News

People power can be a potent force for change - particularly where road danger reduction is concerned. Just look at what the Dutch achieved in the early 1970s. Closer to home, public opinion has prompted a u-turn by the government on 'dynamic hard shoulders' - more often described as smart motorways. In recognition of what's described as a...

Nothing beats a bit of half-term cycling with the kids - what better way to have fun together and burn off a little energy into the bargain? It's also free...if you have bikes already. The price of brand new bikes has become eye-watering in recent years and many entry-level models are unreasonably heavy, which can do a good job of putting...

When Dervla Murphy was ten, she was given a bicycle and an atlas, and within days she was secretly planning a trip to India. For my tenth birthday my parents gave me a second-hand bicycle and Pappa [her grandfather] sent me a second-hand atlas. Already I was an enthusiastic cyclist, though I had never before owned a bicycle, and soon after...

The Hydaway is a collapsible and reusable water bottle that aims to reduce the 50 billion plastic water bottles discarded each year in America alone. The brightly-coloured accessory makes an interesting alternative to a conventional bicycle bidon, too. [quote type="cycle_insurance"] The Hydaway water bottle is intended to be filled from the...

As cargo bikes find their place in cities seeking to reduce dependence on cars and lorries, they're being used in ever more creative ways. VeloConcerts is a cargo bike-based mobile stage which can unfold in minutes. We assemble and manufacture the VeloStages at our workshop in Vienna together with Jakob Illera from INSEQ Design. The...

The benefits of 20mph speed limits are numerous, but how best to enforce them given how few motorists appear to have the driving skill or inclination to keep to them? Traffic engineers in Canada are forgoing the traditional approach of camera enforcement and fines and experimenting with offering a carrot rather than the stick. A new design...

How do you discourage drivers from using their cars for trips that could easily be done on foot, by bike or on the bus? Especially in a country like ours, where 25 per cent of car trips are under 1 mile, 71 per cent under 5 miles (most with only 1 or 2 people) and 4 million commuters travel less than 3 miles to work by car. The Hague thinks...

Cycling is more efficient than any other method of travel - except when your tyres are under inflated. It's the reason visibly soft tyres make us wince. After all, maintaining the correct tyre pressure is cheap, quick and easy task that makes your bike more efficient and improves handling. Whether you're an old hand at checking tyre...

Nobody knows for certain why the governing body of sports cycling decided to ban recumbents from races, but in the summer of 1933, an un-faired, fully recumbent broke the 5, 20, 30, 40, and 50-kilometre records as well as the hour and half-hour records. Less than a year later, the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) set up a committee to...

New research from Australia suggests that barriers to cycling for women are near universal. Dr Lauren Pearson from Monash University’s Sustainable Mobility and Safety Research Group noted that twice as many men cycle as women and the reasons are depressingly familiar. [quote type="cycle_insurance"] Cycling infrastructure suitable for all...