(Five bicycles locked to bike racks, one bike rack locked to a sign post. Photo credit: Walk Eagle Rock)
Whether you’re going to your favorite restaurant for lunch or to the local grocery store to pick up a few items, bicycling is a great way to get there– especially as the days are getting longer it’s a perfect time to take advantage of the gorgeous weather to hop on a bike…. Read the rest
Floating bicycle roundabout under construction. Photo credit: Jeroen van Lieshout
25% of all trips in the Netherlands are bike, making bicycling a part of everyday life; it’s a trivial activity that the Dutch don’t think twice about. However, the bicycling nation’s latest piece of innovative infrastructure might even amaze a local Dutchman. The municipality of Eindhoven recently constructed a captivating bicycle roundabout to provide safe, convenient passage by bike… and it just so happens to float above motorized traffic!… Read the rest
A pair of bike officers. Photo credit: Director Digital Strategies
Everyone knows bicycling is good for the environment and for one’s health, this is no secret. Even the economic benefits of bicycling are touted these days. However, one benefit of embracing bicycling that is increasingly studied and observed is the positive social impact.
In an interview with OpenFile, police officers revealed that patrolling by bicycle often has advantages over patrolling by car, especially in downtown areas. A Toronto, Canda police officer, Sargent Ferris, shared benefits she has observed while on the force as a part of the bike squad:
[Sergeant Ferris] loves the job because of the interaction with the community…. Read the rest
Time to tune it up, and get rolling! Photo credit: florriebassingbourn
As the bicycle continues to gain popularity in cities around the Bay Area with each passing week, more people are undoubtedly dusting off those old 10-speeds that have just been sitting in the garage for the past decade. It doesn’t take much, so if you’re looking to hop on the bike train, it might be a good time to make sure your bike is up to speed and in shape for riding…. Read the rest
Typical scene in Malmö, Sweden – where bicycling makes up about 30% of all trips. Photo credit: Walk Eagle Rock
As an ever-growing sign that the bicycle is having a revival in mainstream transportation, comes the latest trend of bicycle-related studies gaining popularity in academia. With cities striving to become more bicycle friendly and with forecasts of as many as 25% of all trips by the year 2030, it makes sense to study the bicycle as an utilitarian mode of transportation, as it is in other countries…. Read the rest
Our weekly news & events roundup for Contra Costa County, East Bay & Bay Area for transit, biking and transportation. Get your good reads on!
View the story “This Week’s Headlines in Transportation and Transit: Nov. 12-18, 2011 ” on Storify]… Read the rest
Few things are more heartbreaking than coming back to find your bike is missing. It happens to the best of us, but there are extra precautions we can all take to protect our rides.
1) Lock both the front wheel and the frame.
Do you have a quick release front wheel? Make sure any piece of your bike that could come off is secured to something. If you’ve ever seen an abandoned bike missing its front wheel, or just an abandoned front wheel – it used to belong to someone that should have locked their wheel and frame together…. Read the rest
The only thing more fun than a bike ride is a safe bike ride. Follow these rules from the California Department of Motor Vehicles to make sure you get home safely.
Bicyclists:
Must obey all traffic signals and stop signs.
Are lawfully permitted to ride on certain sections of roadway in rural areas where there is no alternate route.
Must ride in the same direction as other traffic, not against it…. Read the rest
Davis, California is the bike-friendly capital of California, if not the United States. Over 16 percent of people bike to work! Compare that to Richmond’s 0.2%, or even Berkeley’s 8.9%.
Surprisingly, bike-friendly Davis, California has one tenth the traffic fatalities you would except for a city its size.
This week, urban planning blog Planetizen looks at Davis’s success, and digs a little deeper.
Traditionally, there’s a “safety in numbers” theory about bike safety…. Read the rest
The Town of Danville is kicking off the first day of summer – a season synonymous with outdoor recreation – with the new “Share Our Streets” traffic safety campaign.
“Share Our Streets”, a joint effort by the Town’s Transportation and Police Departments, is a new summer-long program targeting the three main groups using area roadways: drivers, bicyclists and pedestrians. The campaign, designed to promote safety among those groups, was developed in an effort to address concerns raised by local residents about the conflicts between the three groups…. Read the rest
