The Urban Country Bicycle Blog

Want to Get Rich? Open a Gas Station in China

2012-01-23T05:07:00.001-05:00

Cars lined up at a Haikou, China gas station - Photo by James Schwartz / The Urban Country (Jan 2012)

Want to get rich? Open up a gas station, a car wash, or an auto repair garage in China.

Car culture is sweeping through China as car ownership becomes affordable to countless new Chinese families. Car wash stations and auto repair shops are sprouting up all over the city I am living in – with demand still outpacing supply. Long line-ups are a regular occurrence at gas stations here.

The consensus among locals I speak to is that everyone wants to have a car. Owning a car validates that someone has reached a certain point of “success” in their life and once you reach that point where you can afford a car you never go back to riding scooters again.

The status works on a rising scale. The poorest of poor use pedal bicycles, which are becoming very uncommon here as people’s increasing wealth allows them to move up the chain to riding electric scooters.

Once someone reaches the next plateau of wealth, they ditch the electric scooters and graduate to car ownership. The wealthier you get, the more expensive your car is.

As the wealth here increases - and thus the number of automobiles increases - the Chinese will discover the ills and inconveniences of car ownership. They will reminisce about the days when they could actually get to their destination in a reasonable time on a bicycle or a scooter instead of sitting bumper-to-bumper not getting anywhere.

When they are sitting in a line-up for an hour just to fill their car with fuel they will miss plugging their scooter into the wall to re-charge it or hopping on their bicycle.

Yet they will find ways to rationalize sitting in traffic jams for two hours. They will tell you how comfortable their car is, how much they love listening to music in their car. They will find any reason to justify it - just like we have done since car culture swept through North America some forty plus years ago.

Below are a few photos I took of car-related business around the city while pedaling around on Saturday.

One of many car washing stations around the city – many of which didn’t exist a few years ago:

One-block-long line-up of cars waiting to get gas:

Some people got out of their car to get some fresh air while waiting for fuel:

Another car wash station:

Porsche SUV and other cars being washed:

Even the natural-gas-powered taxi cabs weren’t exempt from line-ups. This natural gas station had taxi cabs waiting in line to fuel up:

Cars slowly making their way through this gas bar:

Haikou, China – All photos by James Schwartz / The Urban Country (Jan 2012)

Chinese families thankfully don’t drive anywhere near the distances that Canadians or Americans drive, so cars don’t need to be filled up too often.

People largely live urban lifestyles here - I have yet to see a detached single family house in all my travels through China - so long commutes to work from the suburbs are uncommon here.

But this influx of car culture could change all that. Will the Chinese culture of urban lifestyles outweigh the pressures of sprawl? Time will tell.

James D. Schwartz is a Transportation Pragmatist and the Editor of The Urban Country. You can contact James at james.schwartz@theurbancountry.com or follow him on Twitter.

Related Articles:

Sunday Afternoon Traffic in China (Jan 2012)
Democracy Is Good, But… (Jan 2012)
The Chinese Car Obsession (Nov 2011)
The Bicycle as a Status Symbol in China (Sept 2011)
Only the poor ride bicycles in Shanghai (Sept 2010)

81-Year-Old Gene Hackman Hit On His Bike

2012-01-15T12:36:00.001-05:00

Gene Hackman in 1993 (AP Photo/File)

On Friday at approximately 3PM, Oscar-award winning actor Gene Hackman was hit by a pickup truck on his bicycle in the Florida Keys. The incident was covered widely by the media which made sure to point out that the 81-year-old Hackman was not wearing a helmet. Though true, this fact seems to distract us from the fact that he was hit from behind by a pickup truck.

Reading the media’s coverage of this incident it is very difficult to find any find any information on whether the driver would be charged or what possibly led to the pickup truck striking Hackman’s rear tire. After mentioning the lack of helmet near the beginning of the article CNN mentioned only that “alcohol was not a factor” afterwards.

The Daily Herald reported that “Hackman was riding without a helmet on an Islamorada street around 3 p.m. when the pickup hit him, throwing him onto the grassy shoulder”. The article mentions that no charges “were immediately reported”.

Of the top 11 results on Google News when searching for “Gene Hackman Bicycle”, five articles have the word “accident” in the title.

The word accident implies that the driver who hit Hackman from behind did nothing wrong, wasn’t negligent and this was an unavoidable incident. There is no evidence that this collision was merely an unavoidable “accident” (if it’s even possible). Yet this is what our media would lead you believe.

Furthermore, the media’s focus on Hackman’s lack of helmet – in a place where there is no law mandating helmet use – implies that Hackman should accept some of the blame because he wasn’t wearing a helmet.

The Digital Journal even went as far as to state that Hackman’s not wearing a helmet led to him being airlifted “to ensure no head trauma had occurred”. Most other news agencies reported that he was airlifted because he was on an island, not because he wasn’t wearing a helmet.

Of those top 11 news results that covered the Hackman crash 7 mention the lack of helmet, and 8 mention the word “accident”.

This highlights how buried we are in car culture. If the driver wasn’t drunk, then it must have been an unavoidable accident. If the cyclist wasn’t wearing a helmet, well then duh, he gets what he deserves.

Perhaps instead of highlighting that Hackman wasn’t wearing a helmet, the media should mention that a man who is turning 82 this month is healthy enough to stay active and ride a bicycle. That should be a story in itself given how immobile our sedentary fast-food car culture makes most North Americans.

But instead of focusing on what should be a story of an 81-year-old doing what most 81-year-olds cannot do, the media focuses on helmets and all but ignores the root cause of the collision.

New York’s Gothamist website highlighted the lack of helmet in its headline entitled “Gene Hackman Not Wearing Helmet While Cycling And Getting Hit By Car” – as if getting hit by the car (it was actually a pickup truck) is secondary to Hackman’s not wearing a helmet.

If the media feels it is necessary to point out that a cyclist who is a victim of a collision with a car isn’t wearing a helmet, then they should also point out that victims of car crashes weren’t wearing helmets either.

Out of the 32,708 people who were killed in car crashes in the United States in 2010 I wonder how many news articles mentioned the lack of helmets?

James D. Schwartz is a Transportation Pragmatist and the Editor of The Urban Country. You can contact James at james.schwartz@theurbancountry.com or follow him on Twitter.

Related Articles:

Bike Helmets Not Warranted (Sept 2010)
Wear a Helmet And Get a Cycling Utopia (June 2010)
We’ve Been Carjacked (Dec 2011)
We Are Addicted To Automobiles (May 2011)

Sunday Afternoon Traffic in China

2012-01-13T10:26:00.001-05:00

Pedaling in Haikou, Hainan, China – Photo by James Schwartz / The Urban Country

Last Sunday afternoon I hopped on my Giant folding bicycle and headed from where I am living in the “suburbs” and headed into downtown (a 5 kilometre jaunt). What ensued was a thrilling ride among a myriad of other two-wheeled travelers making their way to and from the downtown core.

I am currently living in a city called Haikou – located on Hainan island in southern China. In Chinese, Hai means “Sea”, so Haikou’s literal meaning is “Mouth of the sea”. Haikou has 2 million inhabitants in four districts, and boasts the highest rated air quality in all of China. It also features 2,000 hectares of green spaces with trees lining 40 percent of Haikou’s roads.

Despite this, Haikou’s air quality is declining. Automobile ownership has increased drastically in the last few years, with a clearly visible increase in traffic congestion from my two other visits – first in 2007 and 2010. As soon as I stepped off the airplane ten days ago I was greeted by a cluster of shiny new, luxurious car dealerships (BMW, Toyota, Nissan, ford, Infinity, Lexus and Mazda).

When I first visited Haikou in 2007 most cars were from the 1980’s – including entire police vehicle fleets. Just 4 years later it is now common to see police officers in brand new Audi A5’s. Car culture is sweeping over China, and it’s not pretty.

An ex-pat friend of mine living in Shanghai told me he met a Chinese man at Starbucks yesterday who told him that he paid more than $100K USD for his BMW – which converts to more than 630,000RMB with the current exchange rate. An average salary in China is less than 4,000RMB per month.

When the topic of rent came up, my friend told the BMW owner that he pays 3,600RMB/month for rent. The man who paid more than 630,000RMB for a car that will depreciate year after year told my friend that he’s wasting his money and paying far too much for rent. Clearly the BMW owner doesn’t see the irony in his criticism of my friend “wasting his money”.

Cars are that important here now – it has almost become religious.

Down here in Haikou I’m told by residents that a few years ago the Chinese government rescinded a 200% tax on car purchases. This - along with a rapidly growing economy - opened the floodgates to tens of thousands of Chinese who had previously found car ownership to be unaffordable.

Now instead of the dusty old 1980’s cars, shiny new imports are everywhere. Those 1980’s cars are all but extinct in 2012.

With the influx of automobiles in this city, traffic is now grinding to a halt - with rush hour automobiles traveling slower than walking pace. Those who could afford cars prior to the government scrapping the 200% tax are wishing the tax still existed – for no other reason than to restore their freedom of mobility.

Despite the massive growth in car ownership, two-wheeled traffic still seemingly comprises the largest modal share among the available modes of transportation here.

I use my bicycle 7 days a week, and each time I take it out I am delighted to share the wide bike lanes with thousands of other people sporting two-wheeled vehicles – with electric scooters being the most common choice here.

The following photos show my grand entrance from the suburbs into the downtown core on that Sunday afternoon – highlighting one particular bottleneck that gets quite nasty at times.

Pedaling in Haikou, Hainan, China – Photo by James Schwartz / The Urban Country

While cars are starting to become immobile in Haikou, two wheeled vehicles keep the city moving - conveniently passing congested traffic in the wide separated two-wheeled lanes.

I am keenly interested to see how Chinese cities will evolve and address this massive influx of car ownership.

Until next time – keep your feet on those pedals.

James D. Schwartz is a Transportation Pragmatist and the Editor of The Urban Country. You can contact James at james.schwartz@theurbancountry.com or follow him on Twitter.

Related Articles:

Democracy Is Good, But… (Jan 2012)
The Chinese Car Obsession (Nov 2011)
The Bicycle as a Status Symbol in China (Sept 2011)
Only the poor ride bicycles in Shanghai (Sept 2010)
Pedaling Haikou City, China (May 2010)

How Apple’s “Macintosh” Almost Became The “Bicycle”

2012-01-07T19:00:00.001-05:00

Steve Jobs and Apple’s “Think Different” Campaign

Before leaving for China I picked up a Kobo e-reader (comparable to a Kindle) so I could read on my travels without hauling 4-months worth of books along with me. The Kobo has transformed how I read books and I have found myself reading more than I have read in a long time. The book I am currently nearing completion is the Steve Jobs biography written by Walter Isaacson.

The biography has provided me posthumous inspiration and appreciation for Steve Jobs. I had never taken the time to get to know Mr. Jobs, viewing Apple as just another corporation that promotes conspicuous consumption.

I hadn’t taken the time to appreciate Jobs’ deep intellect, his anti-materialism, his counterculture “I don’t give a shit” attitude, his passion for products over profit, his quest for simplicity, his interest in Zen Buddhism, nor his obsession with design perfection.

When I was twelve years old I started toying with building my own computers which naturally swayed me toward generic PCs over all-in-one Apple Computer machines.

An interesting bit of information that surfaces in Jobs’ biography is the fact that the Apple Macintosh almost became known as the “Bicycle” in 1981.

The Apple Macintosh computer was originally named by early Apple employee Jef Raskin – after his favourite type of apple. When Raskin was forced to leave Apple in February 1981, Steve Jobs and Rod Holt decided to change the name of the Macintosh to “Bicycle” to distance themselves from Raskin.

The thinking behind selecting the name “Bicycle” stemmed from an article that Jobs had read in Scientific American that highlighted the efficiency of the bicycle. Jobs had regularly referred to computers as a “bicycle for the mind” in interviews after reading the magazine article.

Jobs explains the thinking behind the term:

I read a study that measured the efficiency of locomotion for various species on the planet. The condor used the least energy to move a kilometer. And humans came in with a rather unimpressive showing about a third of the way down the list. It was not too proud of a showing for the crown of creation.

So uh that didn't look so good. But then somebody at Scientific American had the insight to test the efficiency of locomotion for a man on a bicycle. And a man on a bicycle or a human on a bicycle blew the condor away. Blew them completely off the charts.

And that's what the computer is to me. What a computer is to me is it's the most remarkable tool that we've ever come up with. It's the equivalent of a bicycle for our minds.

Renaming the Mac to “Bicycle” however didn’t sit well with most of the Mac team, so the idea was eventually quashed and the project persisted to be named Macintosh, despite Steve Jobs’s disposition to the term “Bicycle”.

Here is a video from 1981 where a scruffy Jobs explains the “Bicycle for the mind” analogy:

In some ways, the marketing campaigns and philosophy of Steve Jobs are relevant to what we are trying to achieve on this website.

Bicycles are a simple yet effective mode of transportation, and questioning our car culture goes against the grain of society just like Mr. Jobs went against society’s expectations of how a billionaire CEO should dress or behave. He spoke his mind and he didn’t care how society expected him to behave or appear.

