Blogs & Ecology

More and more people are commuting on their bikes. But what is the best bike for commuting? Our bike expert Warren says a good commuter bike has three main attributes:

1. they come equipped with a heap of accessories, such as fenders (mud guards), lights, cargo rack and strap, safety locks, kickstands, bells, and chain/wheel splash guards;
2. the cyclist sits tall, rather than crouched forward in a racing position;
3. they are simple, single speed models, or multi-speed enclosed, low maintenance, rear hubs.

There, but for the grace of God, go I- John Bradford

Now that Montrealais have gotten a taste of bike sharing, they'll have to wait until next April for the bike share program (formerly Public Bike Sharing System or PBS) to officially roll out.

In the meantime, the program has been re-christened

Apologies to our bicycle fans on TreeHugger. Yet again we’ve been preoccupied with other tasks and have let our bike posts wane somewhat. Though we hoped you caught our recent round-up 21 Small Wheeled Bicycles .

We’ve given kudos to the Bicycle Film Festival for years, for spreading the word about this most miraculous of vehicles, so why should we stop now. Although, admittedly, we have arrived less than early to the party. But the annual festival still has four gigs before it slams on the brakes for yet another year.

Industrial designer Michael Lambourn has an idea that might help reduce bicycle theft: integrate a dye pack, like the kinds built into some fire alarm pulls and clothing tags, that that explodes and covers the bicycle and thief in loud purple dye.

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Industrial designer James Thomas loves bikes, and blogs about them at Bicycle Design. He thinks that most bike designs fail for people taking up cycling as a serious mode of transportation.

cyclist and driver interaction in Toronto a few years ago. Photos Adam Krawesky via Spacingwire

We have seen it many times in the comments in TreeHugger: Drivers complaining that cyclists are generally irresponsible "lycra lizards" who ignore traffic signals and are rude to drivers. Tom Vanderbilt quotes an Australian writer who calls it Bikeism -

I thought after Igor the Bicycle thief was closed down that things might improve in Toronto, but alas it was not to be. However, Toronto cyclists seem to like leaving expressive messages (like Mike's lovely post last year) and this one says it all. via BlogTO

Time to Read on TreeHugger:

images by Sang-Sik Yoon

We love cargo bikes at TreeHugger, and this one by designer Jaebeom Jeong was inspired by seeing parents put their kids in shopping carts while shopping. It is not without its problems, though. ...

Photo Mark Stosberg @ flickr

The Dutch are the original designers of the "bakfiets" cargo bikes - though the Danish have a long legacy of their own with the "Long John" variety of cargo bikes. When you cruise the streets of either Copenhagen or Amsterdam you'll see lots of imaginative examples of everything from babies to plants to bags of flour carried around.

Cargo bike is made in the U.S.A.

You know cycling has become mainstream when the New York Times has not one but two photo essays in the Style section- one on bikes as the latest fashion accessory: "As bike lanes multiply around the city, cycling grows ever more popular and subcultures of riders coalesce around a style and a sensibility. A look at the two-wheeled traffic." ::New York Times

More usefully, they then show a collection of fashion accessories for the fashion accessory: a review of classy panniers and shopping bags. ...

In many cities, including Toronto and San Francisco, regular bikes are not allowed on the subways in rush hour. Also in many cities, the subway might be too far to walk but the bus service is sparse or erratic. Now, more and more people are using folding bikes for multi-modal transport: cycling to and from the subway station and avoiding the feeder bus.

Xavier Snelgrove, Wikipedia commons

Some of the hidden pork in the Bailout Bill have been written about for their silliness, like the Sec. 503. Exemption from excise tax for certain wooden arrows designed for use by children, others are not very green, like the Sec. 317. Seven-year cost recovery period for motorsports racing track facility , which costs a cool hundred mil to give a fast tax break to the motor sports industry. However there is one particular one that TreeHuggers should love: Sec. 211. Transportation fringe benefit to bicycle commuters