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ANGER AT MIKE THE ROAD HOG - New York Post

ANGER AT MIKE THE ROAD HOG PEDESTRIAN ISLANDS DRIVE MOTORISTS NUTS
By CHUCK BENNETT and MELISSA JANE KRONFELD
Posted: 3:28 am
September 2, 2008

With his congestion-pricing plan reduced to roadkill, Mayor Bloomberg is making city drivers miserable with a series of pedestrian-friendly projects.

One of the biggest headaches for them has been the Broadway pedestrian islands - plazas that stretch onto the road - a popular summer feature that Midtown denizens expect will be deserted come the cold weather, even as they still tie up traffic.

"In the winter, it won't even be used," griped office worker Jeffrey Gottlieb, 47. "Broadway already is down to 1½ lanes after you take the FedEx trucks making deliveries."

Other road rage-inducing projects include a bus corridor down 34th Street, a bike lane on Ninth Avenue from West 16th to West 23rd streets, and a bike lane on Greenwich and Washington streets.

The most dramatic changes have been on Broadway, which, with the islands, has gone from four lanes to two from Times Square to Herald Square.

"I think it is completely useless . . . It doesn't do anything for Midtown," said New Jersey commuter Jason Silitsky, 24.

Police and a Cyclists' Group, and Four Years of Clashes - NYTimes.com

August 4, 2008

Police and a Cyclists’ Group, and Four Years of Clashes

By JAMES BARRON

The New York City Police Department, with its 35,000 officers, has in recent years been on the front lines of the citywide decline in serious crime. It has protected visiting dignitaries like Pope Benedict XVI at events that drew thousands of people, and it has posted officers in foreign capitals to gather information on terrorism and trends that could threaten New York.

But the Police Department continues to be flummoxed by bicyclists riding together once a month.

City Will Explore Broad Bike-Sharing Plan - NYTimes.com

July 10, 2008

City Will Explore Broad Bike-Sharing Plan

By WILLIAM NEUMAN

The city took a tentative step this week toward fulfilling the dream of a certain kind of urban idealist, saying that it will explore the possibility of creating a bike-sharing program that could make hundreds or even thousands of bicycles available for public use.

“This is a really big deal,” said Wiley Norvell, a spokesman for Transportation Alternatives, an advocacy group for cyclists, pedestrians and transit riders. “In the realm of things you can do to boost bicycling in a city, bike-share is at the top of the list.”

The city asked companies and organizations interested in running a bike-sharing program to provide assessments of how it could work.

A similar program was started last year in Paris, using thousands of bicycles. A program with 120 bicycles was started earlier this year in Washington.

Drivers Feeling Shunned by D.C. - washingtonpost.com

Drivers Feeling Shunned by D.C.
City Less Welcoming to Suburban Cars

By Eric M. Weiss
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, July 6, 2008; Page A01

The District is escalating what some suburban commuters are calling its war against workers who drive into the city.
View Only Top Items in This Story

The city has changed parts of Constitution Avenue NE from a reversible commuter artery back to a quiet side street and is considering removing the reversible lane on 16th Street NW, a key commuting route from Montgomery County.

Mayor Adrian M. Fenty's administration also is studying closing the section of the Interstate 395 tunnel that connects with New York Avenue NW, expanding the use of speed cameras and increasing parking fees and enforcement. Fees for encroaching on a crosswalk would increase from $50 to $500 under a pedestrian safety proposal.

The District is moving toward becoming "the most anti-car city in the country," said John Townsend, a spokesman for AAA Mid-Atlantic. "They see commuters as the enemy."

City officials say that the moves are part of a policy of putting the needs of its residents and businesses before those of suburban commuters and that they are trying to create a walkable, bikeable, transit-oriented metropolis.

Like New York, London, Stockholm and Portland, Ore., District officials said, the city is reclaiming its streets for the people who live there. With billions of dollars invested in the Metro system, there are plenty of ways for commuters to get into the city without bringing exhaust-spewing vehicles with them, officials said.

Philadelphia Bicycle News: Schuylkill River Trail Map

this blog posting "Philadelphia Bicycle News: Schuylkill River Trail Map"

has a link to a good detailed google map of the trail, side trails, train stations etc

The Price of Delivery (The Brian Lehrer Show: Friday, 06 June 2008)-- WNYC

The Price of Delivery (The Brian Lehrer Show: Friday, 06 June 2008

Shih-Ching Tsou and Sean Baker , co-directors of Take Out , talk about their film which chronicles a day in the life of an illegal immigrant struggling to pay off his smuggling debt.

