B.C. government officially kills cyclists’ ‘world class’ rails-to-trails dream

The B.C. government has officially killed the goal of making a “world class” rails-to-trails network exclusive to non-motorized recreational activities such as cycling and horseback riding. The network, part of the famed Trans Canada Trail, covers about 550 kilometres of former rail corridors — including the Kettle Valley Railway from Brookmere to Midway, the Slocan Valley Rail Trail, and the Columbia and Western Rail Trail from Midway to Castlegar. Read more.

Mississippi Mills Bicycle Month and the LGL District Health Unit challenge candidates to take the active communities pledge

Citizens of Mississippi Mills: Let’s show our candidates the importance that our town continues to grow as a healthy active community by taking the ‘Active Communities Pledge’ for voters.  Read more.

Putting healthy communities on the ballot

Jim Hopkins, an avid cyclist who bikes to work every day at Stuart Baker Elementary School, says that council’s attention to active transportation matters to him as a voter and as a citizen. Read more.

Toronto - 5 ways to improve your commute

For many, commuting in Toronto is a daily exercise in frustration. With travel times now exceeding well over an hour daily, it’s a virtual guarantee you’ll be spending some time stuck in traffic regardless of the mode of transportation you choose. And with the promise of new transportation infrastructure possibly decades away from becoming reality, it’s time to get smart about commuting. Here are five tips which could play a role in lessening the pain from an overlong commute.  Read more.

A Universal Lesson in Breaking the Habit of Car Commuting

Getting people to change their commute mode is extremely difficult for companies and cities alike. Decades of transit improvements have made only a tiny dent in car commuting (at least in the United States). Charging drivers higher road and gas prices would increase the dent, but that's politically tricky. Read more.

Video - Cycling Etiquette For Riding Better Together

The recent death of Jill Tarlov, the Connecticut mother killed by a racing cyclist in Central Park, calls attention to the culture of cycling in cities. We discuss etiquette and how cyclists, motorists and pedestrians can ride better together. Watch.

Specialized insurance, homeowner's plans can protect your bicycle: Breaking the cycle

While homeowner's or renter's insurance offers basic protection for bicycle theft, specialized bicycle insurance plans offer the type of coverage that auto insurance affords drivers. Read more.

Hamilton - tive Transportation Infrastructure Roundup, September 2014 Edition

t's been a busy year for active transportation infrastructure in Hamilton. Just over a month ago, I wrote about the Cannon Street Cycle Track (since opened), the weird strip of asphalt on Longwood Road South, bike lane detours for road work and a new crosswalk at Hunter and Locke. It's not even a month and a half later, but I'm happy to report another batch of projects that has come down the pipe. Read more.

20ft cycle lane in Birmingham dubbed "useless" by cycling campaign group

Bike riders have dismissed a tiny 20ft cycle lane in Birmingham as “ridiculous”. Birmingham City Council created the path on Washwood Heath Road, opposite Ward End Park. Read more.

Skateboarding event in Saskatoon

The annual skateboarding event Fall Freestyle was held at the Lion’s Skateboard park in Victoria Park in Saskatoon on September 20, 2014. See more.

Can Amsterdam’s e-trikes revolutionise the city’s food system?

In recent years, Amsterdam has earned a reputation as a genuine smart city. Not because it is pioneering technological urbanism – building megastructures filled with interconnected digital sensors and robots – but rather, as urban sociologist Saskia Sassen puts it, because the city actively urbanises technology. Read more.

Sideguards to be made mandatory for all trucks doing business in Boston

Side guards save lives. It's proven. When a truck turns right without seeing a cyclist, it just pushes the cyclist aside instead of pulling her under the wheels. They are required on trucks in Europe and China. But not in the USA and not in Canada, where the authorities say they can't change the law because it would give the American truckers an unfair economic advantage. Read more.

