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China’s Mega 100KM Traffic Jam 17

Beijing traffic jam photo courtesy of Proggie (this is not the 100KM traffic jam) For several decades, the Chinese managed to transport millions and millions of people efficiently around their cities – primarily by bicycle. There are reportedly 450 million bicycles in China, and the bicycle has served as a great tool historically. Now, enter ...

Car Culture Bleeds Our Society 12

Photo “Toy Cars” courtesy of Andrew Dai In North America, everywhere you look car manufacturers are trying to entice you to buy their brand. Car ads are absolutely everywhere. It’s part of our culture and you can’t avoid it – our society is brainwashed to have an affection for automobiles. As a kid, I distinctly ...

Refusing To Be Herded Like Cattle 2

Photo courtesy of Mully Children’s Family  A good friend of mine bought a thoughtful gift for me for my Champagne Birthday back in June. The book was written by BikeSnobNYC (Eben Weiss) and it provides an amusing and entertaining dissection of the world of cycling. From the back cover: “In this wickedly funny rant and ...

BIXI Coming to Town 5

Image courtesy of toronto.bixi.com  BIXI is coming to Toronto – for real this time. Well, unless it gets cancelled again. But it seems more real this year than last year – for real. I’m proud to say that I am now one of the 1,000 “founding members” of Toronto’s BIXI program. For less than a ...

G20 Healing With Positive Memories 1

All Photos by James D. Schwartz / The Urban Country The outrage over how our government handled the G20 weekend in Toronto in June has begun to subside now that several reviews are under way to investigate how the Police handled the summit. In light of these positive developments, I thought it would be appropriate ...

Protesting Helmet Legislation in Australia 4

Photo courtesy of CycleStyle.com.au This coming Saturday, fellow cycling advocate and renown documentary filmmaker Mike Rubbo will be leading a group of cyclists on a ride in Melbourne Australia to promote bike sharing on Melbourne’s new BIXI system “Melbourne Bike Share”. Mike and his crew will ride in regular clothes to highlight how these urban ...

My Toronto Wish List 6

Earlier this evening I had a conversation with Ward 19 candidate and Rogers Sportsnet host Sean McCormick. He told me about his platform, and I briefly told him what would win over my vote. Unfortunately, it’s not very efficient for Mr. McCormick to have a 30 minute conversation with me about what I would like ...

Making The BIXI Pledge 1

Photo by James D. Schwartz / The Urban Country The City of Toronto originally planned to bring year-round BIXI bicycle sharing to town in 2010 with 3,000 bicycles at 300 stations. It then encountered some funding complications and postponed BIXI Toronto’s inauguration to the spring of 2011 with a reduced fleet of 1,000 bicycles for ...

Pedaling Po-Po 2

All photos by James D. Schwartz / The Urban Country When it comes to cycling, Toronto is not at the world stage. So with the eyes of the world on Toronto this week for the G20 summit of world leaders, Toronto will not be showcasing its cycling culture. But despite this, Toronto is doing something ...

A Beautiful Morning in Toronto 2

All photos by James D. Schwartz / The Urban Country It seems like ages since I posted a “Winter Cycling in Toronto” article featuring me riding my bike on a blistering cold January day. Summer is here now and there are swarms of people riding bikes for transportation now in Toronto. Despite our poor infrastructure, ...