Columbus Rides Bikes!

On the Indianapolis Cultural Trail. Sorry, I don't have time to use the car to get there. That'd take too long — I'd better bike instead. No, I don't mean "biking saves you money and time is money." I mean biking actually saves you  time. No, I don't just mean during rush hour. Sure, everybody knows that in a city during rush hour, bicycles  usually   travel   faster   than   cars . No, I mean biking is  always  more time-efficient than driving. In fact, a  study  released last year found that riding a bicycle transports you from place to place  instantaneously . As in, it takes  no time at all . Stay with me. [Keep reading at People For Bikes]

It’s a common argument when a city wants to  take away space for cars : “This isn’t Amsterdam.” But guess what, Amsterdam—where  half the traffic movement in the city center is by bike —wasn’t always Amsterdam, either. The image above serves as proof that better street design can improve daily life, not just for people on bikes, but for all residents. Once upon a time, Amsterdam was just like every other city in the middle of the 20th century: planning for cars, paving parking lots, and proposing urban freeways. Then the oil crisis of the 1970s happened. To help its citizens save gas, the Netherlands implemented a nationwide “ Car-Free Sunday ” in November of 1973. For one day each week, the country’s three million cars were not allowed on roads, leading to some  interesting photos of horses and bikes on the country’s highways . Like similar car-free days in other countries, seeing the positive impact from this weekly activity inspired residents to bring about permanent change.

Shannon Burke, owner of Velo View Bike Tours, is photographed on the Walnut Street Bridge on Thursday. Burke is moving his business, his family and his residence from Austin, Texas, to Chattanooga. Velo View Bike Tours specializes in bike vacations across the country. Photo by  John Rawlston  /Times Free Press. Bicycles were scattered around the Edney Building in downtown Chattanooga this week during the inaugural Southeast Regional Bike Tourism Summit. Bicycles were scattered around the Edney Building in downtown Chattanooga this week during the inaugural Southeast Regional Bike Tourism Summit. Inside, their riders — in town from seven states — discussed things like bikepacking, electric bikes, U.S. bike routes and the economic benefits that they can bring to communities. Bicycle tourism is a burgeoning idea in the South, and Chattanooga will soon be the headquarters for another business based solely on the concept. Velo View Bike Tours, an Austin, Texas-based company fou

Bike the CBus from Kathy Koontz on Vimeo .

Zenga Bros - Tall Bike Tour from Zenga Bros on Vimeo . [More at Zenga]

Copenhagen built proper, one-way cycle lanes with kerbs separating them from pedestrians and motorists. Anything else, the Danes say, is a waste of time, money and effort. Photograph: Thinkstock Kamilla stands on the Knippel Bridge spanning Copenhagen’s inner harbour, drinking coffee as the spring sun plays on the water below. At her side, the trusted bike that will soon carry her into the city centre past the Christiansborg Palace – familiar to fans of television’s  Borgen .  Now 26, Kamilla has been cycling since she was a child in her native  Copenhagen , which ranks alongside Amsterdam as a European cycling utopia. Ask people in this city why cycling works here and you hear different theories. But all are part of a wider effort: to boost cycling through a virtuous circle of good infrastructure and positive perception. [Keep reading at The Irish Times]

Los Andes en bici. 43 Cruces "Paso Sico" from PEDALeANDO ruta 40 on Vimeo .

[More information at Yay Bikes!]

Hack Bike Derby from Hack Bike Derby on Vimeo .

Life Beyond Walls: Trans Cascadia from smith optics on Vimeo .

Transport for London’s proposed design (Credit: TfL) Trucks can be death traps for cyclists. Out of eight bikers killed in collisions with vehicles in London last year, all but one collided with a truck. But London’s transportation agency says a relatively simple design addition to trucks could help reduce the number of cyclists hit by truck drivers. Transport for London is considering proposals that would require trucks to have large, glass panels along their side doors, the  Evening Standard  reported. The design gives truck drivers a “panoramic” view of the road, and also gives drivers greater responsibility in avoiding collisions with bikers and pedestrians. [Keep reading at Next City]

Photo by  Several Seconds . The largest-ever study into the health benefits of active transportation has confirmed what most of us could easily have guessed: those who walk and bike to work have lower levels of body fat than those who drive or take public transit. While the study results are unsurprising to say the least, it is interesting to note that the lower levels of fat linked to active commuting were independent of other social factors such as socioeconomic status, alcohol consumption, smoking, or whether the person lives in a rural or urban area. The  study , carried out at the  London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine , used observational data from over 150,000 individuals taken from the UK Biobank data set, between the ages of 40-69 years. Body fat was assessed in two ways: body mass index (BMI), which is a ratio of weight to height, and body fat percentage. Across the board, people who always or occasionally commuted actively were observed as having lower levels

Dumbing Down the Shore from Rocky Mountain Bicycles on Vimeo .

