As the Cycle Copenhagen video shows (below), Copenhagen, Denmark is quite the place to ride a bike. The government imposes a 200% tax on cars and gives bikes the priority in city planning. There are no cars permitted in the city center, where people have to --*gasp*-- walk from store to store. Bikes carry people everywhere, and cargo bikes haul everything from groceries to children.
In the video’s static shots of bike traffic streaming down the right side of city streets, the sheer volume of cyclists is mind-blowing.
Similar to our recent posts on Copenhagen Girls on Bikes Gone Wild! & Bikes Rule in Amsterdam, what really stands out is the cyclists’ attitudes. Their comfort level and feelings of entitlement to the road are evident. They casually cruise along, almost all of them helmet-free, improving their city, health, and environment in the process.
In most cities around the world, those who bike for transportation are not treated as fringe-freaks or nuisances to the “real” car-traffic as they are in the United States. It's not a one-step, easy solution but, as this video shows, a mixture of intelligent community planning, politicians willing to address health and climate issues (see The Anti-Cycling Administration for contrast), and people willing to drive less can change a city.
We’ve all heard it before: regular aerobic activity is crucial to our good health. What better way to get regular exercise than to incorporate it into our daily lives by walking or cycling?
A new book, entitled Bike for Life: How to Ride to 100, takes the health benefits of cycling one step further. Not only is the regular exercise a must for long-lasting bodies but, according to authors Roy Wallack and Bill Katovsky, a cyclist's longevity is enhanced through the "physical and mental challenges, relaxation, achievement, adventure, variety, social interaction, ...and fun" biking brings with it.
An activity as simple as a regular bike ride can help people “roll into the triple digits --miles and age -- on a bike instead of in a wheelchair," according to Wallack.
The book provides cycling tips and tricks to ride effectively and injury-free into the golden years as well as interviews with aging cycling gurus still pushing their pedals.
A recent BBC article provides concrete examples of cycling’s elixir of youth. At age 72, Bert Brett is not just riding his bike – he’s racing it. Although he’s only been cycling for the past 10 years, Brett’s competitive streak took hold early on. He recently earned his 10th consecutive trophy for being his region’s fastest in his age group.
"I don't see age as much of a barrier. I sometime beat men in time trials who are half my age, but when we're out cycling we don't tend to dwell much on how old people are," said Brett. "I don't smoke, I'm a vegetarian, I walk about four miles a day and also do 150 press-ups twice a week."
At 92, Brett’s wife, Elsie, restricts her cycling to indoor rides on an exercise bike. She says that the spinning helps to keep her healthy and mobile.
Evidently, getting a carectomy wasn’t extreme enough an action for 45-year-old Frenchman Alain Robert. Last week, Robert took a stand against climate change in true superhero style, scaling a 27-story building in central London without ropes, gloves, or any other climbing gear, all in the name of raising environmental awareness. Robert has no fear of heights, but the acclaimed climber is afraid of global warming.
Robert was arrested by London police for suspicion of criminal damage and wasting police time. (This is just one of many such arrests for the climber. Roberts even has a photo gallery documenting his frequent run-ins with police.) Police report that Robert has been bailed until an unspecified date in February.
If New Yorkers are already paying $10 for a dirty martini and over $1000 a month for a cramped studio apartment, what’s a few more dollars for a MetroCard? At least, that seems to be the attitude of the Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) in the face of mass protests and petitions by straphangers to stop an impending fare hike that finally passed early this week.
New Yorkers have been awaiting another fare hike for the last few years, though this increase is hardly the worst the city has seen in recent years. In 2003, fares rose a dramatic 33 percent, and transit officials increased the base fare to $2 from $1.50.
Ok, well perhaps not “wild.” The Copenhagen Cycle Chic blogsite is a celebration of women astride their trusty steeds. The site’s tagline: Bike advocacy in high heels, from the world’s cycling capital.
The content ranges from cycling information with fashion style to poetry.
Sustrans, a 30 year-old nonprofit in the U.K. that advocates sustainable transportation, last week won The People’s £50 Million Lottery Giveaway. The purpose of the Giveaway is to fund projects which positively benefit “health, the environment, education and charitable purposes to improve communities and the lives of people most in need.” Citizens vote on the project they deem most worthy of the grant. Sustrans’ Connect2 project emerged triumphant, defeating three other finalists.
Connect2, as the name implies, aims to bring sustainable transportation links to communities throughout the U.K. The end result will be a national network of walking and cycling routes. Sustrans approximates that six million people live within a mile of the 79 different Connect2 projects.
This past summer, to encourage participation in the annual Bike-to-Work Week, riders received prizes through a raffle. One prize was two round-trip tickets on Frontier Airlines for travel within the continental United States.
Part of the reason to encourage bike commuting is the environmental benefits of getting cars off of the road. To reward these commuters with airline travel, our dirtiest travel method, seemed out of place to bike commuter Rick Fuller. In fact, he put up his own money to offset the carbon emissions of the winner’s plane travel to make his point.
Cars are the most inconvenient convenience we have. We're required to have them, but increasingly, we dislike them. At Carectomy, we're trying to figure out how to extract cars from people.
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