The Case for Bicycle Infrastructure

This is great, saw it over on Copenhagenize today. Basically a mighty (yet accessible) barrage of international research bits backing up the virtues of bike lanes and cycletracks. Hope it trickles down to all the dark, musty places where the idea somehow still lurks that somehow bike lanes - especially protected lanes - are somehow a bad idea or not worth the investment.

Someone in DC might want to pass this along to new DDOT Director Terry Bellamy.

The Case for Bicycle Infrastructure

Much of the rest of the world including quite a bunch of (presumably) smart people seem to have come to the conclusion cycle lanes and cycle tracks are very much worth every penny.

full article

Tame and Reclaim

This is a few months old, but still a good one from Streetfilms. Look at the variety of people out using the protected two-way bike lane.

The Taming and Reclaiming of Prospect Park West

Getting better

From today's Washington Post, in case you missed it:

D.C. expands network of cycling lanes, bike-sharing program

"This is not bicycling for the sake of bicycling," [Jim Sebastian, cycling coordinator for the District Department of Transportation] said. "We view bicycling as part of our transportation system, like the Circulator [bus service] and Metrorail. We want to give people an alternative."

And, pleasant surprise, for once no counter-punch quotes from disgruntled drivers tacked on at the end for 'balance'. No, 'uh-oh, driving's about to get a lot more treacherous around here, folks!' kind of thing (which I was appalled to see on a TV news bit when the Pennsylvania Ave lanes opened).

full article

Danish cycle tracks

From the Cycling Embassy of Denmark [Ed. note - you know your bike culture has arrived when it has its own 'embassy']

Cycle tracks that come to you as you go

[...] Over many years a fine-meshed network of cycle tracks has been constructed along with other measures that prioritise bicycles. It is all easy to use, and cycle tracks aren’t something you need to look for: They come to you as you go.

full article

Wish and you may receive

15th Street protected bike lane is now two-way. BeyondDC has it here.

Vancouver can-do

Via GOOD:

Vancouver Creates Continuous Network of Protected Bike Lanes

How do we make our car-oriented cities friendlier to cyclists? Look north. Over the past few years, Vancouver has been steadily reclaiming space on its busy streets for bikes.

[full article]