Bicycle Activists Take to the Freeways in L.A. : NPR

Politics & Society

Bicycle Activists Take to the Freeways in L.A.

The Bryant Park Project, June 12, 2008 · People tend to think of Los Angeles as the natural habitat of the automobile, a land where giant on ramps and multilane freeways determine the course of life.

But for three cyclists in Santa Monica, Los Angeles is a bikers' world. Morgan Strauss grew up riding bikes around L.A. Alex Cantarero grew up riding local buses, even celebrating childhood birthdays aboard, before making the move to pedal power. Rich Totheie moved from New York City a few years back, having never much used a bike for transportation.

In November, the three bicycle activists began dreaming up ways to make their point — that two-wheelers deserve a place in the transportation network. They say they'd grown tired of playing cat-and-mouse with Santa Monica police at monthly Critical Mass rides. Instead, their group, the Crimanimalz, began protests like bottling intersections with endless, lawful rounds of Crosswalk Craps.

In Toronto, cyclists form a first-of-its-kind union | csmonitor.com

In Toronto, cyclists form a first-of-its-kind union

Believed to be the first of its kind, the Toronto Cyclists Union plans to offer insurance, roadside assistance, advocacy, and even an online dating service.
By Susan Bourette | Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor / June 6, 2008 edition

Film Spotlights City Life Often Overlooked - NYTimes.com

June 5, 2008
Film Spotlights City Life Often Overlooked
By JENNIFER 8. LEE

The directors of "Take Out," a feature film about a Chinese deliveryman who must pay off his debt to immigrant-smugglers, do not claim that their movie is based on a true story. But it has more than a passing resemblance to a documentary, so much so that after a screening, one of the audience members asked where the man was now, and whether he was doing all right.

N.Y. Hopes to Ensure Smooth Pedaling for Bike Commuters - washingtonpost.com

By Robin Shulman

Washington Post Staff Writer

Sunday, May 25, 2008;

Page A02

NEW YORK -- The view from the lens of photographer Mark Weiss's camera is of a treacherous world of cab drivers weaving into bike lanes, of double-parked delivery vehicles, of car doors opening suddenly, of pedestrians wandering blindly and of narrow passageways between trucks. It is the world of the Manhattan bicycle commuter, which Weiss captures on a camera affixed to a bar on his single-gear bike.

City officials, hoping to make commutes like his less treacherous, have created a seven-block experiment of a bike lane on Ninth Avenue. Here, concrete dividers and a row of parked cars shield a bike lane from the street and its traffic. Low mini-traffic lights show when cyclists have the right of way. Bike commuters, messengers and delivery people peel down perfectly smooth paths.

"It would be nice if that were everywhere," said Weiss, 45.

The city is planning to create another protected lane on Eighth Avenue, part of an effort to encourage cycling in New York, where bike use has increased by 75 percent since 2000, to about 130,000 commuters a day. The city hopes to double current bicycle use by 2015 and to triple it by 2020.

"We've run out of room for driving in the city. We have to make it easier for people to get around by bikes," said Janette Sadik-Khan, the city's transportation commissioner, who herself bikes to work. She is installing covered bike racks that resemble bus shelters, distributing thousands of free helmets, and expanding a small network of bike lanes to 400 miles by next summer (out of 6,000 miles of city streets).

IMMIGRATION: Borderline Realities - philadelphia weekly online

archives 2005 » jan. 5th
IMMIGRATION
Borderline Realities

When Mexican men and women living in South Philadelphia become crime victims, they're often too afraid to tell the police.

by Kate Kilpatrick

One day in his first year in the U.S., Rubén, now 26, left his apartment at 15th and Bainbridge, where he lived with seven other men, to go to work. With the other men at work too, the house was empty all day.

When Rubén returned that evening everything was missing--the TV, VCR, PlayStation, telephone, stereo, CDs (most of them Mexican), air conditioner, bed covers and clothes. Their collective hidden savings--totaling $11,000--were gone. None of the men spoke much English, or knew where to turn for help. One of the men told his boss, a restaurant owner, who said that because they were illegal, there was nothing he could do. No one contacted the police.

This story's far from unusual. Those in South Philadelphia's Mexican community say they're the victims of countless crimes--muggings, bike thefts, robberies, armed assaults, rapes--that never get reported.

...

