Last week was not a great week for bike advocacy here in the United States. The House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure released a bill that was far worse for biking and walking than anyone had expected. Representatives Petri (R-WI) and Johnson (R-IL) proposed an amendment that would have restored funding for biking and walking projects. The amendment was opposed by Committee Chairman John Mica (R-FL), Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-OH) and Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA), and lost by just two votes. In The House of Representatives Cycling's biggest advocate (unarguably) is Oregon's Earl Blumenauer (D-OR). Cycling's biggest foe (arguably) is John Mica of Florida. Both Congressmen were interviewed last week by Bruce Gellerman for the public radio program, Living on Earth. Earl ...

Carol Barker lives in Colorado Springs, Colorado, where she enjoys bicycle commuting and joy riding year round. She is a tutor and school crossing guard who shares her bicycle love and general rebellion against the wife-and-mom-of-suburbia stereotype at her blog AbbyNormal. It was the first thing I saw and the only thing I remember from that Christmas. Fire-engine red with a white seat, white-wall tires, and gummy white hand grips with red and white streamers, it rested shiny and proud under the tree with a bright red bow on its stem. I was four years old and had just received my first bicycle. And I vividly remember the day I could ride it without training wheels. I felt like this kid! But he can ...

BluesCat is a resident of Phoenix, Arizona, who originally returned to bicycling in 2002 in order to help his son get the Boy Scout Cycling merit badge. His bikes sat idle until the summer of 2008 when gas prices spiked at over $4.00 per gallon. Since then, he has become active cycling, day-touring, commuting by bike, blogging (azbluescat.blogspot.com) and giving grief to the forum editors in the on-line cycling community. A bill currently in the Arizona State House of Representatives, called HB2211, would change Arizona traffic law to mirror the Idaho Stop as Yield law. The bill is currently in the Rules Committee, and there is the possibility that the head of that committee, Jerry Weiers (R-Glendale), may allow it to languish ...

Old Man Mica is hurling rocks. The Transportation Bill released by The House of Representatives indeed does cut out all funding for cycling projects. Per the League of American Bicyclists: Last week, we knew the bill would be bad news for biking and walking. But we didn’t think it would go so far as to completely cut every reference to bicycling and walking out of the federal transportation policy. House leadership is pressing to eliminate bicycling and walking in the Transportation bill: Destroys Transportation Enhancements by making the program optional Repeals the Safe Routes to School program, reversing years of progress in creating safe ways for kids to walk and ride bicycles to school Allows states to build bridges without safe access for pedestrians and bicycles Eliminates bicycle ...

Recognize this quote? "Pack of crazy fools," he said. "Listening to the young folks, nothing's good enough for them. Next thing you know, they'll be wanting to go back to living in caves, nobody work any more, live that way for a while." If you graduated from high school, you were likely required at some point to read (or watch) Shirley Jackson's short story, The Lottery. If you somehow managed to avoid it, you can read it here. (It's a short story.) If you are too lazy for even that, watch the video here. Warning: It does not have a happy ending. The character quoted above is Old Man Warner, a crotchety octogenarian and a respected elder in the community. Warner is reacting to ...

I looked at the homepage of this site and could hardly believe what I saw. The most recent stories, stacked three high, featured black and white photos of Hollywood entertainers. Well, the celebrity mongering is over. For now. Let us return now to the lofty topics for which this blog is known. No, not liquor stores. Not pareidolia either. I'm talking about advocacy. Stop! Don't leave! This will be interesting. Did you know... Biking and walking make up 12 percent of all trips, but only 1.5 percent of federal funding. Two out of three pedestrian deaths take place on roads built with federal funding.  Ensuring funds for sidewalks, crosswalks, and bikeways help end preventable deaths and make roads safer for everyone. When town centers are biking and walking ...