Columbus Rides Bikes!

http://www.strida.com/

Many of us here on NPR's Science Desk bike to work, and not just on Bike To Work Day. And like bike commuters everywhere, we delight in grumbling about the cars, trucks and buses that cut us off, drift into our lanes and honk at us. But we'll also, mind you, tut tut at the cheeky fellow bikers who swoosh recklessly through red lights, speed down sidewalks and block crosswalks. The tension between bikes and vehicles is evident on the streets of Washington, D.C., every day, and as bike-sharing programs allow more riders to take to city streets, more angry — and injurious — confrontations seem inevitable. Cycling is still a relatively dangerous activity, after all. There were 630 fatalities and 51,000 injuries from bike-motor vehicle traffic crashes in the U.S. in 2009, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. But who is really more likely to be at fault when bikes and vehicles collide? Read more ->

When the weather's good, Aaron Naparstek likes to pedal his two young kids to Hebrew school on a special Dutch-made bicycle. It has a big wooden box in the front where the kids ride. The ride takes Naparstek across Park Slope, Brooklyn, to Prospect Park West — and what might be the most controversial bike lane in America. Naparstek, who's also the founder of the website Streetsblog, supports the new lane. "The bike lane on Prospect Park West is introducing a lot of new people to the idea that it's possible to use a bike in New York City for transportation to run an errand," he says. "This is what 21st century New York City looks like." Prospect Park West looks like a grand 19th century boulevard — Brooklyn's answer to Central Park West. But where it used to have three lanes of car traffic, now it has two — plus a protected bike lane... Read on...

If you like to travel by bicycle but dislike having to deal with motor vehicles, you've probably ridden, or at least heard of the Great Allegheny Passage (from Cumberland, MD, to McKeesport, PA) and the C&O Canal Tow Path (from Washington, D.C. to Cumberland) which, when combined, create a 318-mile-long continuous trail between two busy urban areas. Thousands of people use the Great Allegheny Passage for travel and recreation. Trail user demographics and the economic impact on local businesses were documented over the last few years and were released in August 2009 in a report entitled, "Great Allegheny Passage Economic Impact Study". This detailed economic analysis consists of three phases: 2006/2007 sales revenue (Phase I), user demographics, habits, unmet needs, and spending (Phase II), and 2008 sales revenue (Phase III). Here's a summary of some of the key points: Business owners indicated a quarter of their gross income was attributed to trail users and two-t

BY MORGAN CLENDANIEL Mon May 16, 2011 A designer proposes a simple way to explain the best bike routes around London, and makes a beautiful map to go with it. London has been on a bike-lane building tear recently, to coincide with the explosion of popularity of their Boris Bike bike share. They've even built bike "superhighways" to easily zip cyclists from the center of the city out to the edges. But the city lacks a helpful bike map, instead supplying just a Google map buried deep on the city's transportation website. Now, designers have proposed a new solution: The map was designed by Simon Parker in an attempt to codify the various bike routes of London, which he found to be confusing and poorly marked. It's inspired by the iconic London tube map, which is credited with making the tube more accessible and increasing ridership. Parker has created various routes, which he's color-coded and numbered. There are four possible colors--orange, red, cyan, navy, and

BY ARIEL SCHWARTZ Tue May 17, 2011 You're inhaling tailpipe fumes when you're on a bike, but they don't hurt you as much as the ones you inhale while stuck in traffic. Urban biking. So healthy, except that you're pedaling around with tailpipes blowing into your mouths. A study last year seemed to confirm this, claiming that city cyclists inhale tens of millions of toxic nanoparticles every time they draw a breath--over five times more pollution than drivers and pedestrians are exposed to. Now a new study says that cyclists do, in fact, inhale more particulates than their driving counterparts. But they shouldn't care. It doesn't affect them in the same way that it does drivers. Translation:bikers experience more air pollution than drivers while cycling, but their airway function is still better than drivers' post-commute. So what does this mean? Cyclists probably just have better lung capacity from all that exercise--their healthiness offsets the inhalation