 Mountain bike touring in Ladakh, India. Photograph: Alamy Tom Marriage Tuesday 12 April 2016  02.00 EDT Last modified on Tuesday 12 April 2016  05.08 EDT Share on Pinterest Share on LinkedIn Share on Google+ Shares 5,933 Comments 1,404   Save for later I came across an interesting film the other day. It was linked from  Sidetracked , a beautiful, outdoors lifestyle-y type magazine. The kind you buy in a bookshop rather than a newsagent, full of long-form journalism and photo essays, not product reviews and top 10 lists. The  video  was of one woman, Lael Wilcox, talking about her experience cycling  the Arizona Trail . She was racing, trying to get the best time, but on her own in a self-supported attempt. It stood out because it was the first time I’ve found myself getting excited by cycling for a while. Something about the braveness of it, the risk, the crazy, epic mental-ness. Watch: it’s short and wonderful. I’ve always liked cycling. Over

[Van Nicholas]

[Richard Jones]

How it works | Vagabond Bicycle Bags | Bikepack Backpack from Vagabond Bicycle Bags on Vimeo . [Vagabond]

Stop and evaluate your knee situation—it might be something you can solve alone. PHOTOGRAPH BY FRANCOIS SCHNELL VIA FLICKR If you’re a cyclist who’s ever felt the sharp twinge of “Crap, there’s something wrong!” in one or both of your knees, you’re not alone. Knee pain is the most common lower-body problem among us pedal pushers, with as many as  65 percent  of us experiencing it, according to one study. Most knee pain comes from “overdoing it,” as they say. You ride longer and/or harder than you’re in condition to, which strains your connective tissues, making them inflamed and painful. But what about those spontaneous flare-ups of crank-stopping pain? It might feel like they came out of nowhere, but they're usually just the first noticeable symptoms of a long-brewing problem: The culprit is generally improper equipment and/or bike position, says bike-fit specialist Michael Veal of BikeDynamics in Warwickshire, England. “Many cyclists are forever tinkering with the

[Kickstarter]

[VanMoof]

Let me start with an admission: yesterday, while riding a bike, I slowed down a car. Riding through the Presidio, I descended Lincoln Boulevard from the Golden Gate Bridge to Baker Beach at 25 m.p.h. This stretch of Lincoln has no downhill bike lane, just “Bikes May Use Full Lane” signs and sharrows reminding bicyclists to ride in the center of the lane. Lincoln has a 30 m.p.h. speed limit, meaning the driver behind me, who like nearly all road users was courteous and didn’t honk or complain, could have traversed this 1-mile stretch 30 seconds faster if I didn’t exist. (30 seconds might sound like nothing, but Bay Area governments routinely  spend tens of millions of dollars rebuilding roads because of delays on this scale .) Bike advocates often feel the need to spend time, energy, and ink proving that bikes and bike infrastructure usually don’t slow down cars. The Active Transportation Alliance featured the claim that bike lanes slow traffic as a top biking myth to  debunk in a

Official Trailer: Another Way of Living: The Story of Reston, VA from Rebekah Wingert-Jabi on Vimeo . An early rendering of the public gathering spot that would later become Reston Town Center. (James Rossant / Palindrome) It’s rare for a 1960s suburban development to exert a cultural pull distinct from its neighboring city, but Reston pulled it off. Situated about 20 miles from Washington, D.C., in what used to be northern Virginia farmland, this settlement has attracted generations of urbanists for its people-first brand of development. When Robert E. Simon Jr. bought the land and planned his flagship project, he insisted on walkability, density, access to nature and green space, and diversity of races and income levels. He didn’t invent these principles—his inspirations were hundreds of years old—but he and his successors managed to realize them at   a scale and level of success that hadn’t been seen before The new documentary  Another Way of Living: The Story of Reston ,