Amazing freestyling
How many ways can one sit, stand and pedal a bike? Watch this video to find out.
How many ways can one sit, stand and pedal a bike? Watch this video to find out.
Move over, motorists
Avid bicyclists will tell you that a nice, long ride is an invigorating experience. But sometimes it gets your heart pumping for all the wrong reasons."There's plenty of times when you feel like that car came within inches of you," said Jeff Provisor, who owns Carpentersville's Main Street Bicycles. "Thankfully, knock on wood, I've never come into contact with a car. Motorists feel like it's an entitlement thing, like, 'What are you doing in my lane?'"
To cut down on incidents like these, Illinois lawmakers passed a law this year that will take effect starting Tuesday. Senate Bill 80 provides that motorists must leave at least a three-foot cushion when passing bicyclists on the road.
Bikes, beer and one crazy bike ride
Funky bikes at their best! The Tour de Fat is one of the craziest bike parades in the country. Sponsored by New Belgium Brewery, this event is all about self expression, custom bikes and fun. Nearly 2000 people dressed in costume, paraded through the streets of downdown Ft. Collins.
For Congressman, Life in Bike Lane Comes Naturally
By GREG HITT, Wall Street JournalWASHINGTON -- A little after 6:00 one morning, Earl Blumenauer emerged from his Capitol Hill row house. The temperature hovered near 40 degrees and it was really raining. The Oregon congressman hopped on his rust-colored Trek Portland, an aluminum-frame bicycle with a carbon front fork designed to absorb road shock, and pedaled to his office.
Though he was alone on the road, and despite the downpour, he stopped at every red traffic signal. At one odd-shaped intersection, Mr. Blumenauer mused aloud about all the streets jutting off at odd angles. Perfect for a traffic circle, he suggested.
Later that morning, House Minority Leader John Boehner, the Ohio Republican, was incredulous that anyone had been out in such weather. "Are you out of your mind?" he asked.
Some members of Congress come to Washington and get in the fast lane. The 59-year-old Mr. Blumenauer came to Washington and got in the bike lane. Few members of Congress care more than he does about cranks and sprockets.
Mt. Washington and the Jones Falls Trail
By: Charles Cohen, UrbaniteEven before Jeanette Ezzo has a chance to open her mouth, the birds begin making the case for her. On an early fall morning, they are dive-bombing in the tree tops, making a massive ruckus and helping demonstrate that this patch of woodland is indeed alive.
A Mount Washington resident and the research director for a Takoma Park medical publication firm, Ezzo stands on one side of a fault line that runs through this leafy northwest neighborhood. The city plans to build a bicycle and recreation trail through the mostly unused woods that wrap around the Mt. Washington Pediatric Hospital on Rogers Avenue. A local group calling itself the Mount Washington Green Space Preservation Committee made an eleventh-hour plea to re-route the trail, but other residents have defended the plan, saying that a well-designed trail would give residents safe access to the kind of nature usually found in large parks a good drive away.
Bike racks on buses
From John Porcari
More cars and more highways equals...
In 2006, there were 6 million traffic crashes in the U.S., injuring just under 2.6 million people. In the same year, a crash occurred every 5 seconds, someone sustained a traffic-related injury every 12 seconds, and someone died in a traffic crash every 12 minutes. The Nations urban congestion problem resulted in 4.2 billion hours of travel delay, 2.9 billion gallons of wasted fuel, and a net urban congestion cost of nearly $80 billion, according to a 2007 Texas Transportation Institute report. Today, highway vehicle travel accounts for 81% of total U.S. transportation energy consumption.
Copenhagen: City of Cyclists
Copenhagen: City of Cyclists, Part 1 of 5: Our very first episode of A Billion Bikes, takes us to the Danish city of Copenhagen, which has one of the most advanced urban bicycling communities in the world. A full third of their city workforce commutes by bicycle! This is an excellent 5-part program of weekly episodes. But first, a brief hello from Tour de France champion Floyd Landis, and a fun open.
It's too dangerous for kids to walk to school
...Even though Seminole is Central Florida's most affluent county, thousands of students who are within walking or bicycling distance of their public schools receive government-subsidized bus transportation.
Seminole provides subsidized bus rides to hundreds more students than anywhere else in Central Florida. Even Orange County, which has 100,000 more students than Seminole, has thousands fewer getting subsidized bus transportation.
A Distorted Paradigm: Helmet Legislation Among Youth Detracts from a Comprehensive Attitude Towards Safety
...As H. L. Mencken would say, for every complex problem, there is a solution that is simple, neat, and wrong. This paper contends that helmet legislation as the primary thrust and cornerstone of bicycle safety campaigns among youth is a cookie cutter solution for three primary reasons. First, it misplaces the focus of campaigns and detracts from other safety behaviors. Second, it is an individual-level intervention that ignores a range of societal and structural factors that increase bicycle safety. Finally, it fails to take into account the importance of youth attitudes and social dynamics as important behavioral determinants. The overall effect is a myopic paradigm with which bicycle safety is approached, and this has harmful consequences for the overall aim of campaigns.