Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: bicycle, bicycling, cancer, car commuting, Christine Hoehner, Christine M. Hoehner, commuting times, heart disease, Hoehner, long commutes, Preventive Medicine, transportation
A study published this month in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine found that the longer people drive to work, the more likely they are to have poor cardiovascular health.
“This is the first study to show that people who commute long distances to work were less fit, weighed more, were less physically active and had higher blood pressure,” said Christine M. Hoehner, a public health professor at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and the study’s lead author. “All those are strong predictors of heart disease, diabetes, and some cancers.”
…those who commuted by car 10 miles or more each way were more likely to have high blood pressure than people who drove shorter distances. And those who traveled 15 or more miles each way were more likely to have bigger waistlines and less likely to be physically active, according to Hoehner’s study.
via Long commute time linked with poor health, new study shows – USATODAY.com.
Filed under: Bike of the Day, Uncategorized | Tags: bicycle, bicycle theft, bicycling, bike, bike of the day, bike rack, bike theft, Gary Fisher, mid range, mountain bike, mountain biking, MTB, The Art of Mountain Biking, Trek
I’ve often seen a mid-range Trek mtb parked at this spot, formerly occupied by a bike rack.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: active commuting, biblioteca, bicycle, bicycling, bike, biking, ciclista, ciclistas urbanos, cycling, gob mx, green transportation, Mexico, Mexico City, Mexico City bicycling manual, Mexico D.F., transportation, urban biking, urban cycling
(En Espanol)
http://www.sma.df.gob.mx/sma/links/download/biblioteca/flippingbooks/manual_ciclista_urbano/
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: active commuting, active transportation, bicycle, bicycle commuting, bicycling, bike, bike commuting, biking, cycling, gas taxes, transportation
And, it kills your back and hips. Which causes more stress.
The bit below about American cities not being built for active commuters. Not exactly true. Somewhat true. A lot of American cities are currently set up quite nicely to accept vast numbers of additional bike commuters should these autonomous individuals choose to take that step.
A 2011 study of 21,000 Swedish workers found those who commuted by car or public transit reported more stress, exhaustion and missed work days than those who walked or bicycled to work. But few American cities are built for active commuters.
“We’ve engineered physical activity out of our lives,” said Hoehner. “We need to change our communities and make improvements to the infrastructure to make the healthy choice the easy choice.”
via Commuting Drives Up Weight, Blood Pressure – ABC News.
There is a lot more to making a bike-friendly environment than “engineering” the built environment. Like what:
–The cost of driving in Europe is much higher than it is in the US, due to famously high fuel taxes and fees. We complain about 4$ gas. No Euro country has gas anywhere near that cheap, due to govt. fuel taxes.
–Laws and court proceedings in bike-friendly countries favor bicyclists and pedestrians.
–Culture is overall more bike-friendly.
It’s already an easy choice for many in the US. Let’s stop making excuses. There will always be room for improvement. The built environment will never be perfect here, and it isn’t in Europe.
I guess what I’m saying is this. We all wish for improvements in the cycling environment. If you complain about and push for better bike infrastructure, great! That helps. But I sure hope you’re doing it as a bike commuter, not as an excuse-making car commuter.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: bicycle, bicycles, cycling, faired bikes, fast bikes, Graeme Obree, speed record, Whittingham
Flying Scotsman thinks he may have figured a few things out about building a world-record recumbent. Seriously looks like he may be on to something, again! This looks like the position he always wanted — not Superman but Human Missile.
“You just roll it and go up through the gears. If you get into the top gear you are already doing 80mph,” he said.
The wheels are home-made but are the same size as those used on BMX bicycles, and the gears are from a conventional bike.
While he is confident that “the engine remains in decent nick”, the bid will be as much a test of engineering as physical strength.
His riding position, which will have him lying horizontally on his front, pedalling head first just a few inches from the road, is completely unlike the design used by Whittingham to set the existing record. The Canadian, like other speed cyclists, rides in a reclining position, with his head at the back of the bike, and his legs turning pedals at the front.
