Last week sometime was “Earth Day” when Americans at least were supposed to be all ecological and stop consuming the majority of the world’s resourses for a day, or something.
It seems that New York celebrated by attempting to recycle all the bikes left along a parade route for President Obama. The bikes were all removed, with locks cut and left, apparently as they posed a security risk The owners had to wait until, what appear to be hand-scrawled, signs were put up telling them where to recover their bikes. A brilliant way to encourage people to cycle rather than driving on their journeys around the city I think you’ll agree.
Also in relation to Earth Day a motor company conducted a survey in Silicon Valley to see why people didn’t ride to work (apart form the danger of having their bike stolen by the police). The results are supposed to encourage the people who can’t manage a real bike to get an electric one to help with the hills, but I can’t help thinking “just get over it” about most of the reasons given.
In good news, also from over the Atlantic, the Bixi bike hire scheme in Montreal is not only encouraging cycling around the city, but also providing opportunities and jobs for local kids in danger of dropping out of high-school. The kids are trained, amongst other things, to repair the Bixi fleet. Perhaps that’s something that can be introduced in London when the bike hire scheme here goes live in a few months.
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