Flashing lights and bikes are strongly associated together, but flashing bike lights can actually cause problems at times. When should you use flashing bike lights, and when is it not a good idea? Here’s a guide to when to use your bike lights in flashing mode. Post also includes guidance on how to use your bike lights during the day and the night.
4 Benefits of Separated Bike Lanes
This post is about some of the main benefits of separated bike lanes for cyclists. Benefit #4 will surprise you!
New LaneSpotter App for Cyclists
May is National Bike Month in the USA – and LaneSpotter is here to help cyclists to find the safest bike routes in cities across the country. This new Android app was released on May 1. Get a link to download this promising new app here!
New York Activists Have Been Asking for Bollards to Protect Cyclists for More than a DECADE
Here is a press release from Transalt in New York – find out how the tragedy could have been prevented, and what you can do going forward. Attend or support the World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims on 19 November.
A Conversation with Peter Walker, Author of How Cycling Can Save the World
A Conversation with Peter Walker, author of an important, brand new book: How Cycling Can Save the World. In this book, Walker shows the close relationship between infrastructure and the way people get about. Therefore, to create mass cycling you need to create a conducive built environment. Walker discusses bike helmets and high visibility clothing; the misuse of the word accident; roadside intimidation; cycling activism; older people and cycling; business objections to cycling; bike share programs; and the role played by La Monde à Bicyclette and Vélo Quebec in the transformation of Montreal.
Build it and They Will Come: Key Principles for Building a Cyclist-Friendly Community
Excerpt from an important, brand new book: How Cycling Can Save the World by Peter Walker. In this book, Walker shows the close relationship between infrastructure and the way people get about. Therefore, to create mass cycling you need to create a conducive built environment. The way to do this is in fact already well known – only the political will is lacking. So what’s the secret? Basically, bikes must be kept separate from motor traffic on busy roads, and the separation must be physical. “A bicycle way that is not safe for an eight-year-old is not a bicycle way.”
5 Ways to Stay Visible in Traffic When Cycling
Here are some tips on what you can do to make sure you stay visible while riding in traffic. When you are riding with vehicles around you, you need to make sure you stand out and that you are noticed.
How to Choose the Best Bike Light
A great bike light is essential for cycling – both for seeing, and for being seen. But with so many great bike lights on the market, how do you choose the best one? Read this post to find out exactly how to choose the best bike light for bike commuting.
10 Top Tips for Winter Cycling
Here are our top 10 tips for winter cycling. Winter cycling can be challenging, especially if you live in a climate that gets both cold AND wet. However, comfortable winter cycling is possible and even enjoyable, with careful planning and a little expense.
Should Motorists who Kill Cyclists go to Prison?
A London lorry driver who carelessly killed 29-year-old cyclist Louise Wright in London has been convicted of causing her death by careless driving – but has walked away with a suspended sentence and assorted wrist slaps. Should he have gone to prison? The family doesn’t think so …
Self driving cars will be better than human drivers, but will need an ethical code
We have grown to accept human motorists killing thousands of people every single day. After all, cars are so convenient, right? But are we going to let self driving cars kill even ONE human being? Absolutely not! We must have a code of ethics to force them to behave the way we wish WE would behave. But before we get around to making laws about ethics for robotic cars, we might want to think about passing a few laws reflecting the fundamental ethic that cyclists are human beings too, and therefore motorists are not allowed to run them down?
What Cyclists Should Do if a Driver Crashes into Them
If you are ever hit by a motorist while cycling, you may be in too much shock to know what to do. This guest post explains the 3 crucial things you should do in this situation. Includes infographic about common cycling collisions, and advice to avoid collisions for drivers and cyclists.
Cars are Important – Little Kids, Not so Much
Here are photos and video of a situation that endangered small children. It was caused by a truck driver who was only thinking about the most important rule of the road – cars CANNOT be blocked. Compared to that central tenet of modern life, children are almost literally invisible. Cars are IMPORTANT – little kids, not so much.
Sentence for Tineke Kraal – who worked tirelessly to harm North Shore Mountain Cyclists – is ludicrously light
The sentence for Tineke Kraal – who tried to harm North Shore Mountain Cyclists – is ludicrously light. A tap on the wrist for a woman who spent two hours a night for two years trying her best to injure and kill mountain bikers by sabotaging mountain trails on Vancouver’s North Shore!
Boycott Victoria Businesses that Oppose Bike Lanes!
In Victoria on Vancouver Island, design of its first protected two-way bike lane is taking shape. The design calls for the loss of 32 parking spots. In reaction, local merchants have submitted a petition opposing any protected bike lanes that compromise parking. I am sick of selfish interests compromising cyclist safety – BOYCOTT these businesses!
Safe Winter Cycling – How to Cycle Safely in the Winter
Winter cycling can be challenging, especially if you live in a climate that gets both cold AND wet. However, safe winter cycling is possible and even enjoyable, with careful planning and a little expense. Comfortable, safe winter cycling comes down to preparing your bike, preparing yourself, and having the right equipment. Here is a complete guide to safe winter cycling.
Is Urban Cycling an Extreme Sport?
By dressing as if we fear death any second, do we increase the perception that cycling is an extreme sport and risk scaring other people away from cycling? Will wearing bike helmets save our lives – or just discourage others from cycling, and so increase the numbers of people who will die from lack of exercise?
Stanley Park Causeway to be Made Much Safer – Another Giant Step for Safe Cycling Infrastructure in Vancouver
The Vancouver Park Board has unanimously approved a plan to widen the sidewalks along both sides of the Stanley Park Causeway to improve safety for cyclists and pedestrians. This ambitious plan was partly in response to the death of a 61-year-old woman cyclist in 2013. It was also in response to all of the activism that followed. It is a long overdue move – but on the plus side, it is a giant step forward in providing safe cycling infrastructure to Vancouver residents.
Driver Cuts off Cyclist and then has Violent Road Rage – and Trolls Attack
Here is another violent incident caught on a cyclist’s helmet cam. A motorist cuts off a cyclist, then attacks him verbally and kicks his bike. The cyclist posts the video online, and is then attacked again – this time by trolls on YouTube!
Man Accosts Cyclist and Tells Her “Cyclists Deserve to Die”
Remarkable video shows the value of helmet cams. This video taken by Leveret Day with a helmet cam shows James Nash accosting and abusing her for no reason except that he hates all cyclists and thinks they all deserve to die. Oh, and because he was bigger than her.
