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

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 ...

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 ...

Stifling Urban Bicycling 8

Stifling Urban Bicycling
All photos by James D. Schwartz / The Urban Country This website normally focuses on the positive things happening around the world with respect to improving conditions for urban bicycling. This post however is going to focus on the negative aspects that we see in many North American cities that end up stifling urban bicycling. ...

Dutch Cycle Chic – Toronto Style 40

Dutch Cycle Chic - Toronto Style
All Photos by Aviva Cohen for The Urban Country One evening in early November, I was walking my dog near my home when I encountered a pretty girl on a stunning red Dutch bike. Intrigued, I told her how much I loved her bike and I asked her if she would be interested in doing ...

Don Cherry Rips “Pinko” Bicyclists 12

Don Cherry Rips “Pinko” Bicyclists
File Photo Courtesy of Oldmaison  At Mayor Ford’s inaugural council meeting today, Ford’s “special guest” – legendary “pit bull” Hockey Night in Canada commentator Don Cherry – dropped his gloves and called on “pinko” bicyclists (listen to the audio of Don Cherry’s speech here). “Well I’m wearing pinko (sic) for all the pinkos out there ...

MTV News Impact – Vicious Cycle 17

Photo courtesy of MTV News Earlier this week, I was invited to participate in the filming of an MTV News’ Impact television special called “Vicious Cycle” – which asked whether Cyclists and Drivers can share the road. The show featured 4 panellists: A bicycle courier, 2 car commuters and a University student bicycle commuter. I ...

Bicycling in the Winter 43

Bicycling in the Winter
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 ...

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 ...

Futile Bicycle Signals 4

Photo by James D. Schwartz / The Urban Country  Toronto loves to take great ideas from cycling cities, and then implement them completely wrong. One good example – bike traffic signals. Cities that are more bicycle-friendly implement bicycle traffic signals to reduce the probability of conflicts between motor vehicles and bicycles. In New York, you ...