Rubén's friend Jaime, 26, sums up a common experience: "You can drive, but you can't [legally]," he says. "So most Mexicanos go for a bike. In the restaurant business you get off at 12 or 1. If you're a dishwasher, you probably get off at 2. If you live at Seventh and Tasker, or Fifth or Fourth and Morris or Dickinson, mostly that part is bad. We can't afford to pay expensive rent to live on Fitzwater or Bainbridge. So most of the Mexicanos in South Philly live in dangerous places. I know a lot of my friends were assaulted by guys trying to get their bikes. We can't get a bank account, so we keep the money in our pocket. I don't know how they know that. We keep all our money until we send it home. So a lot of people get robbed."

HE'S ON A ROLL By C.J. SULLIVAN - Jobs - New York Post Online Edition - New York Post

HE'S ON A ROLL
VETERAN BIKE MESSENGER HAS RINGSIDE SEAT FOR THE CITY CIRCUS

By C.J. SULLIVAN
March 31, 2008-- Kevin Bolger refers to the 16 years he's spent as a bicycle messenger in Manhattan as "16 winters," because the cold months are when work is abundant and the weather takes its toll.

The son of a city cabdriver, Bolger, who grew up in Queens and San Diego, got started in the trade at 20, after dropping out of college. His brother had been a bike messenger, but quit after breaking a finger in an accident, and Bolger was bequeathed his messenger bag and bike and took to the streets.

Now 36, Bolger lives with his wife, a former messenger, and baby boy in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. He still rides daily, but he's slowing down some - last year he opened his own messenger company, CycleHawk, and spends part of the day off the street, answering phones and hustling new clients.

Ghost Bikes | ghost bikes

Ghost Bikes

Ghost Bikes are small and somber memorials for bicyclists who are killed or hit on the street. A bicycle is painted all white and locked to a street sign near the crash site, accompanied by a small plaque. They serve as reminders of the tragedy that took place on an otherwise anonymous street corner, and as quiet statements in support of cyclists' right to safe travel.

The first ghost bikes were created in St. Louis, Missouri in 2003, and they have since appeared in at least 30 cities throughout the world. For those who create and install the memorials, the death of a fellow bicyclist hits home. We all travel the same unsafe streets and face the same risks; it could just as easily be any one of us. Each time we say we hope to never have to do it again -- but we remain committed to making these memorials as long as they are needed.

:: Drexel Parking Services :: BikeShare

Drexel Bike Share Policy

Overview
Drexel Bike Share is open to all students and employees with a valid Drexel University ID and in good standing with the University. There is no rental fee to use a Drexel Bike Share bike. To be eligible to participate in Drexel Bike Share, the student or employee must complete a Drexel Bike Share Membership Agreement and, prior to each use of Bike Share equipment, a Drexel Bike Share User Agreement. The use of a Drexel Bike Share bike includes a helmet, u-lock, cable and lock key (the “Equipment”). All Bike Share Equipment is picked up and returned to the Drexel Bike Share hub located in the Parking Services Garage Office, Room #124, 3330 Market St, Philadelphia, PA 19104 (the “Hub”). Drexel makes no representations as to the availability of the Equipment. Use of the Equipment is strictly on a “first come, first served” basis. Reservations for Equipment will not be accepted.

Hub and Spokes

MassBike: The Massachusetts Bicycle Coalition

MassBikers,

The City of Boston is trying to gather information on where people bike. This is a chance for us give the city real input that will go towards real change. Below are a message from the City and instructions for tracking your bike routes to, from, and within Boston. They're particularly interested in finding families and recreational cyclists.

NOTE: Any information you submit for this survey is NOT secure. You may use a pseudonym and/or omit your email address if you wish, but make sure you use the same pseudonym for every route you enter.

"Dear Boston Area Cycling Friends,

"We are looking at the array of programs and services available for cyclists in Boston and we want your input. We are hoping to gather information on cycling patterns to use as a guide when updating and evaluating cycling routes, lanes, rack disbursements, etc. We hope you will help us gather information on cycling behavior in Boston by tracking your rides through Boston.

"We invite everyone who rides a bicycle within or to/from Boston to participate including commuters, racers, recreational riders, families, and even people who exercise once a year… All ages are welcome.

"Participation takes just a few minutes. We will ask you to go on-line and track an actual day of riding for us using a website we have created. We want you to record exactly where you biked on this given ride.

"If you have passed through Boston anytime on a ride today, please start today. Otherwise, please record the very next day that you pass through Boston on a ride. We want to see both weekend and weekday activity. And, feel free to record multiple days of riding. You do not have to contact us to participate. Just follow the directions below.

