New York City continues it's road innovations with new designs for 1st and 2nd Avenue.
1st and 2nd Avenues are major thoroughfares for the East Side of Manhattan. For many cyclists they serve as the most direct connection to midtown and the Queensboro Bridge. But the traffic on these avenues has long hindered cyclists. Cyclists detour to take advantage of the more tranquil routes on Central Park West or the West Side Greenway.
This winter the DOT and the MTA / New York City Transit revealed new plans that should boost bus speeds and reliability and increase cyclist safety. The 1st / 2nd Avenue Select Bus Service plans span nearly 8.5 miles, connecting South Ferry in Lower Manhattan to 125th Street. South of Houston the route will operate on Allen, Pike, Madison, Pearl and Water Streets. The first phase of the project includes offset bus lanes, as well as protected or shared bike lanes from Houston to 125th Street. This will provide a safer, more direct connection and hopefully encourage more eastside cycling.
To see the proposed designs, visit DOT's Bus Rapid Transit page or download the most recent 1st / 2nd Avenue SBS presentation here.
Since adding protected bike lanes on Broadway, Ninth Avenue and Grand Street bike volumes are up 58%, 37% and 24% respectively. Also out of NYC, status on the Bikes in Buildings law.
The Bikes in Buildings Bill went into effect Friday, December 11, 2009, allowing tenants in commercial office buildings with at least one freight elevator to request bicycle access to their space.
Over 120 requests have been filed so far, and nearly 40 access plans have been submitted by building owners and managers.
In Hungary, even the Conservatives support cycling.
Despite Budapest's tight resources the municipal assembly must facilitate the construction of more bicycle paths, Istvan Tarlos, municipal group leader of the main opposition Fidesz party, said at a conference on Saturday.
He would have gotten away with it, had it not been for the van.
A man police dubbed the Bicycle Bandit has admitted committing eight bank robberies in southern New Jersey and Delaware.
Prosecutors say Brian Layton went on a yearlong spree in which he robbed banks in six New Jersey cities and in Wilmington, Del., and rode away on a bicycle each time.
Layton was arrested Sept. 25 while trying to flee from a New Jersey state trooper on the Garden State Parkway in a van and then by foot.
This rail trail has it's own railroad crossing signal.
Bike theft is up 29% in LA
Downtown, bicycles are most likely to be stolen between noon and 6 p.m., and Wednesdays are the hottest days for theft, according to an LAPD analysis.
Poorly designed racks out of sight of passersby make the crime easier for bike thieves, he said.
Box said some of worst-positioned racks can be found at the new LAPD headquarters. Some of the upside-down, U-shaped racks the city uses have even been cut and the gap covered with stickers, he said. Bike thieves simply slip out the locked bicycles.
The federal National Crime Victim Survey found that for every bicycle reported stolen, another four such thefts remain unreported. Some transit experts say even that number is a severe underestimation.
Why care about bike theft (other than the obvious)? Broken windows.
When detectives arrested him, another man opened the motel room door, revealing several bolt cutters, hacksaws and a few more stolen bikes, Vernon said.
Inside the motel room, Vernon said, officers found bleached small bills that were being turned into counterfeit $100 bills, a computer and evidence of heroin use.
A London bike shop will pick up your bicycle (as long as you're within 2km).
"Everyone's short of time first thing in the morning. We'll come and pick the bike up and deliver it back to them before they finish work at the end of the day," says Robert. "Or if they've got more time they can come down to the repair shop and pick it up."
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