Follow @theurbancountry on Twitter Find us on Facebook Subscribe to theurbancountry.com via e-mail Subscribe to theurbancountry.com via RSS
Follow @theurbancountry on Twitter Find us on Facebook Subscribe to theurbancountry.com via e-mail Subscribe to theurbancountry.com via RSS

Street Racing & Speeding Is No Accident: The Death of Paul Walker 10

Street Racing & Speeding Is No Accident: The Death of Paul Walker
Paul Walker Crash Site – Photo courtesy of dfirecop Last Saturday at 3:30PM, Fast & Furious star Paul Walker was killed alongside his friend, financial adviser Roger Rodas after a Porsche Carrera GT burst into flames after hitting a lamp post. The loss of two lives is indeed tragic, and my condolences go out to ...

Taming The Beast On Our Streets

Taming The Beast On Our Streets
Toronto crosswalk photo courtesy of Ashley Buxo  My daughter Sofia has been home from daycare for the past couple days with a fever. While walking to the pharmacy this morning, I was crossing a busy downtown street with Sofia in the stroller and my dog in tow. I waited about 20 seconds for a small ...

Dad Arrested For Picking Up Kids At School By Foot 202

Dad Arrested For Picking Up Kids At School By Foot
Screenshot from YouTube video of Jim Howe being arrested for picking up his children on foot A Tennessee father was arrested recently by an overzealous officer for picking his children up at school by foot. The school’s policy is that children can only be picked up by parents driving cars or kids can board a ...

Groningen: The World’s Cycling City 7

Groningen: The World’s Cycling City
Groningen: The World’s Cycling City – Screenshot from Streetfilms film on vimeo Clarence Eckerson Jr. from Streetfilms recently took a trip to Groningen, Netherlands and documented its widespread bicycle culture in a wonderful 15 minute film. Groningen, a city of about 192,000 people has the highest mode share of bicycle users of anywhere in the ...

Quote Of The Week: “Now I Know Why You Ride Your Bike Everywhere” 1

Quote Of The Week: “Now I Know Why You Ride Your Bike Everywhere”
Angry driver photo courtesy of Joseph Mietus  Some friends from out of town were visiting Toronto last weekend for a wedding. At the wedding, one friend said to me: “Now I know why you ride your bike everywhere. If I had to deal with this traffic every day, I would shoot myself” James D. Schwartz ...

Stettler, Alberta Bike Share Program Suspended After Its One Bike Goes Missing 5

Stettler, Alberta Bike Share Program Suspended After Its One Bike Goes Missing
Stettler, Alberta’s bike share program has been suspended after the program’s single bicycle went missing in that town of about 5,700 people. Bike Share Program Director, Harold Bruce spoke to the CBC about the program he founded after returning from a visit to Toronto, where he had thoroughly enjoyed Toronto’s BIXI bike share program. He ...

Car Culture Indoctrination Through Nursery Rhymes 9

Car Culture Indoctrination Through Nursery Rhymes
Driving in my car – YouTube video by Mother Goose Nursery Rhymes  It is difficult in our society for a person of legal driving age to avoid the systematic indoctrination that car culture forces upon us. From car advertisements on television & billboards, to celebrities showing off their fancy wheels, to “auto” sections inside newspapers, ...

Amidst Car Culture, Breaking The Law Is “Ethical” 70

Amidst Car Culture, Breaking The Law Is “Ethical”
Driving at night – Photo by Dennis Wilkinson Here in Canada – and especially in Ontario – you could be cruising along the highway at 125km/h in a maximum 100km/h zone – and many other drivers will still be buzzing past you. Bicycling on an empty sidewalk, or rolling through a red light at an ...

The Art Of Carrying Things By Bike 19

The Art Of Carrying Things By Bike
The Art of Carrying Things by Bike – Screenshot from Vimeo video by Laura J. Lukitsch  Most readers here are aware that I have something of an obsession with carrying large amounts of cargo on my bike. The countless times I have heard people say “you need a car to live” perhaps induces my insatiable ...

Warning: Driving Kills, Maims, Suffocates & Ravages 1

Warning: Driving Kills, Maims, Suffocates & Ravages
Driving warning labels – courtesy of Chris Bruntlett / Hush Magazine  In a recent article in Hush magazine, our friend Chris Bruntlett argues that our addiction to driving can perhaps be overcome by treating driving as the new smoking, or viewing driving as “society’s cancer”. Chris created the above cigarette warning labels for drivers to ...