A Death in Central Park Raises Real Questions About Bicyclist Behavior

It was the second fatal bike-pedestrian crash in the city in just two months, and the second to happen in Central Park. People who ride bikes need to accept their responsibilities as road users just the way that people who drive cars do. If you are traveling at a high rate of speed —25 miles per hour is the speed limit for all vehicles in the park, and it is not uncommon for road cyclists to achieve it—you have to acknowledge that you can kill someone or grievously injure them, just as you could if you were driving a car. Read more.

Vancouver - Who should pay when cyclists and pedestrians collide?

If Murphy has been hit by a car, ICBC or another insurance carrier would have helped her with her expenses and losses. Instead, since cyclists aren't required to carry insurance, collecting any compensation was next to impossible. Read more.

Central Madrid Rolls Out a Tough-Love Plan to Limit Cars

Drive a car into central Madrid and expect to receive a €90 ($115 U.S) ticket soon after. That’s the radical new rule beginning this January, when the Spanish capital will launch measures to sweep its core free of cars. Read more.

London - Let’s reclaim more city streets for cyclists, says Boris Johnson

Space on urban streets should be reclaimed from cars and reallocated for cycling to make cities more pleasant places to live, according to Boris Johnson, who has hit back at business opposition to his cycle superhighway plans. Read more.

Toronto - Sticker campaign shames drivers parked in cycling lanes

Led by two anonymous city cyclists, the campaign encourages people to slap a neon-green sticker that says “I parked in a bike lane” onto offending cars and to then post pictures on social media. Cyclists can buy a roll of 20 stickers for $5 through the campaign. Read more.

Stop hating on cyclists

To hear it from the tabloid trolls, we live in a dystopian hellscape where cyclists pedal lawless through the streets, terrorizing grannies and innocent drivers alike. Cyclists have been branded as "terrorists on wheels," "assassins in Spandex," and villains with "curses on their lips — and blood on their hands." Read more.

Big Ideas: Chow backs streets-for-all; Tory more wary

Designing complete streets means meeting the needs of all users — motorists, pedestrians and cyclists, those moving fast or slow, young and old, business owners, local residents. This progressive urban initiative is believed to improve safety, increase urban activity, boost local business, and above all, it is touted as a step in creating a better quality of life for residents. Read more.

Revamped lorry designs could avoid hundreds of cycling deaths – study

Revamping lorry designs to overhaul blind spots in current models could save the lives of hundreds of cyclists and pedestrians every year, according to a new report by Loughborough University. Read more.

Toronto Centre for Active Transportation – Complete Streets Forum

October 6th for the Toronto Complete Streets Forum, an influential event that brings together hundreds of professionals, decision-makers and community members. Alta Principal, Gavin Davidson, will be presenting at 3:15 pm “How Canadian Design Guidance is Rapidly Evolving to Integrate Best Practices in Complete Streets Design.”
Learn more.

Chelsea’s (QC) Active Transportation Master Plan

The new Active Transportation Master Plan was presented at the September Chelsea Municipal Council meeting. It will be approved at the next council meeting in October. Mayor Caryl Green is inviting Chelsea residents to consult the Plan and submit their comments. we invite SCT members and supporters to read the Master Plan on the municipality’s Website at http://www.chelsea.ca/?q=node/61 and submit your comments and suggestions. Read more.

Webinar on “The Sustainable Urban Transport Master Plan of Windhoek, Namibia” on 25.October.2014

Urban Mobility Planning is an strategic approach to achieve a broad set of targets, e.g. reducing air pollution, greenhouse gas emissions, road accidents and increasing the access to safe, clean and affordable mobility for all population groups. The Sustainable Urban Transport Master Plan (SUTMP) Windhoek, Namibia, presents the most forward-looking vision for urban mobility on the African continent and will contribute to solving transport-related challenges in the agglomeration. Learn more about the development of the SUTMP Windhoek in GIZ-SUTP’s webinar on this Thursday, September, 25.


For more information: here.

What if bike comfort is more important than bike safety?

