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Shopping Cart Bicycle Trailers 12

Shopping Cart Bicycle Trailers
Photos by James D. Schwartz / The Urban Country I frequently pass by these homemade shopping cart bicycle trailers here in Toronto. What a great way to recycle old shopping carts, while increasing the load capacity on your bicycle at a very low cost. These particular bike trailers were spotted at Bathurst and Richmond – ...

Bicycle Infrastructure Ignorance 62

Bicycle Infrastructure Ignorance
Photo of Vancouver’s Hornby St Bike Lanes courtesy of Paul Krueger An article in the Toronto Star newspaper yesterday brought to light a plan to bring a modest segregated bicycle network in Toronto’s downtown core. This news would have been significant even with Toronto’s previous mayor, the “bike-friendly” David Miller. What makes this news drastically ...

25% Of Motorists Hate Their Commute 6

25% Of Motorists Hate Their Commute
Malaysian traffic jam. Photo by Malaysia Airlines A Statistics Canada study found that 25% of drivers hate their daily commute to work. With increasing populations in many cities in North America, it’s no wonder motorists are frustrated. But motorists are seemingly better off than transit users. According to the study, 34% of transit users hate ...

You’re Welcome Mr. Motorist 42

You’re Welcome Mr. Motorist
Photo “Going Strong” by Marc van Woudenberg / Amsterdamize  You’re welcome Mr. Motorist. I’m happy that my mode of transportation has allowed more space on the road for you to get to your destination more efficiently. One less car on the road to get in your way and increase congestion, right? It’s my pleasure. It ...

2011: Year of the Rabbit 3

2011: Year of the Rabbit
Photo “Who (Bicycle) Framed Roger Rabbit?” courtesy of John Henderson  Welcome to 2011 – the year of the rabbit (officially beginning on Chinese New Year – February 3rd). Rabbits are born in the years 1927, 1939, 1951, 1963, 1975, 1987, 1999 and 2011, and possess the following personality: People born in the year of the ...

2010: Year In Review 6

2010: Year In Review
Photo “Heels and Wind Chill –16” courtesy of Mikael Colville-Andersen  To close out 2010, I carried on the annual tradition of compiling a video from the various footage I took on my camera throughout the year. To stay on topic for The Urban Country, this year’s video is less personal/sentimental and more related to bicycling ...

Why Not Aim For Zero Deaths? 11

Why Not Aim For Zero Deaths?
Photo “Pet Peeve” courtesy of Paul Oka A recent Streetsblog article highlights the fact that too many drivers who kill pedestrians and bicyclists are still getting off without charges – despite improvements to laws to hold drivers accountable for their carelessness and negligence. According to the U.S. Department of Transportation, 5,500 people were killed last ...

Berkeley Bicycle Licensing and $220 Fines 4

Berkeley Bicycle Licensing and $220 Fines
Photo “Temporary Imprisonment” by Daniel Miller on Flickr UC Berkeley has been in the spotlight recently for its outrageous fines targeting bicyclists. Students have been written $220 tickets for locking their bicycles to a railing instead of a bicycle rack. Others have been fined $220 for not coming to a complete stop at a stop ...

Thousands of Bicyclists Snub Toronto’s New Mayor 3

Thousands of Bicyclists Snub Toronto’s New Mayor
Photo courtesy of Aviva Cohen for The Urban Country In the face of a new mayor who is intent on removing existing on-street bike lanes in Toronto, more than 19,162 people defy him by riding into downtown core every day. The number comes from an unprecedented study by the City of Toronto to count the ...

Dreaming of Segregated Bicycle Facilities 6

Dreaming of Segregated Bicycle Facilities
Photo by James D. Schwartz / The Urban Country In bike-unfriendly cities all over the world, politicians slap some paint down on the streets to carve out some space for bicycles so they can claim “mission accomplished” – as if painted bike lanes are the “be-all end-all” answer to urban bicycling. Unfortunately, most of these ...