself. Well? Dad, if you go in there, you'll get killed. You're only 67. You've a lot of good years left. Well, since this may be my last advice, will you take it? I mean, really take it? I promise. Mary? I promise. Stop playing games with each other. Be honest with each other, and be kind to each other. Okay. We will. Whenever you're ready, copper. Come ahead. I'm coming. Hey, what's this? Dad learns a little something in 26 years. Why should I take that man's life at the risk of my own when I can use tear gas? Tear gas? Hey, you inside. I'm waiting for you. I've changed my mind. You come to me. The thief came around, all right, crying and coughing and scratching and sneezing. Mary and I came around, too. But it wasn't as hard for us. Oh, we forgot our promise once in a while, but we never have any of those knocked-down, drag-out discussions we used to have. Maybe it's because we don't want to damage my father's reputation. Or, as he says, maybe it's because we've grown up. This is Gene Lockhart again. Our popular language has developed a slang word to express the idea of masquerading. It's the word phony. Like most slang expressions, it's an everyday term by which we calculate real and true and valid from what is false and pretentious and unreal. Real values versus phony values. Very often it's hard to tell real values from phony ones. And it occurs to me that maybe many of us tell ourselves stories about our successes and failures, even in our family life. We feel we're expressing the greatest love for our families when we work hard to give them as many material comforts as possible. Now, we may measure our success by the cars we drive, the schools we send our children to, and the surroundings we provide. Well, that we should be glad to do, as long as we do not leave out love. If we leave that out, love, the rest adds up to a great big phony value. It may be a fancy masquerade, but behind the mask there's emptiness. Now, that is where family prayer comes in. We no longer send children to bed without their supper, but maybe we send them to bed without gathering with them to unite them and us together in God's presence. Now, they learn much from outside the family, in school, on the street, and at their entertainments. But one thing among many they must learn in the family, and that is the family that prays together, stays together.  This series of Family Theater broadcasts is made possible by the thousands of you who feel the need for this type of program, by the mutual network which has responded to this need, and by the hundreds of stars of stage, screen and radio who give so unselfishly of their time and talent to appear on our Family Theater stage.  This is Tony LaFranco expressing the wish of Family Theater that the blessing of God may be upon you and your home, and inviting you to be with us next week when Family Theater will present Funny Valentine starring Barbara Rush. Join us, won't you? Family Theater is broadcast throughout the world and originates in the Hollywood studios of the world's largest network. This is Mutual, the radio network for all America.


It's about damn time we made this video because it's Road to 10K VIRTUE! Let's go! Let's go! I generally am really excited to make this video We've been meaning to make it for a while It's Road to 10K Episode 2 Given an update on how our Road to 10K progress is going Before we get into it Let's just for people that don't know Say what the Road to 10K is So we're taking a publishing business from zero to ten thousand dollars in royalties in one month As fast as you can Right, strictly with audiobooks We're still going to go over the paperbacks and ebooks in this video But yeah, the Road to 10K counts only audiobooks And we have a whole competition going We have a massive grand prize for the winner We're a part of it And I... We're trying to win the competition So badly we want to win this Yeah, even though there's no prize for us We don't get the prize But that's not what it's about Yeah, I just need to win So we've been traveling for the past four weeks Which is why we haven't made this video It's been really tough But we've been working on the business and the background Well, the business has been being worked on in the background Not by us But by our publishing manager And he does a lot of work for us Now let's talk all about that, we will Yeah, publishing manager is great But only heroin once you're ready for it So... Because you have to teach him how to do it If you don't know how to do it in the first place it doesn't work Right, you have to train him So let's just quickly talk about what we're going to go through in the video Okay, so we're going to go through our e-book and pay-for-back royalties Our audiobook sales Our all expenses combined so far Like AMS ads expenses Shit like that And just how the whole experience is We made a 60 book order to start this thing off 60 books, that's a lot I'll be honest, it's been overwhelming It's a lot to put on a new guy Right in the beginning like boom Yeah, that maybe was not the nicest thing for us to do But he's been handling it well Of course he's growing pains He's killing it Obviously But I also want to talk about what our next move is With the publishing business I will say after today, right? Because we're ready to make our next move Okay, I mean I've been doing keyword research all day Yeah And I've found, oh that's really good keywords, like a ton So the plan was just like It made you realize that anyone who's going to play about keywords right now Oh, you have nothing to complain about I mean you just not After five minutes I had some fire keywords already So I went into like, I was ready to order like a medium sized order Like because we don't want to overwhelm our manager too much But it's going to be a big order Okay It's going to be a big order It's just too tempting There's too many like I don't want to miss out Yeah, like follow on this one Fuck it, let's do all of them Yeah, so Let's get into the computer Look at the numbers and share the entire progress Alright, let's do that And here we are Alright, so the first thing I want to cover is the expenses Let's get right into it Of course it flourishes Okay, we're here So the writing expenses we have so far This is all from the first 60 book order we made in August Total $5,737.50 from 60 books And the covers come out to $360 For narration so far we've paid $1,163 That's for 10 audiobooks so far Yeah, well, yeah, 10 audiobooks Maybe nine It's been two months And only 10 audiobooks are out I know, look It's been taking way, way longer So let's get into that right off the bat So a big problem Let's just say it has been E-Writer Solutions Like fucking, their turnaround time has been garbage It's supposed to be two weeks It's like a month later We hadn't even gotten some outlines back So this has been a big problem with E-Writer Solutions Has been turnaround time And like, so they're just bottlenecking the whole business That's been very frustrating Which I guess leads us into a point Should we talk about the urban writers Which is another ghost writing service Who we might be transitioning towards Or not, we might be We will be transitioning towards We're super tight bros of the owner We're trying to see if he can get