Marauder 2 Lowracer Recumbent

Marauder 2 Lowracer Recumbent from Atomic Zombie on Vimeo.

Copenhagenize.com - Building Better Bicycle Cultures: The Folly of Bicycle Licences

Copenhagenize.com - Building Better Bicycle Cultures: The Folly of Bicycle Licences:

"The Folly of Bicycle Licences

Once in a while the issue of 'bikes should pay' rises to the surface like bubbles of methane in Lake Kivu. In the UK, they're tackling it quite well with the I Pay Road Tax project. Several readers have sent links to Jonathan's post over at BikePortland so I figured I'd do a post about it.

Regarding bike registration in Europe, there are half a billion citizens in the European Union alone. 100 million of them ride a bicycle for transport according to the European Cyclists' Federation. None of them are inconvenienced by bicycle licences, least of all the Netherlands or Denmark - the two countries with most bike usage."

Copenhagenize.com - Building Better Bicycle Cultures: A Walking Helmet is a Good Helmet

Copenhagenize.com - Building Better Bicycle Cultures: A Walking Helmet is a Good Helmet:

"A Walking Helmet is a Good Helmet

At long last logic prevails. A new campaign has hit the streets of Denmark, thanks to the visionaries at The Danish Road Safety Council [Rådet for Større Færdselssikkerhed] and Trygfonden [an insurance company].

Intense promotion of walking helmets for pedestrians has begun. This logic has been sorely missed. These two organisations have happily promoted bike helmets but pedestrians suffer just as many head injuries, if not more."

Copenhagenize.com - Building Better Bicycle Cultures: Driving Without Dying - Helmets for Motorists

Copenhagenize.com - Building Better Bicycle Cultures: Driving Without Dying - Helmets for Motorists:

"Driving Without Dying - Helmets for Motorists

It's no secret that we're big fans of helmet campaigns for motorists. It would do wonders for reducing car traffic and encouraging people to ride bicycles.

We've previously blogged about the first Motoring Helmet, developed in Australia in the late 1980's. Later we covered the Protective Headbands for Motorists developed at the University of Adelaide on the background of an Australian government study that showed that many lives could be saved and serious injuries reduced if car occupants wore helmets or similar devices. We added a blogpost about the headbands here."

Copenhagenize.com - Building Better Bicycle Cultures: Australian Helmet Science - For Motorists

Copenhagenize.com - Building Better Bicycle Cultures: Australian Helmet Science - For Motorists:

"Australian Helmet Science - For Motorists


Since posting about mass-produced motoring helmets and later Protective Helmet-ish headbands for motorists I was curious to learn more about the latter, produced at the University of Adelaide.

It's taken a while but I finally recieved the study done in 2000 at the Road Accident Research Unit at the U of Adelaide, called CR 193: The development of a protective headband for car occupants (Andersen, White, McLean 2000)."

Copenhagenize.com - Building Better Bicycle Cultures: Head Protection for Motorists

Copenhagenize.com - Building Better Bicycle Cultures: Head Protection for Motorists:

"A while back we posted about an Australian 'motoring helmet' designed to protect motorists' heads in car accidents. It was designed in the late 1980's.

"Then we recieved this tip yesterday. Another head protection device for motorists, this one developed at the University of Adelaide, in Australia. A serious product for the serious of protecting motorists from the dangers of driving. Despite airbags and seatbelts, motorists are victims of alarming head injury rates. Here's what the Centre for Automotive Safety Research [CASR] in Australia says:

"The Centre has been evaluating the concept of a protective headband for car occupants. In about 44 percent of cases of occupant head injury, a protective headband, such as the one illustrated, would have provided some benefit. One estimate has put the potential benefit of such a device (in terms of reduced societal Harm) as high as $380 million, compared with $123 million for padding the upper interior of the car. This benefit derives from the fact that in a crash, the head strikes objects other than those that could be padded inside the car."

