It is often assumed that the main cycle-helmet information source must have been started by a cabal of money-grubbing helmet manufacturers in cahoots with automobile interests aiming to make cycling look dangerous.[1] In fact, the Bicycle Helmet Safety Institute of America was born from a cycle-advocacy organization that, from its foundation in 1972, lobbied for separated cycleways. Today, those in …
Author: carltonreid
Final Bike Boom cover can be revealed
Here’s the final cover: Four cover designs were submitted to Kickstarter backers of the book, and the above was the runaway winner. The photograph is from a 1972 fashion shoot in America’s Mademoiselle magazine. The main protester is a model, but I have discovered the San Francisco demo she hijacked – along with another model and the photographer – was …
Australian city releases cycling masterplan to go fully Dutch
Perth in Australia has ambitious plans to create a dense cycling network suitable for 8 to 80 year olds. While many Australian cities and States are now bywords for backwards thinking when it comes to people on bicycles Perth is taking a radically different approach. What amounts to a Dutch-style bicycling masterplan has just been produced by the State government, …
Cyclists created the European Union, sort of
British cycle tourists in Norway, c. 1887. Who was the first to lobby for – and get – a European agreement for the cross-border free movement of people? Winston Churchill in 1946? The European Coal and Steel Community of 1951? The European Economic Community of 1957? Nope, a bunch of middle-class cyclists in 1897. Just as cyclists have been written …
Cycleways will have “adverse effect on a charity which supports endangered wildlife”
Actor Tom Conti isn’t a happy bunny. He’s also about as knowledgeable as a cute and furry woodland creature on who and what actually pays for roads but let’s hop over that and take a look at his other claims. He believes – like many others on this new petition to stop a Super Cyclehighway in London – that cycleways …
Walk on a road? You’re a jaywalker and deserve to die
George and Vera Maskell were killed in 2014 when they were struck by a 7.5-tonne recycling-truck driven by Darren Sanders. The elderly couple were walking across a service road in Sunbury when they were struck. This road has a 5mph speed limit and has a give-way triangle at the end of it. 44-year-old Sanders, who is blind in one eye, …
Roads are not just about movement says London’s Transport Commissioner
London’s transport commissioner Mike Brown said last night that roads were not just for cars but for people, too. Roads have “place” and “movement” functions, he said. Pointedly, and in his first major pronouncement on cycling since becoming commissioner last year, he also had a strong message for those individuals and groups who wish to see fewer people on bikes, …
Toilet humour
Roads are a little like toilets. You might have a house with two toilets but, if you have a large family or a number of flatmates, both of the toilets might be occupied when you need to “go”. At the point of your most need you think it would be a fine idea to, sometime soon, add another facility. Later, …
Who was campaigning for separated cycleways in the 1970s?
Dutch people, of course, but also plenty of Brits. In fact, the British bicycle industry had a ten year long PR campaign that had separation-from-motor-traffic right at the top of its shopping list. Most folks have forgotten about this now, and it’s assumed – and too often written – that there was no real push for separated cycling infrastructure in …
I’ve been pushing for protected cycleways since at least 1993
Bike Boom is a history book about cycling, and I’m a bit of an antique myself. I’ve been a bike journalist since 1986. My first article appeared in Bicycle Times, a nationally-available British magazine – it was an article on cycle touring in Turkey (I had just returned to the UK from a two-year tour of the Middle East). I …