Cycling News

Here's a posting of near daily cycling news from across the country, and sometimes interesting things from around the world. If I missed a worthy piece, please pass it on to me.

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  • What needs to change? (Calgary Herald, Feb 1)
    What a great idea! "- Allocating at least seven per cent of federal transportation infrastructure funding to facilitate walking and cycling."

Away

anthony : 18 years 2 months ago
Tags: news

Are the bike lanes being cleared yet?

Snowy Bike Lane - Harbord and Spadina looking eastSnowy Bike Lane - Harbord and Spadina looking east

Snowy Bike Lane - College and Spadina looking eastCollege and Spadina

Snowy Bike Lane - St. George and Harbord looking southSt. George and Harbord

"Plowed bike lanes and secure storage at transit stations are vital to persuading people to take their bikes to work in the winter, said Councillor Adrian Heaps, chair of the Toronto Cycling Committee." Toronto Star, January 30, 2008

At this week's Coldest Day of the Year bike ride, Councillor Heaps recognized that plowing bike lanes would make a positive difference for Toronto's winter cyclists. Friday's snow storm gave us a chance to put this to the test: Will the City start doing a better job of clearing snow from the bike lanes, now that we have a councillor and Cycling Committee chair fighting for it?

On Friday afternoon, fellow I Bike T.O. blogger Tino went out and took some photos of bike lanes in the downtown area. The results? Snowy bike lanes, pretty much what you would expect.

The snow storm was still happening when these photos were taken, so let's give the city the benefit of the doubt. Maybe they will catch up and clear all of the bike lanes over the weekend. Tino will be out taking more photos on Saturday and Sunday to measure the city's progress.

What are your experiences so far during and after this storm? Has the city done a reasonable job clearing the snow for you? Let us know by posting a comment.

Photos by Martin Reis. Complete set on Flickr.

vic : 18 years 2 months ago
Tags: Adrian Heaps, bike lanes, snow

Long Johns on the Coldest Day Ride

Smokey and cargobike on coldest day rideFrom yesterday's Globe and Mail:

"About 30 well-bundled cyclists and a handful of police joined Councillor Adrian Heaps, chairman of city council's cycling committee, yesterday to brave frigid air and warnings of heavy wind gusts of a campaign to promote winter cycling. The ride from City Hall to Metro Hall - billed the 'Coldest Day of the Year Ride' - attracted hardy souls such as Smokey Dymny and his Dutch-designed 'long john' cargo bike. While Mr. Heaps has spearheaded plans to speed up the painting of bike lanes, Toronto has lower rates of year-round cycling than some other cities with similar or worse climates."

Smokey, staffperson of the Community Bicycle Network, bundled up on CBN's "long john" bike and decorated it with a pair of long johns for a flag (in case you can't figure out what's flying in front of him).

In an interesting segue, the Crime Stoppers cops visited CBN to help encourage cyclists to register their bikes with their online registration service. They put a video up featuring Smokey and CBN talking about registering their bikes and also about what CBN does. Smokey mentions that he's going to wear a pair of long johns and ride the long john.

Confession: I biked down to the end of the ride at Metro Hall so while I was winter biking I didn't participate in the ride. I figured I still deserved a hot chocolate from Cocoasol (made with their bike-powered blender nonetheless!).

herb : 18 years 2 months ago
Tags: Bike Winter, cargobikes, Community Bicycle Network