Columbus Rides Bikes!

Ale-8-One is a  ginger-ale-like soda  usually sold in glass bottles and popular in the hills of eastern  Kentucky . During a bike trip through the region last month, for example, I washed down a burger with one on the back porch of a bed-and-breakfast owned by a man who once walked more than 3,000 miles across America on stilts. The next night, I blasted another out of the crook of a tree branch with a 9-millimeter Smith & Wesson. I rarely drink soda and I’m not into guns. But what’s the point of travel if not to have new and sometimes discomforting experiences? Frugal Traveler Tips for how to navigate the world on a tight budget. A $50 Day in Knoxville, Tennessee  JUL 2 How to Eat on a Budget While Traveling  JUN 24 How to Pick a Cellphone Plan for Traveling Abroad  JUN 16 Exploring Franche-Comté, France’s Well-Kept Secret  JUN 11 In Sardinia, an Affordable Family-Run Farm Stay  JUN 4 See More » Eastern Kentucky, Appalachian coal country, was, in

Breakfast rides became a popular Sunday non-event a generation ago. The rides were the idea of Harold Absalonson. This photo was taken March 28, 1983. (Rich Landers/Photo Archive/The Spokesman-Review) By Lindsey Wallace I’m done wearing a bike helmet. Now, don’t hold me to that. Maybe I’ll want one in the winter when the roads are icy. Maybe I’ll be required to wear one on a group ride. Maybe I’ll travel cross-country, planning to bike on deserted roads. But when it comes to casual riding, I’m done. At the conference I attended last week, I mentioned, “I don’t wear a helmet, and I’m a public health professional,” to audible gasps and laughter. I invited people to ask me why later, and many of them did. I’ll share with you what I told them in just a moment, but let me preface this: I think the main problem around making an informed decision about whether to wear a helmet is hard because there isn’t great data around helmet use. Due to the confirmation bias, we’re all looking for

CC BY 2.0 Lloyd Alter/ Vancouver bike infrastructure We do go on about bike safety, primarily the question of whether the emphasis should be on building better infrastructure for cyclists so they don’t get squished or mandating helmets for their head to try and protect them when they do. On the  Alternative Department for Transport,  a UK website, the author notes that in the UK people do wear helmets and hi-vis vests- because they are afraid not to. If we genuinely want to make cycling safer, more helmets aren’t the solution. They are really a good indicator that the streets aren’t safe. When people don’t feel safe when cycling, they will wear a helmet – and hi-vis vest – with or without advertising. Higher helmet use shouldn’t be a goal, it should be seen as a failure of policy, an embarrassing statistic. An increase in helmets is a sign that the government has failed miserably in their duty to provide safe streets. The Minister of the ADFT (he doesn’t give his name) go