An occasional update on items from the Velo-city.
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CENTURY-OLD CYCLING CULTURE IN AMERICA
There’s a little place in the north that’s been in love with bikes for generations: Mackinac Island, Michigan, a historic tourist destination on the Straits of Mackinac, between Lakes Michigan and Huron. Because motor vehicles have been banned here since 1898 – more than 100 years – everyone has used bikes for everything a bike can be used for, and for more than you might imagine.
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BIKE PARKING IN PITTSBURGH
Another surprising place where you wouldn’t imagine a bike culture … in this case for innovative parking solutions. Check out the repurposed shipping container at 0:48.
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A FEW HUNDRED MILLION FOR SAN DIEGO
San Diego County is poised to become much more bike-friendly following the recent approval of $200 million for regional bicycle projects.
The San Diego Association of Governments OK’d the spending last week in what advocates called “an historic moment” for the area’s bicycling community.
Officially called the Regional Bike Plan Early Action Program, the initiative includes 42 projects totaling about 77 miles of bikeways, according to SANDAG, which helps plan and finance the region’s transportation network.
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The San Diego infrastructre is overdue. I’ve been talking Amtrak there and hiring from the bike store on C St for many years. Some of the bike ‘paths’ on the official map seem to exist only in the imagination of a traffic engineer who did the suitability survey from the driver’s seat of a fast moving SUV.
Riding on the narrow glass and debris strewn shoulder of a 6 lane highway, trying to avoid the bushes and vines spreading across it, while trying to negotiate to cross off/on ramps of cars doing 60mph is not my idea of ‘all ages and abilities’.
On the upside, their transit and the Surfliner are excellent, though I’ve always had to ask some young person for help to get my bike on/off the trolley.
Pittsburgh is a city to watch out for in the next few years, They are really doing some great tactical Urbanism as seen in the video along with BRT’s and PT upgrades.