This is the new bike lane on Lafayette? Really?

This is the new bike lane on Lafayette? Really? – May 6, 2011 – @jcns photo on picplz.

ahem. Paul, you have a flat… – #bikenyc #PPWdemo

Dueling Protests Over a Brooklyn Bike Lane – NYTimes.com.

universal advice to #bikenyc jerks.

here’s two great posts from the bicyclette blog. i just love the last paragraph…

She’s so hot she’s making me a sexist. Bitch (NSFW)

I ride my bike everyday. I know the difference between a cruiser with a coaster break and a fixie. I call it a saddle, not a seat. I am no mechanic, but I can change a tire and fix a flat. Just because I ride in a dress and I like pink bikes, does not mean I am any less of a cyclist than, let’s say, these dudes.

However, plenty of male cyclists, and specifically tumbleloggers, would have you believe this is the case. To them, any woman who dares to ride in her everyday attire must be a fashion-obsessed dummy, as if riding in an attractive outfit and and being a committed, impassioned cyclist are mutually exclusive. For instance, Dottie from Let’s Go Ride a Bike writes of a demeaning experience at a Chicago bike shop:

I don’t have to add commentary, I’ll simply repeat some choice quotes from the guy assisting us [at the bike shop].

“You girls aren’t dressed for test riding bikes.”

“You can’t ride that bike in a skirt…I’m just trying to save you some  embarrassment.”

“You girls should stay on the sidewalk…be careful out there, girls.”

“How was your photo shoot?”

Responses from the bicyclette’s readers…

This post is SO true. The amount of looks I get from fellow cyclists on the road is ridiculous.

Just because I decide not to wear lycra and go down the road at Tour de France speeds does not make me anything less of a cyclist.

Bicycles come in many different shapes and sizes. My bike is of a minority in my area: it has no gears, a sprung saddle, and yes, even a pretty basket on the front. It still has two wheels, two pedals, a saddle, and yes, even handlebars. It doesn’t make me any less worthy of cycle lane space.

In the short time I’ve had my bike, I’ve been overtaken viciously, been shot abuse at, and even told by a fellow cyclist to get a proper bike.

My bike is a proper bike. Its type was around before you were even born. If it wasn’t for the design of my bike, you wouldn’t have your streamlined contraptions. So have a bit more respect.

life in the fast lane…

the 2006 LoveYourBike campaign by Manchester Friends of the Earth.

1 hour, 1 bridge. a #bikeNYC morning

via manhattan bridge morning by Inbar.

Flushing Ave Bike Lane Arrives!

WOOT!! This street is one of my fav connections between North and South Brooklyn. I can’t wait to parade in it. Flushing Ave Bike Lane Arrives! – Gothamist.

the bubble against PPW

She also took issue with the assertion that the Facebook counts indicate that most people don’t share her views. “We as a community have to have a say,” she said, meaning the people who live right on Prospect Park West. “Not the people that live five blocks away, not the people that come in from all over the city to use this.“

via PPW Bike Lane Support Outnumbers Opposition 4 to 1.

just watching this stresses me out!

doesn’t this video remind you of #BikeNYC?

the grandeur of grand st

you’re not going to see sun dresses nor smart suits, but it is a start that is saving lives.

video from NYCBikeMaps

Livable Streets Look Like This: Grand Street

Grand Street, with its “parking-protected bike path” is what more and more bike lanes in NYC need to be like.

Heading home to the LES or one of the East River Bridges? Take the safest and most scenic route through Soho and Chinatown, stop for dinner to meet with friends. Experience what a truly Livable Street is.  (And don’t forget to always brake and politely ding for pedestrians, they’ll think you’re awesome. Even more than we do.)

Grand Street’s bike lane is also one of the safest ways to avoid dangerously non-Livable Delancy Street, here’s a map:

Ride safe & ride often, with friends!

one dutch road over 200 years

From hembrow.blogspot.com – Mark Wagenbuur has made a great new video showing how a street in Utrecht, the Amsterdamsestraatweg, has evolved over 200 years. Mark says “Good cycling infrastructure is also possible in old streets. This street in Utrecht (Netherlands) was designed by Napoleon when the Netherlands were part of the French Empire in 1812. It was part of the ‘Route Impériale no. 2′ which connected Paris via paved direct roads with Amsterdam. The street design was changed several times in 200 years. It got the separate cycle paths that exist today around the year 2000.”