Here’s an inspiring 1997 Apple TV commercial that nicely describes the Jobs mentality:

“Here's to the crazy ones, the misfits, the rebels, the troublemakers, the round pegs in the square holes... the ones who see things differently -- they're not fond of rules... You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them, but the only thing you can't do is ignore them because they change things... they push the human race forward, and while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius, because the ones who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world, are the ones who do.”

To remember Mr. Jobs, I will leave you with a few inspirational quotes and slogans from Jobs and Apple:

“Being the richest man in the cemetery doesn’t matter to me … Going to bed at night saying we’ve done something wonderful… that’s what matters to me.”

“I want to put a ding in the universe.”

“You can’t just ask customers what they want and then try to give that to them. By the time you get it built, they’ll want something new.”

“Why join the navy if you can be a pirate?”

“Quality is more important than quantity. One home run is much better than two doubles”

“Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication”

“Think Differently”

James D. Schwartz is a Transportation Pragmatist and the Editor of The Urban Country. You can contact James at james.schwartz@theurbancountry.com or follow him on Twitter.

Related Articles:

The World Has Changed. So Can You. (April 2011)
Billboard Hijacking To Promote Urban Bicycling (March 2011)
‘Rethinking Transportation’ Talk (Dec 2011)
Anatomy of a Dutch Bicycle (Jan 2011)

Democracy Is Good, But…

2012-01-06T06:57:00.001-05:00

Traffic signs in China – Photo by James Schwartz / The Urban Country

Winston Churchill once said that it has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all the others that have been tried. Like all other good things, democracy certainly has its flaws.

In North American democracy, transportation policy often caters to the majority instead of considering the best interests of everyone. For example, if 51% of citizens in a North American city commute using motor vehicles, 29% take public transit, 15% walk and 5% ride bicycles, then in our current “democratic” system will usually cater to the majority (drivers) at the expense of the 49% of the population who don’t drive cars.

Today is the fourth day since I arrived in China – on Hainan island in the South China Sea. Although most would say the Chinese government is “undemocratic”, when it comes to transportation, the government often looks at the best interests of everyone rather than catering to a single group. One could possibly even argue that this is more democratic than North American transportation policy which plays favourites with the largest group of voters.

To be sure, China is no saint on many issues. But when it comes to transportation, China’s commitment to looking out for the greater good is evident by the vast expenditures invested in public transit in its cities, its world-class bicycle infrastructure, and regulation on the number of motor vehicles allowed to be registered in major cities. All three of these initiatives have helped to reduce pollution and traffic congestion in Chinese cities as well as providing affordable alternative means of transportation for its citizens.

Democracy has failed us in North America. Our government has catered to drivers without considering the consequences or working toward the greater good of everyone.

The result of our “democracy” is that we end up with little bits of inadequate bike lanes neighbourhoods represented by “bicycle-friendly” elected officials, but then those bike lanes end when they reach neighbourhoods with anti-bike officials.

Our democratic process rewards polarization to win votes by isolating groups of people – the “divide and conquer” approach. We thus end up with an us vs. them attitude when it comes to allocating the limited space on our streets. You are either “for” cars, or “for” bicycles. There doesn’t seem to be a middle ground, even though most people who use bicycles in North America also drive cars.

The result is that it becomes inconvenient and uncomfortable to ride a bicycle in North American cities. This leads more people to resort to motor vehicles as they are sole mode of transportation.

Here in Haikou - Hainan’s capital city of ~2 million people - virtually all new roads are constructed to include bicycle infrastructure. The decision to include bicycle infrastructure cannot be blocked by a particular car-loving neighbourhood. Bike infrastructure is included with standard road design, just like we do with sidewalks in North America.

Further, the bike lanes here aren’t just a painted line on the shoulder of a road or located directly in the door zone of a row of parked cars. Bike lanes here are wide and physically separated, making riding a pleasurable and safe experience instead of a stressful and dangerous one.

Below is a photo of a new road that hasn’t yet been built. The street signs have preceded the road itself. Each of these new roads come equipped with a sign that is so common across China to indicate which lane is dedicated to bicycles:

China bike infrastructure – Photo by James Schwartz / The Urban Country

You can see in the photo above the physical separation between the motor vehicles and bicycles. These physically separated lanes are everywhere (when not prohibited by lack of space), and extremely comfortable to ride.

Here is a photo on a new road in a brand new development zone in Haikou:

China bike infrastructure – Photo by James Schwartz / The Urban Country

Some bike lanes are shared with motor vehicles. But vehicles drive much slower in this lane and only enter this lane when they are parking or entering a driveway. These are also common in the Netherlands, but they are virtually nonexistent in North America:

China bike infrastructure – Photo by James Schwartz / The Urban Country

Including properly-designed bicycle infrastructure as standard planning in North America would provide what many North Americans crave: a comfortable alternative to driving cars. A way to avoid traffic jams. A way to get daily exercise without even thinking about it. A way to know exactly how long it will take to get to your destination – regardless of traffic.

But until we include bicycle infrastructure as a key aspect of road design we will always be fighting for short patches of bike lanes that seem to end even before they begin.

James D. Schwartz is a Transportation Pragmatist and the Editor of The Urban Country. You can contact James at james.schwartz@theurbancountry.com or follow him on Twitter.

Related Articles:

We’ve Been Carjacked (Dec 2011)
We Are Addicted To Automobiles (May 2011)
Suburban Bike Infrastructure (March 2010)
Handicap Bike Parking (May 2010)
The World Has Changed. So Can You. (April 2011)

2011 Year End Wrap Up

2011-12-30T00:38:00.001-05:00

James posing as a hipster on a fixie in Baltimore, Maryland in October 2011 – Photo by James Schwartz / The Urban Country

As we approach another new year, I have been reflecting on the events of 2011 and how they have shaped both myself and this website. In many ways, 2011 has been a coming of age for The Urban Country. We have reached record levels of readership and have been told by many people that we are one of their favourite bike blogs. A few weeks ago we were nominated as one of the best new bicycle blogs in 2011 on Cyclelicious.

In 2004 I started The Urban Country as a personal blog. The name was reflective of my home country Canada – a country of vast land where the majority of the population resides in urban areas. I talked mostly of politics, the economy, the environment, shared jokes and generally just vented on whatever was on my mind.

In 2009 I started to focus exclusively on bicycle transportation to highlight to citizens of our car culture that it is fun and rewarding to get around by bicycle. Bicycles are a relief from the imprisonment that we call car ownership and widespread use of bicycles makes our cities more liveable and simply more enjoyable to traverse. Bicycling can make commuting to work or school - or wherever the road takes us - delightful instead of dreadful; gratifying instead of frustrating.

With our busy schedules we can get our daily exercise without any forethought or self discipline. We can leave for a meeting and know exactly how long it will take to get there without checking the traffic or bus/train schedule. It is liberating, and this true freedom of mobility barely costs anything.

In 2011 The Urban Country’s message began to spread and we saw more than 200,000 visits on this website throughout the year with more than 160,000 unique visitors. This would seem low for a mainstream website, but The Urban Country is still in its infancy and has room to grow and spread the simple message further in the coming years.

Through this blog and twitter I have met some amazing people who really care about improving this world we live in. Without these great people I would probably lose my motivation and slip into a state of cynicism and despair for our future. But the readers of this website give me hope for a better future in North America and beyond.

Thanks to all of you who have added The Urban Country to your list of blogs that you regularly read – it sincerely means a lot to me – especially when there are so many other great websites out there to occupy your limited time.

Below are some 2011 highlights and website statistics that some of you might find interesting. Following the statistics are a few things that I have planned for 2012 and beyond.

2011 Highlights:

February
- Developed & launched www.ratemyvelo.com – a website that allows users to vote on user-uploaded photos of people on bikes “to show the world that bicycles are for more than just sport”.
May
- Calculated that the average American works 2 hours a day just to pay for their cars
June
- James and his wife had their first baby
September
- Mikael from Copenhagenize launched the Copenhagenize Index of Bicycle Friendly Cities for 2011 – which originally spawned from a collaboration between Mikael and James in 2010.
October
- Launched the ‘i share the road’ sticker campaign to promote a positive message of sharing the road between drivers and cyclists.

October marks one year since I sold my car and went car-free. My transportation costs are now virtually $0 so I have $8,000 in my bank account that I wouldn’t otherwise have had if I kept my car.

November
- Built a bike lane out of trash to show that there is enough space for bikes, cars & trucks
- Announced our bicycle art contest winner of an exclusive painting by Mike Rubbo
December
- Created the “Rethinking Transportation: How the bicycle can save our cities and ourselves” talk.

Top Traffic Sources:

google search traffic (31,676 visits)
reddit.com (26,900 visits)
facebook.com (13,515 visits)
feedburner (8,558 visits)
imgur.com (6,514 visits)
ehowa.com (5,213 visits)
stumbleupon.com (4,668 visits)
twitter.com (4,635 visits)
google.com (3,750 visits)
t.co (3,570 visits)

Top Visitor Countries:

United States (101,765 visits)
Canada (43,452 visits)
United Kingdom (13,677 visits)
Australia (6,025 visits)
Spain (5,463 visits)
India (3,654 visits)
Netherlands (3,627 visits)
Germany (3,576 visits)
Brazil (1,499 visits)
South Korea (1,358 visits)

Top Browsers:

Firefox (73,641 visits)
Chrome (56,203 visits)
Internet Explorer (34,228 visits)
Safari (30,263 visits)
Mozilla Compatible Agent (7,697 visits)
Opera (2,825 visits)
Android Browser (1,700 visits)
Opera Mini (268 visits)

Most Bizarre/Funny Search Keywords:

poop (84 visits)
mature porn (52 visits)
freematureporn (34 visits)
how do nascar drivers pee (34 visits)
thong blog (31 visits)
do bicycles have to stop at stop signs (30 visits)
mature homemade (13 visits)
cyclists are idiots toronto (12 visits)
human poop (8 visits)
fat asian kid on a bike (6 visits)

Looking forward to 2012 and beyond, I have a few things in the works. First of all I will be doing some travelling from January until May and hope to add some international content to the blog during my travels. I will spend most of the time in China, but I’m also planning to visit Tibet, the Philippines, and the Netherlands.

When I return to Toronto in May I am planning to continue doing talks on bicycle transportation to discuss the benefits and how we can achieve a higher rate of cycling.

I am also planning to bring bi-weekly podcasts to The Urban Country to discuss transportation, cycling and politics. I’m working with a brilliant advocate/recent friend Ben who is planning to take this on in 2012. We will start with one or two pilots and get your feedback to shape the show.

In 2012 I am planning to write a short e-book that might end up with the same title as my presentation: “Rethinking Transportation: How the bicycle can save our cities and ourselves”. If readers find the ebook interesting I would like to explore the possibility of doing a longer version book on a similar topic beyond 2012.

Lastly, I had a dream about making a documentary to uncover the car culture that is growing in China and the destruction it is causing in China. I don’t know how much will happen on this initiative in 2012, but I will keep my camera rolling during my travels this winter anyway.

Happy 2012 to all of you and your families!

James D. Schwartz is a Transportation Pragmatist and the Editor of The Urban Country. You can contact James at james.schwartz@theurbancountry.com or follow him on Twitter.

Related Articles:

2011: Year of the Rabbit (Jan 2011)
2010: Year of the Tiger (Jan 2010)
‘i share the road’ campaign launch (Oct 2011)
The World Has Changed. So Can You. (April 2011)
‘Rethinking Transportation’ Talk (Dec 2011)

Bicycles & World War II Spies

2011-12-26T01:37:00.001-05:00

Agents practising being interrogated. The rural situation of camp X can be glimpsed from the background. (From the Pelham-Burn collection, reproduced by courtesy of Lynn-Philip Hodgson)

On 6 December 1941, just one day before the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, a British spy training camp opened in Whitby, Ontario, some 50 kilometres east of Toronto. The training camp STS 103 – also known as Camp X – was so top secret that the Prime Minister of Canada wasn’t even aware of its existence until 1945.

Camp-X provided “invaluable help” to Colonel William J. Donovan in the creation of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) in 1942 – the predecessor to the Central Intelligence Agency.

The purpose of the camp was twofold: 1) To train men recruited in Canada to become spies in German-occupied countries (e.g. French Canadians), and 2) To allow the British to provide assistance to the Americans to build their foreign intelligence service (something which wasn’t allowed to be done on American soil while the United States remained neutral).

My interest in the topic was first piqued in 2001 when I read the book Almost, a story of a 20-year-old Canadian with Hungarian heritage who trained at Camp X before being dropped into Hungary in 1944 only to be captured and tortured by the Germans shortly after his arrival. James Bond author Ian Fleming had also trained at Camp X, providing inspiration for his novels.

The Special Operations Executive Secret Operations Manual used for training the spies was published long after the war ended. The training manual covers a variety of topics ranging from silent killing to sabotage to the art of disguise. I picked a copy of the manual in 2007 for academic study and personal interest.

Among other things, the training manual highlights the usefulness of bicycles as a tool for covert operatives to remain inconspicuous when performing their duty in occupied countries.

Bicycles allowed operatives to stay relatively under the radar in German-occupied countries where train stations were closely monitored and motor vehicles were frequently stopped or had to pass through check points.

Although bicycles were indeed used by the military during the war, the SOE training manual highlights the civilian use of bicycles as a mode of transportation to elude officials and avoid suspicion.

