4th Annual Duke City Classic
Look out Albuquerque, the 4th Annual Duke City Classic kicks off May 17 with 10 days of bike events. Bike prom, polo, alleycats, time trials, a family picnic, mountain bike rides, grass track races and a wrpa up party round it out. See more at the Duke City Classic Facebook event page.
Stolen Bikes in the UK
Bike theft is a problem more or less anywhere there are bicycles, and the UK is no exception. Bikes are everywhere in the UK, and on my couple of trips to London it was clear that theft was a problem given the quality of locks being used to secure beater bikes around town. In 2010 alone 115,000 bikes were reported stolen to the police, and bike theft is a terribly underreported crime. The site stolen-bikes.co.uk is a forum for wronged owners to post their stolen bike and an optional reward in the hopes of a potential buyer finding it and facilitating the return. Sister sites RegisterThatBike.co.uk and RecoveredThatBike.co.uk help owners document the bikes they do own, and link up police recovered bikes to their rightful owner.
Chrome De Haro Windbreaker
Packable windbreakers are one of those clothing items I am rarely without, and that have bailed me out of more than a few freak storms and cold fronts over the years. Chrome has introduced the $95 De Haro windbreaker to their ever expanding clothing lineup, featuring water resistant and windproof ripstop fabric, front utility pockets and a rear pocket that pulls double duty as a stuff sack for the jacket. Longer sleeves and an extended tail keep you covered in the drops, full length side vents allow you air out, and reflective cuffs add some visibility at night for signalling turns. Available in black or oxblood red at www.chromeindustries.com
Prague Garage Race 2013
The third annual Garage Race happened recently in Prague, with this video documenting the party and racing of the evening. Nice shooting and riding, looks like some classic sketchball fun.
Earth Policy Institute Bike Share Report
The future of bike sharing is now, with cities across the country and around the world embracing bike share programs as part of a healthy, multi-modal transport system. The Earth Policy Institute recently published a report on the worldwide uptake in bike share programs, worth a look for anyone still skeptical of bike share being a successful model.
Today more than 500 cities in 49 countries host advanced bike-sharing programs, with a combined fleet of over 500,000 bicycles. Urban transport advisor Peter Midgley notes that “bike sharing has experienced the fastest growth of any mode of transport in the history of the planet.”
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In the Americas, where the car has long been king, the first big third-generation bike-sharing program opened in Montreal in 2009. It now has 5,120 bicycles and over 400 stations, facilitating use of the city’s robust network of bike lanes and paths. Toronto plans to expand its 1,000-bike scheme, and Vancouver and Calgary, along with several other Canadian cities, are expecting to start programs in the next couple of years.When Mexico City launched its Ecobici program with some 1,000 bikes in 2010, it quickly reached its limit of 30,000 annual members and started a waiting list of eager would-be cyclists. The program has since quadrupled in size and remains the largest of Latin America’s dozen or so programs.
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In early 2013, China was home to 79 bike-sharing programs, with a whopping combined fleet of some 358,000 bicycles. According to a paper prepared in late 2012 for the Transportation Research Board’s 92nd Annual Meeting by Yang Tang and colleagues at Tongji University, expansions and new projects could soon balloon China’s public bike fleet to just under 1 million cycles.The world’s largest bike-sharing program is in Wuhan, China’s sixth largest city, with 9 million people and 90,000 shared bikes.
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Read the entire report at www.earth-policy.org