The New York Times > New York Region > The City > Urban Studies: Many Lives, Many Wheels

The New York Times
February 13, 2005
URBAN STUDIES
Many Lives, Many Wheels
By JENNIFER 8. LEE

BICYCLES are everywhere in this eight-story building: bicycles leaning in the hallways, bicycles parked in the stairwells, bicycles nestled two deep in the single-room dwellings shared by three or four men.

The sprawling landmark building, at 31st and Broadway, is nestled in the middle of Manhattan's wholesale district. Its central, though unglamorous, location appeals to its most notable tenant population: Chinese deliverymen. An alternative to farther-flung quarters in Chinatown or Flushing, this outpost is only 10 minutes by bicycle to restaurants in Murray Hill, 20 minutes to those on the Upper West Side, 20 minutes to the Upper East Side.

Every morning around 10, the bicycles make an exodus as dozens of Chinese immigrants step out of the building and glide down 31st Street, their spinning wheels gently clicking.

At night, the process reverses. The men return, their bicycles casting long shadows under orange-tinged streetlights. Until last year, dozens of bicycles were chained along the scaffolding at night. Then the building was sold. The new management insisted that no bikes be left outside. So now the bicycles, seats covered with white plastic bags and frames fortified with duct tape, are taken into the cramped rooms.

For these quiet and nearly invisible deliverymen with few English skills, a bicycle is a lifeline. They often buy their bikes from black-market vendors who come by the restaurants. The prices are as low as $30 for creaky old models and as high as $80 for models with better maneuverability.

There is a tacit understanding that these bicycles are mostly stolen. The deliverymen shrug this off. After all, they are very often the victims that the bikes are stolen from.

Many of the men, having paid $30,000 to $65,000 to be smuggled into the United States, have not seen their children for years. Some, with orange-spiked hair and an enthusiasm for video games, are barely children themselves.

Home, which for most is Fujian Province in southern China, is reduced to photographs tucked into wallets, phone calls after work for as low as 2 cents a minute, and a firm determination that one day they will go back.

Most earn $1,000 to $1,500 a month, mostly from tips. "We can't do anything else because we don't speak English," said Chen, 37, who lives with three other men in a 10-foot-by-12-foot room. Two of his roommates are deliverymen: Lin, 55, who hasn't seen his family for 12 years, and baby-faced Little Chen, 22, who just arrived in New York.

In a corner of the room, behind the door, sat two bicycles, and just outside, a third one.

Automatic bicycle pump - Instructables - DIY, How To, offbeat, ride

Automatic bicycle pump
Fill your bicycle wheels with conveniently available pressurized air stored in automobiles.

Marketplace: Portland's support of cycling pays off

Thursday, January 17, 2008

Portland's support of cycling pays off
View from Jonathan Maus' bike in Portland traffic

According to Bicycling Magazine, Portland, Ore., has the highest number of bike commuters in the country. Ethan Lindsey reports on the industry that's grown up around all those riders.

village voice > news > Pedicabs Don't Work with the City Council's Big Wheels by Tom Robbins

Pedicabs Don't Work with Big Wheels

The usual suspects snuff a people-powered invention

by Tom Robbins

October 2nd, 2007 8:24 PM

Unless you're one of the combatants, New York's Great Pedicab War has passed most of us by, and not unreasonably. Surely, in the age of Iraq and Guantánamo, this is one fracas you could afford to simply sit out.

The battle erupted when scores of these goofy-looking tricycles began cruising for customers a few years ago, mainly in Times Square. This promptly put some powerful noses out of joint: The yellow-taxi-fleet owners resented the competition; Broadway theater operators griped that the pedal-pushers blocked traffic; the city's tourist office complained that they made the place look like something out of rickshaw-filled Hong Kong, circa 1935.

In Paris, Bloomberg Eyes Bike Program for Home - New York Times

September 30, 2007
In Paris, Bloomberg Eyes Bike Program for Home
By DIANE CARDWELL

PARIS, Sept. 29 - Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, on his first trip here since he took office, acknowledged the challenges of bringing home a popular Parisian bike rental program the administration is exploring, saying he was unsure it would translate to New York.

Noting challenges like roads damaged by seasonal changes, the lack of bike lanes, liability problems and the possibility that commuters would not want to carry helmets to work, Mr. Bloomberg said: "You try to see whether it fits, and some parts of it will, but it may very well give you an idea to do something totally different."