Here are a few excerpts from the training manual pertaining to bicycles:

Escape Procedures

(Editor’s note: The escape procedures section explains techniques that can be employed by the operative to escape from occupied territory)

5. Travel Across Country

b) Some of the means of travel and comment upon them

Travel by foot makes it relatively easy to avoid many controls – taking remote paths, crossing fields, etc.

Travel by bicycle has proved relatively safe.

Buses are less subject to check than trains but more crowded – passengers more subject to prying conversation and questions. General suggestions for those using either bus or train are:

Don’t take bus or train from terminal; terminals generally watched carefully. Some escapees suggest that terminals should be avoided entirely – even if it means leaving train some fifteen miles from terminal, walking past it, and boarding another train some fifteen miles beyond.

Take locals and travel by roundabout routes when “Things are hot” Leave train or bus before it reaches border. One escapee recommends round-trip ticket to near border. Almost all borders and coasts under German control are not restricted or forbidden zones – special German army permits needed.

If one purchases single tickets for short distances, he can at any time pretend he is making only a local trip – either to depopulate a given town or to get work

Avoid any but necessary conversation. Appear sleepy or use the tobacco chewing trick.

The pretense of sleep and showing whole mass of documents (passport, permits, ration cards, ticket, etc.) at inspector at once makes him careless in checking them.

Avoid secluded corners in stations; the police give them special attention.

Controls sometimes can be avoided by entering or leaving station through a lavatory with exit into adjoining hotel (St. Charles R.R. Station in Marseilles – similarly in Toulouse).

In some stations controls are enforced only during the period shortly after train arrival. Going to restaurant or library before leaving station frequently means to avoid controls entirely.

Sometimes controls can be escaped by riding the steps of the train.

Surveillance

(Editor’s note: The surveillance section explains methods and techniques for performing surveillance on target subjects)

3. PLANNING

a) Cover

Following is rarely done by single person, more frequently by combination of several with various types of cover, E.g.:

Taxicab driver with vehicle (Largely “blown”.)

Tradesman’s van with driver

Tradesman or messenger with bicycle

Shoppers, house or apartment-hunters

Man with girl

Woman with baby carriage

General Movement by Day (Minor Tactics)

(Editor’s note: This section explains how movements can be traced by officials or by the operative)

6. Footprints

e) Tire Tracks. Most important consideration is which way they are going. Most certain way is by crossing or overlapping of front wheel tracks by rear wheels. Over a bump tracks will momentarily broaden out at the far side, as the tire takes the downward bump of the chassis. Position of the tracks on the road are also an indication, especially when cornering. In the case of a bicycle, direction is more easily distinguishable, as rear wheel more often crosses or obscures front wheel, especially uphill as the forward position of the rider causes more wobble. The faster the travel the straighter the line.

Not only were bicycles useful for secret agents, they were also the most practical way for civilians to get around when motor vehicles were parked due to fuel shortages and rationing. My Grandmother – who was 9-years-old when the war broke out – rode her bicycle on the rims due to a shortage of rubber tires in the Netherlands under Nazi-occupation.

The bicycle certainly wasn’t the deciding factor in the war, but it had a pragmatic appeal to transport both secret operatives and civilians in occupied territory.

James D. Schwartz is a Transportation Pragmatist and the Editor of The Urban Country. You can contact James at james.schwartz@theurbancountry.com or follow him on Twitter.

Related Articles:

My Dutch Family History (Feb 2011)
Japan Earthquake & Tsunami: Role of the Bicycle (March 2011)
Roads Weren’t Built For Cars (July 2011)
The World Has Changed. So Can You. (April 2011)

Further reading:

Rigden, Denis - How to be a Spy: The World War II SOE Training Manual.
Toronto, ON, CAN: Dundurn, 2004

SOE Secret Operations Manual. Boulder, Colorado, USA: Paladin Press, 1993

Beach Cruisers and Grey-Haired Bicyclists

2011-12-21T01:10:00.001-05:00

Photo by James Schwartz / The Urban Country

For many retirees, retirement is a time to stay healthy and enjoy the simple things in life. For some, this may involve a round of golf, a game of ping pong, or swimming in a pool. For others, it’s the joy of riding a bicycle.

I returned tonight after spending 4 nights visiting my newly retired father in his new community near Tampa, Florida. My Dad is a Canadian ex-pat who has been living in the United States for more than ten years. The quiet streets in his gated community coupled with Florida’s climate makes this an ideal place for using bicycles to get around.

Residents in the community regularly take advantage of these ideal bicycling conditions. Hardly a moment goes by during the day where you can’t spot some grey hair blowing through the wind while pedaling about the community.

The community includes a golf course, a swimming pool, a gym, billiards tables, poker tables and tennis courts, among other features. The neighbourhood layout reminds me of the houses in the movie The Truman Show and the extensive rules and politics remind me of the Del Boca Vista scenes in the TV show Seinfeld.

Nonetheless, it seems to be very nice place to retire and spend the last decades of your life - with endless activities within walking & biking distance – and a nice warm climate to boot.

Within the community, plenty of residents use bicycles to transport themselves to the recreation centre. The bike rack outside the facility was never empty throughout the day – featuring bikes of various shapes and styles. The most common style of bicycles used by residents are the beach cruiser style and the three-wheel trikes with a rear basket.

Photo by James Schwartz / The Urban Country

On the route toward the recreation centre I spotted this sign that reads “CAUTION: DANGEROUS INTERSECTION”. I suppose the word “dangerous” is subjective, but this is pretty hilarious because the sign is displayed on a community street with a speed limit of 15mph (24km/h) and very little traffic.

Photo by James Schwartz / The Urban Country

Although other residents in the community use bicycles to get around, my Dad’s garage was lacking any sort of two wheel mode of transportation. So on Saturday I set forth on a two-day mission to source out two beach cruisers to provide my Dad and Step-Mother a stylish way to transport themselves throughout their community (the recreational centre is about 1.6km from their home).

I first tried to source a couple beach cruisers at a local bike shop, but the bike shop seemed focused primarily on performance/racing bicycles and the only cruisers were Trek bikes, which didn’t quite have the wide, curved cruiser-style handlebars, nor did they come equipped with fenders or chain guards. I was also keen on purchasing bikes without any gears or hand brakes to reduce the maintenance requirements.

Next I visited Craigslist and found a pair of brand new beach cruiser bicycles that somebody had won in a contest sponsored by Bud Light Lime. The bicycles were still in boxes unassembled, and were coloured with the Bud Light Lime colour. If nothing else, I figured my Dad – a consumer of beer - would get a kick out of these beer-sponsored beach cruisers. Not to mention that the bikes were stylish and looked fun to ride.

These lime beach cruisers were being sold by a pawn shop more than 70 kilometres from my Dad’s home. I drove down to the pawn shop by myself on Sunday and arrived to discover a sign on the door that read “NOTICE: ALL GUNS MUST BE OPEN AND IN FULL VIEW BEFORE ENTERING”.

Since I wasn’t carrying a gun, this didn’t apply to me. Though truth be told, I was tempted on the car ride down to drop into one of the several gun stores I drove past – if for nothing other than satisfying my curiosity.

Photo by James Schwartz / The Urban Country

The pawn shop owner had been at an NFL football game the night before, and he had just finished church when I met him at his shop (he’s closed Sundays). He seemed like the token stereotypical American. This also reminded me of the scene in The Simpsons where Homer Simpson listens to the football game while attending a church sermon, cheering out loud every time his team scored.

Nevertheless, the pawn shop owner was a good guy and he helped me pack the two boxes into my Step Mother’s Ford Fusion. On the way home I stopped at a little store called Target and it seemed like I walked 1500 metres to get to the bicycle section to pick up a bike tire pump, a cheap cable lock and two coffee mug (beer) holders to affix to the beach cruisers for added style.

Three hours later I arrived back at my Dad’s house and spent the next couple hours assembling the cruisers. There were a couple small nuts missing, but a quick trip to the hardware store the next day solved the problem and the cruisers were thus ready to ride.

Photo by James Schwartz / The Urban Country

We took the cruisers out on Monday and discovered that these single-speed bikes were comfortable and fun to ride. There’s something exhilarating about riding with wide, curved, beach-cruiser handlebars. It made me feel as though I was riding on a beach, even though the nearest beach was more than 10 kilometres away – and probably still tainted by the BP oil spill which unleashed 210 million US gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico.

Sadly, the joy and convenience of bicycle transportation that these retired folks have discovered in my Dad’s neighbourhood is far too uncommon outside this type of planned community. In Florida, bicycling is largely seen merely as a recreational activity or a mode of transportation for poor folks who can't afford a car. In Tampa every road seems to be a highway and driving is the single mode of transportation that people rely on to get everywhere.

The retired folks who are staying healthy and enjoying their lives while using bicycles to transport themselves most likely spent their working years stressed out and enclosed within the confines of an automobile.

A bicycle is something we should be able to comfortably use whether we live in a retirement utopia, an urban downtown, or a suburban city. But to achieve this we need to change our perceptions and re-design how we live and move ourselves around.

James D. Schwartz is a Transportation Pragmatist and the Editor of The Urban Country. You can contact James at james.schwartz@theurbancountry.com or follow him on Twitter.

Related Articles:

We’ve Been Carjacked (Dec 2011)
Confessions Of A Bad Driver (Nov 2011)
The Driver Privilege Checklist (Nov 2011)
Americans Work 2 Hours Each Day To Pay For Their Cars (May 2011)
Motorists Prime Beneficiaries of Socialism (Aug 2011)

Canadian Cyclist Harassed At U.S. Border

2011-12-13T02:27:00.001-05:00

U.S. Customs and Border Protection Officers on the lookout for “terrorists” – Photo by Mateus_27

With the United States mulling over the possibility of building a fence across the Canada-US border and a Secretary of Homeland Security falsely claiming some of the 9/11 terrorists entered through Canada, it’s not surprising to hear about Canadians encountering hostile Customs agents while crossing the once-friendly border.

Nor is it surprising that the number of Customs and Border Protection officers working on the U.S.-Canada border has increased by 700% since September 11th, 2001.

The most recent example of overzealous pomp at the border resulted when a friend of Mikael Colville-Andersen’s crossed the border from British Columbia to Washington state on a train with his bicycle in tow.

The Customs officer berated Mikael’s friend for not bringing a helmet with him. Here is part of the correspondence:

Guard 2: "Where are you going?"
Me: "Seattle"
G2: "Where's your helmet?"
Me: "I didn't bring it."
G2: "You ride without one?"
Me: "Depends on the situation."
G2: "Are you aware that it's the law in the state of Washington?" (Ed: It's not, he's wrong)
Me: "I wasn't aware of this."
G2: "So, you were planning to break the law on purpose?"
Me: "I had no intention of doing so."
G2: "Do you think I should let you in to my country knowing that you intend on breaking the law?"

Mikael asks whether Customs officers ever berate car drivers because the speedometer on their cars far exceed any speed limit in the United States? Should these car drivers be denied entry on the basis that they might break the law in their cars?

I have travelled extensively throughout the United States and I have indeed seen a fair share of egotistical, hostile or simply cold Customs agents, but I have also seen a whole lot of really nice customs officers too, so I can’t generalize one way or the other. However, the hostility towards Mikael’s friend is indicative of the general hostility North Americans often have towards cyclists.

Nowhere is this more apparent than here in Toronto where our penny-pinching mayor thought it was appropriate to spend $400,000 to tear out 3 bike lanes on three separate streets that had all been installed within the last three years.

Meanwhile, a key ally of the mayor recently proposed licensing cyclists (an idea which has already been debunked by the city itself). The same penny-pinching mayor rescinded a $60/year vehicle tax while cutting transit service and hiking transit fees by more than $78/year for an average transit rider.

The most recent “bicycle infrastructure” to be installed in Toronto are nut-cracking bicycle speed bumps along a two-car-lane-wide multi-use path that were installed to “slow down” cyclists because of complaints from pedestrians.

The car and oil industry is scared shitless that car usage has peaked, people are driving less, and families are living comfortably car-free.

As people flock to different modes of transportation to avoid the imprisonment of automobiles, the media will further marginalize people who don’t drive in attempt to shame them into driving, just as we saw in a recent GM ad which placed a dorky guy on a bicycle to try to convince college students to borrow tens of thousands of dollars to buy a new car so they wouldn’t have to look like the dork on the bicycle.

But they forgot to mention that their car will probably be worthless by the time they pay off the loan (not to mention their insurance payments, gas costs, repairs, licensing, parking, traffic congestion, stress, etc.)

The border agent who chastised Mikael’s friend for not having a helmet is simply a product of a society that is created by car culture. Not out of necessity, but out of desperation to sell more cars, sell more gas, insurance and everything else that comes along with car culture.

In the end, the customs officer let Mikael’s friend proceed on his journey into the United States without a foam-laced plastic bicycle helmet. On one condition: that he buy a helmet as soon as his train arrives in Seattle.

If only we were so diligent and thorough with car drivers when they cross the border to force them to drive under the maximum speed limit.

Read the full correspondence on Copenhagenize.com

James D. Schwartz is a Transportation Pragmatist and the Editor of The Urban Country. You can contact James at james.schwartz@theurbancountry.com or follow him on Twitter.

