bicycle

Plans from employer Royal Mail to reduce the number of workers that use bikes to deliver post has been welcomed by unions but criticised by a cycling campaign group.

Royal Mail confirmed that modernisation proposals, which could see its fleet of 24,000 bikes reduced significantly, were part of a £2 billion modernisation of its entire delivery operation.

However, a spokesman for the employer explained: “It is certainly not a straightforward switch to vans for those postmen and women who currently use bicycles.

Those on the sharp end of cycling injuries want to keep the laws, writes Steve Dow.

A COUPLE of times a month, the neurosurgeon Jeffrey Rosenfeld operates on a cyclist who has suffered a serious head injury. They've almost always been wearing a helmet, removed by paramedics who bring it into the hospital. The helmet is often "crushed and messed up".

There are more cyclists in NYC than ever before, and an increasing number of women using bikes are part of the story. The reasons are many. For one, NYC has added over 200 miles of bike lanes in the last three years making streets safer. Mothers are biking their kids to school and bringing home groceries on the backs of their bikes. More women are commuting to work and enjoying nightlife by bike.

FROCKS on Bikes member Isabella Cawthorn is one of 10 (out of 12) submitters in favour of lowering speed limits along the Golden Mile. She believes it will make the city safer and more cycle-friendly.

“This is the kind of trend that Wellington would be wise to encourage,” she says. “[Cycling] saves money, and that disposable income can be spent in the local economy or saved. A policy that provides for increased urban cycling will be celebrated for generations to come.”

Google the phrase "war on cars" and you will find that across North America, people are using the phrase to defend the happy motorized way of life. As one blog put it:

From the fancy electric YikeBike (also described as a barstool on wheels), to bamboo bikes, Treehugger is used to covering the stranger end of cycle transportation.

I've had a soft spot for Puerto Rico since taking a work trip there four or five years ago.

The Retroreflector Tie by Jasna Sokolovic and Noel O'Connell is a somewhat subtle fashion statement for the safety-minded cyclist. And it is one of thousands of entries in Designboom's Seoul Cycle Design Competition 2010. For this tie, the designers wanted to add something useful to the options on store shelves for reflective clothing for cyclists -- something that was more than just functional. It's a statement many designers are making in a competition sure to add more flare to a functional activity -- getting to work on two wheels.

When the New York Police blamed cyclists for causing 75% of accidents -- without offering supporting data, the organization Right of Way struck back with a report showing only 25% of bikers at fault, and that only on the assumption that the drivers responsible for bicycle fatalities testified fairly, in the absence of the victim's point of view.

European cities, which have been promoting bicycle-sharing programs as a way to cut pollution and ease traffic, have another selling point this week: transit strikes, such as those hitting London and Paris.

When London rolled out Europe's latest bike-sharing program in July, environmental and public-health groups embraced it. Mayor Boris Johnson called it a "revolution in cycling" and said he hoped it would lead to tens of thousands more bike trips in the city every day.