Dave Matthews’ Bike Breaks Down, Picked Up By Fan 1
Screen grab from CNN video – Courtesy of CNN Musician Dave Matthews was out for a bike ride on Saturday shortly before his concert in Hershey Pennsylvania, when his back tire popped, leaving him stranded on the side of the road without a cell phone. Emily Kraus had been a Dave Matthews fan since she ...
Citi Bike: A Game Changer For New York City 4
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 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
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
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 ...
Bad Design Leads To Bad (Scofflaw) Behaviour 9
Red bicycle light in Amsterdam – Photo courtesy of Stefan Kuschnigg In Copenhagen, traffic signals along “green wave” routes are timed to provide a constant flow of green lights to bicycles traveling at 20km/hour. Bicyclists who ride at this speed will never hit a red light all the way to the city centre. In the ...
Quote Of The Week: Empty Bike Lane 1
Drivers sitting in gridlocked traffic stare at the “empty” bike lane, because I have already long passed them. Great quote by @pathlesspedaled. (As long as the bike lane isn’t *too* empty of course.) James D. Schwartz is the Editor of The Urban Country and is based in Toronto, Canada. You can contact James at james.schwartz@theurbancountry.com ...
Commuter Bike? Oh Please… 17
Our friend Carlton Reid over at BikeBiz.com posted an article about a high-end carbon fibre “commuter bike” (pictured above). You can put fenders and a rack on a racing bike, but it’s still a racing bike. Lipstick on a pig. This article has been updated from its original version to add additional commentary. People may ...
“Not Much Can Go Wrong With That Bike” 4
Sofia on Daddy’s cargo bike – Photo by James Schwartz / The Urban Country Last night my wife took her car to the grocery store and when she tried to start it again, the battery was dead. I grabbed my cargo bike and went to a nearby mechanic to borrow their mobile booster pack to ...
“Bicycling makes me feel like I’m a part of the city instead of feeling apart from the city" 8
Screenshot from YouTube video by Vancouver Cycle Chic Below is a wonderful video by our friend Chris Bruntlett and the folks over at Vancouver Cycle Chic featuring Vancouver librarian Cecily Walker, as she introduces her city as a great place to live and to get around by bike. Vancouver, as you probably know, rests inside ...