Category: Bicycle Advocacy
Police in White Plains, New York, found an easy way to arrest bike thieves — Set out an unlocked $500 bicycle at a city intersection and just stand back and wait.
And the police didn't have to wait long, as they arrested three suspects in an hour. Maybe a sting like this could work in other cities where cops don't have time to investigate bicycle thefts; they could just stand there and watch them happen.
Ten minutes after setting up the sting, a 23-year-old came along, walked off with the bike, and passed it off to an 18-year-old. …
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2007/03/13/nabbing-bike-thieves-is-too-easy/
Now we've changed to Daylight Savings Time two weeks early. We're back to dark mornings again, although we do get another hour of daylight in the evening.
Tufts University lecturer Michael Downing has said it's not about energy conservation, it's about getting Americans to spend more money shopping. The author of “Spring Forward: the Annual Madness of Daylight Savings Time” says the golf industry predicted a $400 million annual boost in green fees and sales the last time DST was extended.
Haven't I read that bicycling is the new golf? It might follow that what's good for golf is good for cycling. …
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2007/03/12/bicycling-through-daylight-savings-time/
I've seen a couple of odd designs for folding bicycles lately at Bicycle Design, left, and Cyclelicious, right, leading me to wonder who would buy and ride one of these bikes.
Then I saw this item that the Santa Cruz transportation system is offering up to $250 rebates to commuters using folding bikes.
Now there's transit system with its head screwed on straight — using folding bikes as part of an integrated approach to increasing bus ridership and decreasing traffic and air pollution. …
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2007/03/09/santa-cruz-bus-system-rebates-for-folding-bicycles/
One day soon, bicyclists in Livonia will be able to ride on the public streets, even though sidewalks and bike paths might be nearby.
Apparently the Michigan city, located just east of Detroit, has had a law on the books since the early 1980s that made it a misdemeanor to ride a bike on the roadway if there were trails or sidewalks adjacent.
Bicycling advocates in Michigan decided it's long past time to get rid of that bad law and bring the city up-to-date. …
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2007/03/07/cyclists-in-livonia-michigan-welcome-to-the-21st-century/
It took a New Jersey jury about 15 minutes to decide that an 11-year-old girl on rollerblades was not at fault for causing a doctor to crash his bicycle.
You may have heard of the ridiculous lawsuit filed by Dr. Alexander Dlugi, who sued his neighbor because she turned into his path after he rang his bicycle bell and yelled “Watch Out” as he cycled past.
Dlugi, who suffered a broken collarbone, claimed his practice lost money because of his injuries and he sued. His attorney said: “It may seem like an odd thing. But people are responsible for their actions.”
That may be the case, but the seven-person jury didn't agree that the girl — now 15 — was responsible for the accident. …
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2007/03/06/bicycling-doctors-lawsuit-gets-short-deliberation/
Prosecutors in Santa Barbara County, California, apparently agreed to change vehicular manslaughter charges against a truck driver to “trespass by a motor vehicle” so he won't lose his driver's license.
Truck driver Marcos Almaguer was charged in the January 2006 death of UC Santa Barbara triathlete Kendra Payne on a twisting road near Goleta. The Daily Nexus reports Payne was struck on a training ride with a teammate as they rounded a curve.
Payne's death is the impetus behind Assemblyman Pedro Nava introducing Assembly Bill 60, which would require that passing vehicles give bicycles at least three feet of clearance. …
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2007/02/23/deal-making-in-bicycle-fatality-charges/
Have you ever had a bicycle stolen and wondered what happened to it?
I've been lucky, but thousands of other aren't. Some $50 million worth of bicycles are stolen each year.
Justin Jouvenal is one of the unlucky ones. He wrote a fascinating story about his search for his stolen Fuji Touring bicycle in the San Francisco Bay Guardian. His quest is a journey through the city's bicycling underworld. …
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2007/02/14/a-reporter-searches-for-his-stolen-bicycle/
While billionaire Richard Branson pledges $25 million to anyone figures out way to remove a billon tons of CO2 from the atmosphere annually, bicycle maker Dahon is making sure its employees don't leave carbon footprints on the way to work.
Bicycle Retailer reports that one way the California-based foldable bike manufacturer is going carbon-neutral is by offering free bikes to its workers.
It works like this: Any worker who rides a bike to work three times a week gets a free bike, as does as any employee who combines a commute by mass transit and a bike ride. …
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2007/02/12/dahon-pushing-employees-onto-bicycles/
No charges have been filed in the bicycling death of Rachel Giblin, but a story in Wednesday's Charlotte Observer raises some interesting questions — is this a case of unsafe bicycling or unsafe driving?
Rachel, 15, and her brother, Tommy, were riding a tandem bicycle in a paceline with their parents in September's Breakaway to the Beach MS 150 charity bike ride. The bike went down, Rachel was run over by a passing trailer pulled by a pickup truck, and she died soon afterward at the hospital.
Observer reporter Kirsten Valle examined the key question in the case — what made the bike fall — in a story headlined “Family pushed S.C. on cyclist's fatal spill.” …
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2007/02/07/a-fog-shrouds-details-in-south-carolina-bike-fatality/
Do we need another example of a car culture and highway planners run amok? Yes? Jack Painter provides us with one.
Jack is a bicyclist from the St. Louis area who wrote to tell about what happening to his community while the Missouri Department of Transportation rebuilds I-64/US40.
As covered recently in Missouri Bicycle News (“St. Louis area freeway project may lead to serious problems on key bicycles routes”), the MoDOT is shunting traffic onto adjacent roads while it closes the interstate to perform the rebuild.
Local officials plan to repaint narrower lanes on the side roads to handle more traffic, thereby ruining their use as routes for commuting and recreational cyclists …
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2007/02/07/missouri-interstate-highway-project-spells-end-to-bike-routes/
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