When I'm riding my bike along a five-lane arterial road, I know, rationally, that the professional truck driver next to me is statistically unlikely to suddenly swerve to his right, crushing and killing me. But that doesn't mean I like to bike on a street like this. Read more.

Living by Bike: Sarah Chan and Don Iveson

 The more you ride, the more you figure out your favorite routes and short cuts. Edmonton doesn’t give the impression of being particularly bikefriendly, but there are tons of us out there riding and the numbers increase every year. Read more.

Can Waving Orange Flags Really Make Pedestrians Safer?

More cities are trying to make crossing the street less deadly by handing out low-tech flags. But does this just make walkers seem weird? Read more.

George Poulos: “Comprehensive Costs of Transportation in Vancouver” – 5

In the past, applications have typically centered on evaluating traditional transportation infrastructure projects; anything to do with roads, bridges, tunnels, railways or various transit modes. However, unit costs have recently been put towards evaluating active transportation strategies. A cogent example can be drawn from the Danish city of Odense’s “Cycle City” program, which was a combined cycle infrastructure and promotional campaign. A subsequent analysis of cycling statistics following the implementation of the program revealed some significant results. Read more.

Halifax council approves new five-year active transportation plan

Coun. Jennifer Watts tabled the final version of the 2014-19 Active Transportation Priorities Plan during Tuesday’s regional council meeting, saying it begins to close some of the gaps left by spotty funding for the enormous, comprehensive plan of eight years ago. Read more.

Economic Value of Active Transportation

Healthy Living Niagara created Economic Value of Active Transportation Fact Sheets to provide evidence to encourage infrastructure investments and policies that support walking and cycling more often. The fact sheets cover the following topics: Local businesses, Tourism, School, Health, Air Quality.

Thunder Bay - Beefed-up bike repair stations in business

Cycling just got a little more convenient in Thunder Bay with new and improved bike repair stations.  The first bike repair station was installed at the Mary J.L. Black Library in May, and within six weeks it was vandalized, Adam Krupper, active transportation co-ordinator for Thunder Bay, said Wednesday. The “standard version’’ is used around the world, said Krupper, but in Thunder Bay “it needed to be beefed up.’’ Read more.

Goderich - Hansen focusing on health care, ec-dev, waterfront and active transportation

Hansen said she would like to see an increased promotion of active transportation. Huron County has asked for the completion of an active transportation master plan, and Hansen said Goderich should really buy into the idea. “We have good walk ability in our community,” Hansen said. Read more.

The 'magic pill' to prevent obesity, diabetes and lower your risk of cancer? Just WALK for 30 minutes each day, expert reveals

Walking for half an hour a day is equivalent to taking a 'magic pill' that combats ageing and prevents premature death, an expert has said. Dr James Brown surprised an audience at the British Science Festival by presenting the myriad benefits of a pill that could maintain healthy living and improve quality of life. Read more.

Downsizing: When hitting the road hurts like hell

In the past couple of years, I had fallen into a rather dangerous pattern: drive to work, sit, drive home, sit some more, then sleep. All the while, eating fast food like it’s an Olympic sport. Truth is, when you weigh 415 pounds you really have no idea where to begin. Read more.

Cycling’s no lost cause in Waterloo Region

Waterloo Coun. Diane Freeman had two mishaps, and Road Ahead columnist Jeff Outhit thinks that we should all label cycling a lost cause. Read more.

Toronto - Sherbourne lanes a cycling success that should inspire more, says councillor

The number of cyclists whizzing along Sherbourne St. each day has nearly tripled since its fancy new separated bike lanes opened at the end of 2012, new figures show. The boost in bicycles is proof that when cyclists feel safe, they’ll take to the streets in greater numbers and more often — which is why Toronto plans to build a network of separated lanes, said Councillor Denzil Minnan-Wong, chair of Toronto’s public works and infrastructure committee. Read more.

