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The Monday Roundup

Buffered Bike Lane with a bike symbol and arrow pointing forward


Here’s the news that caught my eye last week:

How do you get people on bikes in large numbers all at once? The people who run DC’s bike sharing system have it nailed: Give them a coupon, and they will ride.

– Instead of talking about cities versus suburbs, what if we focused on walkable versus not walkable?

– A proposed 10mph speed limit for people bicycling across the Golden Gate Bridge in SF has sparked a public debate.

– Towns in the UK have seen a major jump in applications for street closures so people can throw big block parties to celebrate the Royal Wedding.

– Here’s how (and why) Canadian companies are encouraging employees to ride to work year round — with showers, lockers, and even an in-house dry cleaning pickup spot.

The cycle track has come to Long Beach, California, and people seem to really like it so far.

– More or less gentle critiques of an old cycling campaign standby, Bike Month, and the new, sassier “Don’t be a jerk” campaign in NYC.

– In Seoul, South Korea, people who ride their bikes to subway stations with bike & ride parking facilities now receive discounted fares.

– Boston is getting set to launch a bike sharing program this summer (and Alta Bike Share, based in Portland, has won the contract to manage it).

– This year, the country’s most bike friendly universities have been ranked, just like cities, from Bronze to Platinum; the list contains some standards and some surprises.

– BBC Radio takes on the question of how to make roads safer for bicycling.

Why is bicycling good for cities? It helps us experience our surroundings more intensely and directly.

– In Denver, it’s the end of an era for the “Barnes Dance,” a traffic light sequence in which people could cross at an intersection both ways at once.

– As our cities shift from bike subculture to full on, mainstream bike culture, one Chicago-ite wonders, will we be losing as well as gaining?

New to cycling? Here’s some good — and intensely detailed — advice.

– A popular blog for illustrators challenged its readers to draw pictures of bicycles. Here are the results.

The Sperm Bike. ‘Nuff said.

Video of the week!! A downhill urban bike race in Chile, as seen through a participant’s helmet cam.

[Publisher’s Note: After taking a closer look at an item originally posted in the roundup about a car ad from Israel, I have decided to delete the item. The comments on it remain below. — Jonathan Maus.]

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