Related Articles:

On The Inferiority of Bicyclists and Gay People (Aug 2011)
We’ve Been Carjacked (Dec 2011)
The Driver Privilege Checklist (Nov 2011
Car Culture Bleeds Our Society (Aug 2010)
GM Pulls Anti-Cycling Ad (Oct 2011)

Toronto’s Urban Repair Squad Strikes Again

2011-12-10T14:40:00.001-05:00

Guerrilla bike lane – photo by James Schwartz / The Urban Country

At approximately 10AM this morning, Toronto’s Guerrilla bicycling advocates - the Urban Repair Squad - re-painted the intersection at Dundas and Sterling, the location where cyclist Jenna Morrison was run over by a truck and killed last month.

Bike lanes were painted on both sides of the street, and the southbound vehicle lane was widened to give cyclists more space at the intersection.

A source involved with the re-painting told me the police showed up at the end and the team scrambled, leaving behind their materials. When I arrived on the scene at 11AM there were several police squad cars at the scene cleaning up.

The guerrilla group used water-based paint, so the intersection changes aren’t permanent, but the re-paint was done to make a point and to highlight how easy it is to make positive improvements in a city that is tearing out its bicycle infrastructure.

The source also said several cars passing by were honking and giving thumbs up to show their support. A fire truck showed up on the scene with the police, so the source thinks a motorist who didn’t appreciate the efforts made a call to the 911 emergency service.

At approximately 12:15PM a City of Toronto employee arrived on the scene. He told me he was called in to remove the paint immediately because the police were not happy about the unauthorized painting.

The city employee works in the transportation and roads division and is tasked with removing the bike lanes, even though his personal opinion is that the bike lanes are a positive improvement for this intersection.

“Personally, I have nothing against it. But the police weren’t happy about it so they called me in so I need to remove the paint or I will have my bosses breathing down my neck.”

In fact, the city worker ironically has personal ties to this intersection. His wife was a friend of Jenna Morrison, the 38-year-old pregnant mother who tragically died at the intersection on November 7th when a right-turning truck clipped her and ran her over.

Several drawings have been floating around recently about how this intersection can be re-designed to make drivers more aware of cyclists, including this drawing that I sketched out a week ago:

The Urban Repair Squad implemented some of the features that I had sketched in my proposed design. The designs will be peer reviewed and proposed to the City for them to officially improve this intersection.

Photo by James Schwartz / The Urban Country

The Urban Repair Squad was featured on Treehugger in May for their DIY painting of the word “SLOW” on a Toronto road that can be hazardous for bicyclists and pedestrians to cross.

On the homepage for the anonymous Urban Repair Squad, it reads: "They say city is broke. We fix. No charge.". Their mission is:

To encourage bicycling as an antidote to the poison that is car culture.

To actively construct a positive future of what urban transportation could be by installing it NOW.

To encourage citizens to reclaim ownership and stewardship of their urban space.

To employ the concept of Critical Mass; encouraging cyclists to bond together and more safely take back their rightful place on the public roadways.

Your city is broken. Don't wait for the bureaucrats to fix it.

DO IT YOURSELF.

Given the glacial pace of positive change in Toronto, and the current administration’s removal of existing bicycle facilities, the Urban Repair Squad’s principles are ones that I can very much appreciate, and I would like to think that Jenna Morrison would also support their efforts.

James D. Schwartz is a Transportation Pragmatist and the Editor of The Urban Country. You can contact James at james.schwartz@theurbancountry.com or follow him on Twitter.

Related Articles:

Toronto Newspaper Columnist Sees The Light (Oct 2011)
“The Fixer” Not Fixing Anything (July 2011)
The Fixer Gets It Right (July 2011)
Toronto Cyclists Are Selfish And Rude? (June 2011)
Toronto’s Fragmented Bicycle Network (June 2011)

We’ve Been Carjacked

2011-12-09T00:26:00.001-05:00

Carjacked: The Culture of the Automobile & Its Effect On Our Lives – Photo by James Schwartz / The Urban Country

I finally picked up a bunch of copies of the book Carjacked: The Culture of the Automobile and Its Effect on Our Lives. The book is written by Catherine Lutz and Anne Lutz Fernandez, two sisters who loved their cars as much as any American when they started investigating the consequences of the American car culture while doing research for the book.

The wonderful thing about this book is that it is not written through the lens of a bicycle advocate, or a hard-core environmentalist. Anne Lutz Fernandez is an ex Wall Street businesswoman, and Catherine Lutz is an Anthropologist.

These sisters grew up immersed in car culture, with fond memories of car expeditions that “carried us through our happiest family adventures”.

Cars have played an important role in both of their lives and in the Preface, the sisters reflect on how significant a role cars have played in their lives:

“Between the two of us, we have owned nine cars and driven eleven others belonging to the important people in our lives – our parents, boyfriends, husbands. We have driven or ridden an estimated 600,000 miles, consuming around 30,000 gallons of gas. To do this, combined, we have spent an estimated 25,000 hours in the car – if this were a job, each of us would have been at it for 3,125 eight-hour days, or more than six years of our lives.”

The book contains some great bits of information about America’s addiction to car (which extends here to Canada as well to a more limited extent).

Instead of tweeting every time I came across a good sound byte, I decided to share them here instead. The following quotes are some of my favourites so far. Feel free to copy them into Twitter. I confirmed they are all within Twitter’s 140 character limit (except for that long ass one):

“In recent years, the American Dream of a car in the driveway expanded to the dream of three cars in the driveway” #carjacked

“The car today is less a reliable sign of hard work done & money earned than of hard work yet 2 be done & money yet to be earned” #carjacked

“We are convinced that the world is too dangerous to allow independence to our children. This obscures the fact that a child is far more likely to be killed in the family car than riding a bus.” #carjacked

“Cars are like men’s jewellery” #carjacked

“The image of cars and speed as a manly combination can be quite dangerous” #carjacked

“Building new roads to address traffic congestion is like buying a bigger belt to address obesity” #carjacked

“Automotive naming and commercials have headed into the wilderness, perhaps as wishful compensation” #carjacked

“We treat as normal what would otherwise be untoward; putting our beloved children in the thing most likely to kill them” #carjacked

“Of the top 15 Senate recipients of car industry largesse, not one voted for a 2005 bill raising fuel economy standard for cars” #carjacked

“There are roughly as many gas stations in America as public transit vehicles” #carjacked

“Americans buy more cars on an average day (150,000) than there are public transit vehicles nationwide (129,000)”#carjacked

These quotes give you a small glimpse into this thoughtful book that takes a hard look at our addiction and reliance on cars.

To pick up your own copy of Carjacked, check your local bookstore or buy it on Amazon.com for just $18.48. Or if you are in Toronto, I have plenty of copies here and I’d be happy to give you one.

James D. Schwartz is a Transportation Pragmatist and the Editor of The Urban Country. You can contact James at james.schwartz@theurbancountry.com or follow him on Twitter.

Related Articles:

Rethinking Transportation Talk (Dec 2011)
Confessions Of A Bad Driver (Nov 2011)
The Driver Privilege Checklist (Nov 2011)
Americans Work 2 Hours Each Day To Pay For Their Cars (May 2011)
Motorists Prime Beneficiaries of Socialism (Aug 2011)

‘Rethinking Transportation’ Talk

2011-12-07T00:31:00.001-05:00

Today I presented my Rethinking Transportation talk to a group of 50 children at an elementary school in Toronto. The kids belonged to an “eco” group that meets once a month – their ages ranging between 9 and 12 years old.

I started out by asking the children how many of them had rode their bicycles to school today – of which none of them put up their hand. Thankfully when I asked how many of them walked to school the vast majority of them put up their hands – while only a handful had been dropped off at school in a car.

I then showed them some videos of schoolchildren riding their bicycles to school in the Netherlands on a day with weather not unlike the weather we had today (~1 degree Celsius). There was unanimous consensus among the children that they would absolutely love to be able to ride their bicycles to school on comfortable bicycle infrastructure similar to that in the Dutch videos I showed them.

Then I went through a history of transportation in North America and explained that roads were not built for cars. After the brief history I highlighted some of the negative consequences of our addiction to cars as well as highlighting that even if cars didn’t have detrimental effects in our society, there still wouldn’t be enough space for everyone to drive a car.

I then explained some of the reasons why the Dutch embrace bicycling so widely by showing them well designed bike infrastructure and I exhibited my comfortable/sturdy Dutch bike. The children were shocked when I told them I rode my bicycle 13km to visit their school, and they were even more impressed when I told them that it only took me 45 minutes.

I ended the talk with 6 things these children can do to help make it more comfortable and safe to ride a bicycle in Toronto.

The children were very engaged and had plenty of questions to ask me. I had one girl volunteer to attempt to lift my bike to highlight how heavy and sturdy it is. I went through all the components included on my bike, explaining that with a Dutch bike you rarely need to oil your chain or worry about getting mud or oil on your pants.

The children were also fascinated by the rear wheel lock that comes standard on most Dutch bikes, making it convenient to park the bike anywhere without having to find a post to lock your bike to. Rear wheel locks are also common in China, but unfortunately they are very uncommon in North America since most bikes here are built for sport, not for transportation.

One girl asked me why I wasn’t giving this presentation to the entire school (~780 kids) instead of just the group of 50. I told her I’d be happy to come back again sometime to do a presentation to the entire school.

Several teachers were in the audience and I was told after the talk that it was “eye opening”. I was also glad to hear the feedback that I “spoke to the students instead of preaching at them”. Sometimes it’s hard to know if I’m preaching or speaking - in advocacy this can be a thin line.

My goal for this talk is to provide a different perspective that goes against our society’s normal (narrow) perspective on transportation. Our society has fundamentally accepted that cars are a necessity and have resigned ourselves to be dependent on cars for even our most basic transportation needs.

When I return in May 2012 from living overseas I plan to give more of these talks at other schools.

I hope to help change our narrow view with this talk, or at least challenge conventional wisdom and give the audience something to think about.

I have another version of the talk for an adult audience that focuses more on the ills of our car culture and the financial/societal costs of our driving addiction. If you know a group of people who would benefit from hearing this talk, feel free to contact me to make arrangements.

James D. Schwartz is a Transportation Pragmatist and the Editor of The Urban Country. You can contact James at james.schwartz@theurbancountry.com or follow him on Twitter.

Related Articles:

Anatomy of a Dutch Bicycle (Jan 2011)
My Dutch Family History (Feb 2011)
Toronto Newspaper Columnist Sees The Light (Oct 2011)
No Cars. No Traffic Signals. No Deaths. (June 2011)

Is Bicycling Gaining Momentum in India?

2011-12-05T09:05:00.001-05:00

Bangalore traffic congestion – Photo by Kiran Jonnalagadda

Although bicycles have historically been viewed as the poor man’s mode of transportation in India, there are signs that the working class are starting to view bicycles as an accepted mode of transportation.

A recent article in the Indian news publication DNA highlights the rising interest in bicycle transportation in Bangalore – a city of more than 8 million people. The article credits rising fuel prices and environmental-consciousness for the rising interest in bicycle transportation.

Mohamed Tharik, a young executive at Ness Technologies explains that he initially started riding a bicycle to work for the exercise, but his bicycle quickly became “a way of life”, as he says he uses his bicycle to “get everywhere”.

However, when bicycles gain popularity in car-clogged cities, cyclists will inevitably encounter angry drivers who view cyclists as a threat the sacred pavement space in our cities. This is precisely what is happening to Mohamed in Bangalore:

“Cycling itself can pose its fair share of problems. “Within the city, it is a problem during peak hours because I have realised that people in vehicles just don’t respect cyclists.”

Gaining respect from drivers in car-clogged cities is indeed an uphill battle – especially when cyclists aren’t given properly infrastructure designed to reduce conflict with motor vehicles.

Unlike its Asia neighbour China, India has very few dedicated bicycle facilities. In 2005, three separate 10-foot wide physically separated cycle tracks were proposed in Pune, India for students of 21 schools in the central area to safely get to school.

The proposal sounded great in theory, but a 2010 report indicated that the actual implementation of these separated cycle tracks in Pune were less than desirable:

“Ranjit Gadgil, programme coordinator of Parisar, who has been using a bicycle for several years, said the city lacks good cycle tracks. "The ones built by the PMC are mostly unusable. Encroachments and improper designing of the tracks have rendered them beyond use. Cycle tracks have to be continuous for a long stretch, but that is not the case. Also, the surface is of poor quality because interlocking blocks have been used. This makes bicycle users prefer the tar road instead of the cycle tracks," he said. Such a choice lands them in unsafe zones.

Gadgil pointed out that besides encroachments, there are obstacles like booths, buses, and road signages on cycle tracks. "Just as roads are maintained, cycle tracks should get attention and be cleaned regularly. The city has 80 km of cycle tracks, but each one has a different design. At road intersections, the design is most improper. Clear signs or notice boards will help cycle users easily identify them. At most places, tracks merge with footpaths," he said.”

Gadgil also said that parents are reluctant to let their children cycle to school due to the scary road conditions.

According to a 2010 article on the cycling blog On Our Own Two Wheels, Pune, India has 140km cycle lanes. However, encroachment seems to be a major issue, leading cyclists to end up riding on the roads instead of on dedicated bicycle infrastructure.

