Thursday, March 10, 2011

Road design with bicycles in mind

Over the last seven or eight months I've seen a fair chunk of Australia on the bicycle and I though I'd share some of the bicycle infrastructure around the place that has made me think "wow, imagine if they implemented this everywhere!"


There is something about a meagre bit of concrete or paint that costs next to nothing in relative terms but makes a huge huge difference to the cycling experience.



Wednesday, March 2, 2011

The role of bicycles in natural disasters

BMXer making the most of Christchurch post-quake roads
[via matthewjctalbot's yfrog Stream]


The Christchurch, New Zealand earthquake shone the light on the issues that can be faced getting access to fuel{1} to power motor vehicles (and the high price of fuel when it is available{2}), motor vehicles being damaged or out of action, the damage done to roads making them impassable{3}, and the problems with congestion on roads in the aftermath of a disaster getting in the way of emergency workers{4}. There were stories of masses of people showing up on bicycle to an open air mass{5} to remember those lost in the disaster. There have been daily images on news networks of people riding through the devastated town, and to check up on friends, on badly damaged roads closed to motorized traffic. There have been some amateur reporters riding around after the earthquake filming and posting the results on youtube and social media, which the media networks then pick up... which may or may not be a good thing.