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Dear Vancouver: Riding A Bicycle In Normal Clothes Should Not Be A Defiant Act Of Rebellion 12

Dear Vancouver: Riding A Bicycle In Normal Clothes Should Not Be A Defiant Act Of Rebellion
BIXI bike collage from Montreal, Canada – Photo courtesy of Chris Bruntlett via Instagram  Our friend Chris Bruntlett recently returned to Vancouver from a vacation that included stops in both Toronto and Montreal. In an article in Hush Magazine, Bruntlett elegantly summarizes his travel experiences while lamenting Vancouver’s sport/recreational bicycling culture and British Columbia’s unfortunate ...

Quote Of The Week: Bicyclists Are People 8

Quote Of The Week: Bicyclists Are People
Toronto City Councillor Gord Perks, who was previously thought to be an ally of Toronto bicyclists, isolated most of them by publicly calling them “idiots”: Our quote of the week comes from our friend Duncan Hurd, who responded to Councillor Perk’s comment: We strongly urge Councillor Perks to read our post on bicycle helmets and ...

Invisible Helmet: Great Technology, Bad Marketing 31

Invisible Helmet: Great Technology, Bad Marketing
The Invisible Helmet – Photo from hovding.com For several months now, the “Invisible Helmet” video has been making the rounds. It has been forwarded to me several times and hailed by some friends as “brilliant” and “ingenious”. I have been asked several times what I think of the idea. Sometimes when I am asked certain ...

Streetcar Tracks & Bicycles 33

Streetcar Tracks & Bicycles
Bicycles in Amsterdam – Photo by James Schwartz / The Urban Country (March 2012) On Monday 47-year-old Toronto resident Joseph “Maverick” Mavec died after his bicycle tire jammed in a streetcar track and he fell on his head. This tragic and unfortunate incident has prompted a discussion about navigating a city full of streetcar tracks ...

Mandatory Driving Helmets A “No-Brainer” 25

Mandatory Driving Helmets A “No-Brainer”
Driving helmet photo by Jeffrey Beall The Toronto Sun recently posted an entertaining editorial calling for mandatory bicycle helmets, labelling cyclists who oppose mandatory helmets “stupid, arrogant, self-entitled jerks”. We thought it would be appropriate to swap the word “bicyclist” for “driver” to make the case for mandatory driving helmets: OPINION EDITORIAL Driving helmet law ...

Dear Bicycle Helmet 50

Dear Bicycle Helmet
Duo enjoying life – photo by EcoBicycle via RateMyVelo.com Dear Bicycle Helmet I know it has been a very long time since we went on a  ride together. It may sound cruel, but I honestly don’t miss you at all. I never liked how you messed up my hair on my way to work. It’s ...

81-Year-Old Gene Hackman Hit On His Bike 102

81-Year-Old Gene Hackman Hit On His Bike
Gene Hackman in 1993 (AP Photo/File) On Friday at approximately 3PM, Oscar-award winning actor Gene Hackman was hit by a pickup truck on his bicycle in the Florida Keys. The incident was covered widely by the media which made sure to point out that the 81-year-old Hackman was not wearing a helmet. Though true, this ...

Doctor Busted on a Bike 59

All photos of Dr. Paul Martin provided by Mike Rubbo / Situp-Cycle.com Busted on a Bike is a new series featuring people who have received tickets from law enforcement officers on their bicycles for doing perfectly normal things – like riding a bicycle without a helmet. In an on-going saga, Dr. Paul Martin – a ...

Bike Helmets Not Warranted 34

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 ...

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 ...