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

Watch For Bikes Initiative 4

Watch For Bikes Initiative
CAA’s “Watch For Bikes”initiative / from CAA handout In lieu of proper bike infrastructure, how can drivers and cyclists better co-exist on our streets? This is a question that is pondered frequently on this website and was the basis for our ‘i share the road’ campaign. An annual initiative called “Watch For Bikes” also attempts ...

Traffic Calming A Waste Of Money? 34

Traffic Calming A Waste Of Money?
Toronto Traffic Calming Photo by Matthew Blackett / Spacing The Canada Safety Council, a self proclaimed “independent, knowledge-based, charitable organization dedicated to the cause of safety” published an article chastising traffic calming measures, calling them “a sheer waste of taxpayers’ money”. Somehow I doubt the person who wrote the article rides a bicycle on our ...

Giant Responds to GM Ad 22

Giant Responds to GM Ad
Giant’s response to GM ad – photo found on reddit.com – view full size Giant Bicycles has responded to GM’s anti-cycling advertisement by coming up with an ad of their own. It reads: “Reality DOES Suck. Luckily bicycles don’t… In fact it’s the best thing you can do to save hundreds… even thousands of dollars ...

GM Pulls Anti-Cycling Ad 18

GM Pulls Anti-Cycling Ad
GM ad provided by BikePortland.org GM faced intense heat from the bicycling advocacy world after the League of American Bicyclists brought attention to a GM ad aiming to sell cars to students. The ad is called “Reality Sucks” and reads “Stop pedaling… start driving” while showing a dorky guy on a bicycle trying to hide ...

Technology Instead of Laws to Improve Safety 29

Technology Instead of Laws to Improve Safety
Google self-driving car on display – photo by Mac Morrison The powerful 2008 documentary film Zeitgeist 2: Addendum suggests that our monetary system based on fractional reserves is the fundamental root cause of all of our social ills in our present day society. Part III of the film focuses on the use of technology to ...

Snow Traffic-Calming Measures 6

Snow Traffic-Calming Measures
Photos by James D. Schwartz / The Urban Country Sometimes the best traffic engineering ideas are the ones that appear naturally. While visiting a client yesterday, I encountered this pile of snow that was blocking the entire right lane of this street (as you can see in the photo above). The only traffic calming measure ...

Billboard Hijacking To Promote Urban Bicycling 6

Billboard Hijacking To Promote Urban Bicycling
All photos courtesy of Dr. Paul Martin and Mike Rubbo After a week of very negative thoughts due to the Brazil Critical Mass mow-down, we are starting this week off in a more positive light thanks to the kind lady who handed out thank you letters and cash to bicyclists here in Toronto last week. ...

Drive Fast 4

Drive Fast
Bolinas Ridge Rd. car commercial photo courtesy of Jim Collier It’s not very often I post other people’s content without adding my own perspective, but I really enjoyed this post entitled “Drive Fast” on Kent’s bike blog: “It’s not very often that I dispense automotive advice. Today, I am. It is Sunday and I’m going ...

Media’s Over-Glamorization of Automobiles 4

Media’s Over-Glamorization of Automobiles
Photo courtesy of  Doug on Flickr The mainstream media in North America has a tendency to over-glamorize automobiles. It’s no wonder, since a significant portion of their advertising revenue comes from automobile companies. As we pointed out last November, the mainstream media also has a tendency to under-glamorize bicycling, leading you to believe that you ...

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 ...