Here are two photos from On Our Own Two Wheels highlighting the encroachment issue:

Photo courtesy of Ezra Goldman / On Our Own Two Wheels

Photo from Ezra Goldman / On Our Own Two Wheels

Ezra Goldman from On Our Own Two Wheels questions whether the concept of physical separation makes sense when there is a mix of traffic “that includes buses, cars, cyclists, cows, auto rickshaws and the occasional horse or elephant even”.

To me, it’s a design issue – when implemented properly physical separation will work – even with a wide array of road users sharing the streets. China probably provides the nearest examples of cities that resemble India’s transportation landscape, and the Chinese have successfully implemented physically separated lanes.

A work acquaintance of mine who lives in Hyderabad, India, a city of close to 7 million explained to me that few people use bicycles in his city. He explains that the people who can afford a car will drive, and most other people are either riding motorized two wheelers or transit.

Back in Bangalore, the cycling trend that is growing within the Middle Class rings familiar here in North America, where people are slowly starting to see the benefits of using a bicycle to get around.

“Despite the problems, many today are keen on cycling. “At work, I know at least seven people who come to work in cycles and I, myself, am part of a cycling group in office where we arrange a biking trip,” he said.”

Riding a bicycle provides freedom from being stuck in traffic congestion which makes commuting a far more enjoyable experience than being stuck in a car. The fact that it costs nothing is just a bonus.

These are simple facts that Indians are starting to discover as they deal with their rapidly growing economy in densely populated urban areas with limited surface space.

James D. Schwartz is a Transportation Pragmatist and the Editor of The Urban Country. You can contact James at james.schwartz@theurbancountry.com or follow him on Twitter.

Related Articles:

Handicap Bike Parking (May 2010)
The Bicycle as a Status Symbol in China (Sept 2011)
Only the poor ride bicycles in Shanghai (Sept 2010)
Utility Cycling in China (May 2010)
Suburban Bike Infrastructure in China (March 2010)

Avid Urban Cyclist Clothing

2011-11-28T13:31:00.000-05:00

Photo by Marc van Woudenberg / Amsterdamize

Cycle clothing and gear is a topic I seldom cover here on The Urban Country, for there is no shortage of bicycle blogs out there already reviewing the latest bicycle clothing and gear.

But with the winter fast approaching for me here in Toronto, Canada I thought it would be appropriate to share some advice and suggestions for readers to help find the right clothing and gear for urban bicycling in the winter season.

Being an “avid” urban cyclist means shopping for the right cycle clothing and gear. Careful consideration is required to find cycle clothing that fits your body type and ensures that you will be comfortable while pedaling your bike around the city.

There is no shortage of cycle clothing stores both online and in person. It is imperative to find a cycle clothing store that suits your style.

Following are some clothing suggestions to help prepare for the approaching winter season for those of us in the Northern Hemisphere.

For cycling coats, you might want to consider a store called Banana Republic. Here are a couple jacket ideas for both him and her:

Screenshots courtesy of banarepublic.com

Or perhaps you would like something a bit more casual. Abercrombie & Fitch provides superb quality jackets for more casual cycling occasions:

Screenshots courtesy of abercrombie.ca

If you’re in the market for urban cycling pants, a store called Zara provides trousers for almost any urban cycling occasion:

Screenshots courtesy of zara.com

You won’t want to leave home without a pair of gloves and a scarf, either. A little clothing chain called GAP can help you find a scarf and gloves that will protect you from the elements:

Screenshots courtesy of gap.com

The point here is that cycling clothing need not be bought only from cycling or sporting stores.

When we go shopping for clothes, we don’t walk in and ask the salesperson if the have “winter walking jackets” or “winter driving jackets”. We walk in the store and ask simply for “winter jackets”. We wear our winter jackets whether we are walking, driving or bicycling.

Instead of thinking of bicycles as merely sport and recreational devices that require special gear, we need to start viewing bicycles as a functional tool that doesn’t require any cycle-specific clothing or gear.

Cycle-specific gear certainly has its place – especially for sport and racing, but urban bicycling can be done comfortably in your regular clothes; especially if you choose a bike designed to properly withstand the elements.

If you dress for the destination instead of the journey, you will discover the freedom and convenience of a bicycle to a level that you wouldn’t otherwise if you required a shower and a change room at your destination to get out of your cycle-specific gear.

James D. Schwartz is a Transportation Pragmatist and the Editor of The Urban Country. You can contact James at james.schwartz@theurbancountry.com or follow him on Twitter.

Disclaimer: I strongly recommend you shop at locally owned clothing stores when possible rather than the multi-national corporations I have highlighted above.

Related Articles:

Bicycling in the Winter (Nov 2010)
Simple tips To Make Bicycling in Rain Enjoyable (Apr 2011)
Dutch Cycle Chic – Toronto Style (Dec 2010)
Anatomy of a Dutch Bicycle (Jan 2011)

Trashy Bike Lane

2011-11-25T09:16:00.001-05:00

Photo of garbage bike lane by James Schwartz / The Urban Country

On the morning of November 7th, a pregnant woman was killed by the back wheels of a truck in Toronto while riding her bike to pick up her son at school. As a result of Jenna Morrison’s tragic and avoidable death, various cycling advocates have been brainstorming ideas for how we can help prevent a similar collision from happening again.

Federal Member of Parliament Olivia Chow has proposed a Bill to the House of Commons for mandatory side-guards on trucks to help prevent cyclists from falling into the underside of a truck and getting run over by the rear wheels. Side guards are an initiative I support, and have been mandatory in the U.K. and the European Union for more than 20 years.

Last week I gave an interview to CBC Radio’s Rita Celli explaining my support for side guards, while also explaining that safety doesn’t stop at side guards. There is much more we need to do to improve conditions to make cycling more comfortable and safe.

Yesterday morning I met up with Dave Meslin (the Founder of the Toronto Cyclists Union) to measure the dimensions of the intersection where Jenna was killed so we can propose a new design design to make bicyclists more visible and help to reduce conflict between drivers and cyclists. Hopefully a better design on this street might prevent another incident like this from happening.

To see how a bike lane might work on this street we gathered garbage and sticks and created a homemade bike lane. The painted bicycle symbols (or “sharrows”) were painted by an anonymous group/person shortly after Jenna’s death.

We observed how cars and trucks drove with our “trash” bike lane present. Drivers seemed to stay clear of our faux bike lane when they drove through the intersection, including a large tractor-trailer whose rear wheels stayed clear of our bike lane.

Read about our trash bike lane on Mez’s blog: “Re:Cycling – This is how bike lanes save lives”

Jenna was on the right side of a truck just before the Stop sign when the truck proceeded to turn right. The side of the truck apparently knocked Jenna off her bike and the rear wheels subsequently ran over her.

Having a bike lane might prevent this type of collision from occurring by giving a cyclist more space and making a truck driver more aware that a cyclist might be present.

This street is not unique in Toronto – there is no shortage of intersections that could be re-designed to positively improve the comfort and safety of cyclists.

Before we created the trash bike lane:

Photo by James Schwartz / The Urban Country

AFTER photos:

Photo by James Schwartz / The Urban Country

You may notice that there was significantly less garbage on the bike lane in the last two photos. This is because we had already cleared our trash bike lane when we spotted this truck approaching the intersection. As the truck was approaching we quickly re-applied some of the garbage just in time.

Despite the truck’s length and the narrow composition of the vehicle lane at this intersection the truck was still able to prevent his rear wheels from entering our 1.5 metre bike lane.

In a similar, but more permanent initiative, a group of advocates in Mexico painted their own 5km bike lane.

We cannot let Jenna’s tragic, untimely and senseless death be in vain. Positive change needs to happen to prevent someone else from experiencing the same fate.

Next step, use our measurements to design a new intersection that is inclusive of cyclists. Stay tuned.

James D. Schwartz is a Transportation Pragmatist and the Editor of The Urban Country. You can contact James at james.schwartz@theurbancountry.com or follow him on Twitter.

Related Articles:

Toronto’s Urban Repair Squad Strikes Again (Dec 2011)
Complete Streets in Amsterdam (Oct 2011)
Toronto’s Fragmented Bicycle Network (June 2011)
Toronto Cyclists Are Selfish And Rude? (June 2011)
Rush Hour in Toronto at –11 Celsius (March 2011)

Confessions Of A Bad Driver

2011-11-22T09:57:00.001-05:00

Road Rage photo by Irish Typepad

I grew up in a car-dependent town, in a car-crazed family, within a car-addicted culture. It’s no wonder that I first learned to drive at 12-years-old and had already owned 2 cars before I turned 16 years old (the legal age to drive).

As such, I often drove faster and more dangerously than I should have. I would often get enraged at other drivers or angry at traffic congestion.

I wasn’t willing to accept any blame for the traffic congestion and I wasn’t willing to employ self introspection to realize that the things that other drivers did that made me angry were probably things I do as well.

This is how our society conditions us. The media confirms our preconceptions by blaming someone other than ourselves. Our grievances are reinforced over and over again, and there is always a villain, but it’s never us.

Traffic congestion is always somebody else’s fault: It’s the construction, the traffic signals, streetcars, cyclists or the bike lanes that create traffic congestion. We aren’t conditioned to accept blame ourselves even though it’s me sitting all by myself in a car causing congestion while driving on a road that allows me to drive on it as often as I want at no cost.

One day in 2005 I was late for a wedding and I was enraged at the traffic congestion surrounding me. A friend was in the car with me and she told me that there was no point in getting worked up about it. Getting angry isn’t going to cause the traffic to disappear. “You might as well just stay calm and enjoy the ride. We’re going to be late either way, so you might as well be in a good mood than angry.”

That always stuck with me. My perspective had already been evolving after moving to Toronto in 2002 and using a bicycle to get around the city, but my views on road rage changed after this brief conversation.

Duncan from the BikingToronto blog “Duncan’s City Ride” had his epiphany in 2009. Duncan explains it in a post entitled “Changing My Point of View” which was posted in March 2011:

I’ve recently realized that I was a bad driver.

I remember sitting in my car in traffic, judging and hating everyone around me, “You call that a signal, idiot?!” “Get off my ass jerk or I’ll just tap my brakes a little harder and see how you like the taste of my bumper.”

Yet, the minute I arrived at my destination and stepped out of my car all my rage was lost. I couldn’t talk in that tone, in those words to my co-workers, I couldn’t treat the cashier at the grocery store with the same disdain.

And for some bizarre reason this all felt perfectly normal. Outside the glass and steel of my car everyone was out to annoy me or run me into a wall. But once I stepped out of my car I couldn’t blame anonymous others.

But now, after a few car-free years and experiencing a lot of road travel on a much smaller vehicle, I have finally realized that the problem was me.

In the one fender bender I was involved in it was everyone else’s fault but my own. The other driver braked too hard, the road was icy, the light was still yellow. Now I realize that I was traveling too fast for the conditions, that I was following too close and that I had no right to proceed through a yellow light without slowing down.

But it has taken me a very long time to come to this realization. It has taken a combination of no longer driving cars and reading about the way we behave in cars to come to the conclusion that I was a bad driver. But I was actively looking for reasons why my car made me miserable. It wasn’t just the price of gas and constant maintenance costs. It wasn’t just the insurance charges I felt too were too high, after all I thought I was a good driver. There was an underlying issue here and thankfully more and more people are studying why our cars can change perfectly decent people into rage-aholics.

Read the full article on Duncan’s City Ride

For Duncan, riding a bicycle was the primary trigger for his coming to the realization that he acted unreasonably behind the wheel of his car.

Those of us who ride bicycles on the streets every day see that anger and unreasonableness that permeates our culture. Drivers are constantly angry, and the media cashes in on drivers’ grievances by reinforcing the belief that drivers have been hard done by which perpetuates road rage even more.

Duncan also points out that the anonymity of hiding behind the glass and steel causes drivers to say and do things that they otherwise wouldn’t do in a normal civilized society.

Tom Vanderbilt explains it as the “online disinhibition effect”:

“Then there's the anonymity in traffic - there's no one to spread rumors or gossip about you about how bad your behavior was -- not to mention the lack of consequences for acting like an idiot. It's all strikingly similar to the way we act on the internet, in what's called the "online disinhibition effect."”

I read an apt analogy about road rage a while back, but I can’t figure out where I read it. I have a feeling it was penned by Jeff Mapes in his 2009 book “Pedaling Revolution”, but I can’t seem to find it in there. Nonetheless, it went something like this:

When a driver gets angry at a cyclist for “slowing him down” and yells profanities and/or passes dangerously close just to make a point, it’s like someone standing in the checkout line at a grocery store and screaming profanities at a little old lady because she is taking too long to retrieve the money from her purse to pay for her groceries.

In other words, we do things behind the wheels of our cars that would be socially unacceptable anywhere outside of a car.

It’s about time we acknowledge this as a societal issue, accept some blame, and start to view this behaviour as unacceptable behind the steel and glass.

James D. Schwartz is a Transportation Pragmatist and the Editor of The Urban Country. You can contact James at james.schwartz@theurbancountry.com or follow him on Twitter.

