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2010: Year In Review 6

2010: Year In Review
Photo “Heels and Wind Chill –16” courtesy of Mikael Colville-Andersen  To close out 2010, I carried on the annual tradition of compiling a video from the various footage I took on my camera throughout the year. To stay on topic for The Urban Country, this year’s video is less personal/sentimental and more related to bicycling ...

Why Not Aim For Zero Deaths? 11

Why Not Aim For Zero Deaths?
Photo “Pet Peeve” courtesy of Paul Oka A recent Streetsblog article highlights the fact that too many drivers who kill pedestrians and bicyclists are still getting off without charges – despite improvements to laws to hold drivers accountable for their carelessness and negligence. According to the U.S. Department of Transportation, 5,500 people were killed last ...

Berkeley Bicycle Licensing and $220 Fines 4

Berkeley Bicycle Licensing and $220 Fines
Photo “Temporary Imprisonment” by Daniel Miller on Flickr UC Berkeley has been in the spotlight recently for its outrageous fines targeting bicyclists. Students have been written $220 tickets for locking their bicycles to a railing instead of a bicycle rack. Others have been fined $220 for not coming to a complete stop at a stop ...

Thousands of Bicyclists Snub Toronto’s New Mayor 3

Thousands of Bicyclists Snub Toronto’s New Mayor
Photo courtesy of Aviva Cohen for The Urban Country In the face of a new mayor who is intent on removing existing on-street bike lanes in Toronto, more than 19,162 people defy him by riding into downtown core every day. The number comes from an unprecedented study by the City of Toronto to count the ...

Dreaming of Segregated Bicycle Facilities 6

Dreaming of Segregated Bicycle Facilities
Photo by James D. Schwartz / The Urban Country In bike-unfriendly cities all over the world, politicians slap some paint down on the streets to carve out some space for bicycles so they can claim “mission accomplished” – as if painted bike lanes are the “be-all end-all” answer to urban bicycling. Unfortunately, most of these ...

Montreal Bicycle Ridership Up 35-40% 22

Montreal Bicycle Ridership Up 35-40%
Photo courtesy of zmtomako / Flickr A new study finds that bicycling is on the rise in Montreal. In 2010, the city experienced a 35-40% growth in ridership over its 2008 bicycle ridership counts. This is an encouraging sign that the city’s significant infrastructure investments and bike sharing scheme have contributed to an increase in ...

Stifling Urban Bicycling 8

Stifling Urban Bicycling
All photos by James D. Schwartz / The Urban Country This website normally focuses on the positive things happening around the world with respect to improving conditions for urban bicycling. This post however is going to focus on the negative aspects that we see in many North American cities that end up stifling urban bicycling. ...

Dutch Cycle Chic – Toronto Style 40

Dutch Cycle Chic - Toronto Style
All Photos by Aviva Cohen for The Urban Country One evening in early November, I was walking my dog near my home when I encountered a pretty girl on a stunning red Dutch bike. Intrigued, I told her how much I loved her bike and I asked her if she would be interested in doing ...

Don Cherry Rips “Pinko” Bicyclists 12

Don Cherry Rips “Pinko” Bicyclists
File Photo Courtesy of Oldmaison  At Mayor Ford’s inaugural council meeting today, Ford’s “special guest” – legendary “pit bull” Hockey Night in Canada commentator Don Cherry – dropped his gloves and called on “pinko” bicyclists (listen to the audio of Don Cherry’s speech here). “Well I’m wearing pinko (sic) for all the pinkos out there ...

Enough Excuses: Cars Cause Death 25

Photo “WATCH OUT ” courtesy of Kevin Schraer Car-centric societies tend to make excuses to defend a way of life – a life dependent on automobiles. These excuses are disproportionately emphasized in the media and accepted by society. When a tragedy occurs between a motorist and a bicyclist,  the media looks for reasons to explain ...