If full body Spandex isn’t your speed, check out Cycle Chic, a London-based blog that offers tips on how to look devastatingly hot (wear designer pants from Stella McCartney, or your boyfriend’s t-shirt), stay sweat-free (don’t go too fast and sport a light, summery dress), and “cycle yourself slim,” all while biking to your intended destination.

Okay, so maybe my tone is a tad flip, but Cycle Chic, apart from its flirtatious, airhead fluffiness, really does offer some solid, practical suggestions for casual women cyclists. The site features posts on cycle safety, buying a bike, and, well, tapered trousers. (I’ll admit that the lacy Swedish baskets they recommend are positively adorable; I want one. Just don’t expect me don a Jackie O. helmet cover any time soon.)

Photos courtesy of Cycle Chic.

What’s stopping the United States from solving its widespread congestion crisis? Stingy politicians, says a recent survey. While lining their fat pockets—and funding an unending war—with federal tax dollars, politicos are unwilling to fund transportation projects that will promote public transit, encourage car-free commuting, and change infrastructures to make cities and towns more pedestrian-oriented.

A recent survey and analysis by HTNB, an architecture/engineering firm, found that inadequate funding is the greatest roadblock to solving the States’ car crisis. The National Surface Transportation Policy and Revenue Study Commission has called for a complete overhaul of how funding for transportation is raised, allocated, and delivered.

Talk of a high-speed train from Las Vegas to Southern California has been nothing but hot air for nearly a decade. Now, however, it looks like Lady Luck may cast her fickle favor on commuters.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is backing a $45 million project that would build a maglev (magnetic levitation) train to connect the bright lights of Las Vegas to sunny SoCal (Anaheim, specifically). Funding for such transportation projects was approved in 2005, but has yet to be allocated. Meanwhile, traffic in southern Nevada—and, notoriously, in Southern California—has only worsened.

Naysayers, like Republican Sen. Jim DeMint of South Carolina, dismissed the train as a mere starry-eyed, speculative venture. President Bush, whose track record shows he hasn’t historically supported public transit or pedestrian-oriented projects, stationed himself in DeMint’s camp.

Reid was displeased by DeMint’s support of a privately-owned, regular train service that would run from Las Vegas to Antelope Valley, a desert 85 miles northeast of downtown Los Angeles. The high speed train would travel at approx. 300 mph, and would take passengers from L.A. to Las Vegas in less than an hour.

Source: Las Vegas Sun.

Photos via flickr by StevenM_61 and Bashed.

Streets are for People! celebrated Earth Day (April 22nd) by presenting a very special car to the Ontario Legislature. The "petition car" was stripped of its engine and painted white - a clean slate to bear the signatures of supporters.

The petition car bears the following message:

We the undersigned do hereby demand that not one more dollar go to promote, support, or perpetuate car culture. We want bike lanes, public transit and a train system. We want our public space back. We want local food, clean air, sustainable industry, a liveable future for our children, and an end to oil wars. We want to dance in the street. We want a government that values life over money.

Streets are for People! delivered the car and read the petition to the Legislature while they sat in session. Click here to read the full text of the document.

Photo via flickr by Peyton Chung.

A while back, we wrote about Calfee Design's ultra-hip and ultra-green bamboo bike frames (See: Riding on Grass: Calfee's Bamboo Bikes). Now company owner Craig Calfee is expanding his bamboo line to include a tandem option for the dynamic duo who seeks both a high quality, smooth ride as well as a bike that's easy on the environment.

The main frame tubes are stalks of bamboo which are smoked and heat-treated. The tubes are joined together with lugs fashioned from either carbon fiber or a hemp resin for the ultimate green-machine.

Although Barcelona’s high-speed rail to Madrid, the AVE (an acronym for Alta Velocidad Española), is four years late to arrive, the AVE’s policy promises to fully refund passengers who wait more than five minutes for a scheduled train that’s running late. (Imagine the consequences if transit authorities were to instate this in every city, particularly those with adequate transit. It’s also reassuring for passengers, of course, who feel they can rely on the rail to get them to their destination without delay.)

The AVE from Barcelona to Madrid opened to ticketholders in late February. The train travels at a lightning-fast 300 km/hr (186 mph), covering 550 km (342 miles) in just 155 minutes. The AVE also offers competitive fares to air travel, at 180 euros round-trip.

The Spanish government told the BBC that, by 2010, it plans to have more high speed trains than anywhere in the world.

Sources: BBC, Wired, and Gadling.

See also: High Speed Rail Coming to America
California Trains to Go High-Speed?
Trains: The 200 Year Old Solution to Our Travel Problems

Photo via flickr by viajar24.com.