To maximise aerodynamics, Obree will also be surrounded by what he calls “the skin”, a carbon shell that is reinforced with bullet-proof Kevlar so that it does not disintegrate if he crashes. “It’s basically a torpedo – a land based missile,” he said.
via The 100mph bike – designed in the bath and made from an old saucepan – Telegraph.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: bicycle, bicycling, bike helmets, bike safety, cycling, deceleration, g-forces, Hovding, invisible bike helmet, invisible helmet, safe cycling
… Designed to inflate like an airbag in the event of a collision.
By Hovding.
Here’s how it works: Sensors in the collar detect unusual movements by the wearer. Upon impact, the sensors trigger a gas inflator that pumps air into an airbag that’s folded into the collar, which fully inflates around the head it in 0.1 seconds. Hövding, which is available in Europe for SEK3,998 (about $595), weighs about 1 1/2 lbs. and uses a rechargeable battery. It must be turned on. About one hour before the battery runs out, it makes a “battery low” sound.
Via http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-04-26/an-invisible-bike-helmet-from-sweden
I see a little problem with this. “Unusual head movements…” There is a fair bit of head movement in normal non-crashy cycling, so the Device would have to be calibrated to ignore all that. In the event of a solo wreck during which the front wheel is suddenly removed from beneath the rider (a relatively common path to head injury for bicyclists), for example, when a rider totally wipes out on black ice or a wet streetcar rail, the first sign of “unusual head movement” that would be detected by the Device could very well be that of the head impacting the pavement structure. In other words, too late. And so the rider is injured twice, first by slapping the skull onto the pavement structure, and second by paying six-hundred bucks for an invisible helmet that inflates only after the collision has occurred, thus launching the injured rider’s head off the ground rudely with further negative consequences to his or her neck and overall temperment. However, it may do quite well at detecting sudden accelerations involved with collision with a motor vehicle or fixed object.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: bicycle, bicycling, bike, India, samajwadi, urban cycling
Here’s something you don’t see every day.
SAMAJWADI PARTY :: OFFICIAL WEBSITE.
Filed under: maps | Tags: bicycle, bicycle accidents, bicycling, bike, car-bike collisions, Cascade Bicycle Club, King County, reported accidents, Seattle
From the Seattle Times: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2017544092_bikemap19m.html
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: bicycle, bicycling, bikes and red lights, cycling, France, Idaho stop, red lights, traffic law, transportation, urban cycling
France gets all reasonable about bicycles and red lights.
The newly relaxed rules of the road for cyclists is now being tested across 15 intersections in Paris, though with it bike-commuters aren’t given full liberty to blow through crossing points unreasonably. Law will continue to require that cyclists yield to pedestrians and opposing traffic, though that’s quite likely consistant with the standards of etiquette and personal safety most cyclists abide to anyways.
via France Grants Cyclists the Right to Run Red Lights : TreeHugger.
Maybe now American advocacy groups will get behind the idea. They haven’t in the past. But they seem to love anything remotely Euro-flavored, so it wouldn’t surprise me if this caused a noticeable uptick in Idaho Stop-related chatter around here.
Filed under: Bike of the Day | Tags: bicycle, fixed gear, fixed wheel, fixie, hipster
I saw this and immediately wanted to go carve traffic on my way to Pablo’s Coffee House.
Filed under: maps | Tags: bicycle, bicycling advocacy, bike, cycling infrastructure, Jefferson County, pedestrian, recreation, transportation
That’s Jeffco, Colorado, comprising the western suburbs of Denver. There are a lot of Jeffco’s around.
click for pdf
They are seeking comments here: http://www.jeffco.us/bike-plan
Filed under: Bike of the Day | Tags: bicycle, bicycles, bike, bike of the day, Bob Jackson
Classic frame turned single-speed.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: accident, bicycle, bicycling, bike, collision, cycling, traffic, traffic safety, Washington, Wessels
Also from the Wessels pdf…
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: accident, bicycle, bicycling, bike, collision, traffic, traffic safety, Washinton
From the study by Ralph Wessels (pdf).
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: accident, bicycle, collision, pedestrian, safety
Tom Vanderbilt
Industrialized Cyclist Notepad 