a public bike-share system, and it
comes with these cool illustrations.
Here’s the news that caught our eye this week:
– The outcome of this year’s particularly dramatic Tour de France was decided by a mere 39 seconds. Meanwhile, Bend Oregon’s very own Chris Horner had a stellar ride, finishing in the top 10 as the highest placing American. Read his final Tour diary entry here.
– In other news, RAGBRAI, the “oldest, longest, and largest bicycle tour in the world” is now underway. In Iowa.
– The federal government may have completely failed to produce a climate bill; but this industry-focused analysis of the “big comeback” of bicycling highlights the mode’s transformative potential for a struggling environment and economy.
– A Portlander takes a bicycle ride around New York City and finds the experience and extreme departure from the calm bike paths back home.
– In Brooklyn, a police officer has been charged after hitting a person on a bicycle with his police car, handing the bleeding man a tissue, and driving off. The incident was captured on videotape.
– The Economist takes a look at bike-sharing schemes, highlighting the new one in Mexico City. The latest such system, in London, launches this week.
– The mayor of Los Angeles broke his elbow in a bike crash (he was right hooked), and has since been talking up his city’s potential for bicycling.
– Organizers of a Christian music festival in Colorado found themselves under media scrutiny when they banned bicycling and walking to the event. (They say they will reconsider the policy for next year.)
– Stepping far beyond the bicycle bubble for a moment: CNBC has released their 2010 Top States for Business rankings. The top three in the transportation category are Texas, Georgia, and Ohio. Criteria include highway quality and the ease of shipping goods by air, land and water.
– Istanbul is under threat of losing its World Heritage Site status, a potential sanction in part for forging ahead with a major new freeway bridge between its Asia and Europe sides.
– Dan Savage himself deigns to weigh in on Seattle’s bicycle-streetcar tracks conflict.
– Slow day at work? Browse these beautiful photos of people on bicycles around the world. Or check out this photo gallery of all the unwieldy loads one Xtracycle owner has proudly hauled on their longtailed steed.
– Saving the best for last, a video: Danish architect Jan Gehl describes his first long distance bicycle ride, when at age 6, he and his family fled German occupation.
My First Ride: Jan Gehl from hyumaf on Vimeo.
Thanks for reading.
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“I never feel so alive as I do when I think I am just about to die.” — Heidi Swift
I gotta go to New York.
It’s not a slow day at work, but those worldwide photos of people on bikes were well worth taking a break to look at.
Wonderful stuff.
Gotta give my props to Iowa for RAGBRAI.
As a native Iowa-egian and RAGBRAI veteran, I can attest to the zeitgeist that is RAGBRAI. Take all the Pedalpalooza events, throw in barnstorming biplanes, oceans of cornfields, and boatloads of beer and like minded folks to share with. Add a circus atmosphere, and the super friendly citizens of Iowa. You have the phenomena that is RAGBRAI. Someone needs to write a dissertation on it. Registration is cut off at 10,000 – another 5000 show up anyway. And who knows how many single day riders pop in and out. When the riders invade a town, its biblical, like a swarm of locusts. They eat EVERYTHING.
An entire civilization on the march. 15000 riders, plus associated saggers & tourists and staff etc. and everybody is chill. Not mellow, by any means, but harmonious to the nth degree.
As in the movie “Field of Dreams”, experiencing RAGBRAI may cause one to ask –
“Is this Heaven?”
“No, this is Iowa!”
The ad for Bike-Share in London reminds me of when there was tube strike one summer while I was living there. I would walk from the center (W1) to the City of London for my job at Barclay’s. One morning I spotted a male cyclist peddling in a suit jacket, button down shirt and..shorts. I wondered, had he had asked his tailor to shorten his suit trousers for such a circumstance?