The sprawling metropolis of Phoenix, Arizona, the sixth largest city in the US, sits at the northeastern edge of the scorching Sonoran desert, and is a poster child for our car-centric development model, with the city and its suburbs stretching for miles across the Salt River Valley. The city, once an agricultural community that cultivated …
According to KUOW.org, Seattle, Washington recently extended light rail service 3.15 miles through two of the city’s most popular neighborhoods. The $1.9 billion project opened Sound Transit stations at Husky Stadium and Capitol Hill in mid-March. The city aspires to add 71,000 new riders to the system by 2030. “No matter how bad the traffic …
According to The Fresno Bee, a Sacramento, California, judge recently denied the efforts of Kings County Board of Supervisors to halt production of a high-speed bullet train from San Francisco to Los Angeles. This is yet another advancement for the project which has been held up in litigation and bureaucracy for the last several years. …
California Judge Rules in Favor of High-Speed Rail Read More »
A company that has been making headlines lately, Eco-Counter, has once again released some intriguing data for cycle enthusiasts. The French firm recently unveiled its “2015 Eco-Counter Worldwide Cycling Index” which details statistics pertaining to the increasing total global bike count. It seems, according to nextcity.org and the company’s approximately 1,500 counters, that Spain is …
Eco-Counter, a French business firm that has installed 12,000 automated people counters worldwide to measure bike and foot traffic, has recorded 3 years worth of data showing the bike ‘population’ growing at a rate that is actually faster than the human population. Peopleforbikes.org recently reported that the ‘global bike count has been rising 5 times …
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 …
Via Gas2: By Jo Borras As you may already know, 2015 is the year of #everydaybiking, and the guys over at People for Bikes came up with a great way to celebrate it — with a question. That question was, on the surface, very simple: What is the #1 city for _____ biking in the …
It is month #6 of an 8-month evaluation and inquiry set on naming the best US city for “everyday biking.” This past month focused on choosing the “#1 kid biking city.” PeopleForBikes is defining “everyday biking” as “casual, utilitarian trips around town.” According to the official results, agreement (on the name) was overwhelming: Included as part of this …
Bicycling is enjoying a renaissance with strong growth worldwide, and certainly notable growth in the US. Things have improved in the 21st century, with more than 1,050 visionary local businesses now included in the “Bicycle Friendly Businesses” program of the League of American Bicyclists. These top bicycle-friendly businesses are located in 47 states and Washington, DC. There are a multitude of reasons for regular …
CicLAvia celebrated their 4th year by taking us on a 10 mile journey spanning Echo Park, downtown LA, and East LA. The first CicLAvia was on 10/10/10, the global day of action against climate change. As always, the weather was perfect and the route was fun. The best thing about CicLAvia is that it gets …
Amsterdam is perhaps the best large city in the world for bicycling and bicyclists. It probably is, but Copenhagen is also always in the running. Furthermore, there are better bicycling cities than Amsterdam in the Netherlands, but they are smaller, so I’m not sure if they are in the same class. Anywho, if you haven’t …
The things we carry on our bicycles: groceries, children, laptops, flowers, large bags, Teddy’s terrier, mulch for the garden — in other words, what don’t we carry on our bicycles? Thanks to a recent consumer test, organized and managed by the Danish Cyclist Federation, not only will we soon know what accessories are reliable and …
The Gas2 repost below features some pretty cool- …errr… hot-looking panties for women cyclists. I’m afraid that the ladies might be pulled over in some places for riding around in public in these things… or is such a use just for the Kickstarter crowdfunding photos? Anyway, these are hot — within just about 5 days, …
Cycling Panties For Women (Crowdfunding Campaign About To Surpass $25,000) Read More »
Vélib, Paris’ groundbreaking bike-sharing program that one could argue is responsible for the boom in 3rd-generation bike-sharing programs in major cities around the world (I would argue that), has now been around for 6 years. (Wow. Time flies….) To commemorate the anniversary, the Vélib team created the wonderful infographic below (h/t The Bike-sharing Blog). Check …
Vélib Celebrates 6-Year Anniversary (Infographic) Read More »
There are over a dozen B-cycle bike-sharing programs across the U.S. Until now, however, membership would just be good for the city in which you signed up. That’s going to change this week. Annual memberships will now be valid in all 15 locations in which B-cycle is located (and, presumably, in any cities where B-cycle …
With Vancouver’s Bike to Work Week coming near, the University of British Columbia has just released a new study that cites bicycle infrastructure as playing an important role in decreasing cycling accidents. The study was published in the American Journal of Public Health. The study analyzed 690 cycling injuries from 2008 to 2009 in the Toronto …
Study Finds Bicycle Infrastructure Reduces Risk of Cycling Injuries Read More »
Following up on my recent post on Boston’s new and highly successful bike-sharing program, Hubway, I thought I’d direct your attention to a great post on Boston University’s news site, BU Today, in which Leslie Friday describes her experience testing out Hubway. Here’s the intro:
If you’ve read many of my posts at all, you know that I love bikes — they are one of the greenest things on the planet, are cheap, are widely available, and are fun and relaxing to ride. You may also know that I lived in the Netherlands for 5 months, perhaps the best country in the world for bicycling.
