I’ve you have been wanting to ride a little more often, ride to work, or start riding at all; May is the month to do it.  May 17-21 has been declared Bike to Work Week, and May 21 is Bike to Work Day.  Everyone should try and get in on the fun.  Fair warning though, if you start riding your bike to work, it may start an unhealthy obsession with all things pedal-powered.

To help everyone who want’s to start commuting, I’ll be posting a tip every day during May which will help get you going.  To keep up, follow Velobration on the RSS feed or on Twitter.

The Southeast in general did not do so well.  Only a hand full of cities were listed,  and poor Birmingham was listed as the nations worst city for cyclists.

Why is the South so bad in this respect?  I think it has a lot to do with how cities were designed way back when.  I’ve had several friends from the North comment on how spread out everything is when visiting here.  Driving 20-30 minutes with no traffic to get somewhere “close” is considered normal.  This led to a situation where having a car is almost mandatory which leads to few people calling for alternative transportation infrastructure.  That’s my theory anyhow.

If your city didn’t make the list, how would you rank it among those that did?

I post this because there is a lot of commentary both positive and negative about cycling on the streets.  Unlike comments that tend to appear under mainstream news articles on the subject, this thread has a lot of intelligent comments which I think are worth reading.

Richard summed it up about as good as one can, so I’ll quote him:

I am part of a group trying to raise funds for a worthy cause, a fight against an injustice done to a Texas cyclist. Some of you may know him. His name is Reed Bates. Until recently, he penned the ChipSeal blog.

The police have stopped Bates numerous times in and around Ennis, Texas. Most notably, he was arrested and jailed for the ‘crime’ of riding a bicycle on the road. He was riding on the roadway, not the shoulder, so the county sheriff’s department decided he had to be taught a lesson.

In short, he was arrested and convicted of impeding traffic while operating a bike on public roads. I don’t have to tell anyone what a horrible precedent this sets for us in a world already hostile to our rights.

Reed is now working on an appeal and needs our help to do so, I urge everyone to chip in what they can.

More Info:

• Original post on Cyclelicous
• Let Him Ride – Official defense fund site
• Reed’s Blog

Jonathan, who runs CarFree.us took a look at 36 days he either biked or took the bus.  I recommend reading the whole article, but the highlights are:

• $471.49 saved in gas, registration, insurance and maintenance
• 22,356 calories burned
• 543lbs of carbon not produced.

Hard to argue with figures like that.

$100 + $49 shipping gets you a frame which you can build any way you like.  If you already have a collection of spare parts, this can transform them into a complete bike on the cheap.  With such a low cost for the frame, you could still end up with an inexpensive fixie even with new parts.

I’d be curious to hear about how the frame works out for those who have built them up already.

My personal favorite section is this:

SECTION 7. Any person who maliciously and knowingly harasses, taunts, or throws an object at or in the direction of any person riding a bicycle shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and upon conviction, shall be punished by a fine of One Hundred  Dollars ($100.00) for the first offense; a fine of Five Hundred Dollars ($500.00) for a second offense; and a fine of Two Thousand Five Hundred Dollars ($2,500.00) and imprisonment for seven (7) days in the county jail for the third offense.

This is great news for Mississippi.  It has passed both the House and Senate committees and will not make its way to the floor for voting.  I’ll be contacting my reps today in support!

Be sure to check out the rest of his blog, Puncture Proof,  as well, some great advocacy and safety information over there!