News

With a little over a month to go before its launch, London’s mass bicycle hire scheme has been christened Barclays Cycle Hire and given its first docking stations in Southwark Street. By the time the scheme is complete, six thousand hire bikes will be housed across 400 docking stations in central London. A spokesperson for the Environmental...

Cyclists who take direct action against cycle thieves by booby trapping their bicycles risk prosecution themselves. ilovemybike.co.uk has learned that a London cyclist frustrated by the high rate of cycle theft resorted to supplementing the security provided by a conventional lock by securing their bike with a length of hidden 500lb fishing...

Riding a bicycle may be a skill often mastered by age six, but it has taken scientists three years to express the art of pedalling, steering and balancing a bike as a mathematical formula. As every child quickly learns, the faster you pedal the easy it is to keep a bike upright, but on paper this skill translates to an equation of 31...

New vans could be up to 16% more fuel efficient and 10% cheaper simply by using the smaller engines that were commonplace ten years ago. A study commissioned on behalf of Transport & Environment, the sustainable transport campaigners, showed that ‘optimal engine sizing’ can cut total cost of ownership by up to 12% and can be...

Today was a funny one – did the usual train / walk to work business. After work I was due to go to an engagement party, I had arranged for a friend to come and pick me up from the station, but was running late so called her and said not to worry about picking me up – I’ll get the bus. I might as well have just said I was marrying a tramp –...

A trial to allow motorcycles to share London’s bus lanes with taxis and cyclists is to be re-run after it resulted in an increase in the number of collisions between powered two-wheelers and cars making left turns. Over the last eighteen months, motorcycles, mopeds, and scooters in London have been entitled to share red route bus lanes in...

There is a bewildering array of child seats, ‘tag-alongs’ and trailers aimed at helping famillies cycle together, but none is as stylish looking as the bicycle sidecar designed by Steve Bodiley. The Bicycle Sidecar allows a toddler to accompany an adult cycle on long rides while leaving the bike free to carry luggage or a rear-mounted child...

British motorists are promised mass-produced electric cars within a year, but family drivers consulting the newly-launched Electric Car Buyers’ Guide in the hope of finding an environmentally-friendly electric vehicle to drive away today face a choice of only three. The Electric Car Buyers’ Guide is a not-for-profit website that features a...

Mediocre Monday I got the train to and from work. Although it’s taking me longer to get to work it is nice being able to catch up on current affairs and do a bit of facebook admin on my phone. The walk each side of the station is rather pleasant to due to the glorious weather, I think this whole task may be getting me down a bit if...

Following a year of turmoil for Toyota involving questions over the safety of its vehicles, the world’s largest car maker has been awarded Green Car of the Year 2010 for its city car, the IQ, announced the Environmental Transport Association (ETA) today. The least green car of the year was revealed as being the Lamborghini Murcielago, a...