This past week the (well-regarded and notably conservative) Wall Street Journal featured an article about the trend for bicycle friendly cities. Of course they cited Amsterdam and Copenhagen as shining examples, but the article also discusses plans to improve the infrasructure of many other cities in Europe to encourage bicycle use (or conversely discourage automobile use). The contrast to cycling in American cities is also nicely illustrated.

Along with the article is a small slideshow showing some special bikes, including a couple from WorkCycles. Why they chose to feature the De Redding KDV, a special trike developed for child care centers to carry 8 kids I cannot say.

Factually speaking its a well-researched and neutral article… worth a read:

Building a Better Bike Lane
Bike-friendly cities in Europe are launching a
new attack on car culture. Can the U.S. catch up?

By NANCY KEATES
May 4, 2007; Page W1

COPENHAGEN — No one wears bike helmets here. They’re afraid they’ll mess up their hair. “I have a big head and I would look silly,” Mayor Klaus Bondam says.

People bike while pregnant, carrying two cups of coffee, smoking, eating bananas. At the airport, there are parking spaces for bikes. In the emergency room at Frederiksberg Hospital on weekends, half the biking accidents are from people riding drunk. Doctors say the drunk riders tend to run into poles…

You can read the rest of the article here.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 8th, 2007 at 22:42 and is filed under Bike Friendly Cities, Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.