the price down That's the one thing That's the thing separating E-Writer Solutions And the urban writers is price point It's a pretty big price gap But if we can get it down We'll talk about that Urban writers for life So back in the expenses AMS adds $320 in expenses there So total expenses so far $7,581.47 These are investments It should say total investment That's gonna come back Tenfold easy Tenfold easy Alright so that's the expenses I'm gonna go to KDP now And look at what So this is a three month chart You can see We technically had our first book out Almost three months ago But it was just one But here's when we kind of That's when we got them out So if you look at this The sales we had here Yeah, yeah, yeah And there's a 10 paperback sale today Yeah If you notice Our sales were really strong here in October And then they've fallen off And the reason why is I didn't know this AMS adds Campaigns they will die over time If you don't keep paying attention to them Updating keywords All that Right And that's happened to us So we had Marco set them up And then we just let them sit And I honestly thought That was enough And it would just keep running Autopilot But they need to be maintained Which we've done That's just a learning experience And we need to train our VA To do that from now on He's called a manager You're right Manager is what he is Yeah He deserves that title Yes Alright So this is the total earnings Since the start of the business Royalties Yeah Royalties From KDP From KDP Just ebooks and paperback books I like the quality From ebooks and paperback books We're not Focusing on this at all All our focus is on audiobooks This is kind of like Nice extra money But if you add all this up It comes out too I have it here 568 dollars and 29 cents So that's what we've made KDP Royalties so far So that's less than two months A month and 20 days ish So I'm happy with that so far I mean if you ask me We're on track We're on track to like Hit our goals It just takes time And it's moving a bit slower Than I wanted to That's just how it is Alright so this is The paperbacks and ebooks Let's go into ACX And look at those numbers So we have 243 sales all time Sadly it is not The Royalties I know So you can only estimate What the Royalties are But if we go off of $15 price 40% That's about 6 dollars I'll round down to 5 Do you want to explain why That is No it's not important Okay so about 5 dollars Just say 5 dollars Royalties per sale Is a conservative estimate I want to be conservative So let's say a thousand dollars We've made on ACX so far On mostly 5 audiobooks Yeah We have one audiobook It's been out 2 weeks It has 99 sales in total That's sick But the big problem so far Is just It's been taking so long It's been taking really really long One Getting the books back Narration just like But that's the nature of the business That's how it is Working with people And then Audible Has to review the audiobook And that can take weeks It's just like Come on let's go Let's go But In the end it's okay Yeah So the $1568 Is from the KDP See we don't know the number So let's say $1,000 in Royalties From the audiobooks So it's like $2,500 in Royalties so far And it's been 7,500 expenses So we're in the red By $5,000 so far Anyone who thinks that's Who would worry about that Or thinks Oh no no things look great We have 8 out of 60 audiobooks out Yeah exactly So it's just because It's taking so damn long To get them all out So You have to have patience right Once these audiobooks are up They're gonna be out for years And you know You're not even gonna Remember this kind of Annoying publishing process Right I want to talk about What our next step is Right with the business I just remember this I always forget I know And that's Bundles So this 60 book order Is not even including The bundles that they're Gonna make It's gonna make 20 bundles And your bundles Are gonna be Making more than your singles So Which is why Just this first book order Is gonna take us through A big chunk of The road to 10K So hopefully The next book order Hopefully we can hit that number I mean I think We're gonna hit it From this book order Maybe Yeah So it really is just Getting it all out there So One other thing that I want To cover about the books We've gotten back from E-Write Solutions Is the quality of the books So what do you think About the quality of the books We've gotten from Your resolutions So a lot of people like To complain about Your resolutions Like the quality isn't Good I think we've had Good quality There's been one That needed a full revision I don't know what happened there I don't know what happened But in general I've been happy with the quality The revisions we've needed Have been minor They've been fixable And I've been happy with the quality So that has not been Too big an issue It's the turnaround time It's been the base issue Yeah Alright so I think We've covered most of what We wanted to cover In this episode 2 update Now I thought There was gonna be more To talk about But is there anything We've missed Is there any more questions You have About our progress So please do put In the comment section What questions you have If there's more you want to know Because We're literally not hiding Anything Except for like The exact books That's the only thing Otherwise Nothing to hide I love sharing everything Cause honestly Like it's motivating Cause you just see The progress You see it live It's just real This is the real thing So this is what we talk A lot about on our channel But like we do it We're doing it We do it all the time We don't just talk about it We're publishing This is our business This is how we make money This is how we live This is How we're in Bali This is how we afford The villa That we're about to move into This is how we do everything So It's gonna be the audiobooks That funded literally All of it Yeah Because Of course money stays in the business We don't spend on ourselves No I just want to say that real quick We spend on books So This is kind of like Behind the scenes of Like This is behind the scenes Of our business And how things are going So I still have my personal account Which I have not touched In over six months I mean I literally Not I don't even look at sales Well it's literally I don't ever look at sales I don't owe my account I don't do anything I do absolutely nothing I just get a direct deposit At the end of every month It's like When I ended your bank account Is when you know how much You made basically Yeah Otherwise I have no idea How the business is doing It's just Just by the size of the Check that I collected At the end of the month Like You get what you get Regardless of why I spend time worrying about The thing about it So It's really passive It all is So Just to give you an idea My personal I-book account Since I last touched it Has done well over $50,000 Since I last Even gave it a thought So That's pretty That's pretty nuts That's what's given us The ability to work on things Like YouTube videos all the time Because they don't make Direct income like that That's a long-term play Can I ask something? Why do other publishing channels Not really talk about How much they make themselves Yeah No Absolutely They don't What is there to hide? What is there to hide?