Safe Left Turns for Bicycles 24
Photo by James D. Schwartz / The Urban Country Left turns are one of the most dangerous manoeuvres to execute on a bicycle in North America. Of course, this doesn’t have to be the case. Many cities have engineered infrastructure to make left turns safe and comfortable for bicyclists. But here in Toronto – and ...
Bicycling in the Winter 43
Photo courtesy of macfred64 In North America, we have a funny tendency to overcomplicate things. Companies search for any opportunity to increase their revenues: they invent new products, improve existing products, and they employ marketing techniques to make you feel like you can’t live without their products. Last winter I posted an article “Pragmatism Eludes ...
Complete Streets in China 3
Photo by James D. Schwartz / The Urban Country When it comes to sharing – the Chinese lead the world. Whether in a restaurant, or on the streets, the Chinese share their resources without the sense of entitlement that we feel here in North America. Perhaps our sense of entitlement comes from a sense of ...
History of Transportation in North America 4
Bike storage in Toronto – circa 1898 – photo courtesy of City of Toronto Archives After watching a 1905 video on “Complete Streets” posted by our friend Herb from iBikeTO.ca, I was intrigued by how transportation in North America has transformed in the past couple centuries. We have gone through several phases in our transportation ...
4-Year-Old Guilty of Negligence on Bicycle 7
Photo courtesy of Michelle Ress (via Flickr) In April 2009, a 4-year-old girl and her friend were racing their bicycles under the supervision of their respective mothers in New York. The children ran into an 87-year-old lady which caused the elderly lady to fall and fracture her hip. She then underwent hip surgery and died ...
Toronto’s New Anti-Bike Mayor 32
Photo of Mayor Rob Ford by Shaun Merritt A man once said, “I can’t support bike lanes. How many people are riding outside today? We don’t live in Florida. We don’t have 12 months a year to ride on the bikes. And what I compare bike lanes to, is swimming with the sharks. Sooner or ...
Australia Cycle Chic Newcomer 20
All photos courtesy of Tara for The Urban Country Bicycling Newcomers is a section on The Urban Country where we profile people who make the switch from other modes of transportation to the efficient, healthy and fun method of bicycling to go about their daily business. Through our Bicycling Newcomers section, I was fortunate enough ...
Swapping Car Ownership For Car-Sharing 11
Photo of 1998 Acura 1.6EL by James D. Schwartz / The Urban Country Most readers on here probably aren’t aware that I own an automobile. I don’t spend a lot of time talking about it, but I’m certainly not ashamed of it. I believe cars serve a useful purpose, but I also think North Americans ...
Interview With Bicycling Newcomer Tom Schwartz 1
Bicycling Newcomers is a section on The Urban Country where we profile people who make the switch from other modes of transportation to the efficient, healthy and fun method of bicycling to go about their daily business. Our latest instalment of Bicycling Newcomers profiles one Tom Schwartz. Tom is a Corrections Officer and commutes on ...
Motorists Against Bicycle Infrastructure 11
Photo courtesy of Alastair Smith After posting an article about the City of Vancouver passing a vote to build a two-way protected bicycle track across downtown I decided to search Twitter to see what people thought of these new bike lanes. One particular tweet caught my eye (and no, it wasn’t because it was tweeted ...