Here’s a look at bike news from around the country and the world:
– Tragedy struck during the Giro d’Italia, a famous, long-distance professional bike race. Closer to home, the Tour of California canceled its first stage due to snow.
– It’s Bike to Work Week, and rising gas prices have led to increased interest in bicycling, as well as scrutiny of various barriers and improvements. People thinking about starting to commute for the first time are given some sage advice.
– Speaking of high gas prices, bike sales are up 9% in the first quarter of 2011. Scooters are doing pretty well, too.
– In DC, bike advocates quietly reach out to lower-income neighborhoods, and it seems to be working.
– In Europe, a broad program to experiment with moving serious amounts of freight by cargo bicycle is just launching.
– A modest proposal for resolving road rage altercations: Listening to each other.
– New York City police are in the midst of an aggressive ticketing campaign to enforce bicycle laws–including at least three that don’t exist.
– For typical urban commuters, a new study has found, only 30% of jobs can be reached within an hour and a half on transit.
– In Australia, it turns out that the presence of high-quality bike infrastructure raises property values significantly.
– A new brand of lending–the “location-efficient mortgage”—rewards homebuyers for choosing to live in an area where they can get around by bicycling, walking, and transit instead of driving.
– Chicago is getting its first bike corral.
– In Toronto, one of the new bikesharing kiosks has already been smashed into by someone driving a car.
– Salt Lake City’s bike collective is temporarily closed after a man drove his car through the front door.
– What’s bikey Portland’s best kept secret? We have a lot of trouble sticking up to the vocal, anti-bicycle minority. From LA, here’s a primer on how to respond to the naysayers.
– A British author has penned a book about his global, historically informed quest for the perfect bike.
Thanks for reading.
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Bike sales are up 9% compared to 2010. What were sales in 2010 v. 2009? 2009 v. 2008?
Are the increased sales due to a rise in gas prices or are they slowly rebounding with the economy and unemployment figures?
Ford saw a 16% growth (US market), 18% China and 115% India in Q1 2011 v. 2010.
The article linked provides very little information and no pertinent links, but then again it is USAtoday.
I much prefer this take on how to start cycling:
http://hanlonsrzr.blogspot.com/2011/05/universal-cycling-rules.html#more
“Try to slow down a bit – going slower is also contagious…but most of the time we can all probably take it a bit slower.”
Do they really believe that going too fast is a major problem for new riders? In my experience, the vast majority of new riders feel they are going TOO SLOW.
My advice to new riders is go at a pace that feels comfortable and safe.
BUT….BUT…when you become more fit, then by all means feel free to crank it up. Ride FAST, if you like. Then RIDE FASTER, if you like!
And if and when you feel comfortable feel free to take the lane. Don’t slow down for the iron beast, get in its way and slow it down!
Please put a NSFW tag on articles which feature naked ladies right at the top. Thanks.
Heh! That article’s title actually says “Universal Bike Commuting Rules (nsfw) ” but the “#more” anchor evades it. Oops.
But I wonder, is that really the article which spare_wheel intended? That one is quite polemic and not really about how to start cycling. The “slow down a bit” quote comes from this one:
http://www.theurbancountry.com/2011_05_01_archive.html
Tuesday, May 10, 2011
Making Bicycling Easy: 10 Things I’ve Learned
Posted by James D. Schwartz
Can you get in trouble for looking at that kind of photo at work? I mean…it was a news photo of a protest at 10 Downing St in London. By the way, the naked lady in the picture was very nice looking and was astride a slow riding style bike with a great looking Brooks saddle and matching leather bar tape.
Awesome bike commute video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0OV4r3ZMpdQ&feature=player_embedded
Just a modest bit of advice for the police. If you want to have any credibility enforcing traffic laws, you might try obeying them yourselves. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen a cop actually come to a complete stop at a stop sign.
I’m not sure anything that raises property value at this point is a good thing. Portland’s already unaffordable compared to income without help: The last thing we need is cyclists getting blamed for unaffordable housing.