In Madrid last week, up to 3,000 cyclists slowed traffic to a grind in a few of the car-clogged central arteries of the capital city, but according to this blog, riders "made friends with drivers and pedestrians." Meanwhile, In Los Angeles, a Streetsblog report and YouTube clip shows at least one bike rider during a Critical Mass last week purposefully kicked or tripped by police standing by.
Wanna see a slice of the glorious NYC bike month that was? There were dozens of great May events from Bike to Work Day in the Bronx to the David Bowie Dance Ride in Manhattan to Bike to School Day at MS51 in Brooklyn. Of course we couldn't get to all of them, but we managed to drop by quite a few extravaganzas.
Nearly 30 parking spaces along Masterton's busiest stretch of road are about to be rubbed out to make way for cycle lanes.
The new lanes, running on both sides of the street between the town's northern and southern roundabouts, have just been signed off by the Masterton District Council. They will go in next month as part of a $200,000 Masterton cycling initiative by the New Zealand Transport Authority.
Today Brooklyn’s William Alexander School MS 51 was the first school in the five boroughs to host a Bike to School Day. MS 51 celebrated Bike to School Day with the help of the New York City Department of Transportation, Bike New York and Matthew Modine's Bicycle for a Day. Throughout the week Bike New York held workshops to educate the students about bike safety and riding techniques to prepare for this day.
Here Mikael Colville-Andersen (author of Copenhagenize.com and Copenhagen Cycle Chic) talks about cycling and its infrastructure in Copenhagen, Denmark. Among other things he explains how the city got to the point of having 37% of trips made by bicycle, and how the city features a "green wave" for a certain bike lane - travelling at 20km/h a cyclist will get green lights all the way into the city.
San Jose, California, recently joined cities around the world in promoting car-free streets by hosting its first ciclovía, the Mattson Technology ViaVelo, which opened a portion of San Fernando Street in downtown to pedestrians, bicycle riders, and skaters. San Jose's first foray into ciclovía events was a hit with sponsors, elected officials and the throngs of people who showed up to enjoy the day.
Download here (PDF 1.6MB)
Cars promise mobility, and in a largely rural setting they provide it. But in an urbanizing world, where more than half of us live in cities, there is an inherent conflict between the automobile and the city. After a point, as their numbers multiply, automobiles provide not mobility but immobility, as well as increased air pollution and the health problems that come with it.
An inner city regional bicycle network would deliver at least $506 million - or $3.88 for every dollar spent - in net economic benefits over 30 years, according to a major new study.
The City of Sydney commissioned study by AECOM* found the network would reduce Sydney's traffic congestion by 4.3 million car trips a year.
Do you want more proof that encouraging car use in a city is only going to lead you to traffic hell? Take a look at Sao Paulo: the city of ridiculous car jams, where there are more privately held helicopters than anywhere else in the world.