The Urban Country Goes to China 2
Photo by James D. Schwartz / The Urban Country (Great Wall of China – 2007) The Urban Country is headed to China for the next three weeks to celebrate our marriage and whatnot. We are on a 13-hour direct flight from Toronto to Shanghai tomorrow and after 4 days in Shanghai we will head south ...
Reasons NOT to Buy an iPad 5
After avoiding all the iPad hype since its release on April 3rd, I felt it necessary to at least comment on the latest iPad “app” (if you can even call it an app). In an effort to find useful real-world applications for the all-new iPad, a company called Maya has developed an application to allow ...
Toronto Inches Forward At Record Speed 5
Photo by James D. Schwartz / The Urban Country This week the beautiful spring weather brought along with it some relatively happy news for cycling advocates in slow-moving Toronto. BIXI bike sharing has being revived, and our first segregated bike lanes will operate on a pilot program this summer on University Avenue. But not everyone ...
Biking it My Way 13
Some time ago, my friend – the filmmaker and fellow cycling advocate – Mike Rubbo asked me if I would like to engage in international collaboration on two videos that highlight women cyclists who – in Mike’s words – choose different bikes for different hikes. So I set out to find a woman who would ...
Toronto Cycle Chic 4
Photo by James D. Schwartz / The Urban Country Toronto saw some amazing weather this past long weekend, and Han and I didn’t waste any time in getting out on our bikes. We took our dog Mojo out to Cherry beach using our bike chariot on Friday, and we rode to Chinatown on Sunday for ...
Suburban Bike Infrastructure 1
Photo by Mark Green / The Urban Country The photo above highlights some new cycling infrastructure that was recently installed in a suburb of Shanghai, China. Our China correspondent Mark Green spotted this segregated bike lane in the Boa Shan District (宝山区) – about 13KM north of Shanghai’s People’s Square (City Centre). It seems that ...
Motorists Love Squirrels 7
Photo courtesy of Libby Telford A BMW driver cruises along a scenic boulevard with his top down while enjoying the beaming sun on a warm beautiful summer afternoon. Out of nowhere, an unrelenting squirrel dashes across the road only metres in front of the shiny black automobile. The driver puts his entire body mass into ...
United States Moving Forward After Decades of Neglect 13
Photo by James D. Schwartz / The Urban Country In an important announcement last week, the United States Department of Transportation (DOT) has said “the establishment of well-connected walking and bicycling networks” will be part of all federal-aid transportation projects. The announcement came out in the form of a Policy Statement that was signed on ...
Biking the Big Apple 17
Photo by James D. Schwartz / The Urban Country New York City has taken great strides in improving its cycling infrastructure, but it still has its work cut out to change its culture as a pedestrian, subway and car city to becoming a more bike friendly city – and a role model for North America. ...
Bike Lanes Become Election Issue 3
Photo by James D. Schwartz / The Urban Country It’s refreshing to see the amount of media attention bike lanes have been receiving in this year’s mayoral race in Toronto. Less refreshing however is the deplorable use of the “war on the car” rhetoric. There is no such thing as a war on the car. ...