Streets should be child-friendly, don’t you think? I certainly think so, and so does Sustrans, a sustainable transport charity based in the United Kingdom. Sustrans has launched a competition for primary and secondary school children (7- to 14-year-olds) that has them designing their “dream streets.”
OK, wrapping up this series (until I have another city to write about,.. and I may soon), here are 7 things I loved about living and bicycling in Charlottesville, VA.
An EcoLocalizer reader recently shared a great site of his, Modes of Transportation, that helps you find and compare the percentages of people that use varying modes of transportation to get to work in U.S. cities. That is, you can compare: who walks to work more, residents of New York or San Francisco; who bikes more, …
How Does Your City Compare to Others in Bicycling, Walking and Transit? Read More »
I briefly covered the 2011 North American Handmade Bicycle Show (NAHBS) at the beginning of the month. Now, it is here,.. well, in Austin, Texas. The show is being held from today, February 25, to Sunday. The folks over at BikeRadar are covering the show in-depth and I thought I’d share some tidbits from them. …
Yes, that is the sh**. If you’re facing a lot of snow still or face it again anytime in the future, this pedal-powered snow plow looks like a good way to clear needed areas around your house or along important transportation corridors in your neighborhood. Clean, fun, and cool. This work doesn’t need to be …
The Vauban district is a green, planned community in the city of Freiburg in southern Germany. Construction of this community began in the mid-1990s and opened in 2000. By 2001, it had 2,000 inhabitants living in a greener, more sustainable way. Now, the Vauban district is said to have 5,000 inhabitants and 600 jobs. A …
World-Leading Sustainable Community in Germany: Vauban District Read More »
The Institute for Transportation and Development Policy recently announced the 2011 Sustainable Transport Award winner, which, as you can see, is Guangzhou, China. Its new bus rapid transit (BRT) system, which integrates bike lanes, bike share and metro stations was a big reason why it won. Here’s a statement from Dario Hidalgo, a member of …
2011 Sustainable Transport Award Winner: Guangzhou, China Read More »
Getting oil out of the ground requires water. And as oil supplies are depleted, this process requires more and more water. It turns out that nowadays oil companies are using a TON of water,.. (to access precious oil for our gas-guzzling cars). “Oil companies are grabbing an increasing share of the water in California’s Central …
To share more stories with our wonderful readers, I’ve decided to start doing a weekly “link drop” — in other words, I’ll drop links to great stories we couldn’t cover (plus a little intro). Hope you find this helpful and enjoy it. Studies Show the Connection Between Travel Times to Food Stores and Public Health …
New data out in the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency 2010 Transportation Fact Sheet shows that the number of car-free households in San Francisco has climbed a little bit recently, bringing the percentage of car-free households in this progressive city above 30%. Yes, an increase from 29.8% to 30.3% isn’t huge, but you know how we …
Over 30% of San Francisco Households Now Car-Free Read More »
Bicycling in Washington, D.C., Minneapolis, Chicago, San Francisco, and many other big North American cities has increased a few times over (or more) in the past couple of decades. And with more people cycling, more people get the urge to cycle, especially with health, environmental, and economic problems the way they are these days, so …
