News round-up May 22, 2014

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Submitted by Shawn Carney on Thu, May 22, 2014

May is National Bike Month! In honor of the spring cycling season, let's all pay homage to Velominati Rule #6: "Your mind is your worst enemy. Do all your thinking before you start riding your bike.  Once the pedals start to turn, wrap yourself in the sensations of the ride – the smell of the air, the sound of the tires, the feeling of flight as the bicycle rolls over the road."

According to the latest census report, there's been a 60% increase in bike commuting in America over the last ten years! Not sure what this all means? Listen to the Streetsblog Talking Headways podcast devoted to the report in order to understand more. In related news, The League of American Bicyclists is not upgrading NYC from silver to gold in the bicycle friendly community program, because we still have a ways to go. League President Andy Clarke stated, "Looking forward, continued expansion of the bikeway and bike share system and actions arising from the welcome adoption of a Vision Zero strategy — hopefully with the full participation of the NYPD — will ensure further progress towards the Gold level.” Just one look at The Weekly Carnage explains how much improvement is still needed...

The recent Vox article on why cyclists should be able to work around current infrastructure designed for automobiles has been a popular read. Streetsblog responded with an related article from the perspective of a civil engineer and city planner. 
 
Speaking of city planners, if you're a Strava user you're helping contribute to urban planning for better cycling routes. According to this article by The Telegraph, Strava has begun licensing data to city planners.  "Millions of GPS-tracked activities are uploaded to Strava every week from around the globe. In denser metro areas, nearly one-half of these are commutes. These activities create billions of data points that, when aggregated, enable deep analysis and understanding of real-world cycling and pedestrian route preferences,” according to the Strava website.
 
The 5BBC Montauk Century was a great success and a beautiful ride! With near perfect weather and wonderful support from members of the club, the day was truly enjoyable. Check out the pictures on the 5BBC Facebook page!

5BBC also had a booth at the Park Slope Bike Jumble earlier in May, but if you missed it, don't worry! June 1 is the Red Hook Bike Jumble, held in conjunction with Transportation Alternative's Tour de Brooklyn!

Unless you've been living under a rock or disconnected from the interwebs (in which case why are you reading this?), you've watched the video of the badass housecat who saved a little boy on a bicycle from a dog attack. Just in case you haven't, watch it now and you're welcome.