Tom Babin – Page 16

Bike-lane gaps are holding back urban cycling, and they may be getting worse

by Tom BabinCities August 17, 20163 Comments

As cities build bike lanes, they should pay attention to the gaps between them to ensure safe, connected routes.

Tale of Two Cities: Vancouver flourishes as a bike city, while Toronto is mired in yesterday’s battles

by Tom BabinCities July 20, 2016August 16, 2016One Comment

A decade ago, riding a bicycle in Toronto and Vancouver was, in some ways, a similar experience. Two of Canada’s biggest cities, both had dense and walkable urban cores, but little in the way of bike-specific infrastructure, so riding through the city could be a harrowing experience. Both cities had thousands of cyclists who were …

Here’s what happens to your bike ride when thousands of more cars are added to roads

by Tom BabinCities July 13, 20167 Comments

You’ve been there, even if you haven’t consciously been there: Riding your bike down a typical city street feeling squeezed from all sides, unable to see past the next intersection, worried about being doored and generally unwelcome on what should be public space. Why do you feel that way? Because the street looks like this: …

Are our irrational consumer tastes holding us back from more bike-friendly lives?

by Tom BabinBikes July 6, 2016July 6, 20167 Comments

Several years ago, Zak Pashak was in the market for a new bike. Not an expensive carbon-fibre race machine, or a $10,000 status symbol. He just wanted a simple, practical bike that wouldn’t require a lot of maintenance, time or money. But he was quickly turned off by the athletic focus of the bike shops …

How to pass a bike in a car without killing anyone (or being a dick)

by Tom BabinBikes June 29, 2016February 1, 201830 Comments

Some things about driving a car are difficult. Doing a 180-degree e-brake slide into a parking space, for example. Or that famous kickflip in the James Bond movie The Man With the Golden Gun, which was so difficult nobody even attempted to replicate it for 40 years. Another thing that’s difficult, apparently, is passing a …

Vehicular cycling is dead, just don’t bury the body yet

by Tom BabinBikes June 22, 2016February 1, 201830 Comments

The biggest argument in urban cycling of the last 20 years is pretty much settled. So why are we still arguing about it? After last week’s post about the ways Montreal managed to become one of the continent’s most bike-friendly cities, that old saw fired up again. Much of the commentary focused on the perceived shortfalls and benefits of vehicular …

Here’s what happened when one city rejected vehicular cycling

by Tom BabinCities June 15, 2016February 1, 201861 Comments

In the 1970s, an American named John Forester came up with an idea for keeping cyclists safe while riding on busy roads. The idea was that bicycles should be piloted, and be treated, like motor vehicles — riding alongside moving cars, using hand signals and crossing traffic for left-hand turns. The idea, which he called …

Four ways New York’s bike renaissance can help fix your city

by Tom BabinCities June 8, 2016June 8, 2016One Comment

Streetfight: Handbook for an Urban Revolution, the new book by Janette Sadik-Khan, offers insight into how the former traffic commissioner of New York City overcame decades of planning inertia to put the city on a path to a more human-centred transportation network by improving walking, cycling and public transit. While some of her experiences are …

Can a cargo bike pass the ultimate test of suburban life: A trip to Costco?

by Tom BabinBikes June 1, 2016January 15, 20189 Comments

The bag of chips, inhumanely large, groaned under the strain when I heard the passerby say it: “Now that,” she said, “is the kind of bike you need for Costco.” Mercifully, the bag didn’t explode and send a thousand kilograms of quinoa- and chia-infused tortilla skyward, but instead settled nicely into the saddle bags of …