This is a neat video that emphasizes how awesome riding a bike is for you, the world, and your fellow commuters.
Via Bike Lane Diary
Edit: I just found out about this cool helmet
bike
Cyclists and Pollution
TreeHugger has a summary of what cyclists can do to protect their lungs from car pollution. If you’re worried about cycling in cities because of pollution, just remember that the health (and environmental) pros of cycling outweigh the cons.
By cycling instead of driving or taking public transport, you are doing your part to keep the air clean. The problem is that you have to cycle through all the pollution created by people who aren’t making any effort.
The Spacing Wire has information on what Canadians can do to get the federal government to support cycling.
Bamboo Bikes
Bike riding is great for your health, the environment, and all sorts of wonderful adventures. I’m sure there are lots of adventures to be had when riding a bamboo bike!
Flavio Deslandes is the man behind the development of a bicycle made of bamboo. He is Brazilian and he is an industrial designer from the PUC-Rio University. I met him in his small workshop next to The Smithy.
– The bicycle is one of the worlds most brilliant inventions. It is hard to find a disadvantage (to the bicycle) – except the material it is made from. Light bicycles are made from aluminum, which is one of the most resource demanding materials that exist. My bicycles are made of grass, he says.
But Flavio makes me see things differently: Bamboo is a resource of immense potential. And it is strong too. What makes it possible to build bicycles from it is that it is stronger than steel when strained in the longitudinal direction, 17% to be exact.
Good Shirts
The Spacing Wire is a blog that is all about public space. It’s a Toronto-based magazine that has some great coverage on public space in Toronto and around the world. The only comparable public space organization that I’ve found is the Project for Public Spaces in New York.
Anyway, over at the Spacing Wire there is a post on some cute and fun pro-pedestrian and cycling shirts.
Guns for Bikes Peddling Works
The Democratic Republic of Congo has a program that allows people to turn in their firearms for some thing useful – bikes. The program has been so successful that it is being expanded.
A BBC corespondent proclaims that it’s more successful than a previous UN disarmament program. It’s so sucesful that tin roofs are being given out in places where they don’t have enough bikes to hand out.
“Ngoy Mulunda, a pastor in the south-eastern Katanga region, says he has been given some 6,500 weapons in the past year, which he has destroyed.”