Bikey news from around the city, country and globe. As always, this is an open thread.
First up: Have you ever been walking down a sidewalk and get stuck behind a couple people moving slowly and taking up the whole width of the walkway? Here’s one solution:
- Vittorio De Sica’s 1948 ‘The Bicycle Thief’: the greatest of all bicycle movies and one of the best movies of any kind. – TUBULOCITY
- BikePortland.org » What comes first; greenways or bridges?
- Not a Sideshow | Bikeyface – Take the lane to stay safe
- The Best Cycling Story of 2011 | The Bicycle Story
- American bikeshare systems more than doubled in 2011 – Greater Greater Washington
- The conservative case for bicycling | Taking the Lane
- bikes plans and broader visions | Cycle Space – Who should be in charge of writing a bike plan?
- Open for Business | Yehuda Moon and the Kickstand Cyclery – It’s back.
Halftime movie break! Beautiful take on LA’s CicLAvia:
CicLAvia Redux, Part 2 from Nicholas Dahmann on Vimeo.
- Central District News – Traffic Circle and Streetside Garden Competition – Neighborhood greenways should hold these!
- Copenhagenize.com – World’s Longest Bicycle Commuter Tunnel Opens
- Copenhagenize.com – A Hub of Copenhagen Cyclists – A list of proposed bike-related “plurals” from a few years ago. Features some great contributions from Seattle’s late Val Kleitz.
- Hark, a vagrant – Good heavens! It’s that awful velocipedestrienne!
- The bold urban future starts now – Salon.com
- BikePortland.org » Beaverton’s cycle track looks great, but doesn’t connect the dots
- Smart Marketing for Sustainable Streets • Why don’t more bike companies do stuff like this…
- SR-520: Before and After Tolling | Sightline Daily
- Ai Weiwei Piles 1,200 Bikes On Top Of Each Other, For Dazzling Effect | Co.Design
- “Playgrounds are an apology for cities no longer tolerant of children.”
- Cycle like the Danes to cut carbon emissions, says study | The Guardian – If every city cycled as much as the Danes, Europe would cut carbon emissions 25 percent.
- Transportation For America » Another Atlanta-area pedestrian suffers similar fate as Raquel Nelson’s son
- Victim says $7k bike ripped off in Capitol Hill burglary | CHS Capitol Hill Seattle
- A List of Don’ts for Women on Bicycles circa 1895 | Brain Pickings
- Spinlister: Peer-To-Peer Bike Sharing Gets Rolling | Co.Exist: World changing ideas and innovation
- 10 bicycling myths debunked | Grist
And, finally, another awesome film about how cool cycling culture in Amsterdam is:
Amsterdam loves bicycles. from PROG21 on Vimeo.
Comments
7 responses to “Bike News Roundup: One way to get slow walkers to move over”
LOL! I’m so gonna try the bike bell trick when I’m walking. Maybe it will work in the hallways here at work too!
Me, too; as far as I’m concerned I’m second fiddle to bipeds when using a sidewalk while perched on two wheels, far more often encounter this problem while walking. It’s all my dad’s fault: “Get cracking, maintain a swingeing pace!”
When I’m on my bike and use my bell, the people on foot either jump right into my path, or more often, don’t hear me at all because of the thingamajigs in their ears. When I’m on foot, I’m the slow one. Either way, I’m not a fan. But then I don’t speak Japanese – maybe that’s the secret.
Haha, it took me about 3/4 of the way through that video to realize the guy wasn’t on a bike.
So when I ride a trail that has blackberry bushes flowing onto my space, I schedule a two hour block of time on a weekend to go back with hedge trimmers, gloves and maybe a paper sack depending on where I can toss those vines. Then I have at it. I’m always amazed at how a few hours here or there, maybe twice a year make my ride that much nicer. Yeah you can complain that the city should get out there and clean it up, but really two hours? You haven’t got that? And even if you have kids, you can bring them along with gloves and clippers and have them work for a bit as well.
Then the next time I ride that bit, I go, ahhhh isn’t nice that I don’t have a flat, or got hit in the face by those dam vines. Knowing that either of those things would take more of my time up for something that I could have fixed with a little elbow grease.
You know auto drivers with those signs along the roadway take ownership for keeping them clean. Bicyclists should too. Where to start? Any trail you ride regularly which could use a bit of TLC. That’s litter picking up, leaf raking, blackberry hacking.
I agree. I haven’t gone so far as the clipper route, but if something non-painful is in the path, I’ll just rip it out. I have an agenda against some weeds on part of my route. So far I am winning since the area is groomed by professionals every now and then as well.
Bummer.