Bike parking app; glow in the dark bike; penny farthing races; Solo cup safety; and more
Seattle:
* An app for Seattle bike parking is coming soon, reports Tekna Design.
The Seattle Department of Transportation currently has 2,230 parking spaces all around Seattle for bicyclists to use and Tekna is working on an iPhone application to help you find them. Tekna Design is creating the Seattle bike rack app in support of Seattle's Bicycle Master Plan to spur greater interest in cycling.
* The Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) reports that there were more bicycle trips in 2012 than the year before. According to the counts up to this point, the total number of bike trips in 2012 has increased 4.6 percent compared to the number of bike trips in 2011. SDOT plans to use this date to help planners in making bicycle travel easier in Seattle.
* Seattle Transit Blog argues that bike share doesn’t (yet) belong in downtown Seattle. “I have a great enthusiasm for bikeshare, and I think it could be very successful in Seattle — if done right,” pens Zach Shaner. “ I am, however, deeply unsettled by some parts of [the Puget Sound Bike Share business plan], in particular its phasing, and the prospect of putting bikeshare users — who, if the project is to succeed, must be drawn from the full spectrum of ages and abilities — on the streets of downtown Seattle with the current bicycle facilities.”
* With over 30,000 bicyclists on Seattle roads daily, it’s amazing to note that 125 years ago there were one third as many. Despite the hills, biking in Seattle has been a frequent mode of transportation for sport, commuting and recreation since the development of our city. The Capitol Hill Times takes a look at the history of bikes in Seattle and the Interlaken Park bicycle route.
*The Seattle Times’ editorial staff believes that the Seattle City Council should approve bike lockers for Metro Transit park-and-ride lots. “There are already 240 lockers in use, but the new ones make a lot more sense,” the Op-Ed states. “Tuesday's proposal is for 68 new lockers. It's another good way of getting more people traveling on two wheels and the bus.”
* The speculation regarding a new launch date for New York City’s Citi Bike program has been high ever since the original July launch date came and went, but Mayor Michael Bloomberg put them to rest last week when he announced that the city’s much anticipated bike-share program won’t launch until next March.
The program, which will be the country's largest, is to be constructed and operated by Portland-based Alta Bicycle Share which has encountered problems with the software.
*Following the whimsical account of a New York Times reporter about learning to ride as an adult, Washington Times’ Laura Sesana and Grist’s Laura Schlaback both gave their accounts of being a novice bike commuter and how biking changed their lives.
* Canada’s Globe and Mail reports that after the death of a Toronto cyclist whose wheel became caught in an unused stretch of streetcar track, City Councillor Denzil Minnan-Wong says the city should consider banning cycling on the quiet, residential street. Cycling advocates and local politicians have called for the city to examine the dangers that streetcar tracks pose to cyclists since the death of Joseph Mavec on Aug. 6.
* Soapbox Cincinnati features a bike-friendly guide for non-bikers on how to share the road.
* Pure Fix Bicycles has released The Kilo: the very first glow in the dark bike to help commuters be seen at night.
While the company claims of The Kilo being the “very first” glow-in-the-dark bikes is false –On One bikes have been producing them for a few years – the bikes are still pretty neat.
* The Associated Press reports that a judge has dismissed Armstrong's case against USADA. A federal judge in Austin, Texas, threw out Lance Armstrong's lawsuit against the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency on Monday, a decision that allows the agency's drug case against the seven-time Tour de France winner to move ahead. Armstrong, who repeatedly has denied doping, claimed in his lawsuit that USADA lacked jurisdiction and its arbitration process violates his constitutional rights. U.S. District Judge Sam Sparks dismissed the lawsuit as speculative.
*Louise MC Grody penned a post for the Bike Alliance about The Value of Playing with Bikes and how riding bikes teaches kids how to play creatively and actively on their own. Biking also helps them learn how to be resourceful, set their own rules, interact with each other, and structure their own play time without any high-tech tools.
* Need some inspiration? Here’s a list of the Top 7 most inspiring bicycle quotes, as collected by Mission Bicycle Company.
* High-Wheelers descended on Frederick, MD, for a penny farthing race.
* China-born artist Zhao Huasen created this fun collection of images where bicyclists float along city streets, pedaling and steering invisible bikes. For the project, entitled ‘Floating’, the artist captured hundreds of cyclists going about their everyday lives and he then digitally removed the bicycles from the images.
* The Solo Cup Bike Lane might start inspiring bike activists everywhere to create their own removable, temporary bike lanes.
Share this post
