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Showing posts from May 31, 2015

This High-Tech Helmet Shows Cyclists the Best Bike Route in a City @nextcityorg

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The “Heads-Up Display” helmet designed by Future Cities Catapult Cyclist injuries and fatalities are high in London, where about half a million people use bikes as their key mode of transportation. In 2013, 14 cyclists died and 475 were seriously injured during bike journeys in Central London. To adapt to both the growing number of cycling commuters and the relentless car and foot traffic of the city, London-based  Future Cities Catapult  has designed a Google Glass-like helmet prototype that could help cyclists be more aware of their surroundings and highlight the safest routes in their travels. The idea is that cyclists could more easily navigate when one cycle path bleeds into another, giving riders data in real time rather than tasking them with memorizing a safe bike route through data on apps such as City Mapper. This kind of digital “soft infrastructure” seeks to take advantage of both modern technology and existing urban infrastructure. [Keep reading at Next City...

WAVE

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Mayors speak up: Great biking means great cities

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12th Avenue cycle track's early opening thrills cyclists | CBC News

The 12th Avenue portion of Calgary's cycle track network pilot project  opened Tuesday morning , and many cyclists are thrilled that they are now able to safely breeze through the Beltline in their own dedicated lanes. 'Bicycle ambassadors' to help Calgarians navigate expanded cycle track "I loved it," cyclist Todd Crowther enthused. "It cut some time off my commute. It also made me feel just more relaxed. I'm not always looking over my shoulder for cars, that was the biggest thing." Marsha vandenEnden regularly rides her bike down 12th Avenue. She agrees the cycle track made her morning commute safer, believing it's about time Calgary invested in such infrastructure. "I think this is something that all cities should have and it's about time that Calgary's actually catching up," she said. [Keep reading at CBC News]

Introducing Zackees Turn Signal Gloves on Kickstarter (Rev.B)

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‘Gironimo!’ and ‘Lanterne Rouge’ @NYTimes

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A century after the 1914 Giro d’Italia, Tim Moore retraced the 1,965-mile route on a gearless bike.   There are many sensible reasons the British travel writer and humorist Tim Moore cycled the 1914 route of the Giro d’Italia (the Tour of Italy) wearing antique woolen biking shorts held up by a safety pin, on a bike with wine corks for brakes, wooden rims, no gears and 100-year-old parts. To truly understand those reasons, though, it helps to be a cyclist. Because, after writing about the sport for the past decade, I’ve learned that cyclists know a thing or two about tackling daunting physical feats just to prove a point. (Like going out for a six-hour training ride because a five-hour ride simply won’t do.) And to understand Moore’s motivation, it might also help if you’re in the throes of a midlife crisis, as he was. You don’t, however, have to be into cycling to reap the benefits of “Gironimo! Riding the Very Terrible 1914 Tour of Italy” — which can be considered a fo...

In Search Of The Storm

In Search Of The Storm from Untold on Vimeo .

Survey of 17,000 Asks Why Bicyclists Break the Rules of the Road @nextcityorg

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Denver cyclists commute on one of the city’s annual Bike to Work days. (Photo by Jack Dempsey/Invision for goodnessknows/AP Images) The blame game in the cars vs. bikes war can get ugly. But accidents happen, as the saying goes, and as long as drivers and cyclists continue to share city streets, figuring out why they happen should be a public safety priority. One University of Colorado Denver researcher is looking into what causes bicyclists to break the rules of the road. Wesley Marshall, a professor of civil engineering, recently asked more than 17,000 people to complete what he called the  “Scofflaw Survey”  to figure out what makes them disregard traffic laws. “Not all bicyclists that break the law are these hooligans that are out to be sort of anti-society,” Marshall told  Colorado Public Radio.  “I think a lot of people do it for very practical reasons.” [Keep reading at Next City Org]

6 Bike Storage Solutions You Can Build Right Now

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PVC Bike Rack Besides wood, PVC pipe has to be one of the best materials for building “makey” things. It seems there would be an infinite number of ways to build a bike rack from PVC pipe, and this double bike rack is a good place to start. This particular design could be expanded for more bikes, as the ideal number of bikes to own is, of course, the number you have plus one. Pallet Bike Rack If you don’t want to put a lot of effort into your bike rack, but have access to two wood pallets,  this rack might be for you . It is simply two pallets laid not-quite-perpendicular to each other. Given the amount of work that went into it, it appears quite functional! More at  http://makezine.com/2015/06/01/6-bike-storage-solutions-can-build-right-now/