Related Articles:

The Driver Privilege Checklist (Nov 2011)
Responsibility & Accountability On Our Streets (April 2011)
On Scofflaw Cyclists & Exemplary Motorists (July 2011)
Sympathizing Road Rage (March 2011)
Car Culture Bleeds Our Society (Aug 2010)

The Chinese Car Obsession

2011-11-16T09:53:00.001-05:00

Beijing motor traffic and wide segregated bicycle infrastructure – Photo by Saad Akhtar

It is now official: The Urban Country is headed to China for four months this winter, beginning in January. We will be primarily staying on the southern island of Hainan in the South China Sea for the four months in Hainan’s capital city Haikou (population 2 million).

We also plan to travel to Tibet, and after waiting 31-years, I will be exploring my Grandparents’ homeland by bicycle – the Netherlands – in the spring.

This trip marks the third time I’ve visited China; the first time in 2007, and the second in 2010. This time the primary purpose is to introduce our daughter to her maternal Grandparents (whom to date have only seen their Granddaughter on Skype).

The trip has been in the works for quite some time. I left my job in July and started my own technology consulting company in order to make it easier for me to work anywhere in the world (anywhere with an Internet connection that is).

I will also continue blogging while in China, but you can expect to see some China-related content in addition to blogging about the transportation issues we face here in North America and in other English-speaking countries.

I have long been fascinated by China and the Chinese culture. The country is rapidly evolving, and its economy growing at an unprecedented pace. It is interesting to watch how everything is unfolding in that country of more than 1.3 billion people.

China’s widespread adoption of utility bicycling and its historical commitment to bicycle infrastructure in cities and suburbs alike is fascinating in itself.

All of this is threatened by the Chinese obsession with automobiles. Whereas in North America almost everybody owns an automobile, in China it is still a luxury to own a car, as most still cannot afford one.

Electric scooters have also experienced explosive growth and are also dominating Chinese streets – especially in the tropical climate on the island of Hainan, where I will be spending most of my time.

Electric scooter traffic in Haikou, Hainan, China – May 2010 – Photo by James Schwartz / The Urban Country

Blocks and blocks of parked scooters in Haikou, Hainan, China – May 2010 – Photo by James Schwartz

Here is a video of me biking around Haikou in 2010 on a Giant folding bike I picked up for less than $100:

The current elusiveness for the average Chinese person makes car ownership a hot commodity. My good friend Mark has lived in Shanghai for several years, and here he comments on the growing car culture in China:

“It's really disturbing how car ownership is so ingrained in this culture as the pinnacle of success. It comes second only to owning your own place. In fact, on reality dating shows (and likely in other aspects of culture), the two are almost always put together in to one 'sentence' (or concept): 有房有车，which translates literally to 'have (own) place, have car'. It's usually the first question these guys are asked (along with their salary).

If you type the first two characters in Google, the full phrase will come up as a top suggestion, which speaks to how culturally ingrained the concept is.”

And despite China’s growing car culture, its rate of car ownership is still extremely low (for now anyway). There are just 128 motor vehicles for every 1,000 people - compared to 779 motor vehicles for every 1,000 man, woman and child in the United States.

Nevertheless, Chinese cities are becoming clogged with traffic congestion and fraught with pollution. Just last year we reported on a 100KM, 9-day traffic jam on the Beijing-Tibet “Expressway”.

The Chinese obsession with car culture and the devastation that it would cause if left unchecked is the topic of a documentary film I am hoping to produce one day. In the film we would interview everyday Chinese people who cannot afford cars to hear their viewpoints. We would also interview government officials, car company executives and wealthy Chinese.

The film would serve as a wake up call to the country to continue its support for bicycles and public transit and continue to fight back against a growing car culture that it cannot sustain.

Chinese cities have been limiting the number of cars that are allowed to be licensed in order to attempt to tackle congestion and pollution. In December 2010 the Beijing government announced it would limit its 2011 issuance of new license plates to 240,000.

In the first 11 hours of 2011, nearly 40,000 online applications for new car license plates were received in Beijing, and the government chose the “lucky” (or unlucky) winners by drawing names from the list of applicants.

Prior to 2011, 15,500 new cars were being added to Beijing streets each week. That is over 800,000 new cars every year and by the end of 2010 there were close to 5 million cars on the streets of Beijing.

Other measures were taken to help address congestion – parking prices were increased and during the Olympics in 2008 Beijing launched an “odd-even license plate number system” that allowed drivers to drive every other day.

In addition to limiting license plates, the government has invested billions in high tech public transit and much of China’s bike infrastructure has not yet been reclaimed to make room for automobiles. The Chinese government is taking drastic measures to attempt to prevent a disaster.

Even in the countryside I saw high-quality separated bike infrastructure being built in 2010, so the Chinese government still seems to be committed to providing alternate means of transportation.

If China decides to sacrifice bicycle infrastructure, the problems that we see in North America will only be multiplied due to China’s population. The government really has no other choice but to maintain bike infrastructure in order to alleviate congestion and tackle pollution.

Beginning in January, expect to see some more articles relating to the transportation challenges that China is facing.

James D. Schwartz is a Transportation Pragmatist and the Editor of The Urban Country. You can contact James at james.schwartz@theurbancountry.com or follow him on Twitter.

Related Articles:

The Bicycle as a Status Symbol in China (Sept 2011)
Only the poor ride bicycles in Shanghai (Sept 2010)
Bicycles for Transporting… [fill in the blank] (May 2010)
Utility Cycling in China (May 2010)
Suburban Bike Infrastructure in China (March 2010)

Tell Cyclists To Follow The Rules

2011-11-12T10:30:00.001-05:00

“Cargo Bike” – Photo by Mario Jahn / RateMyVelo.com

It was bound to happen. A newspaper column politely asking drivers to share the road and accept cyclists as fellow travellers rather than adversaries, published in a newspaper with a readership of ~1 million people, was bound to stir up some controversy.

As expected, I woke up to an email from a Toronto Star reader who says, “When cyclists stop breaking the rules, then I’ll start supporting cyclists”.

This is a classic argument used to argue against building proper bike infrastructure, and a classic excuse for drivers to justify driving aggressively near cyclists. In June, I videotaped a 30-minute commute to show that the vast majority of cyclists are respectful of others and generally obey most rules.

However, I wanted to point out to the reader that obeying all rules on a bicycle to the letter of the law can be dangerous for cyclists, and I also wanted to question why this reader held cyclists to a higher standard than drivers. So I responded to his email.

Here is the correspondence:

From: R
To: contact@isharetheroad.com
Sent: Saturday, November 12, 2011 7:53:59 AM
Subject: Tell cyclist to follow the rules

I’m not against cyclists. However, I am tired of cyclist breaking the rules of the road. We’d all get along a lot better if cyclists did not feel they owned the space.

Cyclist ride on the sidewalk. They are “side walks,” not side rides.

There is 4 way stop in my neighbourhood. Cyclists consistently do not stop even when there are cars and people with kids in the crosswalks.

When cyclists stop breaking the rules, then I’ll start supporting cyclists.

R

*** My response:

From: James Schwartz <james.schwartz@theurbancountry.com>
To: R
Sent: Saturday, November 12, 2011 9:55:54 AM
Subject: Re: Tell cyclist to follow the rules

Hi R,

Thanks for the email. I do understand your concern and it is frustrating when people don't follow the rules (be it drivers or cyclists). However, one of the issues with our current road system and laws is that they were designed primarily with cars in mind. Following the rules to the letter of the law on a bicycle is sometimes dangerous.

The 38-year-old woman who was 5-months pregnant when she was run over by a truck earlier this week was following the rules of the road when she was killed. She would probably be alive right now if she rode her bike on the sidewalk (I am not condoning riding on the sidewalk, but cyclists who get dangerously squeezed by cars sometimes feel the need to move off the road to stay safe).

Another woman who was run down by an angry driver this week was making a legal left turn. The driver apparently didn't appreciate her obeying the law while making a left-hand turn (and I have seen this happen many times when drivers get angry for cyclists making a legal turn because they feel the cyclist is holding them up).

I am confident that we'd have less cyclists breaking the rules if we had better infrastructure that makes it less dangerous for cyclists to use our streets.

Having said all that, why is it that you hold cyclists to a higher standard than drivers? How many drivers never exceed the maximum posted speed limit? Judging by what I see when I drive on the highway, I would say you would probably have a very hard time finding a driver who never exceeds the speed limit. I also see drivers dangerously turning right on red lights without coming to a complete stop (as a pedestrian I've been almost hit many times over), and I have a four-way stop close to my home where you would be hard pressed to find a motorist who doesn't do a rolling stop (and yes it's true that most cyclists also do a rolling stop at this intersection too).

I should also point out that the Ontario Provincial Police handed out 9,533 impaired driving tickets last year; and out of 69,218 vehicle collisions last year almost 2,000 were alcohol-related. Furthermore, police in Ontario handed out 7,560 charges to motorists over three days during the Canada Day weekend.

Given these statistics and knowing that the vast majority of drivers don't obey all the rules of the road, why is it that I am willing to share the road with drivers, but you aren't willing to share the road with cyclists?

Best,

James Schwartz, The Urban Country

When the topic comes up, I always tell people that I would rather drivers/cyclists be courteous to each other than to blindly obey the law. A driver can obey the law but put me in danger by passing me too closely. Similarly, he can break the law by rolling slowly through an empty four-way stop sign while being courteous, aware and safe.

Let’s put more emphasis on being courteous than blindly obeying laws that were created without bicyclists in mind.

James D. Schwartz is a Transportation Pragmatist and the Editor of The Urban Country. You can contact James at james.schwartz@theurbancountry.com or follow him on Twitter.

Related Articles:

The Driver Privilege Checklist (Nov 2011)
Bicycle Infrastructure Ignorance (Jan 2011)
Responsibility & Accountability On Our Streets (Apr 2011)
You’re Welcome Mr. Motorist (Jan 2011)

The Driver Privilege Checklist

2011-11-09T16:40:00.001-05:00

RIP Jenna Morrison – Photo by Aaron Lynett / National Post

On Monday morning, a wife, mother and yoga instructor who was 5-months pregnant was run over by a truck and killed in Toronto in a completely avoidable incident. This senseless death has been on the minds of thousands of people in Toronto because it was so tragic and yet so avoidable.

As a result of this incident, fellow Toronto citizen and cyclist Kristin MH wrote “The Driver Privilege Checklist”, a list of privileges that drivers often take for granted. The list is essentially disadvantages that cyclists have, but presented as privileges of drivers instead of disadvantages of cyclists.

To briefly explain the concept of privilege checklists, “The Male Privilege Checklist” is a good example: In that article the author quotes Peggy McIntosh who in 1990 observed that “whites in the U.S. are taught to see racism only in individual acts of meanness, not in invisible systems conferring dominance on my group.” McIntosh created a list of privileges that white men enjoy in order to illustrate the invisible institutional racism that many people don’t even realize exists.

Using the same technique, Kristin MH highlights privileges that drivers enjoy in order to help illustrate what might otherwise be invisible. Kristin explains that the intention is not to scold drivers:

“Remember when you read this: If you have privilege in a situation, that doesn’t make you evil. It doesn’t mean that you have no problems and your life is perfect. Hell, it doesn’t mean that you aren’t un-privileged in another way! What it means is that you have a greater chance than a non-privileged person of being an asshole under this specific set of circumstances, and thus you have a greater responsibility to act in such a way as to not be an asshole. That’s really about it.”

Here is Kristin’s list:

The Driver Privilege Checklist

If I am hurt or killed while driving, unless I am intoxicated or grossly negligent, I will not be blamed for my decision to drive.
If I live in North America, my driving is subsidized by my local, regional, and federal government, who provide roads and infrastructure. This subsidy is far beyond that given to any other form of daily transportation.
Learning to drive is a rite of passage, seen as a normal and necessary step towards adulthood, whereas other forms of transport are seen as childish or impractical.
If I choose to transport my children in a car, I will not be called a bad parent or berated for doing so.
If my child is injured or killed while in my car, I will not be blamed for their death unless I was intoxicated or otherwise grossly negligent.
If while driving I injure or kill another person, whether they are another driver, a passenger, a pedestrian, or a cyclist, unless I am intoxicated or otherwise grossly negligent this will be seen nothing more than a regrettable accident.
Large areas of the city, suburb, or rural area I live in are built and laid out with driving in mind to the exclusion of other forms of transportation, and may be totally inaccessible to non-drivers.
While travelling I do not have to experience cold, heat, rain, or snow for more than a few moments unless I choose to.
I can complain to friends, family, and aquaintances about minor accidents and other annoyances without being told that I should stop driving.
It is easier for me than it is for non-drivers to buy many staple goods, such as groceries, as they are often sold in car-centric locations which are difficult to access by other means of transport. I also have the advantage of more easily buying in bulk.
Unless I am very extravagant, the money I spend on purchasing and running my car is not seen as wasted, as a car is seen as a necessity. And the most obvious:
While in transit, I am protected by a 2-tonne metal machine which is faster, stronger, and more durable than anything else I encounter on the road besides larger cars and trucks. If I am in a collision with a pedestrian or a cyclist, even if I am not at fault, I am much more likely to escape without serious injury or death.
If I make a mistake while driving, am in an accident, or cause injury to myself or others, this will not be held against all drivers or considered proof that driving is inherently dangerous or irresponsible.

Read the full article here.

A memorial ride will be held for Jenna Morrison on Monday November 14th at 7:30AM at Bloor and Spadina.