The Surprising Politics of Traffic Solutions

Democrats are much more optimistic than Republicans that every infrastructure investment can help ease congestion—even roads. Read more.

Examining the 'Vehicular Cycling' vs. 'Segregated Cycling' Debate

Following the approval of a three-foot passing law for bikers in California this week, Joseph Stromberg examines the ongoing debate about the best way for cars and bikes to coexist on streets. Read more.

Kingston - Cycle Sunday

Join us on Sunday September 28th, 2014 from 9 am - 1 pm (rain or shine) at Lake Ontario Park for our second annual Cycle Sunday event. Cycle Sunday involves closing a portion of King Street and Front Road to vehicle traffic for the morning, to allow cyclists and other forms of active transportation to travel from Lake Ontario Park to Centre 70 and back. Read more.

Edmonton considering options for new bike lanes

With the success of bike lanes installed in other areas, the City of Edmonton will restart talks on where new lanes should be implemented. “The last couple of months have been really great,” said Tyler Golly, general supervisor of the city’s sustainable transportation department. Read more.

NYC and DC, protected lane pioneers, just doubled biking rates in 4 years

Powered by one of the country's most successful bike sharing systems, a growing painted lane network, a handful of protected lanes and a burgeoning bicycle culture, Washington DC vaulted to 4.5 percent of commutes by bicycle in 2013, up from 2.2 percent in 2009. Read more.

Helsinki City to boost bicycle use

Helsinki plans to increase the number of bicycles in the city in the coming years in an attempt to enlarge the share of bicycles in the city’s traffic. (So why can't Canadian cities?) Read more.

Downtown LRT line good route for bike boulevard, Edmonton councillor says

The future 102nd Avenue LRT route should become a bicycle boulevard where drivers and cyclists share the road, Coun. Scott McKeen says. Low-floor trains will one day travel from 96th Street to 107th Street on 102nd Avenue, also one of the options for the major bike route through downtown. Read more.

Blueberry-fueled biking on Quebec's Route Verte

Quebec has over 3,000 miles (5,000 kilometers) of bike-friendly roads and trails in its Route Verte (Green Way) cycling network and selecting which segments to ride can be bewildering. In making a plan months earlier, I decided to follow the food. Read more.

Montréal - Cyclistes dans les parcs

Après avoir annoncé son intention de sortir les cyclistes des grands parcs, la Ville de Montréal met le projet sur la glace et étudie plutôt l'option de leur permettre la libre circulation. Lis plus.

City visit Groningen: the historical path of the best cycling city in the Netherlands

For anyone who thinks that the Dutch bicycle culture has always been there and is impossible to replicate, read this story about the path Groningen followed, paving the way for a 60% modal share in cycling. Read more.

Investing in cycling to meet the EU’s 2030 40% emissions target and energy security goals

ECF’s aim, to get ‘more people cycling more often’, is a win-win situation for meeting both the target of a 40% emissions reduction by 2030 and the EU’s energy security goals. Making up a fifth of the EU’s greenhouse gas emissions, reducing emissions from the transport sector is key to meeting the 40% targets. Read more.

So What Exactly Is a 'Road Diet'?

Earlier this week, the U.S. Department of Transportation announced an 18-month campaign to improve road safety across the country. One of the things DOT plans to do is create a guide to "road diets" that it will distribute to communities and local governments. DOT says that road diets can reduce traffic crashes by an average of 29 percent, and that in some smaller towns the design approach can cut crashes nearly in half. Read more.

U.S. - Adult obesity reaches new high

While U.S. childhood-obesity rates appear to be stabilizing, the rate among adults remains stubbornly high, reaching new peaks in several states during the past year. Read more.

Making Tracks: Cycling Leader (Train-the-Trainer) Training Session

This session will provide adults and older youth with the safety knowledge and skills they need to lead the Making Tracks cycling program with youth and children in their community.  It will also provide participants with the tools to become more confident, knowledgeable and skilled cyclists.  Topics covered will include safety, preparedness, rules-of-the-road and etiquette, technical skills, equipment maintenance and community route planning. Read more.

