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Wear a Helmet And Get a Cycling Utopia 15

[Photo] This photo of a “frivolous and reckless” Santa Monica cyclist courtesy of Bike by the Sea Shawn Micallef recently wrote an article on the Spacing.ca Toronto blog where he argues that anyone who wants better bicycle infrastructure in Toronto should wear a helmet if they expect to be taken seriously. Micallef claims that anyone ...

Why Do Cyclists Blow Stop Signs? 13

All photos by James D. Schwartz I came across this unique stop sign while walking the dog at the Exhibition grounds here in Toronto. It is a regular stop sign outfitted with a secondary stop sign that reads “CYCLISTS MUST STOP”. The implicit message that I gather from this stop sign is that regular stop ...

Bicycles for Transporting… [fill in the blank] 6

All photos by James D. Schwartz / The Urban Country Earlier this month I posted 30 photos of Utility Cycling in China. That post generated a lot of interest because like me, you are probably intrigued by how the Chinese use their bicycles for practical purposes – like pizza delivery, garbage pickup, cargo shipping, etc. ...

Shanghai Cycle Chic 10

All photos by James D. Schwartz / The Urban Country During my recent trip to China I was fortunate enough to spend a few days in Shanghai. Before I went to China, I promised Mikael Colville-Andersen that I would snap some photos of “Cycle Chic” action while biking around Shanghai. Mikael popularized the term “Cycle ...

Pedaling Haikou City, China 5

Video by James D. Schwartz / The Urban Country Have you ever wondered what it’s like to ride a bike in China? The short film above shows footage of me pedaling around Haikou City yesterday – the capital of the province of Hainan, China. Haikou’s population is somewhere around 1 million people – and I’d ...

Utility Cycling in China 23

All photos by James D. Schwartz / The Urban Country (May 2010) In big Chinese cities – like it or not – bicycles are a vital ingredient to keep the cities moving. From pizza delivery, to painters, to garbage pickup, to cargo shipping, to transporting people – bicycles are everywhere in cities like Shanghai and ...

Handicap Bike Parking 14

Photo by James D. Schwartz / The Urban Country In Shanghai, there are a lot of bikes.. a LOT of bikes. With the high costs of car ownership, heavy pollution and traffic congestion, bikes are still a great alternative and you can quickly get around the city. However, bikes are still generally considered to be ...

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 ...