A few weeks ago, I participated in a radio call-in show about urban cycling during which a caller expressed her fear that her adult son was going to be killed on the roads. He is a bicycle commuter who had already been struck by cars twice while riding inside a painted bike lane. I mumbled …
Read more “The folly of paint: Is it time to give up on painted bike lanes completely?”
As cities build bike lanes, they should pay attention to the gaps between them to ensure safe, connected routes.
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 …
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 …
Read more “Four ways New York’s bike renaissance can help fix your city”
There’s something about the simplicity of the bicycle that seems to make everybody want to improve it. Kickstarter is filled with bike ideas, from bizarre bike lights to bizarre bike carriers to bizarre bike blankets (yes, that’s a thing). There’s nothing inherently wrong with this — most industries would kill for this spirit of innovation. …
Read more “If it ain’t broke: Why is everyone trying to fix cycling with gimmicks?”