Bike Infrastructure ← The Urban Country ← Page 5

Oakville’s Grand Opportunity 1

Sep

2010

Photo “Groningen: Colourful City” courtesy of Akbar Simonse The following is an excerpt from an article I contributed to Oakville.com that discusses using bicycles as transportation in Oakville, Ontario: So how exactly can Oakville improve its current state? The first thing Oakville needs is a master cycling plan. It needs a vision that encompasses active ...

Bike Helmets Not Warranted 34

Sep

2010

Photo Courtesy of Marc van Woudenberg / Amsterdamize The topic of helmets often comes up on The Urban Country. It’s not really a topic we like to waste a lot of time on, because there are so many more important things we can focus on to improve the conditions for bicycles in North America. The ...

China’s Mega 100KM Traffic Jam 17

Aug

2010

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 ...

A Beautiful Morning in Toronto 2

Jun

2010

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, ...

Handicap Bike Parking 14

May

2010

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 ...

Toronto Inches Forward At Record Speed 5

Apr

2010

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 ...

Suburban Bike Infrastructure 1

Mar

2010

Photo by Mark Green / The Urban Country The photo above highlights some new cycling infrastructure that was recently installed in a suburb of Shanghai, China. Our China correspondent Mark Green spotted this segregated bike lane in the Boa Shan District (宝山区) – about 13KM north of Shanghai’s People’s Square (City Centre). It seems that ...

United States Moving Forward After Decades of Neglect 13

Mar

2010

Photo by James D. Schwartz / The Urban Country In an important announcement last week, the United States Department of Transportation (DOT) has said “the establishment of well-connected walking and bicycling networks” will be part of all federal-aid transportation projects. The announcement came out in the form of a Policy Statement that was signed on ...

Biking the Big Apple 17

Mar

2010

Photo by James D. Schwartz / The Urban Country New York City has taken great strides in improving its cycling infrastructure, but it still has its work cut out to change its culture as a pedestrian, subway and car city to becoming a more bike friendly city – and a role model for North America. ...

Bike Lanes Become Election Issue 3

Mar

2010

Photo by James D. Schwartz / The Urban Country It’s refreshing to see the amount of media attention bike lanes have been receiving in this year’s mayoral race in Toronto. Less refreshing however is the deplorable use of the “war on the car” rhetoric. There is no such thing as a war on the car. ...