Lance Armstrong signs books, talks soccer

Lance Armstrong is in New York this week to publicize a new book of photos about him, called "Comeback 2.0: Up Close and Personal." The photos are by Elizabeth Kreutz.

I went to my local Barnes and Noble, bought the book, and did not have to wait terribly long to have Lance autograph it. B&N did issue a page of rules -- not more than 2 copies, no other books or memorabilia would be signed, "All cameras must be put away before you reach the signing table."
Nevertheless, Robert Breen, a visitor from Ireland, got a nice snapshot of Lance, and the star smiled when he saw Robert's son Jonah in a bright green Ireland shirt. "Bet you were pissed at the French team, huh!" said Lance knowingly. Robert said he was. In a World Cup qualifying round soccer game two weeks ago against Ireland, a player for the French team put his hands on the ball, a no-no, but the refs blew the call.

Photo top: Lance at B&N
Photo bottom: Robert and Jonah Breen Both photos courtesy Robert Breen

Women, Sadik-Khan, and urban bike riding

"The share of people relying on bikes for transportation is still less than 2 percent, based on various studies. An emerging body of research suggests" says Linda Baker in Scientific American, "that a superior strategy to increase pedal pushing could be had by asking the perennial question: What do women want?"

The ratio of men’s cycling trips to women’s is at least 2:1 in the U.S., she writes, compared to "European countries, where urban biking is a way of life and draws about as many women as men — sometimes more."

Enough already about Europe, I say. We are a car-centric culture and even in places like New York that's not going to change soon.

Nevertheless, Baker points out according to a New York City study, while "men are three times as likely to be cyclists as women," a "bicycle count found that an off-street bike path in Central Park had 44 percent female riders."And she credits cycling improvements here in The Big Tart Apple to the appointment of a woman, Janette Sadik-Khan, as commissioner of transportation.

Now we're getting somewhere. We need more women in power and for that matter we need mature people in general to make bike safety a key concern. Men of all ages are more willing to risk their necks on bicycles than women are." Mature women are especially nervous about bike safety. Risky bike behavior seems like it's testosterone-fueled.

However,I'm beginning to think that Sadik-Khan needs to clone herself and get her clones appointed cycling czars in other American cities. I also fear New York could go backward on bike improvements when she decides to move on to another position. Janette, are you mentoring future women transporation commissioners?

(photo of Czarina Janette courtesy PBS)

Europeans say safe streets, no helmet rules mean more urban bike use

Portland, Oregon is at the forefront of promoting everyday biking as a transportation option the way it is in European cities such as Copenhagen and Amsterdam. Recently a panel discussion there highlighted the key elements that must be in place.

Said Hans Voerknecht, international Coordinator for Fietsberaad, a subsidiary of the Dutch Knowledge Center on Traffic and Transport:

“If [urban riders] feel safe they will cycle. The solution chosen in nearly all U.S. cities is that you have cycle lanes next to parked cars and next to traffic and I think that the people who might want to cycle but don’t do it yet...think it’s too close to this fast-moving traffic."

He also suggested that Americans might put too much emphasis on helmets: "I don’t think you should forbid people from wearing helmets, but stop promoting it. Doesn’t it say something to you that in cities like Denmark only 10-15% of the people wear a helmet?”

Photo of Amsterdam bike parking by Kevin Connors

Bicycle-Friendly Communities Fall 2009

Congrats to Breckenridge, Colorado and 14 other towns around the U.S. that made the League of American Bicyclists Fall 2009 list of bicycle-friendly communities.

Breck, better known as a hot ski town, got the silver designation, while the rest got bronze. (That's the town in the background, above, during its July 4th Firecracker 50 race.)

In announcing the list, LAB noted that "10 out of the 15 new awardees are from the Midwest to the East coast, disproving the myth that building great cities for cycling only works in the West."

What's more, 3 states -- Arkansas, Louisiana, and South Dakota -- have their first communities on the list: North Little Rock, Baton Rouge and Sioux Falls.

Here are the other towns newly designated at the bronze level:
Anchorage AK
Calistoga CA
Grand Rapids MI
Greensboro NC
Greenville SC
Indianapolis & Marion County IN
Iowa City IA
Riverside CA
Sonoma CA
St. Louis MO
Tallahassee FL

There are a total of 3 Platinum bike-friendly communities (Boulder, CO; Davis, CA and Portland, OR) 9 gold, 21 silver and several dozen bronze towns including a few head-scratchers, like my own beloved NYC. My take is that in such cases, the designation is "aspirational," to borrow a word used when President Obama was named this year's Nobel Peace Prize winner.

What does "bike friendly" mean in LAB terms? "A Bicycle Friendly Community (BFC) welcomes cyclists by providing safe accommodation for cycling and encouraging people to bike for transportation and recreation." Communities are not plucked out of the air -- they must apply for the designation. Then their resources are judged in 5 categories -- Engineering, Education, Encouragement, Enforcement, and Evaluation & Planning.