An occasional update on items from the Velo-city.
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SEE MIKE BIKE
Mike McHugh cycled from Vancouver to Ottawa for his thesis – smart boy! – and reports out in a TEDx talk:
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A TRIAL IN OTTAWA
Speaking of our capital, news of a separated bike lane trial from Chris Begley:
We have just got our first separated bike lane . It is a 2 year trial project and we have seen all sorts of complaints:
- It will reduce parking (actually they are adding more parking on other streets!)
- It will hurt old people who live in the apartment buildings because cabs/paratranspo won’t be able to park out front (???)
- People will die because cars cannot pull over for fire trucks
- It impedes accessibility by preventing access to curbs (the city responded immediately to this by putting in cuts to the curb for accessibility)
Nevertheless, it has been an immediate success and is a small step forward for Ottawa. We should be a great biking city, notwithstanding the winter. We have the countries best network of recreational pathways, the terrain is flat, and most of the year the weather is quite reasonable.
– Traffic volume (note the big dip on Thursday the 21st – that was caused by a humidex of 47 degrees celsius – I rode and it was miserable)
– Coverage of the opening from the Citizen
– Coverage from the excellent local urbanist blog
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BIKE-SHARING APP
From, where else, the bike-centric neighbourhoods of Brooklyn, NY:
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BIG BUSINESS
… beyond the health and environmental benefits of Copenhagen’s two-wheeled love lies an economic boon for the city. Copenhagen Council has calculated that the local cycling industry turns over 1.3 billion kroner a year. To put it in cycling- friendly terms, Politiken newspaper estimates that the annual amount is equivalent to the cost of 65,000 Christiania cargo bikes.
According to the report, there are 309 registered workplaces in Greater Copenhagen that either sell or repair bicycles. These businesses account for 650 full-time jobs and a combined revenue of 1.3 billion kroner.
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