Edmonton Bicycle Commuters Society

Sara, of Tegan and Sara, loves bikes, just like us. On the question of why she doesn’t yet have a driver’s licence:

“I like to think it has less to do with me being lazy, and more to do with my love of bicycles and mass transit!”

See original article in The Gateway.

Here’s their video for Speak Slow, from their 2004 release, So Jealous. The video happens to include a pop can being thrown at a cyclist:

From the hallowed halls of MIT Labs, first unveiled on the streets of Copenhagen (where else), comes yet another innovation: a bicycle wheel that has a motor assist, regenerative braking, GPS, air quality sensors, and wireless connectivity, all built into a single unit.

You can read more at the Wiser is the Path blog, or directly at the MIT project page.

So, the Dawson Bridge closed to traffic, pedestrians and cyclists on Monday.

Your best alternatives are the Low Level Bridge and the Cloverdale Pedestrian Bridge (which connects to Riverdale). If you need to head towards Capilano, then you can take the multiuse trail from Cloverdale up to 100 Ave (or follow it all the way to Rowland Road/106 Ave).  We’ve had conflicting reports about whether or not this path is being cleared of snow: if you know its status this winter, please .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address), and we’ll post an update here for everyone.

I’m thinking of starting up a city-wide trail condition reporting service.  Would you use this/participate? .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).

Now, you’re always welcome to send us e-mails with your complaints, and we’ll pass them on to the City or whoever’s appropriate.  But if you’re in the mood for some musical complaints, then I’ve got a video for you!  This is from a few years ago. Where was I back then? I don’t know.  Out enjoying the warm summer, likely.

Enjoy! Or, don’t, and leave a comment with your complaint.

http://www.complaintschoir.org/

CBC’s As It Happens organized Canada’s own complaints choir, if you’d like to hear about numb fingers, cell phone fees, and expensive cars that have no signal lights.

Via Streetfilms comes a short clip about a new bike path in New York City:

Chalk up more bikeway innovation to the folks at the NYC Department of Transportation. Now nearly complete, the Sands Street approach to the Manhattan Bridge is now safer and more enjoyable thanks to a first-of-its-kind in NYC: a center-median, two-way, protected bike path. Frankly, the facility is a perfect solution to counter the dangers posed by a tangle of roads and highway on-ramps that burden the area. Dramatic before and afters tell the delicious story.

French pop + bicycles: get your daily dose here.

(If you like that, you can buy her album here.)

Something will surely appeal to you in Sarah Chan’s video short, “Two-Wheeled Adventures”.  Despite my excessive use of the exclamation points in the title, though, I’ll admit it’s mostly just Sarah biking around town.

If you vote for her video, you can get daily entries for a draw for a portable music player.  And I’m not talking about that 10 D-cell powered boombox that I saw at a garage sale last week.  It’s much better, since I’m not the one giving out the prizes!

From CBC Vancouver comes this story on a cycling route planner developed at UBC that includes traffic, hill, and air pollution considerations.  Edmonton doesn’t have an automated route planner, but if you e-mail .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) with your start and destination, we’ll figure out and draw a route just for you!

Vancouver Cycling Route Planner from Peter Smith on Vimeo.

Ciclovía is such a nice word.  It’s the Spanish word for bike path, or a space temporarily closed to automobiles, and also describes the movement in cities across the world to close roads to traffic temporarily, and convert them into public recreation spaces, suitable for people.  Walking, running, dancing, skating, biking: it’s like a giant, mobile, family-friendly party.

Vancouver has just decided to embrace the initiative with car-free Sundays.  Other cities that are doing it include Cleveland, El Paso, Chicago, Portland, Miami, San Francisco, Bogotá, and a host of other cities in Colombia.  There are other cities in Canada that have similar programs: Calgary is trying out a single Sunday morning in August for a few hours, this year, after much debate in council.  Winnipeg closes some roads to local traffic only on Sundays.

Check out this short video about ciclovía:

Google Street View is coming to Edmonton at some point.  In Japan, it looks like they’re going to be getting Google Bike Path view:

Mikael Colville-Andersen, owner of the popular Copenhagen Cycle Chic blog, has put together this promotional music video for the City of Copenhagen, showing off the cycling in Copenhagen, where 36% of the population ride their bikes every day (that’s 500,000 people making at least one million trips a day).

We can be like that.  You just have to get on your bike and go to the market: that’s all they’re doing!

Does that Nimbus velomobile by Cambie Cycles look familiar to you?  You can learn a bit more about its driver and velomobiles in this video clip by local videographer Ben Coxworth:

Someone arrived at our site by way of the search phrase, “How long does it take mechanics to fix a leak”.

The answer, from Bikeology a few years ago: under 5 minutes.

We don’t recommend biking like this, unless you’ve closed the road. Enjoy: Bats For Lashes - What’s a Girl To Do.