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Rural Bike Infrastructure in the Netherlands 23

Rural Bike Infrastructure in the Netherlands
Bicycle traffic signal in Amsterdam – Photo by James Schwartz / The Urban Country It is 1:00PM and the train is stopped at a station in a northern Belgian town. The train will be leaving one minute later than its scheduled departure time so that the passengers can have a minute of silence to pay ...

Bicycle Transportation Should Be Taken Seriously 26

Bicycle Transportation Should Be Taken Seriously
“Beautyful Amsterdam” – Photo by Michael Stallmeister via RateMyVelo.com Bicycles are a serious mode of transportation. It is about time we treat them as such instead of treating bicycling as a hobby, a sport, or a mode of transport for the working poor and students. Bicycles are an often overlooked mode of transport that with ...

Democracy Is Good, But… 43

Democracy Is Good, But…
Traffic signs in China – Photo by James Schwartz / The Urban Country Winston Churchill once said that it has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all the others that have been tried. Like all other good things, democracy certainly has its flaws. In North American democracy, transportation policy often ...

Toronto’s Urban Repair Squad Strikes Again 12

Toronto’s Urban Repair Squad Strikes Again
Guerrilla bike lane – photo by James Schwartz / The Urban Country At approximately 10AM this morning, Toronto’s Guerrilla bicycling advocates – the Urban Repair Squad – re-painted the intersection at Dundas and Sterling, the location where cyclist Jenna Morrison was run over by a truck and killed last month. Bike lanes were painted on ...

Trashy Bike Lane 55

Trashy Bike Lane
Photo of garbage bike lane by James Schwartz / The Urban Country On the morning of November 7th, a pregnant woman was killed by the back wheels of a truck in Toronto while riding her bike to pick up her son at school. As a result of Jenna Morrison’s tragic and avoidable death, various cycling ...

Long 6-Month Winter Comfortably Above 0C 24

Long 6-Month Winter Comfortably Above 0C
Photo of Vancouver Hornby separated bike lanes by Paul Krueger In an opinion piece posted on straight.com (Vancouver’s Online Source) an ignorant political candidate named Ken Charko has proposed to make Vancouver’s bike lanes seasonal and turning them into metered parking for the “winter”. Defining “winter”, Charko proposes closing the bike lanes down from October ...

Complete Streets in Amsterdam 12

Complete Streets in Amsterdam
Photo Courtesy of Google Maps Street View (© Copyright) The claim that no North American city could ever be Amsterdam is certainly true when it comes to history and architecture. But there is scant reasoning to conclude that North American cities couldn’t build Complete Streets modelled after Amsterdam. Amsterdam Complete Streets are technically feasible in ...

Bicycle Infrastructure in Unexpected Places 16

Bicycle Infrastructure in Unexpected Places
Photo by James D. Schwartz / The Urban Country On the weekend we rented a car and drove to Niagara to visit family and have fun in Niagara Falls while Grandma babysat the little one for us. En route to the Falls while driving through Niagara “wine country” I was pleasantly surprised to encounter a ...

Friday Fun: The Future Of Toronto 16

Friday Fun: The Future Of Toronto
Photo by James D. Schwartz / The Urban Country Toronto City Council voted this week to rip out 3 existing bike lanes in the city – an unprecedented measure that may compromise Toronto’s world renown designation as “the best place to ride a bicycle in Toronto”. In return for the removal of the bike lanes, ...

Toronto’s Fragmented Bicycle Network 14

Toronto’s Fragmented Bicycle Network
Toronto’s fragmented bicycle network (PDF download) by The Urban Country Toronto is not unlike the vast majority of cities in North America, UK, and Australia when it comes to bicycle infrastructure. Progressive politicians often aim high, but are often met with resistance by motorists and businesses when building bike infrastructure. Populist politicians pretend they are ...