Copenhagenize.com - Building Better Bicycle Cultures: Cyclists Are Better Shoppers Than Motorists

Copenhagenize.com - Building Better Bicycle Cultures: Cyclists Are Better Shoppers Than Motorists:

"It has come to our attention that in some cities, there is resistance from the community - namely commerce - towards such things as bike lanes and bike infrastructure in general. We see it from time to time in Copenhagen, too.

"Back in the 1960's, a radical idea was born. Pedestrianising the city centre. There was very vocal resistance from the shops. There were even cries of 'we're not Italians! We don't want to walk around the town!' The car was king."

Melbourne City Bicycle Rider - Government Priorities

Melbourne City Bicycle Rider - Government Priorities:

"The City of Melbourne has a clear priority to make the City pedestrian friendly, following the advice of Danish architect Jan Gehl. Wikipedia states that Prof Gehl's 'career has focused on improving the quality of urban life by re-orienting city design towards the pedestrian and cyclist'. The City has embraced his advice in relation to pedestrians and high quality public spaces, by widening footpaths, creating spaces such as the City Square and Federation Square. Space has also been found for trams, with the superstops and by keeping cars out of the tram tracks more effectively. Melbourne is much more enjoyable, livable City now than 20 years ago as a result, and whereas the City used to become empty after business hours, it is now full of people all day and night, all days of the week."

YouTube - Melbourne Bike Share In Trouble?

YouTube - Melbourne Bike Share In Trouble?:

I went to Melbourne to find out how the new Bike share scheme was going, having bought a year's membership.

National Ride2School Day | Childhood obesity On The Rise

But now the poor precious little darlings can't breath without adult supervision. We are making a generation of incompetents.

National Ride2School Day | Childhood obesity On The Rise

"Early this month, and quite suddenly, our roads got busy. The reason was simple: school went back and overnight once-quiet streets were invaded by vast, urgent fleets of cars delivering children to class in the morning and picking them up again in the afternoon.

"This twice-daily school-gate rush hour is now the norm but it wasn't always. Forty years ago 80 per cent of Australian children walked or rode a bike to school, and felt comfortable doing it.

"But in little more than a generation we've seen a precipitous decline so that today it is thought that less than 20 per cent of children get to school under their own steam. All this despite the fact that most kids still live within two kilometres of school: they are not travelling further, just covering the same distance in the back of a car. Sadly, it has become absolutely normal for children to be driven short distances to school, many every day..."

Pedestrians call for cycle ban

SMH Article:

A national pedestrian lobby group has called for cyclists to be banned from all Brisbane footpaths shared with walkers and joggers.
Pedestrian Council of Australia chairman Harold Scruby said pedestrians and cyclists should not be forced to co-exist and instead have designated paths.
On "separated paths", similar to Brisbane's Bicentennial Bikeway, cyclists can only ride on the side designated for bikes, while pedestrians must keep to the opposite side.

Mayor Weiner's First Act Would Abolish Bike Lanes: Gothamist

Mayor Weiner's First Act Would Abolish Bike Lanes: Gothamist: "The Times's thorough, excellent, and infuriating expose on NYC DOT Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan certainly starts off with a bangin' lede, with a surprise cameo from Representative Anthony Weiner! While Weiner has positioned himself as progressive with his aggressive push for health care reform, he also plays well with conservatives because of his staunch support of Israel's occupation of Palestine. And it looks like his position on bike lanes would make him look right at home on the editorial board of the NY Post:"

Plan designates 1,680 miles of interconnected bikeways for Los Angeles

Plan designates 1,680 miles of interconnected bikeways for Los Angeles

Cyclists get nude in Melbourne - Yahoo!7

Cyclists get nude in Melbourne - Yahoo!7: "About 140 cyclists have shown a bit of cheek on the Melbourne leg of the World Naked Bike Ride."

YouTube - FIXING

YouTube - FIXING: "