Walking or cycling to work 'improves well-being'

Active commuters felt better able to concentrate and under less strain than when travelling by car, University of East Anglia (UEA) researchers said. Even going by public transport was preferable to driving, data from 18,000 UK commuters over 10 years suggested. Read more.

No Cellphones! Chinese Walking Lane Separates Phone Addicts

Last week, pedestrians in the city of Chongqing discovered a designated cellphone lane to walk in while they played Candy Crush or talked on WeChat. "Cellphones, walk in this lane at your own risk," read the lettering on the ground. The lane next to it explicitly banned cellphones. Read more.

A Tale of Two Cities – The Irony, Ecstasy, and Agony of Cycling

John Weston, Member of Parliament for West Vancouver – Sunshine Coast – Sea to Sky Country: I cycled in the Gran Fondo, from Vancouver to Whistler last Saturday, before flying to Ottawa where cyclist Laurie Strano had been struck and killed the same day while participating in the 100-kilometre Ride the Rideau fundraising event for cancer research. Read more.

Ottawa - Spend $20M on cycling annually, safe cycling group urges

The city should spend $20 million a year on cycling infrastructure, an advocacy group is urging. Citizens for Safe Cycling launched its “I bike, I vote” campaign Monday, six weeks ahead of the Oct. 27 municipal election. The group wants the next instalment of council to tie the amount the city spends annually on cycling infrastructure to the number of people riding bikes on the city’s road network. Read more.

activeTO.ca

activeTO.ca is a Toronto Public Health initiative that encourages public support for changes in our city that make walking, cycling and taking public transit safe and easy choices. See more.

Avon Region Active Transportation Plan

The Towns of Windsor & Hantsport and the Municipality of West Hants are pleased to support the creation of the Avon Region Active Transportation Plan. In order for this to be successful we want YOU to be a part of the process!   Watch for details on consultations to be held in early October, including a bike ride, walk, public meeting and on-line survey. See more.

Toronto - It's your move

The Toronto Centre for Active Transportation (TCAT) has released its 12th and final video from the It`s Your Move series, featuring Jennifer Keesmaat, Chief Planner and the Executive Director of the City of Toronto's Planning Department. See video.

In Praise Of The Upright Bike

North American bike culture is changing. Fast. And a big part of that shift is in the type of bicycles people are choosing to ride. Traditional upright city bikes have seen an explosion in popularity in recent years, with real implications to the way we design and experience cities. Read more.

Halifax is ready to get active

Residents of Halifax, Nova Scotia, will soon have a better opportunity to step out of their cars and enjoy their hometown after city officials approved a new five-year active transportation plan, according to Metro News. The expansive master plan passed in 2006 set the framework for this infrastructure overhaul to gear it more toward the people who choose to walk, bike or make use of public transportation, but this new strategy builds upon the shortcomings that have fallen through the cracks over the years. Read more.

A Buffer Zone Is Now Law for California Cyclists

Another splash of fuel to the share-the-road debate: On Tuesday, California became the 24th state in the nation to enact a formal passing law for cyclists. That means cars are now legally required to give a berth of at least three feet while passing bikes, or face penalties. Read more.

Ditching cars for buses, bikes best way to cut city pollution : study

 Encouraging people to abandon their cars and use public transport or walk or cycle around cities offers the "least pain, most gain" way to cut air pollution from traffic by 2050, a new international study said on Wednesday. Read more.

Toronto - John Tory lays out ‘reasonable’ cycling platform, countering Olivia Chow’s plan for 200 km of bike lanes

Mayoral frontrunner John Tory outlined the bare bones of his cycling platform Tuesday, promising a new, modest network of separated bike lanes and a dedicated fund to help maintain lanes that are already in place. Read more.

