Tag: Bikes

“Bike Town” USA

portland-bike-rentals

That would be Portland, Oregon:

Portland, Oregon has earned the nickname “Bike City, U.S.A.” Consistently topping Bicycle Magazines list of the best cycling cities, in Portland bike paths and lanes abound, city planners recognize the importance of designing with cyclists in mind, and the citizens have responded by bike commuting about 350% more than the national average (3.5% of all commutes are by bicycle). In keeping with the “Safety in Numbers” theory, the Census Bureau reports that drivers in Portland are more accommodating of cyclists. Portland is currently laying plans to adopt a bike rental plan similar to Paris’ overwhelmingly popular Vélib.

Cycling’s popularity in Portland has both brought bike industries to the area and spurned some homegrown efforts. As a result, the local cycling industry has swelled to include 125 bike-related businesses trafficking in everything from cycling hats made from recycled fibers to high-end niche bicycles to bike tourism.
Portland has slowly become the mecca for high-end handmade bicycle frames. Cyclists who are tired of mass produced rigs and in search of some customized bling turn to companies such as Vanilla Bicycles for a made-to-order experience. The city will play host to the 2008 North American Handmade Bicycle Show.

Portland recognizes the financial boost these small bike-businesses bring to the city and the state, and are supporting their efforts. Many of these enterprises were founded out of a love for bikes – decent profits are a welcome surprise to many of these businesses. The Portland Development Commission is helping to improve the business model of several of these smaller companies, and helping them to network and grow stronger together.

“Our intentions are to be as sustainable a city as possible,” said Sam Adams, city commissioner in charge of transportation. “That means socially, that means environmentally and that means economically. The bike is great on all three of those factors. You just can’t get a better transportation return on your investment than you get with promoting bicycling.”

Full article here:

I think Portland is also one of the cities with the highest concentrations of vegans.

I’m wondering if they have a healthy IT sector :).

Switchbike

Back in May I wrote about the superiority of the recumbent bicycle as well as my experience with it:

https://beforewisdom.com/blog/?p=104

Now there is this cool “switchbike”, video courtesy of Dag:

The switchbike was shown at the Holland Innovation show, although it’s not currently in production. By flipping a switch on the handle, it converts quickly from a regular city bike into a recumbent bicycle. Ron de Jong, the designer is still looking for a company to take his bike into production. Wow.

The cutting edge

Dag sent me this article about the “cutting edge” ( pun intended ) in green lawn care

treehugger.com

The old fashioned mowers which were welded to these bikes were not that bad. I can understand professional grounds people wanting power mowers, but suburbanites don’t need them and could probably, like most of us, benefit from the moderate exercise. In addition to not polluting the environment further for their lawns ( another rant and post! )

My guess is that there never was a problem to solve. I see so many new things coming out these days that are just ridiculous in terms of the trivial amount of effort they save. My guess is that power mowers were a similar thing back in the day.