Time Monday, July 4 ·  11:00am  -  3:00pm Location Goodale Park Park Street Columbus, OH Created By Yay Bikes! More Info Parade Line-up begins as early as 11:00 a.m. Parade Steps Off @ 1:00 p.m. Bring your coolest or craziest bike to the parade and be a part of the float. More details will be forthcoming! [FACEBOOK EVENT PAGE]

EPIC - L’Etap Du California Experience This is my L’Etap du California experience. I was thinking about how to start this story, I first thought about the end when my Dr. said to me “your life seems to be a series of stress tests, but we want you to take one watching your heart just to be sure…” but I decided to start at the inflection point of the race for me. I took this picture at mile 65, looking ahead to the finish somewhere up on those mountain tops off in the distance. You can see the road off to the right of the picture, as it was cut around the mountain; the problem was that I didn’t stop for the scenery and pictures. I rolled to a stop trying to breath – I had slowed to a relative crawl going up this jump because I felt like there was someone on my back had their right hand jammed up under my right rib cage and their left fist pushed into my stomach. I couldn’t take a deep breath and that was making it difficult to climb. As I stood there about 11 miles from the finish

I showed up on State Street at 6:45pm and traffic was still flowing down the street weaving in and out of the cyclists. Traffic flowed through the gathering cyclists almost to the point of the ride start, which was closer to 730pm than the advertised 7pm. The police seemed annoyed, but were not doing anything about it.  I estimated between 400-500 cyclists this year and it seemed a little larger than last year. Someone emailed me that they counted roughly 280 cyclists, but I think that is low. I DO NOT think that 800 cyclists attended as announced by the organizers. They seem to have a track record of inflating their accomplishments.  The speeches were barely audible with the audio system the organizers used and it seemed to be a pep rally for the organization, rather than discussing the real issues of cyclist safety. After Taps and bagpipers played a song the ride got started. The cyclists lined up and the mayor, who did not show up on a bike, officially launched the ride. We turne

Project Aura: Bicycle Safety Lighting System from Project AURA on Vimeo .

Credit: Photos courtesy of Chris Ritchey's family Chris Ritchey is in a coma after he was hurt in a hit-skip crash near the Ohio State campus overnight Sunday. COLUMBUS, Ohio -- An Ohio State student and Army veteran is in a  coma  after being hit by a car overnight Sunday. According to OSU police, Chris Ritchey was riding a bicycle at West Lane Avenue and North High Street at about 2:40 a.m. Sunday. read more at NBC4i

Withrow High School to the right. Rookwood Pavilion up ahead to the left. Source: Facebook CINCINNATI, OH (FOX19) - In an era of sky high gas prices, everyone is looking for a change or alternative to transporting from one end of the city to another. One local group wants to help provide that alternative. Members of the Wasson Way Project are proposing a 6.5 mile long Bike and Pedestrian Trail that would go from Xavier University to the Little Miami Bike Trail in Newtown. The potencial project has already gained the support of the Hyde Park, Mt. Lookout and Oakley Community Councils. The project continues to gather support from residents of many Cincinnati neighborhoods. It is estimated that more than 100,000 residents of Avondale, Evanston, Norwood, Hyde Park, Oakley, Mt. Lookout, Fairfax, Mariemont and Newtown would be positively impacted by the project. [continue at Fox19]

Donkey Boxx is a high utility low cost bicycle pannier that easily attaches to your bike's rack for everyday cycling errands and special needs that you find fit. The lightweight 80% recycled corrugated plastic box-like construction allows for durability and use in wet weather. The broad flat outside surface provides for each rider's unique personalization. Each Donkey Boxx contains a kit with two reflective stickers, a Velcro closure for the lid and wire ties for mounting. Made in America. Color: natural/translucent. [Donkey Boxx]

