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Technology Instead of Laws to Improve Safety 29

Technology Instead of Laws to Improve Safety
Google self-driving car on display – photo by Mac Morrison The powerful 2008 documentary film Zeitgeist 2: Addendum suggests that our monetary system based on fractional reserves is the fundamental root cause of all of our social ills in our present day society. Part III of the film focuses on the use of technology to ...

Making Sure Nobody Walks or Bikes 30

Making Sure Nobody Walks or Bikes
Photo courtesy of Who Killed the Electric Car I spotted this billboard while watching Who Killed the Electric Car the other day. I couldn’t find a better quality photo of it, so I captured a screenshot from the movie. The tongue-in-cheek billboard reads “Making sure nobody walks in L.A.”. Although catchy and probably effective for ...

We Are Addicted To Automobiles 18

We Are Addicted To Automobiles
Photo of a traffic jam by buzrael / Flickr In the Twelve Steps to recovery from alcoholism – first published in 1939 in Alcoholics Anonymous: The Story of How More Than One Hundred Men Have Recovered From Alcoholism – the first step is defined as: “We admitted we were powerless over alcohol – that our ...

Americans Work 2 Hours Each Day To Pay For Their Cars 46

Americans Work 2 Hours Each Day To Pay For Their Cars
Cars & cycle path in Montreal, Quebec – April 2011 – James Schwartz / The Urban Country Imagine you could work 500 hours less every year. That works out to be an extra 12.5 weeks of vacation. Alternatively, imagine you got paid for an extra 500 hours of work each year, without having to work ...

Responsibility & Accountability On Our Streets 33

Responsibility & Accountability On Our Streets
Photo courtesy of Jorge / via RateMyVelo.com We spend a lot of time on here talking about improving bicycle infrastructure. Yes, bicycle infrastructure is important to help make bicycling in car-dominated cities more comfortable for people on bicycles. But one issue that gets lost in the push for better infrastructure is the discussion of responsibility ...

The World Has Changed. So Can You. 27

The World Has Changed. So Can You.
“The world has changed. You can too” – World Wildlife Foundation commercial. I love this brilliant commercial. It highlights how drastically our society has changed in just 50 years. What was once considered the “norm” is now incomprehensible and even repulsive to our present day society. It prompts one to imagine what the same video ...

Snow Traffic-Calming Measures 6

Snow Traffic-Calming Measures
Photos by James D. Schwartz / The Urban Country Sometimes the best traffic engineering ideas are the ones that appear naturally. While visiting a client yesterday, I encountered this pile of snow that was blocking the entire right lane of this street (as you can see in the photo above). The only traffic calming measure ...

Billboard Hijacking To Promote Urban Bicycling 6

Billboard Hijacking To Promote Urban Bicycling
All photos courtesy of Dr. Paul Martin and Mike Rubbo After a week of very negative thoughts due to the Brazil Critical Mass mow-down, we are starting this week off in a more positive light thanks to the kind lady who handed out thank you letters and cash to bicyclists here in Toronto last week. ...

Sympathizing Road Rage 17

Sympathizing Road Rage
Photo courtesy of Spanish Flea  Friday’s extreme road rage incident in Brazil where a motorist plowed through dozens of bicyclists has revealed something about our society. Something that we already knew, but seems to be hitting epic levels. Motorists are angry. They are frustrated with being stuck in traffic while reminiscing on the “old days” ...

Critical Mass Carnage (GRAPHIC VIDEOS) 133

Critical Mass Carnage (GRAPHIC VIDEOS)
Screenshot from the aftermath (see embedded videos below) UPDATE (April 20th): Brazil Critical Mass Update – Interview With Ricardo Neis On Friday night an angry motorist mowed down a group of about 150 people on bicycles riding for Critical Mass in Porto Alegre, Brazil. The motorist accelerated his vehicle directly through the group of riders, ...