Happy August

Happy end of the day. Is summer almost over already as well?

Our Cities Ourselves: The Future of Transportation in Urban Life” is on exhibit at the Center for Architecture in New York City. The project challenges ten leading architects to envision ten cities in 2030 centered around safe and enjoyable walking, cycling, and public transit. Architecture Newspaper reviews the exhibit and wonders if replacing roads “with multi-level shops and cafes in the anchorage, direct pedestrian access to the bridge, urban farming, and freight barges” is really something we should do in cities. Via Planetizen.


Below: A foreign visitor rides a bicycle past Wumen Gate at the Forbidden City in Beijing.

A foreign visitor rides a bicycle past Wumen Gate at the Forbidden City in Beijing August 1, 2010. REUTERS/Jason Lee (CHINA - Tags: TRAVEL SOCIETY)

“Shopping and Style Intelligence” blog Racked NY guides the fashionable bike nerd toward Bike Destinations Offering More Than Just Wheels.

Recently, lots of jazzy bike shops have been opening up. These are chic, full-fledged boutiques with unapologetically stylish wheels for sale. Often they sell equally hip bike accessories, or even have coffee shops, clothing lines, or bike culture-related events on the side. Check out these five NYC businesses offering up pretty two-wheelers.

An interview Josh Squire, the guy who manages Chicago’s bike share program.

Grist points at some research that seems to show growth regulations might have contributed to the housing bubble collapse. Worldchanging critiques Grist’s headline by noting the research looked at an index that measures all land use regulations, not just those associated with “smart growth.”

Good.Is on Hollywood’s portrayal of bike riders as losers.

Not only are non-drivers maligned, but so are cyclists—be they “teen misfits” like Napoleon Dynamite or My So-Called Life’s Brian Krakow, or “perpetual man-children” like Pee Wee Herman. Whereas driving is associated with agency, free will, and virility, walking and biking incur condescension at best and signify something sinister at worst.

Good were inspired by Tom Vanderbilt question on the topic at his blog:

What other films have use car-less-ness, or a non-ability to drive, as an occasion for some kind of scorn, pity, laughable contempt or outright comedy? Has non-driving ever been presented admirably in a film?

Tom writes on the topic in his review of the movie Greenburg, in which Ben Stiller plays…

… a drifting musician-turned-carpenter who’s getting over a nervous breakdown. He’s a needy and casually abusive schmuck, a socially awkward and obsessive crank. And if you need any more clues to the extent of his pathological loserdom, here’s one: He doesn’t drive.


Back to Tom — he mentions a British study on Risk Compensation in which two groups of cyclists were graded on their cycling performance. Group A were clad in helmets and other safety gear. The other group wore only their underthings.

No weld bicycle trailer HOWTO.

The police want you to think twice about twice about using a helmet cam in this outrageous and ridiculous abuse of police powers: Motorcyclist Anthony Graber with helmet cam catches cop going all Dirty Harry for a traffic offense. Motorcyclist posts video to YouTube. Cops raided Graber’s home, seized his computer and other ‘evidence,’ threw him in the slammer, and charged him with violating state wiretapping laws.

Note to self: 187 categories.

3 Comments

  1. Man, I hope summer isn't almost over – it hasn't even gotten here yet. Second day of August, and my thermometer barely cracked 70 today.

  2. Ditto for Santa Cruz and the Bay Area – it's been unusually cool for us. My vegetable garden looks downright stunted from the lack of sun and heat!

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