Bike Lanes – Shifter

The most important things your city can do to make it better for winter cycling

by Tom BabinCities January 24, 2021January 24, 2021Comments are Disabled

We often think of winter cycling as a personal thing, but there’s a lot a city can do to encourage more people to ride a bike year-round. Here are three things that a city can do to make bike commuting and transportation cycling easier in winter. Please subscribe to my YouTube channel. Follow Tom Babin on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram or Medium. …

Urban transportation is being disrupted, but it isn’t big tech that’s doing it

by Tom BabinCities October 31, 2019October 31, 2019Comments are Disabled

The cry went out as soon as the news hit Twitter: “No! Now I’m going to have to buy a second car!” That was the response from a co-worker when the news broke recently that Calgary, where I live, was among the handful of North American cities being abandoned by car-sharing company Car2go. When the …

Why it’s time to stop building painted bike lanes

by Tom BabinCities May 23, 2019May 23, 2019Comments are Disabled

Two thing caught my eye recently and led to the question: do painted bike lanes suck? In fact, the question might go even farther: is a painted bike lane more dangerous than nothing at all? You know what I’m talking about. It’s those bike lanes that are created just with a strip of paint and …

What’s the motivation for whomever put thumbtacks on the bike path?

by Glenn KubishCities August 20, 2018August 20, 2018One Comment

My first thought was not that someone had deliberately sown tacks on the bike lane. It was a Saturday morning a couple of weeks ago. The air was pleasant. We were pedalling down 102 Ave to meet friends from Holland for brunch. A metallic sound, a kind of clank, from the back of Shelagh’s bike …

Finding glimpses of bike-friendliness in your everyday life

by Tom BabinCities August 13, 2018One Comment

Sometimes it can be difficult for us North Americans to truly envision a bike-friendly city. What with our car dominance and the pittances we throw at cycling, breaking the development mould that has dominated for the past half century can be a difficult mental leap. But lately, I’ve been thinking about little spots in every city …

The little compromises that can ruin your bike commute

by Tom BabinCities July 12, 20182 Comments

If you commute by bike, you’ve come across the little compromises. These are the little bits of missing bike infrastructure – a lane that ends prematurely, a painted lane instead of a separated lane, a gap between two bike paths. In many North American cities, these little compromises are everywhere. On their own, they are …

7 ways to choose the right route for your bike commute

by Tom BabinCities June 8, 2018July 5, 201810 Comments

Veteran hard-core commuter cyclists are good at many things. Telling you exactly how much mileage they’ve logged far this year, for example. Clip-clopping in their stiff-soled cycling shoes in places where that is totally inappropriate. And offering the simplest advice to anyone who has ever expressed interest in riding their bike more: “Just get out …

Is Vancouver really as bike friendly as it thinks it is?

by Tom BabinCities August 17, 2017Comments are Disabled

I’ve always been a bit annoyed with the bike-friendly reputation of Vancouver. Yes, it has always had a lot of people on bikes, but for a long time, that came without the installation of much high-quality bike infrastructure. All that has changed in recent years, so I took a trip recently to see if it …

Most of the time I ride a bike, I wear a helmet. But not always. Here’s why.

by Tom BabinBikes, Cities July 19, 2017February 1, 201847 Comments

On my most memorable ride this year, a 70 km highway ride up the highest paved mountain pass in Canada, I wore a helmet. On my recent mountain bike trip into the Rockies of southern B.C. , I wore a helmet. But in my last video, in which I rolled through the streets of Calgary’s …

How one city’s big idea transformed urban cycling all at once

by Tom BabinCities July 13, 20176 Comments

My home city of Calgary made waves last year by installing an entire downtown network of separated bike lanes, all at once. Here’s a spin through the city a year later, to assess its success.