Bike Erie

In their new book, John Pucher and Ralph Buehler come right out and state their belief in plain English: "Cycling should be made feasible, convenient, and safe for everyone." The editors of City Cycling, just published by MIT Press, aim to further that cause by gathering together as much data as they could find to support their case that "it is hard to beat cycling when it comes to environmental, economic, and social sustainability." This is not a book of impassioned arguments or heartfelt polemics. Pucher and Buehler are academics, the former at Rutgers University and the latter at Virginia Tech. The 19 contributors to the book are also academics. Each chapter is followed by multiple pages of references and citations, and the entire book underwent peer review. City Cycling is unabashedly pro-bike, but its authors aren't relying on gut feeling. This is all about the numbers. Cycling advocates pushing for better bicycling infrastructure on streets around the world are accustomed to meeting with skeptical audiences. They will find a lot of ammunition here, much of it gleaned from studies of nations such as Germany and the Netherlands, where cycling is a routine part of daily life. Divided into chapters on subjects such as health benefits, safety, bikesharing systems around the world, cycling for women, and cycling for kids, the book marshals an impressive and fascinating assortment of facts, figures, trends, charts, and diagrams.

"A Sober, Data-Based Approach to Bicycle Advocacy"

Madison Avenue is a small part of a much broader network of planned designated bicycle lanes in Memphis, TN. Yet plans to implement designated bicycle lanes have been met with opposition, largely through the prevalence of widespread misinformation. This site seeks to clear up any ambiguities that may exist about the benefits of bicycle lanes as they specifically relate to Madison Avenue. Last summer, Mayor AC Wharton committed to the construction of 55 miles of bicycle lanes in the City of Memphis over the next two years. You can see his release here: Giving Memphis the Bike-Friendly City You Deserve After a public meeting and a period of public input, the City of Memphis Bikeway/Pedestrian Coordinator recently submitted a formal recommendation to Mayor AC Wharton that bike lanes be striped on Madison. See his full recommendation here: Bikeway/Pedestrian Coordinator's Formal Recommendation to the Mayor

A wide variety of resources for us to use.

The Bicycle Commuter Act of 2008, which became a law on January 1, 2009, is a transportation fringe benefit that provides a small sum to qualified employees to offset costs incurred through bicycle commuting. Passed as an addendum to the larger Renewable Energy Tax Credit legislation, the tax provision sought to elevate cyclists to the same level as people who received qualified transportation benefits for taking transit. This tax benefit is mutually beneficial for employers and employees. Receiving the bicycle commuter tax provision is estimated to save 40% on every dollar that is used through the program for employees, while employers should save around 10% on every dollar in saved payroll taxes (San Francisco Bicycle Coalition 2010). The actual text of the law can be found at http://www.bikeleague.org/news/100708adv.php.

The resources below can provide guidance for planning, hosting, supporting, and participating in Bike to Work events. Browse through the resources by section, or use our tag cloud to narrow down the resources you are most interested in.

This is the year you will resolve to ditch the diets, the "all or nothing" mentality and the "no-pain, no-gain" fitness goals. This is the year you will resolve to use common sense to eat less junk food, move more -- and have fun doing it. Remember what it was like when you were a kid and you thought nothing of playing tag for hours on end? That spirit still lives. You just need to wake it up. Maybe with a high-energy Zumba workout or Shaun T's "Hip Hop Abs," done in the privacy of your own home. Or by walking your dog while listening to a Dan Brown thriller. Instead of embarking on yet another diet, why not try to lose roughly 1 pound a week by creating a modest 500-calorie deficit each day. That's easily accomplished by slashing about 250 calories from your diet (the equivalent of five Oreos) and burning about 250 calories through exercise, such as a brisk 2- to 3-mile walk. You can do that easily. Here are 52 tips for each week of the year, but we know we're just scratching the surface.

This is a 2009 report by the League.

By now, we all know that cycling is good for health, fitness, cutting road accidents, reducing carbon emissions, and increasing energy security (and so on, and on). But what about biking's economic impact--its cyclonomics, if you will? The League of American Bicyclists put a map together to publicize a recent report by its policy director Darren Flusche. Flusche says the most important pieces of evidence for bicycling's economic impact come from business district studies, including ones for downtown Memphis and Long Beach, California. Research (PDF) covering Portland, Oregon, meanwhile, showed that bicyclists spent more over a month than either motorists or walkers. "Those arguments are critical for convincing businesses to allow bike infrastructure in front of their shops, because they are very aware of parking, and they have the perception that most people arrive by car. That's not always the case. You can fit many more bikes in a spot than cars," Flusche says.

We've sourced second-hand, upright bicycles directly from Japan to recycle and get them onto New Zealand roads, just as Kiwis have been doing with used cars for the past few decades. Our bicycles have been carefully rebuilt, and, with sturdy steel frames and simple no-nonsense components, chances are they'll outlast most cars on the road. Not only are our Mamacharis practical and environmentally friendly transport alternatives, we also think they're things of beauty. We're well aware that not everyone aspires to the lycra-clad image - embrace your right to cycle in style! Our bicycles are not sports-machines but rather a chic way of getting about your daily life, suit, skirt, heels and all. classic bicycle design used by most societies in the world today has remained relatively unchanged since the 1920s. The upright, step-through bicycle with a basket, bell and full mudguards and chainguards continues to transport millions of commuters with little fuss or cost, whether rich or poor.

TechShop is a playground for creativity. Part fabrication and prototyping studio, part hackerspace and part learning center, TechShop provides access to over $1 million worth of professional equipment and software. We offer comprehensive instruction and expert staff to ensure you have a safe, meaningful and rewarding experience. Most importantly, at TechShop you can explore the world of making in a collaborative and creative environment.

"Sarah McCullough, a graduate student at the University of California at Davis who researched how people's feelings about biking - happy, scared, sad, etc. - relate to their likelihood of actually riding a bike. (She's finding that people with stronger emotions about biking - and not necessarily just positive ones - are more likely to do it. And people are more likely to bike when they perceive it as safe and socially normal.) "Just understanding how changes in cultural infrastructure have to accompany changes in physical infrastructure; it's not necessarily enough in many communities just to put in a bike lane. You also have to create a culture where people feel comfortable using it.""

The mission of the Bike Collective network is to improve and encourage communication between existing and future community bike shops. Collectively we can improve a bigger wheel as opposed to re-inventing smaller ones. This email list is where organizers from community bike shops around the world can discuss exactly how to do that.

Since the recession, the meatpacking district, between Ninth Avenue and the Hudson River, and the flatiron district near Broadway have seen the biggest upticks in rents and greatest decreases in availability rates, based on the firm's analysis of data by CoStar Group Inc. Those areas have also experienced upgrades to streets, including new bike lanes and expanded pedestrian spaces.

"Measuring the Streets" demonstrated that small businesses in New York City near bike lanes "have done very well, especially when compared to borough-wide averages," the New York City Department of Transportation (DOT), which issued the report, noted. Along Ninth Avenue in Manhattan, for example, sales grew "by as much as 49 percent on portions after DOT installed the city's - and nation's - first parking-protected bike lanes there in 2007, 16 times the borough-wide growth," according to the report.