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Safety First

From Pedal Room.

"How the Dutch Got Their Cycle Paths"

 "How did the Dutch get their cycling infrastructure?

This question keeps coming back because it is of course relevant to people who want what the Dutch have. Road building traditions go back a long way and they are influenced by many factors. But the way Dutch streets and roads are built today is largely the result of deliberate political decisions in the 1970s to turn away from the car centric policies of the prosperous post war era. Changed ideas about mobility, safer and more livable cities and about the environment led to a new type of streets in the Netherlands." 

Via Hembrow

Yo, Bike Safety Rap!

Ghostbike

First Bike Pockets Being Painted In Helsinki

It's a good day today. The first Bike Pockets are finally being painted on the streets today. Read and see more here (in Finnish only). Safe Riding!

"Bike Lanes Safer Than Cycling in Streets"

This is interesting, although I personally tend to agree with the differing opinion expressed by the Bicycle Coalition in the end of the article: http://www.baycitizen.org/bikes/story/harvard-study-bike-lanes-safer-cycling/

"A study by the Harvard School of Public Health released this week shows that separated bike lanes are safer for cyclists than mixing with cars in streets, resulting in 28 percent fewer injuries.

The Harvard research was conducted during an eighth-month period in Montreal, a city with a longstanding network of separated bike lanes, and published this week in the journal Injury Prevention.

“These data suggest that the injury risk of bicycling on cycle tracks is less than bicycling in streets,” the study’s authors wrote. “The construction of cycle tracks should not be discouraged.

But there is also some dissention within the ranks of the bicycle coalition itself about separated lanes. Some avid cyclists consider such lanes too confining, and if more ordinary folks start riding bikes in the city, they’re going to get in the way.

“Experienced cyclists like to go fast,” wrote Matt Baume, “and they don't like to swerve around kids and old people and fatties and tourists.”

Bicyclist Going 45 MPH Hits Bear In Boulder Co.

A cyclist in Boulder County was injured after a run-in, literally, with a bear. 

Tim Egan, 53, was riding on Old Stage Road Tuesday afternoon when suddenly a bear appeared in front of him. Egan hit the bear and ended up skidding across the road.

"This bear looked at me with a look of terror on his face and sort of made a noise," said Egan. "I looked at him with a look of terror and we went, 'aaaahhhhh.'"

He cracked some ribs, suffered cuts on his head and had road rash. Egan said he and the bike flipped and flew over the bear, hitting the pavement hard.

The bear ran away after the accident when a deer appeared.

Egan's nephew ran to help the injured cyclist.

"When I tell people, they say 'right, are you kidding me, who hits a bear?'"

Egan estimated he was going about 45 mile per hour at impact. He said the bear was about six feet tall and probably weighed 500 pounds.

His bike was okay so he got back on it and pedaled to the hospital.

Egan said he was relieved his kidneys weren't damaged because he plans to donate one to his sister later this year.

The accident was the second involving a bear and cyclist in Left Hand Canyon in the past two years. A woman in the Boulder Triathlon ran into a bear in the same area last year.

NEWSFLASH!!! San Francisco Bike Messengers Smoke The Chronic While On Duty.

This is certainly the news AND a matter of National Security. Some SF bike messengers apparently smoke the Chronic on their break between the dispatches. How can this be?

Oh my God. Please, do something about this!

EDIT.

Ok, now they did something about it, apparently they deleted the video...