Under the program, which started in July, thousands of bicycles are docked along Paris streets, and customers can rent them after buying a membership ranging in time from a day (about $1.30) to a year (about $38). Members pay by the half-hour, with the first 30 minutes free. To discourage long rides, the fee rises from $1.30 for the second half-hour to $5.20 for the fourth.

Judging from the lines of empty consoles in the city center and the ubiquity of riders, even in the rain, the program has been a hit here, despite occasional technical glitches and a lack in some places of empty spots to return a bicycle. One official told Mr. Bloomberg that 100,000 people had signed up for yearly membership and that customers had taken more than 5 million rides.

Whether such a system could survive in New York, where bike theft is common, remains to be seen. Lionel Bordeaux, a press officer for City Hall here, said the fact that all fees were paid by credit card, and a roughly $200 charge for unreturned bikes, discouraged stealing.

San Francisco judge strikes down citywide bicycle-oriented plan - Examiner.com

San Francisco judge strikes down citywide bicycle-oriented plan

Adam Martin, The Examiner
2006-06-26 09:00:00.0
Current rank: Not ranked
SAN FRANCISCO -

The creation of new bike lanes and other improvements under San Francisco's citywide bicycle plan was halted abruptly last week when a judge handed down an injunction against the plan's implementation.

San Francisco Superior Court Judge James Warren issued the injunction Wednesday after a coalition of pro-forma groups sued the city, claiming that the lack of environmental impact review on the plan was illegal under the California Environmental Quality Act.

The stated goal of the 250-page bicycle plan, first implemented in 1997 and most recently updated in May 2005, is to improve bicycle safety and to "refine and expand the existing bicycle route network."

Critical Mass celebrating 15 years of free-form bicycle advocacy

Critical Mass celebrating 15 years of free-form bicycle advocacy
Rachel Gordon, Chronicle Staff Writer
Friday, September 28, 2007

(09-27) 20:59 PDT San Francisco -- Tonight's Critical Mass in San Francisco marks the 15th anniversary of the rebellious rolling ride that locally has propelled the bicycle movement into the political mainstream and globally has been copied by hundreds of cities.

What began with four dozen bicyclists riding together up Market Street on Sept. 25, 1992, has turned into a monthly happening that regularly draws thousands of participants pedaling along the streets of San Francisco, at times drawing both praise and scorn.

The monthly Critical Mass rides are part political statement and part roving street festival and now are firmly part of San Francisco's cultural fabric.

Critical Mass has no organized leadership. The rides are promoted by word of mouth and over the Internet. The only constant is that they are held the last Friday of the month and start around 6 p.m. at Justin Herman Plaza at the foot of Market Street. The routes are fluid, often determined on the spot.

It is not uncommon for the mass rides to tie up automobile traffic for an hour or more just as people commuting by car or bus are trying to get home at the end of their workweek.

Outdoor advertising | Vive la Velorution! | Economist.com

Outdoor advertising
Vive la Vélorution!

Sep 20th 2007
From The Economist
JCDecaux and Clear Channel Outdoor battle over urban bike-schemes

To Ease a City's Traffic, Shifting From 4 Wheels to 2 - New York Times

September 4, 2007
To Ease a City's Traffic, Shifting From 4 Wheels to 2
By TIMOTHY WILLIAMS

On many mornings, as commuters pack themselves into subway trains and drivers squeeze onto the streets, Janette Sadik-Khan, the commissioner of the Department of Transportation, rides her bicycle to work.

That the head of an agency long associated with car travel is an avid bicyclist symbolizes what might be a new way of thinking about how New York's asphalt should be used. In recent months, the city has pledged to add bicycle racks and hundreds of miles of bike lanes on city streets and has been exploring a program similar to one in Paris in which people can use bikes at minimal cost.

The Bloomberg administration says it wants to develop cycling as a viable transportation alternative to ease traffic congestion, reduce carbon emissions and encourage physical activity. But the new attention to cycling has also encountered resistance in some neighborhoods, especially when it threatens to remove traffic lanes for cars and trucks.

Ms. Sadik-Khan said her time on two wheels has become an important part of her work.

"It's invaluable to get on a bike and see firsthand the conditions that our projects are trying to address," said Ms. Sadik-Khan, who became the city's transportation commissioner in the spring. "We are really emphasizing connectivity in the bicycle lane network, because all cyclists, myself included, know that it's maddening to be coming along a lane and have it simply end and leave you off on your own on a big avenue."

To that end, the Bloomberg administration has said it will add 200 miles of bike lanes by 2010 - the equivalent of the number added during the last 20 years.

