Follow @theurbancountry on Twitter Find us on Facebook Subscribe to theurbancountry.com via e-mail Subscribe to theurbancountry.com via RSS
Follow @theurbancountry on Twitter Find us on Facebook Subscribe to theurbancountry.com via e-mail Subscribe to theurbancountry.com via RSS

Heartbreaking Documentary: Texting While Driving: It Can Wait

Heartbreaking Documentary: Texting While Driving: It Can Wait
Please take 35 minutes out of your day and watch this poignant and heartbreaking film directed by Werner Herzog on texting while driving. The film is powerful, the message is simple: “It can wait”. No text message is more important than the lives of the people we put at risk when we make the decision ...

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: “Pedestrians Begging For Change Fastest People On The Expressway” 4

Quote Of The Week: “Pedestrians Begging For Change Fastest People On The Expressway”
Pedestrian begging for change on Toronto “expressway” – From 416CycleStyle on Instagram Our quote of the week comes from our friend ‘Xander from 416CycleStyle as he was sitting in traffic on an “expressway” in Toronto: “When pedestrians begging for change are the fastest moving people on the expressway you are crazy to do this every ...

End Of Week Wrap-Up & Quote Of The Week 2

End Of Week Wrap-Up & Quote Of The Week
Traffic Jam – Photo courtesy of Nic Sedlock  Although bicycle transportation is often the most reliable and efficient mode of transportation in a city, it doesn’t mean it is perfect 100% of the time. Musician Dave Matthews highlighted this when his bike broke down while out on a ride prior to his concert last Saturday. ...

Guerrilla Bike Infrastructure In Seattle Leads To Permanent Installation 3

Guerrilla Bike Infrastructure In Seattle Leads To Permanent Installation
Photo courtesy of SDOT / Seattle Bike Blog Back in April, a group of anonymous “guerrilla activists” in Seattle installed plastic bollards on a bike lane that traverses underneath an interstate highway. The group who dubs themselves the “Reasonably Polite Seattleites” wanted to show Seattle’s Department of Transportation how easy it is to improve safety ...

Teens On Bicycles Save Kidnapped 5-Year-Old Girl 2

Teens On Bicycles Save Kidnapped 5-Year-Old Girl
Screenshot from CNN video – Courtesy of CNN  Two teenage boys used their bicycles to chase a car that was carrying a kidnapped 5-year-old girl. From CNN: “Two teenage boys are being hailed as heroes after they chased a car carrying a kidnapped girl — on their bicycles. Five-year-old Jocelyn Rojas was playing in her ...

Citi Bike: A Game Changer For New York City 4

Citi Bike: A Game Changer For New York City
Citi Bike station – Photo by James D. Schwartz / The Urban Country In what seemed to happen almost overnight, New York City changed its transportation system as we know it, adding another mode of transportation for citizens and visitors alike to traverse that great city. New York’s bike share system – known as Citi ...

Toronto Flood: Just Another Ordinary Day On A Bicycle 8

Toronto Flood: Just Another Ordinary Day On A Bicycle
Toronto storm photo courtesy of Ann Darby (deftonia11)  On Monday evening, Toronto was hit by a massive storm that resulted in a record 126mm of rainfall. The city experienced massive flooding as a result, causing cars to become submerged, and train passengers forced to swim to safety. The city’s underground subway system was shut down ...

The Slothful Cyclist 4

The Slothful Cyclist
  Our “Urban Bicycling Is For Lazy People” recently garnered the attention of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC). Below is the 3-minute “Slothful Cyclist” radio segment that I recorded in the CBC studios in Toronto for “The 180 with Jim Brown” show on CBC Radio One. * For the record, I have never worn spandex. ...

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 ...