Why it hurts so deeply when our bikes are stolen or vandalized
Unlike, say, a hammer or a microwave oven, bicycles work themselves into our consciousness more than most of our tools. Perhaps it’s our reliance on them that builds that connection.
Why are we so afraid of letting kids ride bikes when statistics prove their safety?
Is riding a bike too risky for kids? The question nags many parents beyond the typical helicopter-parent anxiety that permeates modern childhood. Cycling has gone from a bedrock part of childhood a few generations ago to something akin to BASE jumping in the eyes of some grownups. Sometimes, even those trying to promote public health …
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Here’s how little connections can make big improvements to bike friendliness
A few weeks ago, I criticized cities for failing to build sensible connections between existing bike lanes. Then I rolled over a relatively new piece of bike infrastructure in my city, and had a bit of a moment. “There,” I thought. “That wasn’t so hard, was it?” Here’s that new piece of infrastructure. https://www.instagram.com/p/BK2ClNDAamW/ (Just …
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Want to build better bike infrastructure? Listen to people riding bikes
Let’s play a little bicycle commuter game. There are two videos below, both of which I shot, very professionally, by holding up my phone while I rode my bicycle to work. These videos were shot on two roads that run parallel to each other one block apart. Here’s the challenge: Guess which road contains bike-specific …
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The folly of paint: Is it time to give up on painted bike lanes completely?
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 …
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Bike-lane gaps are holding back urban cycling, and they may be getting worse
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
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
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: …
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Vehicular cycling is dead, just don’t bury the body yet
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 …
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Four ways New York’s bike renaissance can help fix your city
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 …
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