SMART

Author: Jaymi Heimbuch

Saddle bags for your bike can be expensive. The canvas grocery pannier runs at $45 (granted it’s vegan, but still…). Instead of laying out $45, you can spend $4 and get two that will work just as well. Matt posted on BikeHacks and old DIY project from 2008 that calls for simply two canvas grocery bags (preferably the kind that fold out, like paper bags), a piece of 2′x4′ 1/4″ thick masonite (like what is used for clipboards), and a bungee cord.

Read the full article at http://www.treehugger.com/cars/how-to-make-4-grocery-panniers-for-your-bike.html.

In Bihar, one of India’s poorest and most populous states, half of the women and a quarter of the men are illiterate, and about 90% of its 104 million inhabitants live in rural areas. Life here is particularly difficult for girls, and one of the greatest hindrances to their development is the simple journey to school. For many, the trip is long, expensive and dangerous.

But here, in rural Bihar, we recently saw that a two-wheeled solution to the problem has been found.

Three years ago the state’s new chief minister Nitish Kumar adopted a “gender agenda” and set about redressing his state’s endemic gender imbalances in an attempt to boost development in one of India’s most backward states. His vision was to bring a sense of independence and purpose to his state’s young women, and the flagship initiative of this agenda is the Mukhyamantri Balika Cycle Yojna, a project that gives schoolgirls 2,000 rupees (about £25) to purchase a bicycle.

The project’s results so far have been extremely promising: in those three years in Bihar alone, 871,000 schoolgirls have taken to the saddle as a result of the scheme. The number of girls dropping out of school has fallen and the number of girls enrolling has risen from 160,000 in 2006-2007 to 490,000 now.

Read the full article at http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/bike-blog/2011/nov/25/cycling-indian-schoolgirls-bike-blog.

Author: Dana Budzaj

A new, two-wheel “green” alternative is available for pedestrians commuting around campus this fall with the launch of the university’s bicycle rental program, Blue Bikes.

Thirty blue bicycles, featuring a “blue bike” decal, are available to students, faculty and staff for daily, weekend and semester rentals. Rates begin at $5 for a daily rental, $11 for the weekend and $75 for the semester. The bikes are available at two campus locations: Outdoor Adventures and the North Campus Recreational Building.

Operated by Outdoor Adventures within Recreational Sports, the program was developed in collaboration with Parking & Transportation Services, the Office of Campus Sustainability and the University Planner’s Office.

Read the full story at http://www.ur.umich.edu/update/archives/120912/bikes.

Author: Sally McGrane

Picture 11 miles of smoothly paved bike path meandering through the countryside. Largely uninterrupted by roads or intersections, it passes fields, backyards, chirping birds, a lake, some ducks and, at every mile, an air pump.

For some Danes, this is the morning commute.

Susan Nielsen, a 59-year-old schoolteacher, was one of a handful of people taking advantage of Denmark’s first “superhighway” for bicycles on a recent morning, about halfway between Copenhagen and Albertslund, a suburb, which is the highway’s endpoint. “I’m very glad because of the better pavement,” said Ms. Nielsen, who wore a rain jacket and carried a pair of pants in a backpack to put on after her 40-minute commute.

The cycle superhighway, which opened in April, is the first of 26 routes scheduled to be built to encourage more people to commute to and from Copenhagen by bicycle. More bike path than the Interstate its name suggests, it is the brainchild of city planners who were looking for ways to increase bicycle use in a place where half of the residents already bike to work or to school every day.

“We are very good, but we want to be better,” said Brian Hansen, the head of Copenhagen’s traffic planning section.

Read the full article at http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/18/world/europe/in-denmark-pedaling-to-work-on-a-superhighway.html.