Category: Bicycle Advocacy
When the cover of Parade magazine teased a story with “Bike Friendly City,” my wife asked me to guess the city.
I immediately guessed Portland, Oregon. Wrong.
Parade chose Columbia, Missouri, and its bicycling mayor Darwin Hindman, right, as a prime of example of what a city can do to rescue itself from motor vehicle addiction.
It's a good choice. Columbia was one of four US cities in 2005 to be granted $22.5 million in federal funds to become more bicycle- and pedestrian-friendly. The others were Minneapolis, Sheboygan County, Wisconsin, and Marin County, California.
So far, the city has begun installing …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2009/09/27/progress-in-a-bike-friendly-midwestern-city/
My son told me from college earlier this week that some of his buddies saw two guys with a hacksaw trying to steal bikes from a bike rack outside his dorm about noon Sunday.
The guys and gals chased them off and called campus police, who dutifully took a report. All were surprised and amazed by the brazen attempt to steal bikes in broad daylight.
College campuses seem to be frequent targets for bike thieves; lots of bikes left around that are often unlocked or locked with an inexpensive cable lock. At many campuses, bike theft is the most frequent crime reported to police.
Browsing around the Internet, I see that most colleges recommend U-locks over cable locks, which are easily voided by bolt cutters. In fact, the campus police at my son's college sell reduced-rate U-locks to incoming freshmen …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2009/09/24/hoping-that-bike-thieves-take-the-bait/
Later this fall, 24 people will travel to Africa to ride their bikes in Zambia and South Africa to learn more about what World Bicycle Relief can make possible.
The bike tour, which includes pro cycling team manager Johan Bruyneel, also hopes to raise $1 million toward the efforts to provide tens of thousands of bicycles to people in those countries.
The non-profit was founded in 2005 by the SRAM Corporation and Trek Bicycle to get transportation — bicycles — into coastline communities devastated by the Indian Ocean tsunami.
Since then, World Bicycle Relief has expanded its reach to Africa. The group believes that many of the problems on that continent — access to market, education, and health care — are problems of mobility that can be solved by the bicycle. ….
Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2009/09/22/world-bicycle-relief-takes-bike-tour-to-africa/
Update via Virginia Bikes:
“From Andy Clarke (Bikeleague) on the TE vote: 'Phew. Coburn lost but only 39-59.' “
What is John McCain's and Tom Coburn's beef with bicycling?
The two Republican senators from Arizona and Oklahoma have offered amendments that would remove funding for transportation enhancements — such as bike and pedestrian facilities — from the Transportation, Housing and Urban Development (THUD) appropriations bill …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2009/09/16/federal-funding-for-bike-trails-threatenedgood-news-amendments-fail/
Hurray for Washington DC bicyclists taking this stand.
Late in August, Washington DC street crews cut the lock and removed a Ghost Bike that had been posted near Dupont Circle to memorialize the location where a truck struck and killed a young woman on a bicycle about a year earlier.
On Thursday came the response from the bicycling community — a new Ghost Bike chained up at the corner of 20th and R streets along with 21 other Ghost Bikes posted on lamp posts throughout the intersection.
That's one bicycle for every year in the life of Alice Swanson, the crash victim …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2009/09/13/dc-cyclists-dont-move-the-ghost-bike/
Wouldn't you know it. The number of traffic fatalities in the US reached its lowest level in 2008 in nearly 50 years — a nearly 10% drop from the previous year.
But bike advocates can take no joy in these figures. The number of bike riders killed in traffic actually rose to 716 deaths. That's a 2.1% increase, or 15 more fatalities than in 2007.
The increase in the number of bicyclists injured in 2008 is even more startling. The number rose from 43,000 bicyclists injured in 2007 to 52,000 in 2008. That's a 21% increase. Injuries in all other vehicle category dropped in 2008.
The figures were compiled by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration …
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2009/09/01/traffic-fatalities-drop-in-2008-except-for-people-riding-bikes-and-motorcycles/
“I survived six months in Afghanistan and a year in Iraq, many parachute jumps out of airplanes and other adventures and never broken a bone, and it takes a hit-and-run driver to send me to the hospital with a broken bone.”
Pat Rimron telling a Winston-Salem, North Carolina, TV station about his Friday bike ride that ended when he was struck by a hit & run driver. An Army Reservist, Rimron returned to his job as a teacher at Forsyth Country Day School seven months ago after two tours in the Middle East …..
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2009/08/31/bike-quote-war-veteran-is-victim-of-hit-run-driver-at-home/
This guy from Dallas sinks to a new low among motorists who weasel out of taking responsibility for their actions when they strike a bicyclist and drive away.
The 27-year-old driver crossed the centerline, struck the bicyclist head-on, stopped, dragged him off his car and stuffed him onto the floorboard in the back seat.
A police sergeant told the Dallas Morning News:
“In about 20 years of accident investigation, I've never seen anything like that ….
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2009/08/18/hit-and-run-outrage-in-texas/
There's a workshop housed in a church on the west side of Toledo where people inject new life into used, over-used and mis-used bicycles.
It's not just bicycles that are improved here. The children and adults who bring in their bicycles learn new skills, everything from fixing a tire to building a bicycle from the frame up.
Mark Hannon, co-founder of the Toledo City Bicycle Co-op, told the Toledo Blade that bikes arrive in all kinds of conditions:
“Some come in really bad shape. It really is truly amazing that, with relatively simple tools, you take something that was going to end up in somebody's trash and turn it into a working machine.” …
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2009/08/16/bike-co-ops-teach-recycling-instead-of-buying-new/
Bicycle commuters and others interested in non-motorized public transportation got a chance on Tuesday to kick the tires and go for test rides on three bike share systems that may one day be a common sight on Seattle streets.
King County is sponsoring the presentation, which will be repeated in Redmond on Wednesday, to get some feedback about what people like and don't like about the bike share programs and how they could be employed here.
Participating in the all-day display on Westlake Avenue were Bcycle, Bixi and The Bike Share Group (above), which is based in Ballard ….
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2009/08/12/taking-a-look-at-three-bike-share-systems-in-seattle/
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