– Copenhagen has released its Bicycle Strategy for 2011-2025. The plan lays out how the city will reach its goal of becoming “the world’s best bicycle city” by the end of 2015.
– A mile-long section of trail in Clark County is receiving mixed reactions as officials and citizens weigh the cost of the trail against its future potential.
– British newspaper The Times has launched a high profile campaign for more bicycle infrastructure but it’s not well-received by everyone. One advocate thinks The Times is approaching the problem in the wrong way and their campaign only puts people on bikes in a “voluntary ghetto”.
– The New York Police Department is accused of falsifying details around the death of a person on a bicycle.
– India has the dubious honor of officially having the world’s unhealthiest air. Ranked last behind China, Pakistan, and all other countries, India’s poor air quality is largely the result of automobile emissions.
– The Henry Ford Museum’s new exhibit “Driving America” has some interesting tidbits that reveal how troublesome the gasoline-powered automobile has been, right from its inception.
– Prevention Institute Executive Director Larry Cohen explains how modern car companies are pushing hard to keep people in cars and off of bicycles.
– The Atlantic Cities makes the case that road congestion is a sign of success in cities and governments shouldn’t necessarily be looking to eliminate it all together.
– A banker in rural Maine is attempting to build a car-free village complete with small plazas, narrow streets, attached buildings, and interior courtyards.
– The city of Emporia, Kansas has been dealing with increased vandalism since police stopped manning the bike patrol unit in July.
– The mayor of a borough in Montreal is openly campaigning to eliminate commuters’ motor vehicle traffic from his district.
– The Long Beach Business Journal explains why it’s in the best interest of businesses to encourage people to ride bicycles.
– Some bicycling advocates in Brighton, U.K. are calling for “strict liability” for people who drive motor vehicles.
– GridChicago introduced the Bike 2015 Plan Tracker, a website to track progress on the city’s bike plan using (appropriately) red, yellow, and green traffic signals.
– Facebook’s IPO is bis news these days but the company is also preparing to improve bicycle facilities in and around its new headquarters in Menlo Park.
– Professional cyclist Krystian Herba may have set a world record by climbing 91 stories on his bicycle. Herba made it up 2,040 steps in 1 hour, 13 minutes and 41 seconds.
– One of New York’s adult novelty stores, Babeland, teamed up with a courier service to offer 1-hour bicycle deliveries of its products. As a store representative said, “This is New York City. You can get anything delivered.”
– Trek Bicycle is opting out of the annual Eurobike trade show in August and instead will host its own separate event a month earlier in July.
– How well do you know your bicycle? One person knows their bicycle inside and out well enough to draw all its parts by hand.
– Legislators in Virginia voted down a bill that would have made it illegal to tailgate bicycles.
– One British Columbia resident was reunited with his bike 28 years after it was stolen.
– And finally, have you ever said someone “lives on their bike” they rides so much? One guy took that phrase to the extreme in this very creative video dedicated to his father:
Thanks for reading.
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Perhaps people have been following this already, but USDOT Secretary Ray La Hood’s son is among the 43 Americans being detained by the Egyptian government. Let’s hope he and they make it home safe.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/egypt-to-prosecute-americans-in-ngo-probe/2012/02/05/gIQAQRderQ_story.html?tid=pm_pop
That guy living on his bike is a BLAST!
agreed, totally awesome!
I can see how people don’t want to be held accountable through “strict liability” for something dangerous they do every day…
I don’t know why we can’t adopt the universal downhill skiing law where you’re responsible for everything in front of you…
I spent the past weekend in London and was encouraged by the number of cyclists and bicycles I saw as well as the poplularity of bike share. This despite the fact that there is little in the way of bicycle infrastructure, at least in the areas that I visited. Motor vehicles and bicyclists seem to coexist fairly well although I certainly saw cyclists make some moves that I never would. Perhaps chalk it up to folks used to cycling in a much more frenetic environment than I do. Because of the lack of infrastructure, MVs do seem to expect to share the road with cyclists so I did not see any open expressions of hostility despite the narrowness of London streets. Much different atmosphere and attitude than I see in New York, which is the only other city of comparable size that I’ve had an opportunity to observe. All that being said, I do think London is in desparate need of more infrastructure.