James D. Schwartz is a Transportation Pragmatist and the Editor of The Urban Country. You can contact James at james.schwartz@theurbancountry.com or follow him on Twitter.

Related Articles:

Responsibility & Accountability On Our Streets (Apr 2011)
You’re Welcome Mr. Motorist (Jan 2011)
Enough Excuses: Cars Cause Death (Dec 2010)
Car Culture Bleeds Our Society (Aug 2010)
Refusing To Be Herded Like Cattle (Aug 2010)

Long 6-Month Winter Comfortably Above 0C

2011-11-07T10:11:00.001-05:00

Photo of Vancouver Hornby separated bike lanes by Paul Krueger

In an opinion piece posted on straight.com (Vancouver’s Online Source) an ignorant political candidate named Ken Charko has proposed to make Vancouver’s bike lanes seasonal and turning them into metered parking for the “winter”.

Defining “winter”, Charko proposes closing the bike lanes down from October 1st to March 31st. Except the average mean temperature in Vancouver in October is 11.1 degrees Celsius (52 degrees F).

And the average mean temperature in Vancouver never goes below freezing, so snow in Vancouver is rare and when it does snow, it often doesn’t stick in the ground for any prolonged period of time.

The average *low* temperature is 2.7 degrees Celsius in January. That’s the average *low* temperature. The average median temperature is 4.8C.

Vancouver is an ideal place to use a bicycle year round, and shutting the bike lanes down “for the winter” shouldn’t even be conceivable for anyone with even a marginal level level of common sense.

Clearly the argument that “winter is 6 months long” is just an excuse that the anti-bicycling crowd uses to rail against a form of transportation that they feel threatens their way of life and their addiction to their automobiles (and there are many).

Unfortunately, this ignorance makes it more difficult for conditions to improve for cyclists, even though better conditions for bicycles would benefit car drivers because the more options people have for transporting themselves, the less cars there will be clogging the streets. More people can be moved more efficiently with less space.

Arguing against alternatives is actually making it worse for drivers.

And perpetuating the myth that winter is “6 months long” in Vancouver shows that this political candidate takes voters for fools. I’m confident voters will see through this deceit tactic.

Straight.com also posted this response from the Vancouver cycling community.

James D. Schwartz is a Transportation Pragmatist and the Editor of The Urban Country. You can contact James at james.schwartz@theurbancountry.com or follow him on Twitter.

Related Articles:

Vancouver Approves Hornby Street Bike Lanes (Oct 2010)
Bicycle Infrastructure Ignorance (Jan 2011)
You’re Welcome Mr. Motorist (Jan 2011)
Montreal Bicycle Ridership Up 35-40% (Dec 2010)
Motorists Against Bicycle Infrastructure (Oct 2010)

Announcing Our Bicycle Art Contest Winner

2011-11-07T00:37:00.001-05:00

Screenshot of Mike Rubbo’s Situp-Bike-Art.com website

In September we announced a bicycle art contest where one lucky winner who submitted a bicycle photo would win a painting of that photo by Mike Rubbo. The painting would be shipped to the winner, and would also be added to Mr. Rubbo’s bicycle art collection at www.situp-bike-art.com.

Mike has reviewed the submissions and has now chosen the winner. Without further ado, the winner is reader Joe Arruda from Oshawa, ON, Canada. Joe submitted a photo of himself with his dog Duffy riding happily in the front basket of his Norco bicycle.

Mr. Rubbo concedes that he normally avoids lycra and helmeted cyclists in his paintings, but he loves the energy and sincerity exuded by Joe’s photo:

“They are having fun the two of them”, said Mr. Rubbo of Joe’s photo.

In the original contest article, Mike had explained why he avoids lycra:

“I am not particularly interested in the racing mode, in lycra etc. as art topics because they tend to dominate existing bike art.”

But the energy of Joe’s photo took precedence over Mike’s tendency to avoid lycra-clad cyclists in his bike art collection. And Joe’s position on his bike is fairly upright, so it does indeed align with Mike’s “situp” bike art collection.

Following is the winning photo. You can see the look of contentment in both Joe and Duffy’s faces as the August breeze sweeps across their faces. The photo was snapped during a Tuesday night ride in late August just outside of Oshawa, Ontario, Canada.

Photo courtesy of Joe Arruda

Mr. Rubbo studied film at Stanford University on a Fulbright scholarship, has taught film at Harvard University and worked for 20 years as a documentary filmmaker at the National Film Board of Canada, directing more than 40 documentary films and winning several international prizes.

In recent years, Mr. Rubbo has been focused on promoting bicycling on his website situp-cycle.com and through his bike art collection at situp-bike-art.com.

Through his bike art and films, Mike strives to “persuade non-riders that bikes are both beautiful and practical – not to mention fun, healthy and sensuous”.

The Urban Country would like to sincerely thank Mike for volunteering his time to paint Joe’s winning photo for this Urban Country exclusive contest.

We think Joe and Duffy will enjoy their painting. Stay tuned for an upcoming article which will feature a photo of the finished artwork.

Until then, ride on…

James D. Schwartz is a Transportation Pragmatist and the Editor of The Urban Country. You can contact James at james.schwartz@theurbancountry.com or follow him on Twitter.

Related Articles:

Contest: Win a Bike Painting By Mike Rubbo (Sept 2011)
Creating Grace & Beauty Through The Bicycle (June 2011)
Billboard Hijacking To Promote Urban Bicycling (March 2011)
The Sit-Up Cycling Revolution (Dec 2009)

The Parable Of The Bicycling Advocate…

2011-11-02T03:00:00.001-04:00

Photo of Dr. Behooving courtesy of Dr. Behooving himself / RateMyVelo.com

My fellow advocate buddy Dr. Steven Fleming scribed a parable earlier this year that nicely illustrates a topic that we discuss on here often: how do we solve transportation and environmental issues using pragmatic solutions without turning people off.

Dr. Steve is an Architectural Theorist, a professor of architecture at the University of Newcastle in Australia, and creator of cycle-space.com (formerly the Behooving Moving blog). He has been traveling the world exploring different cities’ cycle space, and plans to release a book of the same title.

People are often turned off by advocates who have genuine intentions but take the wrong approach to selling their cause. The doctor illustrates this in his “parable of the cyclist who fixed things for everyone” (reposted here in its entirety):

“A public health advocate, an environmentalist, a transit planner, and a keen cyclist, are walking along when they come across a discarded sleigh with three empty harnesses (one might call that a troika).

The public health advocate promptly jumps into the sleigh, and says, "You guys pull and I’ll steer." A week later they’re all worn out from delivering cheesy posters about riding tandems and flying kites, and notice no one is riding tandems or kite flying these days. It seems no one wants to look like the geeks in the posters. And of the handful still riding tandems, the stokers are defiantly smoking.

The environmentalist pushes his way on board the sleigh. "No more cutting down trees for your posters! Let me do the steering." A week later they have walked around seeking, and finding, a carbon neutral fuel for the cars. This fuel is so cheap and plentiful, the roads now have ten times the traffic. Their nation is stuck at the wheel, eating fast food.

"Get out hippie, I’m driving," the urban transit specialist says. So they all drag him around for a week, as he borrows heavily to spend money on trains. Only when their country is broke and full of overweight people on trains, do they look to the cyclist and remark that he has next to no pulling power anyway, so may as well steer for a while.

Within a week the cyclist has relegated the cars to a handful of roads. The other streets are filled with fit cyclists with money to spare, and all the car parks have been turned into farms. The public health advocate, transit planner and environmentalist wish that right from day one, they had lent their pulling power to whatever best suited the cyclist.”

Check out Cycle-Space.com for more interesting thought-provoking articles from the colourful professor.

James D. Schwartz is a Transportation Pragmatist and the Editor of The Urban Country. You can contact James at james.schwartz@theurbancountry.com or follow him on Twitter.

Related Articles:

Complete Streets in Amsterdam (Oct 2011)
You’re Welcome Mr. Motorist (Jan 2011)
How To Win Over Non-Cyclists at a Dinner Party (Aug 2011)
On Scofflaw Cyclists & Exemplary Motorists (July 2011)
Bicycle Infrastructure Is Good For Business (May 2011)

Toronto Newspaper Columnist Sees The Light

2011-10-27T01:02:00.001-04:00

Photo of James Schwartz cycling through a typical non-accommodating Toronto construction zone – Jack Lakey / Toronto Star

In July I posted a response to what I felt was an ill-written newspaper column which antagonized cyclists for their apparent blatant disregard for traffic laws. I felt the article only served to create more animosity on our streets and I thought the point could have been made without so many generalizations and disdain towards people who choose bicycles to get around the city in imperfect conditions.

My response was picked up by the newspaper columnist Jack Lakey, the article’s author, and through subsequent emails and phone calls it turned out we had more in common than perhaps we had first thought.

It turns out Jack had good intentions but wrote the article “based on a perspective formed in a driver’s seat”.

I invited Jack out to come experience our streets first hand on a bicycle. Jack’s column is after all called “The Fixer” column, and he is tasked with fixing problems in the city. So I thought it would be appropriate to show Jack the inadequate conditions in which cyclists have to deal with on a daily basis.

That was the original intention, anyway. It turns out Jack loved pedaling around the city so much that his article changed from being a typical “Fixer” column, to allowing him to profess his enjoyment for riding a bicycle in the city – something he hadn’t experienced before, and one that he couldn’t understand or appreciate while sitting inside an automobile.

So as luck would have it, Jack and I now have one more thing in common: we both love getting around our city by bicycle. But Jack just didn’t know it until now.

Jack puts it succinctly in his article entitled “Cycling a better way to get around than it looks”:

“The idea was to provide us with examples of the perils encountered while riding, and to show us the need for and advantages of infrastructure that makes cycling safer and more viable.

But an unintended consequence of our journey was soon apparent: Cycling is an immensely enjoyable way to get around, especially on a fall day when moderate exertion results in minimal sweat.

It promotes a sense of well-being and gets the blood flowing without leaving one gasping for breath, and allows riders to quickly manoeuvre through heavy traffic without adding to the queue of gridlocked vehicles.

Aside from the exercise, it creates a connection between the rider and the surrounding community in a way that drivers, who are sealed off by glass and steel, could never feel for themselves.

While stopped at an intersection, you can hear the conversations of people waiting for the green light. You can smell onions sizzling at a hot dog cart, read the signs pasted to a utility pole and observe things that cannot be seen from behind the wheel.”

Sometimes all it takes is a ride around the city for someone to truly appreciate the benefit of using a bicycle for transportation. We do it simply because it’s fast, and fun.

And what words of wisdom does Jack offer to other drivers who don’t think of bicycles as a legitimate mode of transportation?

“It was a revealing experience for a guy who had thought of bikes as more of a toy than a real vehicle, one that should be tried by any driver guilty of making the same mistake.”

Read the full article on the Toronto Star website

James D. Schwartz is a Transportation Pragmatist and the Editor of The Urban Country. You can contact James at james.schwartz@theurbancountry.com or follow him on Twitter.

Related Articles:

“The Fixer” Not Fixing Anything (July 2011)
The Fixer Gets It Right (July 2011)
How To Win Over Non-Cyclists at a Dinner Party (Aug 2011)
Toronto Cyclists Are Selfish And Rude? (June 2011)

Traffic Calming A Waste Of Money?

2011-10-26T01:35:00.001-04:00

Toronto Traffic Calming Photo by Matthew Blackett / Spacing

The Canada Safety Council, a self proclaimed “independent, knowledge-based, charitable organization dedicated to the cause of safety” published an article chastising traffic calming measures, calling them “a sheer waste of taxpayers’ money”.

Somehow I doubt the person who wrote the article rides a bicycle on our streets. When I ride on a streets with traffic calming speed humps, I’m much safer as a result – and so are the people inside cars who have to slow down to below 40km/h in order to not feel the hump when they drive over it.

To call traffic calming measures a “sheer waste of taxpayers’ money” really makes me question the intent of the article and question the independence of the organization.

We shouldn’t be surprised however. For when you “follow the money” you’ll see that they are funded by representatives of the car industry, oil and gas industry, the transport/freight industry and the auto insurance industry.

The article, entitled “Traffic calming vs. safety” perpetuates common North American myths, but fails to use facts to back up its claims.

I will address each of the following myths that this article uses to argue against traffic calming measures:

Argument 1: Canada has different infrastructure, climate and transportation needs than Australia and Europe

Yes, Canada does have different infrastructure, climate and transportation needs than Australia and Europe. But how does that make it inappropriate to look at studies done in these continents?

There are plenty of examples of countries in Europe which have very similar climate to Canada – especially the Nordic countries. And these countries have some great examples of effective traffic calming measures.

Here is a great traffic calming safety measure in Denmark:

Photo by Mikael Colville-Andersen / Copenhagenize

The photo above was taken in Frederikssund, Denmark, whose climate is not all that different than Toronto’s climate. This particular traffic calming infrastructure only allows one direction of automobiles to pass at a time to calm traffic. It’s a very effective design and has minimal impact on a motorist.

Australia also has very similar public transit needs and travel distances to Canada. Canada ranked 26th out of 29 OECD countries in distance traveled by road vehicles per capita. The three countries ahead of Canada were: the United States, Luxembourg and Australia, so people in Australia actually drive further than Canadians.

