america

How to build a bike lane in America

From TheVerge.com

By Wes Davis

Advocates are working across the country to make their communities safer and more accessible for cyclists, but not every effort is successful.

When most people in the US need to go somewhere, they reach for their car keys. There are plenty of reasons for this: driving is easy, it’s comfortable, and it requires very little preparation. But also, it’s hard to do anything else, and maybe the hardest of those hard things is cycling.

But plenty of people do it anyway. Whether by choice or because it’s their only option, millions of Americans bike to get where they’re going — around 50 million people biked at least once in 2022. And when people choose to ride, they’re facing the very real chance they might be run down by someone driving a car who either couldn’t see them or just didn’t bother to look — which happens far too often, leading to recent cyclist death counts not seen since the 1970s.

That’s because US cycling infrastructure has a long way to go before it can catch up with European cities like Copenhagen, Denmark, the bicycle paragon where the streets reflect that cycling is the norm for most people. At least in the US, bike lanes and trails are rare in the suburbs, and in cities, they can be unevenly dispersed or frustratingly disconnected, forcing cyclists to get creative to go anywhere safely. Plenty of factors get in the way here: political or cultural opposition to the very idea of bikes; resistance to changes perceived as taking space away from cars; and neighborhoods worried about the sanctity of treesas new traffic patterns are considered.

Photo by Dário Gomes on Unsplash

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The Most and Least Bike-Friendly Cities in America

From TowerElectricBikes.com

When it comes to determining if a city is welcoming to cyclists, there are many things to consider. Safety, connectedness to city resources, and availability of bike lanes are all important factors. Recreational areas like parks and bike paths also are appealing to recreational cyclists.

The Tower Electric Bikes research team set out to discover the most bike-friendly cities in the U.S. as well as the least bike-friendly cities. To reach our conclusion, we analyzed several important metrics, including the percentage of the workforce that uses a bicycle to commute, the percentage of the population that rides bikes recreationally, the cyclist fatality rate, and the cycling connectedness of the city to resources like schools, grocery stores, and retail stores.

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These 5 American Women Are Crushing Cycling Right Now

From Bicycling.com

BY

 

The United States has long had a strong presence in women’s cycling. Riders such as Kristin Armstrong, Evie Stevens, and Georgia Gould have all found success in the sport. But rarely have so many women reached the top level at the same time.

Now, a new generation of American women has ascended to the top ranks of cycling. They race on the road, fly up dirt climbs on a mountain bike, and endure long days of gravel racing. They’re here, and they’re ready to take names. This crew of cycling rockstars are crushing in cycling right now, and look set up to dominate for a number of years to come. Here’s who to keep your eyes on.

 

Kate Courtney

In 2018, Kate Courtney became the first American woman to win a world cross-country mountain bike title since Alison Dunlap in 2001. The 23-year-old started riding mountain bikes on the back of her father’s tandem in Marin, California. In high school, she began racing with her school’s NICA team and has shown no signs of slowing down ever since.

This past season, Courtney proved that her 2018 World Championship title was far from a fluke when she began the year with three straight World Cup race victories. With an early lead in the battle for the World Cup overall prize, Courtney’s form dipped through the middle of the season, but her mental toughness and determination kept her in the running. In September, she secured the coveted World Cup overall by a slim margin over Swiss talent Jolanda Neff. With her consistent successes over the past seasons, Courtney is among the favorites to win gold at the 2020 Olympic Games.

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