We're a collection of artists, engineers, programmers and product designers with a passion for developing innovative products. And we love to cycle. We're scattered around the world in places like Austin, Texas; Humboldt, California; Turku, Finland; Stuttgart, Germany; and Taipei, Taiwan. This means we're working on cool bike gear around the clock and we're influenced by the riding conditions in every corner of the globe, all year round. Our mission is to get more people cycling for everyday transport by developing gear that makes cycling safer, more comfortable, and more convenient. [Biologic website]

Posted on   May 9, 2011   by   16incheswestofpeoria Back in February, I discussed multi-modal transportation and how Russ and Laura had decided to  combine their Bromptons with passenger rail  to travel the United States. Looks like their trip begins this month. continue reading

Check out some of the clips on YouTube...

COMING IN MAY :: The Acme takes the idea of urban riding to the next level of speed, performance and handling. We’ve nailed an enthusiast’s wish list of design attributes by purpose-building the aluminum frame and carbon fork, starting with a blank sheet of paper. The result is a ride engineered to be fast, agile and stable. Premium wide-range gearing, delivered by a Shimano Alfine 11-sp internal hub, is driven by a totally silent, clean and maintenance-free Gates Carbon Drive CenterTrack belt and pulleys. Hydraulic brakes ensure confident stopping in all weather conditions. Rack and fender capability are built into the frame and fork, unlike other bikes where the basics of utility are often afterthoughts. Ingenious adjustable dropouts facilitate easy wheel removal and belt tension adjustment. No need to wear special clothes or shoes; the pedals are grippy and flat and our custom chainguard keeps your pant legs out of the action. We give you the option of kitting out the bike with styl

Posted by John Ross on May 16, 2011 Since gaining nonprofit status in January, local cycling advocacy group  Yay Bikes!  has shifted in high gear. When I spoke with director Meredith Joy on Friday, she mentioned that the group has been awarded a major monetary grant to launch a safety initiative for cyclists at Ohio State. Now the news is even better. [continue reading at Alive]

If you missed the Ride the Elevator event on May16th, you missed out. Great event and crowd. Joe and I rode the Frankenbike down to Elevator Brewing and picked up a keg. We then rode over to Franklinton Cycleworks on West Broad Street to meet up with the group. We had 30+ riders in our pack as we headed east. We stopped at COSI to weigh the kegbike and then the group. Finally we made it to the brewery where 70+ riders packed into the   Elevator Brewing Company   to raise money for   Franklinton Cycleworks   and   Yay Bikes!  Many thanks to Elevator Brewery for initiating this event and making it happen. We are actively working on the next event so stay tuned. Here are pics from the event.

Highlights 33 participants 5 flats (three by Michelle) Three taco trucks provided great food and service Weather was dry at start and started sprinkling as we got to the first truck. By the time we headed back on Broad it was pouring rain. My wife provided SAG coverage for ride. Hal & Al's provided merchandise and a $20 food gift certificate for the raffle. The winning number for the Hal & Al's food gift certificate is: 275500 The winning numbers for merchandise are; 275459, 275528, 275509, 275464, 275441 275492, 275470, 275537, 275525, 275444 275540, 275490, 275454, 275517, 275534 275524, 275515, 275488, 275477, 275446 275520, 275481, 275487, 275462, 275529 The merchandise is available first-come, first-serve basis and you can pick up your prizes during normal business hours at Hal & Al's on 1297 Parsons Avenue.

The Pinchflat Poster Blow-Out Show opened yesterday at Wild Goose Creative on Summit. The show features 25+ posters from local artists with a bicycle theme for Bike Month. Great designs and they are all for sale on the Pinchflat Columbus website. A bicycle ride was led by Liz Samuelson from Fulcrum Creatives and we toured three community gardens along the way. I brought out the kegbike (pics here , here , and here ) for a limited engagement at the show as well. Great fun!