Argument 2: Stop signs are useless because most drivers don’t stop anyway

The next argument used in the article is that stop signs have become meaningless because they were added to slow traffic in residential neighbourhoods and most drivers and cyclists treat them as yield signs.

I partially agree with this point. I personally think there are more effective ways to calm traffic than by using four-way stop signs. However, the reasoning behind their argument seems a bit strange. They are arguing that we should do away with these stop signs because “rolling stops have become a common practice for many drivers” which sets a bad example for our children. But they fail to offer any alternatives except to allow drivers to drive full steam ahead in residential neighbourhoods.

Replacing stop signs with more effective traffic calming measures would be a good alternative to address this. In the photo above from Denmark, cars are required to slow down but not make a complete stop when nobody is around, so this is a far more effective approach than forcing traffic to stop even if nobody is around.

Argument 3: Traffic calming increases emissions and fuel consumption due to congestion

The argument that traffic calming measures increase emissions is particularly disturbing. Removing traffic calming measures and speeding up cars not only makes our streets more dangerous for all road users, it also induces demand for those streets which will bring more traffic and more emissions, not less.

A pedestrian who is hit at 40mph (64km/h) is expected to die 85% of the time, while a pedestrian hit at 20mph (32km/h) dies 5% of the time. Study after study has shown the impact on vulnerable road users is drastically decreased as the speed of the car is lowered. Why would the Canada Safety Council argue to *speed up* traffic even more?

UK DOT statistics on vehicle/pedestrian collisions (via Streetsblog SF)

Furthermore, speeding up cars won’t reduce emissions or fuel consumptions in the long run. A study by Douglass B. Lee, Jr. found that increased capacity does indeed induce demand in the long run, assuming the rate of elasticity is not zero. In other words, if roads are at capacity, and there is additional demand for those roads, more people will use those roads if congestion is decreased.

Instead of arguing for faster car travel to “reduce emissions”, the Canada Safety Council should be arguing for traffic calming to keep pedestrians, drivers and cyclists safe, and they should be promoting alternate modes of transportation to reduce congestion and also to reduce emissions.

Argument 4: Traffic calming impedes snow clearing

The article claims that traffic calming measures impede snow clearing: “Snow clearing problems associated with blocked-off streets and other traffic calming obstructions will increase delays in winter, when many home fires and medical emergencies occur”

If snow clearing was such an issue, you would think it would be easy to find an article where the people who are doing the snow clearing would complain about traffic calming being such an impediment to getting their jobs done.

I can’t find a single article where snow clearing crews have complained about traffic calming measures having a significant negative effect on their jobs, so I don’t know where this statement stems from.

Argument 5: Traffic calming impedes emergency vehicles

The article then uses hyperbolic arguments to claim that traffic calming measures can prevent emergency vehicles from saving a life. They use statements such as “a criminal can escape the scene o a crime in less than a minute” or “in one minute, a fast-burning fire can destroy a building” to support their argument against traffic calming.

And once again, I’m not able to find any evidence that there is a significant public safety issue of emergency vehicles not being able to fulfill their duties due to traffic calming measures.

Last I checked, emergency vehicles primarily used arterial roads to reach their destination quickly. The police aren’t travelling across the entire city on residential streets to reach an emergency. And it’s not too often you see a police car driving under the speed limit anyway, so reduced speed limits to calm traffic wouldn’t impede an emergency vehicle.

Argument 6: Traffic calming breeds dangerous drivers

The article argues that “in our fast-paced society, slow traffic aggravates drivers”. It claims that parents who are transporting their children around have deadlines to meet, and will thus “take chances”.

They argue that traffic calming measures actually force drivers to break the law because they are frustrated, claiming “drivers swerve around speed bumps into bicycle lanes to avoid damage to their vehicle” and “frustrated motorists make dangerous turns or run red lights”.

Trying to blame traffic calming measures for the dangerous risks that parents take while driving with children in their car is merely an attempt to shift the blame and absolve drivers of any accountability and responsibility.

A more extreme example of this argument would be to say that we should remove all traffic signals in the city because red lights “aggravate motorists” and causes frustrated drivers to run them.

The argument doesn’t hold up and once again there are no facts to support their claim that removing all traffic calming measures would do anything to improve drivers’ frustrations or cause drivers to suddenly not take chances or drive dangerously.

Argument 7: Children shouldn’t be playing on the street in the first place

Another argument against traffic calming in residential areas is that “children shouldn’t be playing in the streets in the first place”.

Who has the right to say that children shouldn’t be playing in the streets? Children have played on the streets for over a hundred years, and it wasn’t until recent decades that it became an issue of public safety due to our dangerous driving behaviour.

Another extreme example of this argument would be to say that cyclists shouldn’t be on the street in the first place, or pedestrians shouldn’t be walking on our sidewalks or streets in the first place.

Sure, a kid might be safe from getting hit by a car if they stay inside their home and play video games, but they might end up with a disease that results from a sedentary lifestyle. Kids playing on their quiet residential neighbourhood street should be a normal thing to do. It allows parents to keep an eye on their kids from their home (instead of sending them to a park where they can’t easily watch over their kids).

Argument 8: Studies show traffic calming reduces traffic volume & speeds and reduces crashes

This is one argument we can agree on. Except the article then goes on to imply that traffic was probably diverted to other streets, so collisions probably increased on those other streets.

This is an example of taking a fact, then downplaying it without backing it up with any other facts.

Argument 9: Increased enforcement is the solution

The article then concludes that increased enforcement is the solution. Except this is a fallacy because there isn’t enough police staff to enforce traffic calming across the entire city. Furthermore, police generally stick to the “easy” speed traps on highways and arterial roads. Traffic calming is primarily on residential streets.

The article also implies that speed limits should be increased and police should “strictly enforce” those “realistic” speed limits.

Increasing speed limits is not a solution that Canada “Safety” Council should be promoting if safety truly is its primary interest.

---

In conclusion, this Canada Safety Council article is clearly designed to promote a hidden agenda and has nothing to do with improving safety.

By perpetuating these myths, the Safety Council is ignoring the root cause of the true danger of our streets, and is actively lobbying to increase the danger of motor vehicles so that a parent can make their “deadlines” without having to break the law.

My twitter friend Ben Mueller-Heaslip puts it aptly:

“People like to think their convenience has a moral foundation. People who buy SUVs keep more factory workers employed than cyclists”.

The Canada Safety Council has convinced itself that many of the issues we face in the world can be solved by simply improving convenience of motorists and removing any restrictions on their movements.

This couldn’t be further from the truth.

Thanks to Herb from i bike TO for originally posting a link to the Canada Safety Council article.

James D. Schwartz is a Transportation Pragmatist and the Editor of The Urban Country. You can contact James at james.schwartz@theurbancountry.com or follow him on Twitter.

Related Articles:

Responsibility & Accountability On Our Streets (April 2011)
Ignoring the Real Problem On Our Streets (Nov 2009)
Enough Excuses: Cars Cause Death (Dec 2010)
Car Culture Bleeds Our Society (Aug 2010)

Baltimore Orioles Pitcher Commutes By Bike

2011-10-21T14:15:00.001-04:00

Photo of Orioles bicycle parking sign by James Schwartz / The Urban Country

Part of my visit to Baltimore this week included dinner and a tour of Oriole Park at Camden Yards – the home of the professional baseball team the Baltimore Orioles. While touring the baseball stadium, I was pleasantly surprised to see a bicycle rack just outside the players’ dressing room with a sign reading “Orioles Player Bikes Only”.

I asked our passionate tour guide whether any of the players actually use that bike rack. He told me that Baltimore Orioles pitcher Jeremy Guthrie rides his bicycle to every home game.

For someone who received a salary of $5.7 million dollars in 2011, it is great to see Mr. Guthrie choosing not to drive a luxury SUV or sports car to the stadium like most other multi-millionaire professional athletes.

Photos of Baltimore Orioles bicycle parking by James Schwartz / The Urban Country

According to a 2008 article by Richard Mason The Baltimore Sun wrote this about the Orioles players’ disposition to commuting by bicycle:

“It seems as if half the Orioles team gets around on two wheels and a handlebar. The Orioles might be the only team that has more use for a bike rack than a bat rack.”

The quote didn’t mention how many players on average ride their bikes to their home games, but it did mention Guthrie’s dedication to riding 6 days a week:

“Fans are accustomed to the players’ lot being filled with expensive rides – sports cars, HUVs, private jets. But you should check out the clubhouse sometime, or the weight room. There are enough bikes parked there to hold the Tour de France.

Jeremy Guthrie rides to Camden Yards six days a week during long homestands. The exception is Sundays, when his wife drops him off after they attend church in the morning. He has maintained that routine at every level of professional baseball, including his days at Triple-A Buffalo, when the trip covered 10 miles. But it was a one-way journey. His wife would pick up Guthrie and the bike for the ride home.

“I rode when it was sub-40 degrees,” he said. “It’s actually better. You don’t sweat as much.””

In a 2011 video interview with USAToday, Guthrie explains how he changed perceptions with his teammates:

“Initially a lot of the players were like "why are you riding your bike, that's crazy". Then we had two or three other players, they went over and got a bike as well. Pretty soon we had 2 or 3 guys riding to the park. It's caught on. People see the benefits of it, they see the convenience factor. You see gas prices go up, it just makes a lot of sense”

Thanks Jeremy for representing us well, and I hope many of your fans will follow your lead!

James D. Schwartz is a Transportation Pragmatist and the Editor of The Urban Country. You can contact James at james.schwartz@theurbancountry.com or follow him on Twitter.

Related Articles:

Making Sure Nobody Walks or Bikes (May 2011)
GM Pulls Anti-Cycling Ad (Oct 2011)
Rediscovering The Bicycle 17 Years Later (Sept 2011)
On The Inferiority of Bicyclists and Gay People (Aug 2011)

The Urban Country Bicycle Blog

Want to Get Rich? Open a Gas Station in China

81-Year-Old Gene Hackman Hit On His Bike

Sunday Afternoon Traffic in China

How Apple’s “Macintosh” Almost Became The “Bicycle”

“Being the richest man in the cemetery doesn’t matter to me … Going to bed at night saying we’ve done something wonderful… that’s what matters to me.”

“I want to put a ding in the universe.”

“You can’t just ask customers what they want and then try to give that to them. By the time you get it built, they’ll want something new.”

“Why join the navy if you can be a pirate?”

“Quality is more important than quantity. One home run is much better than two doubles”

“Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication”

“Think Differently”

Democracy Is Good, But…

2011 Year End Wrap Up

2011 Highlights:

Most Popular Articles in 2011:

Top Traffic Sources:

Top News/Blog Referrers:

Top Visitor Countries:

Top Browsers:

Most Bizarre/Funny Search Keywords:

Bicycles & World War II Spies

Escape Procedures

Surveillance

General Movement by Day (Minor Tactics)

Beach Cruisers and Grey-Haired Bicyclists

Canadian Cyclist Harassed At U.S. Border

Toronto’s Urban Repair Squad Strikes Again

We’ve Been Carjacked

“In recent years, the American Dream of a car in the driveway expanded to the dream of three cars in the driveway” #carjacked

“The car today is less a reliable sign of hard work done & money earned than of hard work yet 2 be done & money yet to be earned” #carjacked

“We are convinced that the world is too dangerous to allow independence to our children. This obscures the fact that a child is far more likely to be killed in the family car than riding a bus.” #carjacked

“Cars are like men’s jewellery” #carjacked

“The image of cars and speed as a manly combination can be quite dangerous” #carjacked

“Building new roads to address traffic congestion is like buying a bigger belt to address obesity” #carjacked

“Automotive naming and commercials have headed into the wilderness, perhaps as wishful compensation” #carjacked

“We treat as normal what would otherwise be untoward; putting our beloved children in the thing most likely to kill them” #carjacked

“Of the top 15 Senate recipients of car industry largesse, not one voted for a 2005 bill raising fuel economy standard for cars” #carjacked

“There are roughly as many gas stations in America as public transit vehicles” #carjacked

“Americans buy more cars on an average day (150,000) than there are public transit vehicles nationwide (129,000)”#carjacked

‘Rethinking Transportation’ Talk

Is Bicycling Gaining Momentum in India?

Avid Urban Cyclist Clothing

Trashy Bike Lane

Confessions Of A Bad Driver

The Chinese Car Obsession

Tell Cyclists To Follow The Rules

The Driver Privilege Checklist

Long 6-Month Winter Comfortably Above 0C

Announcing Our Bicycle Art Contest Winner

The Parable Of The Bicycling Advocate…

Toronto Newspaper Columnist Sees The Light

Traffic Calming A Waste Of Money?

Argument 1: Canada has different infrastructure, climate and transportation needs than Australia and Europe

Argument 2: Stop signs are useless because most drivers don’t stop anyway

Argument 3: Traffic calming increases emissions and fuel consumption due to congestion

Argument 4: Traffic calming impedes snow clearing

Argument 5: Traffic calming impedes emergency vehicles

Argument 6: Traffic calming breeds dangerous drivers

Argument 7: Children shouldn’t be playing on the street in the first place

Argument 8: Studies show traffic calming reduces traffic volume & speeds and reduces crashes

Argument 9: Increased enforcement is the solution

Baltimore Orioles Pitcher Commutes By Bike