New York City has a bike parking problem, but instead of installing boring old bike racks, they’re having a contest to design bike racks that are art.
Transportation commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan says the spiced-up racks go a long way to making bike commuting a little “sexier.” “Bike racks don’t all have to look like they’re handcuffs grabbing onto the concrete,”
Here’s the video from the Wall Street Journal article…
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Lest you think I am the only one doing odd things to my bike so that I can haul heavy bags home from the store, I thought I would show you some places on the web where like minded people hang.
These are some of my favorite sites to look at pics of what other people are doing with their bikes. For example:

and to think I get stares. Ride that one around for a while and see what happens.
See more here at Working Bikes
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have a lot in common.
Utility bicycles are heavy, slow and a bit unwieldy. They are the “work horses” of the cycling world.
Real work horses, draft horses, are heavy, slow, a bit unwieldy when pulling a wagon and they tend to eat a lot.
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Soaring prices at gas pump are changing consumer behavior across the state, motivating Floridians to cut back on fuel consumption to a level never seen since the state began keeping records 35 years ago. (more…)
Clinton Miceli was just beginning a career as an art director for an advertising agency. On June 10, he was commuting home from work when the driver of a Nissan Xterra opened a door in his path. Clinton struck the door and was thrown into the path of an overtaking vehicle and killed.
Stanley Wang was an executive with Comcast Corp. He was weeks from retirement when, on June 12, he struck the suddenly-opened door of a pick-up truck and was thrown into the path of an overtaking car and killed.
Two deaths in two days.
Both of these tragedies were sadly too common, caused by inattentive motorists not looking before opening a door into traffic, and by cyclists trying to stay out of the way of overtaking vehicles.
LCI Bob Bayn said this about as well as it can be said:
Our culture has managed to make cyclists believe that they are an unwelcome impediment in traffic, required by law to keep as far to the right as possible at all times. We really need a public awareness campaign to put the lie to those beliefs.
Sadly, when we examine the statistics, too many cycling crashes are directly or indirectly a result of “staying out of the way.” When we unhitch ourselves from this damaging belief system, cycling becomes safer and less stressful. (more…)
According to T. Boone Pickens, Texas oil-man-extraordinaire, America is facing a true, very real crisis: We must change our approach to both energy and consumption, or we will forever be paying ungodly amounts of money for gasoline and be captive to foreign interests, not our own.
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What does that word mean to you?
I googled it. Got a huge, long list of definitions. This was my favorite:
All the organisms that live in a particular area; an assemblage of populations of different species living close enough together for potential interaction
— Project UFO
Organisms close enough for potential interaction. Ponder that for a moment. (more…)
This one just came through the news feed:
Swedish man wins bike for ‘most ridiculous commute’
STOCKHOLM (AFP) — A man deemed to have the shortest and “most ridiculous commute” in Malmoe has won a bicycle as part of a campaign to reduce car traffic in the southern Swedish city , an organiser said Friday.
“A man called Lasse Jonsson won the contest after his girlfriend Anna Holm signed him up. He drives his car every day less than 200 metres (650 feet) between his home and workplace, and also drives another few hundred metres to lunch,” Sara Forslund told AFP.
Forslund is one of the organisers of Malmoe’s municipal campaign called “No ridiculous car journeys”.
Kinda like the Floridians who drive from one end of a strip mall to the other.
The question is, will he actually ride the bike now?

The Florida Bicycle Association has launched a new website. It is rich with information and resources… (and yes, it was designed by me)
Here are some highlights: (more…)