A lot of Torontonians are wondering where they will move after the election in October, as the candidates race to the bottom to outdo each other in slashing services, getting rid of bike lanes, building underground highways that make Boston's Big Dig look small and cheap, and where the formerly leading candidate lost my vote with his rallying cry "Scarborough, not Copenhagen"! (Scarborough is a troubled, car-dominated suburb) That rallying cry was particularly troubling because Toronto could use a little Copenhagen, and even more Jönköping, a Swedish city where Architects We Are You have prepared a wonderful bike-centric plan. Their strategy for the future is to make cycling easy, not driving. They have free bikes, canopied routes for rainy or snowy days, and bike repair stations. They propose lots of public transport, development of residential near where people work,...
News: September 2010
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Sep
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Sep
Designboom has been spoonfeeding out the short list in the Seoul Cycle Design Competition 2010 over the last few weeks. Some have been idiosyncratic and odd, but others, like this Bagbike from Francois Bernard, Sonja Breuninger and Marion Pinaffo makes a lot of sense.The designers write: 'Our cities and awareness have evolved and influenced our behavior, but the urban bicycles have not evolved in the same way, so they no longer correspond exactly to our practice in town. 'Bagbike' is a proposition for what could be a natural evolution of bicycling, improving uses through simple design. One of the city's short trip issues is that we need to carry something with us every time. we all need to carry something during our ride everyday, to go shopping, work or study. but carrying a backpack makes you sweat; leaving your computer in the luggage rack is dangerous, and even a cellphone...
Sep
When you first visit Copenhagen, the first thing you'll notice after being mesmerized by the sheer number of cyclists on the roads is the eclectic kinds of bikes, especially ones that carry groceries, baggage, furniture or other people & children. As Copenhagenize's Mikael Colville-Andersen happily points out: for many in his city, the cargo bike is equivalent to the SUV. Thus, for this final chapter in Streetfilms' 2010 Copenhagen Triology (check here: for previous vids on bicycling & pedestrian space) we present this quirky look at some of the types of wonderful bikes that are used by the public. We randomly spoke to folks gallavanting about town on their vehicles, attended the 2010 Danish Cargo Bike Championships, and got to speak with Hans Fogh, owner of Larry vs.Harry, a cargo bike-making specialty shop. The result here is really just a melody of vignettes, which...
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Sep
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."We are not getting rid of all bicycles and they will remain part of our delivery operation, with decisions taken locally."But cycling campaign group CTC called the decision “illogical and rash” and claimed that the number of bikes used may be slashed to as few as a couple of hundred.Kevin Mayne, CTC chief executive, said: "Postal workers, cyclists and members of the...
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Sep
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". In half of severe brain injury cases there is a poor outcome. Haemorrhaging is bad enough, requiring urgent surgery to relieve the blood clot, but brain swelling is worse, and 70 per cent of patients with swollen brains do poorly. Occasionally, there is death, but much more often there is life-long illness and family distress, including relationship break-ups. "The ones with brain swelling, that's diffuse axonal injury, and that's bad news," says Rosenfeld, who steers the National Trauma Research Institute's...
Sep
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. All the while, these women are getting more exercise and increasing their energy, saving money, protecting the environment, and getting things done more efficiently than before. Yet there still remains a disparity in the numbers of women versus men cyclists. So what's it gonna take to increase NYC's percentage of women riding bikes?Streetfilms went out to talk to a few new-to-the-streets women cyclists and find out what got them cycling, what their biking experience is like and find...
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Sep
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.”The proposal, which will be discussed by the Wellington City Council on Thursday, is part of the “Restoring Wellington’s Golden Mile” project, which included allowing buses to travel through Manners Mall.The proposal recommends lowering the speed limit to 30km/h along the Golden Mile and parts of Willis, Boulcott, Victoria, Taranaki, Dixon and Tory Streets. It also recommends lowering the speed limit on lower Cuba...
Sep
Guidance on implementing slower speed limits:New Zealand case studiesContact us if you have additional information to add to this resourceAll local Councils should now have a Speed Limits Bylaw detailing all of the different speed limits set in their District. This Bylaw usually has a Schedule or Register of the specific locations where each limit has been enacted. Accurate details in this Bylaw are necessary for any speed limits to be enforceable by Police.TypeLocationDetailContactSchool Slow Speed Zones School zonesChristchurchChristchurch has 23 slow speed zones covering 30 schools. These include static signs warning of the pending electronic signs and 40km flashing signs that are activated during school arrival (8.30am-9am) and departure (3.00-3.20pm).Christchurch City...
