The city of Huntsville, Alabama will begin promoting cyclists’ rights with an ad campaign on city buses.

Rolling billboards attached to city buses will try to hammer home the point “that bicycles are vehicles, they’re allowed on the road,” [bike commuter Jamie] Miernik said Wednesday.

“There’s a percentage of drivers out there,” she said, “that really think bikes are not safe to be on the road with them.”

This part here about cyclist education for police officers was interesting.

More than 400 Huntsville police officers have taken a refresher course on bicycle laws.

City Administrator Rex Reynolds, a former police chief, said that was done because an officer wrongly used his vehicle’s loudspeaker to order a group of cyclists from the road onto the sidewalk.

Cyclists are prohibited from riding on sidewalks in Alabama.

“That was a reality check for us,” Reynolds said Wednesday. “We needed to go back and make sure our officers are aware of the bicycle laws.”

Read more at AL.COM: “Loud” ads on Huntsville city buses will promote cycling safety. Unless you like aggravation, avoid reading the idiot comments after the article.

Low dark clouds threatened rain as we unloaded our mountain bikes and looked over our gear one final time before cycling up the trail. Bikes: check. Tent: check. Food: check. Rain gear: check. Spare inner tube: check. Rifles and ammunition: check.

In Montana, some of the most spectacular and fruitful hunting grounds are deep in the backcountry, beyond the reaches of pickup trucks or off-road vehicles. These areas have long been hotspots for backcountry horseman, but that doesn’t mean they are beyond the reach of the average hunter with a bicycle.

More –> Great Falls Tribune: Hunters rely on pedal power bikes.

Nobody rides bikes in Buenos Aries. As David Byrne writes of Buenos Aries: “Is it so uncool to ride a bike here that even messengers find other ways of getting around?“

David Byrne’s Hypothesis: “I think the idea of cycling is simply off the radar here. The cycling meme hasn’t been dropped into the mix, or it never took hold. I am inclined to agree with Jared Diamond, who claims in his book Collapse that people develop cultural affinities for certain foods, ways of getting around, clothes, and habits of being that become so ingrained that they will, in his telling, persist in maintaining their habits even to the piont of driving themselves and sometimes their whole civilization to extinction.“

Tom Vanderbilt then asks: What is “the mixture of infrastructure, social norms, behavioral change, incentives, and whatever else is needed to get a bike culture off the ground”?

More –> How We Drive: Guns, Germs, & Bikes.

Happy Hump Day. I left my helmet on the bus this morning and I’m bummed. The bad part: My Planet Bike Superflash was attached to said helmet, and with Daylight Savings over my evening commute is in the dark. I popped into Palo Alto Bicycles this morning to buy another light but they don’t open until 10 AM. Rats.

SF Bay Guardian: SF Bike Injunction Becomes Absurd.

Lifehacker: DIY Hi / Low beam bike headlights from hardware store parts.

Treehugger: Combo bike light and tire pump.

WIRED Gadget Lab FAQ: Six things you should know about Brooks Saddle, with a followup on Selle An-Atomica leather saddles.

An Alex Rider gadget: Smokescreen bike pump.

Instructables: Bicycle Bar End Brake Lights.

That’s the list of words Dottie came up with when asked how she would promote bicycling.

I would use all the tactics that automobile advertisers use. They show the car as sexy, safe, freeing, fun, attractive, normal, necessary. In my experience, these adjectives describe bicycling more accurately than driving, especially in the city. Bicycling delivers the kind of freedom that car advertising promises. We need images of successful and happy people on bikes dressed nicely, going on dates, smiling and laughing.

I think it’s a pretty good list. We’re so earnest and preachy we sometimes forget that bicycling is just goofy fun.

What do you think? How do you promote bicycling?