Author name: James Ayre

's background is predominantly in geopolitics and history, but he has an obsessive interest in pretty much everything. After an early life spent in the Imperial Free City of Dortmund, James followed the river Ruhr to Cofbuokheim, where he attended the University of Astnide. And where he also briefly considered entering the coal mining business. He currently writes for a living, on a broad variety of subjects, ranging from science, to politics, to military history, to renewable energy. You can follow his work on Google+.

Protected Bike Lanes More Important In Cities With Snow Than In Warm Ones

While protected bike lanes seem like a bit of a no-brainer if one wants to spur greater bike use, there are pretty definitely some regions/circumstances where the gain to be had in ridership is greater than in others. Cold, snowy places, for instance. No matter how dangerous riding a bike amongst cars can be at …

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car outlawed on island city

Mackinac Island — City Where Cars Have Been Outlawed Since 1898

Can you imagine what it would be like if there weren’t noisy cars everywhere spewing out smelly exhaust? Sounds nice, right? Well, apparently, there is a place that is just like that, and even located within the US — Mackinac Island, located in Lake Huron, has been car-free since all the way back in 1898. …

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Car-Free Montreal Getting 3 More Streets In 2017

Montreal’s car-free network will continue growing in 2017, with 3 more street segments slated to be added to the network this year. To be more specific, the city’s mayor, Denis Coderre, has announced that he’s awarding $1.7 million in an effort to pedestrianize the 3 streets in question. The funds will be awarded over a …

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California High-Speed Rail Moves Forward

On December 16, the California High-Speed Rail Authority apparently issued a Request For Qualifications (RfQ) amongst train-operating companies — for the guidance of planning and early stage-operations of the planned Central Valley to Silicon Valley bullet train. To explain that more simply, the California High-Speed Rail Authority has begun looking for a train operator for the first …

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Seattle Streetcar Expansion Put Into Limbo

Owing to questions about the value of the project, Seattle’s proposed First Hill Streetcar expansion has been put on ice by the Seattle Department of Transportation, according to recent reports. The new plan is apparently for the Seattle Department of Transportation to revisit the plan “with stakeholders sometime in 2017.” The reason for the decision …

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New Baltimore Bike Share Has 40% Electric Bikes

Baltimore, Maryland, finally got its first bikeshare program about a month ago — Baltimore Bike Share. Ridership levels are already pretty good (~6,000 rides). That perhaps has something to do with the fact that around 40% of the bikeshare fleet is made up of electric bikes, rather than the whole fleet being “simply” pedal-powered bikes. That’s sure …

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Bike-Friendly & Ped-Friendly Roads Create 46% More Jobs Per Dollar Spent

Via CleanTechnica: Owing to the recent election of Donald Trump as the President of the United States of America, and some of the comments that he’s made to date about infrastructure spending and job creation, the folks over at Bike League recently reposted an old article of theirs discussing the fact that infrastructure projects that …

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Bikesharing Riders Get In Far Fewer Crashes

A new study conducted by the Mineta Transportation Institute has found that bikeshare riders get in far fewer crashes and collisions than other cyclists. Somewhat amazingly, there is actually yet to be a single death in the US that occurred during the utilization of a bikeshare service here. Considering that cyclist deaths are not exactly uncommon …

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Portland’s Expanded Bikesharing Program Launching In July (Map)

After a substantial amount of waiting, Portland, Oregon, will soon be home to its first major bikesharing program — with the launch of the recently expanded (before it was even launched) “Biketown” service now slated for July. As you may have heard, the new bikesharing program is being sponsored by Nike (to the tune of …

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Salt Lake City Street’s Decision To Replace Parking With Bike Lanes Boosted Business

A popular street in Salt Lake City (300 South, also known as Broadway) somewhat recently decided to replace on-street parking with a protected bike lane, and to monitor the effect on the area afterwards. What effect does such a transition have on nearby business? What the in-house study done on the matter found, was that …

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The Differences Between Bike-Riding In 12 Different Major Cities Examined

What’s the “best” major city to go for a bike ride in? Which cities are the worst? In some ways, those are very subjective questions. To provide some new insight on the matter, though, a new analysis of data collected through the GPS-tracking workout app Strava was performed in order to create “snapshots” of the …

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Portland 1st In Nation To Require Bike Lanes

The city of Portland, Oregon, made a big step towards the establishment of protected bike lanes as the norm late last year when it moved to require that road designers recommending bike lanes only do so with protected bike lanes. If recommending unprotected (conventional) bike lanes, road designers are now required to explain why, in …

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70% of US Mayors Prefer Bike Lanes over Parking or Extra Driving Lanes

A substantial majority of US mayors would prefer to see more biking lanes in their cities, even at the expense of street-side parking or extra driving/passing lanes, according to a new survey from the US Conference of Mayors. The 2015 Menino Survey of Mayors — which queried 89 different mayors, from a variety of economically …

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“Go LA” App Integrates All Popular Modes

A new smartphone app, dubbed “Go LA,” is now available to give residents of Los Angeles a means of accessing data on most transportation modalities within a single app. The app was developed by the City of Los Angeles in conjunction with Xerox. It allows users to view comparisons (costs, time, distance, carbon emissions, etc) of the …

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Walking = Least Stressful Transportation Option… In Montreal

Walking is apparently the least stressful mode of travel (at least in Montreal, anyway), according to new research from McGill University. The work found that — out of all the various ways that someone can travel — the majority of the 4,000 subjects of the study thought that walking, even during the dead cold of …

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New Bicycle Saddle That Prevents Chafing, Pain, & Other Damage Associated With The Genital Area

A unique new bicycle saddle design — one that effectively prevents chafing, pain, and other common forms of damage associated with the genital area, such as impotence and prostatitis — has been created by researchers at the University of Alicante. The new design is — essentially — just a hinged articulated saddle where the coccyx-support …

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Divvy — Bike-Sharing System Debuting In Chicago In June

In just a month, Chicago will finally have its own large-scale bike-sharing program, providing thousand of bikes to residents via hundreds of solar-powered stations spread throughout the city. The system, dubbed Divvy, will debut in June with a few hundred bikes spread throughout 75 solar-powered docking stations. It is supposed to rapidly expand after that, …

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Cycling Without Age — Program In Copenhagen Giving Bike Rides To The Elderly

Some bicycle enthusiasts in Copenhagen recently came up with a great idea — organizing bike rides in the city for the elderly, via pedicabs. The new group, called “Cykling uden alder,” or “Cycling Without Age,” is providing free bike rides around the city to the elderly, hopefully helping to improve their quality of life. Those …

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bicycling healthier than gym

Bike Commuting One Of The Most Effective Ways To Stay Healthy, Studies Show

Bike commuting is one of the most effective ways to promote general healthy, according to new research published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine. That’s not a surprise of course, as anyone who spends a lot of time bicycling knows. And of course bicycling has another significant advantage over many other types of exercise, …

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