Some interesting news from Canada that I stumbled across today:
http://www.canoe.ca/NewsStand/LondonFreePress/Today/2005/09/05/1202630-sun.html
Even before gas prices took a flying leap skyward, London bike stores were seeing more shoppers than usual.
"We've had some people come and look because of the price of gas," says Reynold Vanherpe, owner of Reynolds Cycle. "People really start looking when it gets above $1. When it's 97 cents, they're OK."
At To Wheels, manager Josh Chadwick says, "We're seeing a bit of a blip (in sales)."
He says bike stores normally experience a boost in sales in September as students go back to school. But this year, it's a bigger than before.
Many are leaning toward hybrid bikes, which take the comfort and durability of mountain bikes and the speed of racing bikes "and kind of squish them into one bike," Chadwick says.
What's happening in Victoria -- which bills itself as Canada's biking capital -- may be a sign of what's to come for other cities.
Lee Orphan, president of the London Centennial Wheelers bike club, visited the British Columbia capital in August and was astounded by the number of cyclists.
"Everyone rides bikes there," he says, attributing it to a milder climate and a population that is focused on fitness.
Things are suddenly getting big-city tense there -- at least on the Galloping Goose bicycle trail in Victoria.
"There haven't been fisticuffs that I know of, yet," says John Luton, head of the Capital Bike and Walk Society. "But there's the equivalent of road rage out there on the trail."
What's fuelling this mini-crisis in Canada's bucolic biking capital is the rising price of gasoline. Victoria generally has some of the highest prices in the country.
With as many as 5,000 people a day cramming onto the three-metre wide, 60-kilometre path, there's now a bicycle rush hour.
"Check your dog," shouts Luton, encountering a woman who let her retractable leash extend across the path he was whirring down on his way to work.
"Check your bike!" she fires back, giving no ground.
It isn't exactly life on the bike paths of Beijing, the world's biking capital. But the Galloping Goose, so named for a rail car that once trundled along this route years ago, is now seeing daily run-ins between pensioners on electric scooters, horseback riders, dog walkers, inline skaters and serious commuters, described by one cyclist as "riding like Lance Armstrong on crack."
Canadians everywhere can expect to see more of such confrontations, cycling advocates predict, as the price of gasoline continues to climb.
Orphan said he hasn't heard of road rage among weekday bike commuters on London bike paths, but says, "On weekends, it can be a bit busy."
He said a new bicycle master plan for London calls for bike lanes on main roads to keep cyclists separate from pedestrians and cars.
"It's the different speed," he says. "Cyclists are scared of cars going twice as fast and pedestrians are scared of bicycles."
While building bike paths isn't nearly as in vogue with cash-strapped governments as it was in the 1970s, predictions are the number of Canadians using trails will climb across Canada.
"You can figure that every 30-per-cent increase in the cost of something translates into a 10-per-cent change in behaviour," estimates Larry Roberts, a planner with Victoria's regional district. "So there will probably be more people on the bike paths."
Todd Litman, an economist who heads the Transport Policy Institute, says rush hour on the Galloping Goose is a good sign. It shows well-planned bike lanes can convince large numbers of people to leave the automobile behind.
About six per cent of Victoria's commuters go to work on two wheels. That's about three times the rate of Vancouver and Toronto.
The trail traffic has some calling for the Galloping Goose to be expanded to four lanes. So far, Victoria's planners aren't biting.
But they must, warns Luton, who foresees a nightmare for pensioners going along Victoria's favourite bike lane on their scooters.
"Wait until these electric bikes and Segways (human transporters) start showing up on the trail," he says. "They're fast and they're all going to be crashing into each other. It won't be pretty."
http://www.canoe.ca/NewsStand/LondonFreePress/Today/2005/09/05/1202630-sun.html
Even before gas prices took a flying leap skyward, London bike stores were seeing more shoppers than usual.
"We've had some people come and look because of the price of gas," says Reynold Vanherpe, owner of Reynolds Cycle. "People really start looking when it gets above $1. When it's 97 cents, they're OK."
At To Wheels, manager Josh Chadwick says, "We're seeing a bit of a blip (in sales)."
He says bike stores normally experience a boost in sales in September as students go back to school. But this year, it's a bigger than before.
Many are leaning toward hybrid bikes, which take the comfort and durability of mountain bikes and the speed of racing bikes "and kind of squish them into one bike," Chadwick says.
What's happening in Victoria -- which bills itself as Canada's biking capital -- may be a sign of what's to come for other cities.
Lee Orphan, president of the London Centennial Wheelers bike club, visited the British Columbia capital in August and was astounded by the number of cyclists.
"Everyone rides bikes there," he says, attributing it to a milder climate and a population that is focused on fitness.
Things are suddenly getting big-city tense there -- at least on the Galloping Goose bicycle trail in Victoria.
"There haven't been fisticuffs that I know of, yet," says John Luton, head of the Capital Bike and Walk Society. "But there's the equivalent of road rage out there on the trail."
What's fuelling this mini-crisis in Canada's bucolic biking capital is the rising price of gasoline. Victoria generally has some of the highest prices in the country.
With as many as 5,000 people a day cramming onto the three-metre wide, 60-kilometre path, there's now a bicycle rush hour.
"Check your dog," shouts Luton, encountering a woman who let her retractable leash extend across the path he was whirring down on his way to work.
"Check your bike!" she fires back, giving no ground.
It isn't exactly life on the bike paths of Beijing, the world's biking capital. But the Galloping Goose, so named for a rail car that once trundled along this route years ago, is now seeing daily run-ins between pensioners on electric scooters, horseback riders, dog walkers, inline skaters and serious commuters, described by one cyclist as "riding like Lance Armstrong on crack."
Canadians everywhere can expect to see more of such confrontations, cycling advocates predict, as the price of gasoline continues to climb.
Orphan said he hasn't heard of road rage among weekday bike commuters on London bike paths, but says, "On weekends, it can be a bit busy."
He said a new bicycle master plan for London calls for bike lanes on main roads to keep cyclists separate from pedestrians and cars.
"It's the different speed," he says. "Cyclists are scared of cars going twice as fast and pedestrians are scared of bicycles."
While building bike paths isn't nearly as in vogue with cash-strapped governments as it was in the 1970s, predictions are the number of Canadians using trails will climb across Canada.
"You can figure that every 30-per-cent increase in the cost of something translates into a 10-per-cent change in behaviour," estimates Larry Roberts, a planner with Victoria's regional district. "So there will probably be more people on the bike paths."
Todd Litman, an economist who heads the Transport Policy Institute, says rush hour on the Galloping Goose is a good sign. It shows well-planned bike lanes can convince large numbers of people to leave the automobile behind.
About six per cent of Victoria's commuters go to work on two wheels. That's about three times the rate of Vancouver and Toronto.
The trail traffic has some calling for the Galloping Goose to be expanded to four lanes. So far, Victoria's planners aren't biting.
But they must, warns Luton, who foresees a nightmare for pensioners going along Victoria's favourite bike lane on their scooters.
"Wait until these electric bikes and Segways (human transporters) start showing up on the trail," he says. "They're fast and they're all going to be crashing into each other. It won't be pretty."