Critical look at Critical Mass by cop who covers it

The Villager
Volume 77, Number 12 | August 22 - 28, 2007

Critical look at Critical Mass by cop who covers it

By Jefferson Siegel

For the 10 years of Critical Mass in New York City, the police paid scant attention to the monthly bike ride. That changed with the Republican National Convention in August 2004, when hundreds of cyclists were among the 1,800 arrested that week.

In the years since the R.N.C., the ride's Union Square starting point has often resembled a military zone, with the cyclists surrounded by police. When the riders would depart from the square they were chased by helicopters and hundreds have since been arrested and ticketed.

Earlier this month, as the third anniversary of the convention approached, a police officer who has been present at many recent Critical Mass rides agreed to give an interview about his thoughts on policing Critical Mass and the event, in general.

Hue and Cry - New York Times

August 19, 2007
New York Up Close
Hue and Cry
By GREGORY BEYER
...

In 2001, the city's Transportation Department tested a light blue bike lane in Downtown Brooklyn and found that in terms of making the lane sufficiently visible to cyclists and drivers alike, it did the trick. But at the urging of the Federal Highway Administration, the department has forgone blue for the Brooklyn Heights bike lane and decided to experiment with green, echoing a growing national movement to make green the official bike lane color.

Other streets are getting paint jobs, too. Last week, in an experiment in making bus lanes more visible, the city laid down coats of terra-cotta-colored paint on bus lanes along part East 57th Street, and it will soon do the same for lanes on Fordham Road in the Bronx.

After the Second Avenue subway finally rolls, it also may eventually bring a new color. The Web site of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority shows a T - the letter tentatively chosen to denote the new line - sitting in a circle of turquoise. (According to Jeremy Soffin, a spokesman, the agency has not yet chosen a permanent color for the circle.)

The choice is of special interest to Lynne Lambert, whose New York City Subway Line is an official licensed maker of subway-themed merchandise. Whatever color is chosen will make its way onto T-shirts, hats and other items Ms. Lambert produces, and she said she would be happy to see the choice on the transportation authority's Web site become permanent.

A Bike Race With a Mission, Plus Cigarettes - New York Times

August 20, 2007
A Bike Race With a Mission, Plus Cigarettes
By MANNY FERNANDEZ

So how do a bunch of bike messengers and their friends unwind on a weekend afternoon? With a bike man's holiday - a grueling race that substituted the claustrophobic corridors of Manhattan with the wide, steep boulevards of Staten Island.

Shortly before 3:30 p.m. Saturday, about 40 men and women on bicycles pedaled through the parking lot of the Staten Island Ferry terminal, having just received the day's orders from two long-haired men drinking from tall cans of Budweiser.

The competitors had a deadline and a mission: Get their manifests signed or stamped at various spots around the island. "Real bike racing is a rich man's sport," said Mike Dee, a messenger and an organizer of the race, called the Staten Island Invasion. "This is like the bike race for the rest of us - people who like to drink a beer in the mornings."

It was the kind of race for which Pete Lang, a 25-year-old messenger, warmed up by smoking a cigarette. There was no set course, just a starting place, a finish line and about 20 checkpoints in between.

The Deliverymen's Uprising: How Radical Bicyclists Are Fighting Against Exploitation -- New York Magazine

The Deliverymen's Uprising
For $1.75 an hour, they put up with abusive employers, muggers, rain, snow, potholes, car accidents, six-day weeks, and lousy tips. Not anymore.

By Jennifer Gonnerman

On Broadway on the Upper West Side, the ballet of the deliverymen has begun. Armed with pizza boxes and plastic bags, men on bicycles zip by, one after another, dodging taxis and Town Cars, SUVs and the M104. Every night, it’s the same clashing of horns and bike bells, the same frenzy of pedaling and panting and sweating. Between West 59th and West 115th Streets, the number of places that offer food delivery now totals close to 275.

The deliverymen run the gamut from boys to older men, from fit to flabby, but there are a few things they share in common: They are virtually all immigrants—many from China—and most of them speak little or no English. Among the neighborhood’s most experienced deliverymen is a 25-year-old Chinese immigrant named Justin. For the last seven years, he has been speeding around the streets of Manhattan delivering food for five different restaurants. Now he works six days a week at Ollie’s Noodle Shop & Grille on the corner of Broadway and 84th Street.

...

In New York’s expanding service economy, deliverymen occupy a position near the bottom—earning less than doormen, security guards, nannies, maids, tailors, taxi drivers, and trash collectors and working in far more treacherous conditions. They work long hours and cover huge territories, often in inclement weather, dodging perils like potholes, taxi doors, and tow trucks (one of which killed a deliveryman last year)—all the while hoping they don’t get robbed along the way. And they do this for pay that is often less than the minimum wage.