Sep
Commuter on Victoria St CAN's Annual General Meeting will be held on the Saturday afternoon (30 October 2010) of the CAN Do. The venue will be the Petone Central School, 16 Britannia St, Petone, Lower Hutt. For more details, see the CAN Do page. For your information, here are the minutes from the 2009 CAN AGM. Also, here is a copy of CAN's Rules (aka Constitution). #Agenda Item1Welcome/Apologies/Proxies.2Review of Previous Minutes.3Matters arising.4Office holders' reports:4a Chairperson's report4b Treasurer's report5Election of officers: Chairperson Treasurer Secretary CAN Committee6Notices of motion Motion #1: Membership fees Motion #2: Lifetime membership fees Motion #3: Cycling Conference Funds7Any other business?7a Photo shoot for Liz.8End of meeting. ...
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Sep
Go car free on 22 Sept.In Wellington? Join a grupetto near you on World Car Free Day, Wed 22 Sept.Island Bay and Newtown: from Island Bay shops, outside the video shop at 140 The Parade. Meet at 7.45am. We'll ride The Parade, Luxford St, Rintoul, Riddiford, Adelaide, Basin Reserve, Cambridge Tce, Courtenay Place.8am outside McD's on Riddiford St.Wear something greenMap here: http://tinyurl.com/23gfder11 more grupettos here.Invite your buddies.
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Sep
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:Hiding behind the veil of environmentalism and "sustainability," a small number of activists are having a big influence on tax policy, urban planning, and government regulation with the hope of shifting our society away from the individualism and freedom afforded by the automobile. Yup, that's us, and a whole lot of urban types in a fight with suburban types who we slow down with our streetcars and bike lanes. In Toronto, Rob Ford, the leading candidate for Mayor wants to tear out bike lanes on arterial streets and move them into ravines and hydro rights of way, (few of which take people where they want to go) and he wants to get rid of Toronto's iconic streetcars and replace them with buses.He says that he...
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Sep
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. (Let's not even talk about the 24-carat gold-plated folding bike!) Yet we tend to focus on the future of the bike, not the past. Nevertheless, it's important to honor the heritage of our favorite low-impact mode of transport. And that's where The Great Knutsford Race—a gathering of "penny farthings, hobby horses and bone shakers"—comes in. Held in a town just South of Manchester, England, The Great Knutsford Race happens just once every ten years, and features original and replica Dandy Horse Machines, Bone-Shakers and Penny Farthing Cycles dating from the middle of the 19th Century. It seems popular too. Held last Sunday, the event attracted more than 5000 spectators, as well as competitors from all around the...
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Sep
I've had a soft spot for Puerto Rico since taking a work trip there four or five years ago. I'd heard some negative things about the island, which many people seemed to think of as a third-rate part of the Caribbean, but I found much to enjoy -- the natural beauty of its coastlines and rainforests, the charming and lively capital of San Juan, not to mention the mofongo and the rum. Fending with the traffic, however, was hardly a highlight. "People complain about traffic jams, but they see congestion as a sign of progress," an environmentally minded priest told me at the time. Now it seems that attitude may be changing for the better. San Juan, the oldest planned city in the Americas, is banning cars from large parts of its most historical area, known as the Isleta, and hopes to make the entire area walkable by 2030. It won't be a simple task. Half the island's...
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Sep
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. The design competition is themed around "Cycling with Design: Seoul Style" and is aimed at building a "design oriented city that focuses on its people." The categories include cycle design, fashion and accessories, and cycling infrastructure, and all three with an emphasis on eco-friendly.This tie certainly is multi-functional if someone wants to...
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Sep
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. In a Toronto study, a convalescing bicyclist demonstrated that cyclists cause less than 10% of bike/car accidents. The Berlin study delivers another big surprise -- that blows in the face of common perceptions. So how did a recently released special study of Berlin bicycle safety conclude that almost half of all bike-vehicle accidents and over half of bicyclist fatalities are caused by the bicyclist? Is there any truth to it? And what is the big surprise? The Results of the Bike Safety Study The special study on...
Sep
Cycle Aware Wellington is here.
Sep
Cycle Aware Wellington is here.
Sep
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.London officials are expecting huge demand for its so-called Boris bikes on Tuesday, a spokeswoman for the transport authority said. The agency provides bike-route directions on its web site, but cautions that during the 24-hour transit strike, bikes will be hard to find during peak hours.People can join London's bike-sharing system, which is run by the agency with financial support from financial services...
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Sep
8 Sep 2010 Scotland’s first public bike hire scheme that is backed by the Government was launched in Dumfries yesterday in a bid to mimic the success of similar initiatives across Europe. Under the Bike2Go scheme, 30 bikes have been made available at nine automated docking stations around the town, which users can access on a 24-hour basis by entering a PIN and riding them away. After a faltering start in the 1960s, bicycle-sharing schemes have enjoyed a comeback over the last five years as cities in Europe and North America have developed security systems to prevent bikes being stolen. Around 20,000 bikes are available for hire in Paris following the launch of the Vélib scheme three years ago, while 3000 cyclists had signed up to the London bike hire scheme before its launch on July 30. The Dumfries initiative has been developed as part of the Scottish...