Monday, November 11, 2013

New Airbag for Cyclists!!

Invented in Sweden, only available in the EU......

Wednesday, November 6, 2013

NYC, America's Largest City, Gets a Pro-Bike Mayor

Bill de Blasio



Bicycling has become a mainstream way for many New Yorkers to commute to work and travel around the city. It’s inexpensive, it promotes public health, and it’s a key part of helping the city respond to climate change. Right now, the city’s goal is to increase bicycling to 3 percent of all trips by 2020. Bill de Blasio will double that goal—using education, promotion and safer streets to grow bicycling to 6 percent by 2020. De Blasio will continue expanding bike lanes around the city so that bicyclists have a safe, dedicated space to ride—and drivers and pedestrians will have more predictable streets. He will expand the public Bike Share program to outer-borough neighborhoods and increase education outreach to promote safe riding. With these tools, de Blasio will set a goal of cutting serious cycling injuries and fatalities in half — even as the number of cyclist continues to grow. De Blasio believes strongly that communities deserve a voice in decisions that affect them—and this includes bike lanes. As mayor, de Blasio will expand communication before street changes are installed by notifying residents and small businesses through the distribution of fliers and door-to-door outreach. He will work to address their feedback before projects are installed. By better communicating on the front end, de Blasio will reduce friction and bolster public support for expanding cycling in the city.

Source

And this guy is ahead of the curve in other ways too. Besides having an inter-racial family, his wife, Chirlane McCray, a political strategist and speechwriter, helped him get elected..



Utah Bike Shop Owner to Pedal to South Pole

Saturday, September 28, 2013

Man Pedals Same Bike To, Across and From San Francisco Bay!

Note: With just a small bit of web research, i found out that Shuttle Bike, the Italian company that made the bike accessory Judah Schjller, below,  used to pedal across the Bay has been trying to promote its invention here in Europe  since 1992.

What it took to get this 'new way of biking'" really  known about in the USA was a good marketing guy. Enter Judah Schiller, the founder of two San Francisco brand marketing companies. 
Aiko  and Saatchi & Saatchi). A tip of the hit to him for knowing how to spin the half baked Bay Bridge bike path to get publicity for both a water bike lane and for his ad agency!!

Judah Schiller, a former attorney and single father of three, rode to the 
water's edge in Oakland, CA, outfitted his bike with a propeller and 
pontoons (a ten-minute job) and 45 minutes later he was 
at the Ferry Building in San Francisco!





And yet there again, Judah may have taken his  inspiration from the Kinetic Sculpture racers who have been pedaling on water and land since the early 1970's:



Tuesday, September 24, 2013

SF Market St 1906 Days Before Quake

The above video of a cable car ride to the 1896 built Ferry Building shot days before the Great San Francisco Earthquake of 1906 offers an amazing look at a time when the world functioned just fine without the rules of the road. 

The quality is so excellent that the 30 second commercial penalty is worth the wait.