But that may be about to change. Since last fall, some 70 Chinese deliverymen—including Justin and his co-workers at Ollie’s—have filed lawsuits against five Manhattan restaurants. Never before have so many restaurant deliverymen joined together to battle their bosses. It’s the Year of the Chinese Deliverymen—the year they decided to revolt.

A Pretend Preacher, a Real Arrest and a Debate About Free Speech - New York Times

July 1, 2007
A Pretend Preacher, a Real Arrest and a Debate About Free Speech
By ETHAN WILENSKY-LANFORD

A satirist dressed as a preacher and protesting what he called the Disneyfication of New York City was arrested Friday for harassing police in Union Square before the start of a monthly bicycle rally that the Bloomberg administration has been trying to rein in.

Bill Talen, who performs under the name Reverend Billy, said that he was arrested after trying to defend the cyclists' rights by reading the First Amendment to the police - through a bullhorn. The authorities said that he was arrested after repeatedly being told to stop.

Mr. Talen was charged with two counts of second-degree harassment. He was released without bail pending a court date in August.

"We were full of the holy spirit of the First Amendment," said Mr. Talen, who is in his mid-50s and was dressed like a big-tent evangelist, with a white suit and a dyed-blond pompadour. He sometimes spreads his message with the help of the Church of Stop-Shopping Gospel Choir.

In an interview yesterday, Mr. Talen defended his performance art. "New York City won't exist if we won't let creativity happen in public space," he said.

Mr. Talen said he was at Union Square to support the cyclists taking part in Critical Mass, a monthly ride aimed at promoting nonpolluting forms of transportation. Critical Mass riders gather the last Friday of every month at Union Square.

CrashStat: Crash Mapping & Analysis

Maps and Tables - Pedestrian Crashes 1995-2001
Maps and Tables - Bicycle Crashes 1995-2001

Strange but True: Helmets Attract Cars to Cyclists: Scientific American

SIDEBAR
May 10, 2007
Strange but True: Helmets Attract Cars to Cyclists
Although you might not want to leave your protective gear at home, just know that if you do, drivers will be a lot more scared of hitting you.
By Nikhil Swaminathan

Cyclocity7 Development services

Award winning innovation

JCDecaux's Cyclocity was awarded the 2006 Janus de l'Industrie label from the French Design Industry. This accolade, judged by experts in design and manufacture, is awarded to products that provide real benefit to users.

Cyclocity case studies

* Lyon

A row of bicycles for hire

France's second largest city adopted the system in May 2005. It has been a huge success, with people combining cycles and other modes of transport to reach work or leisure destinations.

* 2,000 bicycles and 175 pick up/drop off ranks installed
* Up to 16,000 rentals per day
* Each bicycle used by up to 15 people each day
* Average journey time is 17 minutes and 1.7 miles in distance
* In 10 months users cycled 2.5 million miles - the same as travelling from the Earth to the Moon ten times.

Paris rolls out free bikes in bid to cut smog - Wonderful World - MSNBC.com

Paris rolls out free bikes in bid to cut smog
Residents and visitors can pick up and pedal at thousands of sites in city
MSNBC News Services
Updated: 1:52 p.m. ET Jan 30, 2007
The City of Light wants to soon become a city of bikes.

Paris City Hall announced it has selected French outdoor advertising firm JCDecaux SA to operate a new free bicycle service in the capital.
Joining other European cities such as Amsterdam, Paris wants to make thousands of bikes available for free to commuters, strollers and tourists - in part to help cut down on pollution.
JCDecaux's Somupi unit is to have some 14,100 bikes deployed in the capital by this summer. City Hall's choice of contractor was announced Monday.

NYTimes Op-Ed Sam Schwartz - Rolling Thunder

Op-Ed Contributor

Rolling Thunder

By SAMUEL I. SCHWARTZ

Published: November 5, 2006

... I was the Department of Transportation’s assistant commissioner under Mayor Ed Koch, who, buoyed by a visit to Beijing, where he saw bike lanes used by tens of thousands, envisioned a network of physically separated bikeways up and down Manhattan. In the summer of 1980, the mayor directed the department to install bikeways. From Washington Square Park to Central Park, the curb lanes of Fifth Avenue, Broadway and Seventh Avenue were separated from traffic by asphalt islands, giving bikers a lane of car-free roadway all their own.