Bike lanes have actually sped up car traffic in New York City

Since 2007, New York City has added 31 miles of protected bike lanes — that is, lanes protected by a physical barrier, such as a row of parked cars or a curb. The main point of building protected lanes was to make biking in the city safer. But when the NYC Department of Transportation recently studied the impact of the lanes, they found a secondary benefit: on several different avenues in Manhattan, the lanes actually helped speed up car traffic. Read more.

Velo-city 2015

The Velo-city conference series serves as the major global platform for the exchange of visions, knowledge, expertise skills and good practice on cycling as part of daily transport and recreation and on cycling related policies. More specifically, Velo-city promotes the integration of urban cycle planning into all the relevant public policy sectors, including transport planning, land development, public health, education, environment, economy, energy and human rights. Read more.


Join us and contribute to Velo-city 2015 with the Call for Papers before 31 October 2014. Your proposal can take different forms depending on the format you choose. You are invited to submit your contributions on the online platform.

Millennials Love Transit Most, Boomers Still Stuck on Cars

In 2013, transit ridership in the United States hit a 50-year high, with the nation’s transit systems logging 10.7 billion rides. A new survey from the new transportation-focused philanthropy TransitCenter, seeks to discover who those riders are and what motivates them to get on the trains, buses, and streetcars of American cities. Read more.

10 years ago next month, this letter to the NYT foresaw New York’s biking triumph

It happened on Oct. 10, 2004, in a letter to the editor from a man named Kenneth Coughlin. It was a response to a personal narrative the previous week from a young Times reporter who had made the daring decision to start riding her bicycle to work. In that article, then-Transportation Commissioner Iris Weinshall had made the prediction that New York City could one day be "one of the world's great bicycling cities." Read more.

Cambridge (ON) pedestrian bridge over Grand River gains support

Build it and we will come, say some Cambridge residents about a possible pedestrian bridge over the Grand River. Read more.

Why Walking Helps Us Think

What is it about walking, in particular, that makes it so amenable to thinking and writing? The answer begins with changes to our chemistry. Read more.

What if we started talking about transit savings?

"Who will pay?" This question usually dominates our transit debate, but what if the focus was on "how much would we save by investing in transit?" The current Ontario municipal election campaign provides a new opportunity to ask the right questions, and present some compelling conclusions. Read more.

Who wouldn't want this? The joys of cycling in Copenhagen

It's probably the most enjoyable traffic jam I've ever been in. It's 8am and I'm crossing Queen Louise's Bridge, one of the pinch-points for anyone heading to the centre of Copenhagen, ringed as it is by waterways. Vehicles are strung out behind and in front of me, and hem me in on each side – but they're two-wheeled vehicles, on a broad path designated solely for bicycles. Read more.

Boris Johnson's cycling vision. A political railroading exercise?

The battles over Boris Johnson’s plans for an 18 mile, highly segregated cycle “superhighway” linking Barking in the east to Acton in the west are as revealing as they are fraught. In recent days the mayor has come under pressure from both the evangelical wing of London’s cycling lobby and his more natural allies in London’s business community and Square Mile. The reservations of the latter about the mayor’s “Crossrail for bikes” have consumed some activists with rage. Read more.

Americans Don't Walk Much, and I Don't Blame Them

This won’t be breaking news to most readers, but Americans don’t walk very much.  Periodically, National Geographic publishes a 17-nation “Greendex” study on, among many other things, transit use and walking.  In 2012 we Americans came in dead last on both indices, and it wasn’t close. Read more.

Ottawa Pedestrian Plan

Ottawa Pedestrian Plan, presented to the transportation committee on September 3, 2014. Read more.

Quebec City police probed after cyclist run over by cruiser dies

A cyclist has died in hospital after a Quebec City police cruiser ran over him yesterday, in an accident that at least one witness said left the man trapped under the car "in a fetal position." Read more.

