Category: Bicycle Advocacy

Bronze level bicycle-friendly Philadelphia is in the throes of a bike-riders vs. everybody-else controversy.

After two pedestrians were struck and killed by bicycle riders in Philadelphia in October, the police launched a crackdown last month against cyclists on sidewalks as well as those who don't make full stops at stop signs or traffic lights. (As you can see in this video at left, [spoiler alert!] most cars, buses, taxis don't stop either.)

Then, a state legislator introduced a bill — HB 2096 — that would require all bikes in Philadelphia to be registered and be equipped with lights and turn signals. A similar law has been proposed by City Council. There's also a proposal that all bikes have brakes, a law that would target fixies.

The piling on doesn't stop at government …..

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Visitors to the 2010 Winter Olympics based in Vancouver next February should certainly consider riding bicycles as the easiest way to get around town.

Of course, people might want to think twice about riding their bicycles to the mountaintop skiing slopes, but bikes should be an ideal choice for accessing the sports complexes, athlete residences and other Olympic venues in the Vancouver area.

Vancouver is one of North America's most bike-friendly cities with 250 miles of bicycle lanes on city streets. [Interactive bike route planner.]

Some of those routes will be closed or altered during the Olympics because of security around the venues or increased numbers of people on foot. But I agree with the Dutch government that the bicycle will be the best form of transportation during the Winter Games; the Netherlands is sending 450 bikes to Vancouver for use by its citizens and officials …

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Bicycling, recycling, composting all come together at the Pedal Co-op in Philadelphia.

Using bikes, trailers and some muscle, these entrepreneurs have created a business that specializes in low-cost, bike-powered hauling.

Although they provide package and bakery deliveries and intercity moving, I guess you could say their bread-and-butter is composting and recycling ….

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Many bicyclists are seeking to influence a political agreement at the UN Climate Change Conference that begins next week in Copenhagen.

A global bike commute challenge is underway and cyclists are joining climate-change bike rides in selected cities this coming weekend for Ride Planet Earth. Meanwhile, activists in The Bike Bloc Project who are planning to take to the streets in Copenhagen are designing a method of civil disobedience that will use recycled bikes.

Of course those who use their bikes to commute or run errands regularly make a statement about the bicycle as a sustainable form of transportation every day.

Calling attention to the bicycle as a no-emission form of transportation and travel is Ride Planet Earth, a bike tour from Australia to Denmark led by Kim Nguyen. There are a couple of spin-offs of this ride that bicyclists can participate in ….

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Update: Nov. 16 — More than 500 bicyclists showed up to honor David Vincent Sherman on the “Today We Ride for Dave” bike ride around High Point, North Carolina.

Sherman was killed by a hit and run motorist last month. The cyclists in the 25- and 50-mile rides were there to pay tribute to Sherman, bring more awareness that bicyclists have a right to the road, and seek justice. According to WXII website:

“We rode a great deal with Dave,” Don Shaw said. “We could think of no better way to pay tribute to him than have a bike ride and invite hundreds of our closest friends to participate.” …..

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It's a deadly mistake to design streets and roads with only cars in mind, especially as more commuters are turning to walking and bicycling.

That's no surprise to those of us on bikes. But it's always welcome to see groups like the Transportation for America and the Surface Transportation Policy Partnership reach that conclusion in their report issued this week.

In fact, the most dangerous cities for walking in the US are in the South — car-centric areas that have undergone rapid growth in recent decades. The worst cities in the US for walking, based on the report's pedestrian danger index, are the metro areas of Orlando, Tampa, Miami, Jacksonville and Memphis.

Four of those cities that lead the pedestrian danger list are in Florida, a state that always ranks near the top for the rate of bicycling fatalities as well…

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The scales of justice tipped in favor of bicyclists in a Los Angeles County courtroom on Monday.

A jury convicted an LA-area emergency room doctor with a handful of felony counts for slamming on his brakes in front of a pair of cyclists on a hilly road in 2008. His actions sent one bicyclist into the rear window of the doctor's car and another one sprawling to an adjacent sidewalk. Both suffered serious injuries.

The judge ordered Dr. Christopher Thompson held without bail until sentencing.

The doctor was convicted of assault with a deadly weapon, reckless driving causing specified bodily injury, battery with serious bodily injury and mayhem. …

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The Velib bike-sharing program in Paris has caught the attention of many urban transportation planners in the US. Let's hope they don't lose their nerve when they learn about the wanton and wholesale destruction of that Parisian bicycle fleet.

Nearly 8,000 of the Velib bikes, costing $3,500 apiece, have been stolen. Another 8,000 have been damaged to such an extent that they're unusable. That's 80% of the original 20,000 bikes the French put on the streets.

Still, according to a New York Times article, the bike-sharing program is considered a success as 50,000 to 150,000 trips are logged on the bikes everyday. This as 1,500 bikes are repaired a day, some in a workshop that floats up and down the Seine.

Without the commitment of the JCDecaux outdoor advertising agency and the Paris city government …

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