Posts Tagged ‘bicycle’

Sorry to all the non-US folks that read this blog; this doesn't directly affect you.

There's currently activity in both houses of Congress affecting funding for cycling (and walking) infrastructure. If things go wrong in Congress, we could end up with a lot fewer bike lanes, bike paths and sidewalks and move more towards a totally car-centric infrastructure.

The current Senate transportation bill (MAP-21) weakens walking and biking programs. To improve the bill, bicycle advocates are asking senators to vote for a bipartisan amendment to guarantee local governments a voice in transportation decisions and allow them to build sidewalks, crosswalks, and bikeways that keep people safe.

In the House, cycling advocates are asking representatives to oppose the House transportation bill. Despite the fact that walking and bicycling infrastructure is a low-cost investment that creates more jobs per dollar than any other kind of highway spending, the House bill eliminates dedicated funding for walking and biking altogether.

Learn more and contact your senators and representative about this issue.

Obligatory disclaimer: none of this represents the official stance of Stack Exchange.

I took part in this year's World Naked Bike Ride. The ride is a celebration of cycling and the human body and also aims to highlight the vulnerability of cyclists on the road.

At the Southampton ride there were about 150 riders, which is a pretty good turn out for a cold Friday evening. The dress code was "bare as you dare"--some dared more than others.

We rode around Southampton and got an overwhelmingly positive response from car drivers, pedestrians and other onlookers. We managed to get some favourable media coverage and hopefully we helped raise the profile of cycling a little.

The 2012 World Naked Bike Ride will take place in March in the Southern Hemisphere and in June and July in the Northern Hemisphere. More details are available at www.worldnakedbikeride.org.

Aside from Bicycles.SE, these are the sites related to Bicycle touring I like the most.

• Crazy Guy on a Bike is home to the largest collection of bike touring journals on the planet. Many of them are worth reading, and some of them are excellent. The site started out as simply a place for site owner Neil Gunton's journal, and is now home to nearly 6,000 journals (including twenty of mine). This one about a Florida-to-Washington tour is my current favorite. The forums there are also quite good.
• Biking across the USA by John Dorsey is a sentimental favorite of mine. It's the first tour journal I ever read and it, along with this book, was one of the things planted the idea of touring into my head. I don't know if I'll ever do a tour loger than a week or two, but I found this site inspring. (If only he would finish the last few pages!)
• The Touring Store is my favorite place to buy racks and panniers and other bike luggage. The proprietor is extremely knowledgable about his merchandise, and genuinely wants his customers to be happy with their purchases--and also for them to buy the right stuff in the first place.
• The Touring subforum at BikeForums is also a very good resource. I've found many of the people there to be a good source of information, and sometimes to be very inspiring.
• Warm Showers is a shared hospitality site for bike tourists, similar to Couch Surfing.
• Icebike hasn't been updated in years, but the site still has a lot of great information. I've consulted it when planning winter tours.

Can anyone recommend any other really top-shelf sites that should be here?