Within days the complaints started to pour in. Most of the grumbling was from pedestrians concerned about reckless cyclists coming close to knocking them down (the three deaths were fresh in their minds). Some were from drivers who felt there was more congestion because of the loss of a lane. The department’s investigation found that pedestrians considered the bike lanes to be extensions of the sidewalk; they stood in the lanes waiting for the lights to change, where bikers often yelled at them. (The conflict between bicyclists and pedestrians is much more visceral than any between car drivers and pedestrians. You can see a biker’s face and hear his words.)
...
Now what do we do in 2006?
First, we need to establish a clear hierarchy for the use of city streets. Pedestrians come first; we started out as a walking city and it will be our greatest strength going forward. This means bikers must yield to pedestrians — even errant ones. Biking is a superb form of transport we should encourage. Drivers must yield to bike riders — even errant ones.

Messenger Bag Review by The Fixed Gear Gallery

S.C.U.L. - subversive chopper's urban legion

The Counterculture to Americas Love for the Automobile

bikeblog + critical mass

notes from May critical mass ride. snipet below...

9:50pm :
Got a report that around 40th and Broadway a woman was doored by a cop car while in motion. She was in the bike lane. She face planted and broke her colar bone. There is credible evidence that entire incident was witnessed.

myspace - Criminal Mass

----------------------------------------- CRIMINAL MASS ( documentary )-------------------

- A journey through the Critical Mass Bicycle Ride and America’s right to assemble. Filmmaker Christopher J. Ryan ( Warriors: the Bike Race, Still We Ride, Team Spider Television ) has spent the last 18 months tracking his personal experiences as a Critical Mass bike rider, as well as his subsequent journey through the New York State Criminal Court system. The colorful, poignant, and often funny story is told through video footage that includes video diaries, bicycle chase scenes, paddy wagon interviews shot by Chris’ handcuffed hands , voyeuristic NYPD helicopter footage, as well as daring video exposing the presence of NYPD’s previously denied undercover agents ( recently used as the basis of a recent New York Times cover story ). Throughout his extensive journey, Chris tries to juggle his time- consuming legal battles and courtroom appearances, with his day-job working, ironically, on television’s “Law and Order” where he lights the large courtroom sets that are used to pretend to prosecute the city’s real crimes. His misadventures are intertwined with a colorful cast of characters, including:

------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------

-His fellow arrestees, who form a legal aid group known as FREEWHEELS, as they become unwilling participants in the cat & mouse style police chases and exhaustive legal battles. -Chris’ VIDEO CAMERA, a character unto itself as the beaten and bruised little camcorder is repeatedly smashed to pieces and miraculously brought back to life by a sympathetic television news technician named “FLIP”. -Chris’ Father, KEVIN, a military officer and Vietnam veteran, who, horrified at the recent treatment of Cindy Sheahan, becomes heavily involved in his son’s legal battles. -Dozens of unlikely “criminals” such as 8-year old JENNA, who can’t understand “why the police arrest bicyclists” and SHARON, who, at seven months pregnant, when sent to jail for standing on the sidewalk with her bike the night of a Critical Mass ride. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ -----------------------------

- Criminal Mass examines the erosion of the American people’s personal freedoms, privacies, and the right to assemble, while celebrating the unexpected positive effects, communities and friendships forged in the face of injustice.

Tour de Brooklyn

B.I.K.E. Trailer

Black Label bicycle club

(i think it is a documentary - but it is unclear)

see also myspace page for the film - http://www.myspace.com/bikemovie

Bicyle Film Festival

Pedal.mov (video/quicktime Object)

PETER SUTHERLAND : FILM
a documentary about NYC bike messengers

Street Art and Graffiti Bike Tour - New York

Street Art and Graffiti Bike Tour
Saturday, May 6

12:00 PM - 4:00 PM
Corner of York and Jay St. (Brooklyn) MAP
By subway: Take F train to York St.

New York photobloggers Jake Dobkin (bluejake.com), Mike Epstein (satanslaundromat.com) and Will Sherman (untitledname.com) lead a tour of graffiti and street art covering DUMBO, Gowanus and Red Hook. We’ll see the latest stickers, throw-ups, paste-ups, murals and more. About 10 miles with frequent stops to see the art, and a stop for food and drink.

UPDATE 5/3/05: The ride is on. Please check back on the morning of May 6 for a final decison regarding rain and bad weather.

Questions? email will at untitledname.com
See other events in Bike Month 2006.

Secret Bike Maps of New York