This combination bike and scooter is nominally the work of fancypants designer Philippe Starck, but that's partly because "everyone in Bordeaux, France" doesn't have as much label cachet. (More than "everyone in Normal, Illinois" or something, but still.) Before Starck got his hands on the brief for the bike, which will be part of Bordeaux's bikeshare system, the city government solicited comments from more than 300 citizens on how their ideal bike would look and function.
French centenarian Robert Marchand (that's not him above, we just didn't have permission to use the Reuters photo) has set a new cycling record: The furthest distance ridden in an hour in the 100-and-over category. Also, the smallest distance. Also, the first hour ride. There's not a lot of competition in this age bracket.
Leave it to the Dutch to figure out how to replace even school buses with a conglomerate of bicycles. The buscycle, used to transport kids to day care, turns elementary schoolers' boundless energy into a source of renewable fuel.
James D. Schwartz of The Urban Country recently calculated that Americans work on average two hours out of every day to pay for their cars. Now he's figured out that a bicycle costs only 3.84 minutes. And that's being conservative, assuming you'll drop $1,500 on a new commuter bike every five years, after which it will have zero value.
Come on, give it a shot. You'll be glad you did. (Photo by Sean Dreilinger.)
As if you needed further proof that the oil-soaked transportation bill now making its way through the U.S. House of Representatives is out of touch with reality, look no further than the just-released 2012 Benchmarking Report from the nonprofit Alliance for Biking and Walking. The report, which culls its numbers from over a dozen government sources and city and state surveys, is chock-full of evidence of the benefits of biking and walking -- and the importance of funding infrastructure to encourage more people-powered transportation.
Nothing says "I love you" like a bicycle that forces you and your partner to cooperate to the point of absurdity, so Instructables user Carlitos has posted specs for a bike modification that places two riders side by side. If you have access to a welder and a good source of junker bike parts, you can make this your weekend project and be done in time for V-Day.
Sometimes France is so fricking enlightened it hurts. Lawmakers recently decided to allow "cyclists in some cities to disregard red lights at certain intersections," Treehugger writes. Paris will be testing the idea at 15 intersections, and Bordeaux, Strasbourg, and Nantes have been running the same experiment for a while. If the pilot goes well, 1,700 Parisian intersections could operate according to these new rules.
The author's son Dean shows off his skills near their home in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Joel Gwadz.)
Mark Twain once wrote, “Get a bicycle. You will not regret it. If you live.”
This is true. Riding a bike is potentially dangerous, particularly in this era of turbo powered autos and text messaging. But if you don’t tangle with the cars, biking is an enriching activity that is not only fun but also good for your health, and in my years as an urban cyclist, I have come to understand the dangers, and avoid them.
Still, I can get anxious about these dangers when riding with my kids. Even as an “alterna-dad,” I still have some qualities of a modern helicopter parent. My wife and I micromanage every second for our sons Dean and Grant, who are 10 and 7 years old, from coaching them on each spoonful of cereal in the morning to an overly involved tuck-in routine at bedtime.
Our family lives in a historic neighborhood of 100-year-old row houses in Washington, D.C., less than two miles from the White House and within earshot of the tiger’s roar at the National Zoo. Quaint as our neighborhood is, our kids do not cross the street without us holding their hands. They do not ride the bus, take the subway, or even walk to the corner store without us.
So it is no shock that our kids do not ride their bikes around the city without us by their side. As we ride I issue instructions with each push of the pedals and each turn of the handlebars. It is like I am the puppet master, controlling my bicycle riding marionettes. I instruct my boys to avoid each obstacle and every potentially dangerous encounter as we roll. But I want to teach my kids how to navigate the urban labyrinth without a parent hovering over them.
Here are some rules I’ve set in an effort to keep my boys safe:
Rep. John Boehner thinks trains and buses are bogus, apparently.
It was apparently not enough to obliterate funding for bike lanes and walking paths and kids trying to get to school. House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) wants to keep our tax dollars from paying for public transit as well.
Earlier this week, Rep. John Mica (R-Fla.) unveiled a draft transportation bill that would cut all designated funding for bike and pedestrian infrastructure, the Safe Routes to School program, and grants that have encouraged “complete streets” projects. Still, it looked like the more egregious provisions would be stripped away as the legislation -- titled “The American Energy & Infrastructure Jobs Act” -- ran through the lawmaking process. And at least the bill maintained the country’s longstanding, if weak, commitment to public transportation.
Then, Wednesday night, Boehner and the leaders of the House Ways and Means Committee proposed killing a longstanding rule that sets aside a portion of the gas tax to fund trains and buses and other public transportation systems.
Listen, anyone can commute on a bike. Only filmmaker Guillaume Blanchet also sleeps, showers, cooks, eats, shops, and dates without getting off his favorite two-wheeled conveyance.