Six photos show how much a quick protected lane can add to a bigger project

Here are a few images from Austin bikeway engineer Nathan Wilkes that show how several thousand dollars of posts and paint can bring a new million-dollar bridge from good to great. Read more.


(You can accomplish quite a bit with a little paint.)

Taking back the streets: Open Streets takes Toronto

“I’ve never been in favour of Open (Streets) Toronto,” Ford said shortly after he met with city staff about the event. “We have parks for people to walk, for exercise, to do yoga. You don’t have to close down a major street to walk, do yoga — that’s for parks. Read more.

City of Regina wants 21% hike to monthly bus passes

The price of an adult monthly pass that's now $62 will rise to $75 — a 21 per cent increase. There are similar increases planned for Youth and Post-secondary passes. Read more.

City Spotlight – Toronto

A million people can’t be wrong! One of the first things you will notice is that there are bicycles everywhere in Toronto’s mostly flat and dense downtown. Read more.

How Car Companies Are Trying to Win Back Millennials

A Zipcar-funded study found that about 40 percent of Millennials would rather lose access to a car than to their smartphone or laptop. Young people today are more excited by the latest product announcement from Apple than from Ford. The gleam is off the car and on the iPhone, which has automakers scrambling to get it back. Read more.

Video Release: It's Your Move Active Transportation Champion Nadien Godkewitsch

The Toronto Centre for Active Transportation (TCAT) releases today its 11th video from the It`s Your Move series, featuring Nadien Godkewitsch, Manager of Programs at the Toronto Community Foundation (TCF). Read more.

Municipal Candidates endorse cycling and active transportation in Waterloo Region

Twenty-four municipal candidates from Cambridge, Kitchener, and Waterloo have pledged to support walking and biking in their communities if elected, more than all other Ontario municipalities combined. Read more.

Why you shouldn't let inexperienced cyclists get under your skin

Shoaling is better known as a term of bike etiquette, one that describes a specific cycling behavior that's emerged with the proliferation of bikes and bike lanes in many U.S. metro areas. Read more.

Millions of people on the move – The UK’s national cycle network goes from strength to strength

The latest figures released from the UK are proof of the demand for safe, comfortable and attractive cycle routes. Sustrans, our national EuroVelo coordination centre in the UK, has released a report which shows usage steadily on the rise on the National Cycle Network. Read more.

Cycling and health – Obviously a winning team

A study published recently in the British Medical Journal has proven once more what committed cycle commuters have known for a long time: Taking your bike to get to work makes you fitter! Using a large, nationally-representative dataset, the authors of the paper found that using an active mode of transport for commuting is correlated with a significantly lower Body Mass Index and body fat percentage than using passive modes like cars or motorbikes. Read more.

Waterloo - Feel safe while cycling

These separated cycling lanes need to link up to other cycling lanes that provide routes between locations that people need to travel between. When this type of cycling infrastructure is developed, use of bicycles both for fun and transportation will increase. Read more.

Ebikes give you that smug downtown-Toronto feeling … but are maybe not so hip

I must warn: If preserving your dignity in public spaces is a top-of-list concern, an ebike is not for you. With the cars, and even bicycles, whizzing past, you look to the world like a faux-handicapped George Costanza puttering in his cart along New York streets in The Butter Shave episode. Read more.

Airport boring? Rent a bike and ride around it

If those long airport layovers get boring, there’s something new to do at Baltimore-Washington International Marshall Airport. You can rent a bike and ride around the airport’s perimeter. Read more.

Toronto's new streetcars hit the streets

Some of the shiny new streetcars that will be taking TTC passengers across the city for years to come have finally hit the streets of Toronto. Read more.

When it comes to cyclists vs. drivers, Vancouver is in ‘infant stages,’ says avid rider Trevor Linden

 In Amsterdam, the drivers are so used to bikes that the drivers just mesh with the bikes. To get to that point you have to have the infrastructure to allow that to happen. I think we’ve created that, we’re miles away, but it’s a good start. Read more.