bicycle

TNO Quality of Life, Leiden, The Netherlands. ingrid.hendriksen@tno.nl

OBJECTIVE: To study the association between commuter cycling and all-cause sickness absence, and the possible dose-response relationship between absenteeism and the distance, frequency and speed of commuter cycling.

Sami recently wrote about the new Sobi bike system; It is a wonderful concept, and very different from bike sharing systems we have seen in Paris, Montreal and other cities. Urban systems like Velib in Paris or Bixi in Montreal are expensive to set up and maintain.

A new campaign calls for transport firms to send their HGV drivers on cycle-awareness courses and fit their vehicles with cameras

The risk to cyclists from large lorries is a problem in all urban areas. Thankfully crashes are rare – on average about eight cyclists per year are killed by lorries in London, accounting for about half the cyclist deaths in the capital. Across the UK, about 28 are killed by lorries each year, with 70% of these in urban areas.

It's here and it's exciting: the new London Barclays Cycle Hire is open for business. Everywhere there are stands of shiny new bicycles just waiting to be ridden. And there are perplexed looking tourists and Londoners wondering how on earth they can get one.

Some cyclists prefer style over safety, including when it comes to safety lighting. Cyglo Tyres appears to offer both, ditching the bulky bulb on the handlebars for LEDs embedded in the tires themselves. When spinning, they form a perfect circle of colored light. The best part is that the lights are powered by the spinning wheel itself. But there seems to be at least one significant design flaw.

IBM (yes, the IBM) recently released a global study of traffic, surveying over 8,000 adult drivers in 20 major cities. Perhaps the results are not that surprising - traffic is perceived by drivers as getting worse in the last three years. Thirty percent of those surveyed felt increased stress while 27% reported increased anger. Twenty nine percent reported that traffic harmed their performance in work or school, and 38% reported having cancelled a planned trip due to anticipated traffic.

London's new bike rental scheme, like Paris's velib scheme before it, may be a huge hit. But there's a young upstart on the block that is looking to offer an alternative to these large-scale schemes—and it says it can make ordinary bike owners some money in the process.

This is the first in a series of ideas for Wellington, which will be mostly bicycle, and public transport related.

Well-designed urban bike paths are a cyclist's dream, making it easy for folks to ditch their cars for a more eco-friendly commute. Sometimes, however, it just doesn't seem worth the effort to build them at all.