Thursday - Bike News From Other Cities

posted by Joe on 9/14/2006 | 0 Comments |

Portland, OR
PSU Engineer wants to understand why you ride
A Ph.d candidate at Portland State University is interested in using computer modelling to attempt to explain why Portland has been so successful in promoting alternative means of transportation: “It’s sort of like Sim City (a popular computer game) in that it can be used for cultural modeling. I’m interested in how the idea to use bicycles and other modes spreads through a community.”

London, UK
Reinvent the bike shed
Bike theft is a big problem "across the pond" too, with an average of 62 bikes being stolen in London every day. A competition recently took place to allow people to re-imagine bicycle storage, with cool ideas like a Bike Tree, a Bike Tower and a BikePod (which looks similar to Toronto's bikelockers).

Shropshire, UK
Judge fines cyclist for using road
This lends some credence to the "ghetto-ization" effects of bikelanes put forth by cyclists who are anti-bikelane. What if bikelanes and paths become the only places bikes are allowed?

Charleston, SC
Charleston sees rise in Bike Sales
A bit more evidence of more cyclists on the road with higher gas prices - a 20x increase in hybrid bike sales between 2004-2005.

Tokyo & Osaka, Japan
The Bicycle in Japan - Photo Essay
In Japan, the bicycle is as ordinary as the dawn: almost everybody rides in every weather, from bank presidents to housewives with a kid or two, in ordinary clothes on bikes that epitomize ordinariness... The bicycle is everywhere: sidewalks, streets, in hallways, in front of markets, inside malls, on special bikepaths, arrayed in rows by the tiny city apartments that line the cozy city alleys, left at random in odd nooks of the complex cities and calm towns of that island nation. Day and night, everywhere you go, the bicycle is there.

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