* The California State Assembly approved Senate Bill 1464 on Monday, which would require motor vehicle drivers to stay three feet from cyclists in most cases. Drivers would be allowed to cross double solid yellow lines to provide bicyclists enough room. The new legislation would allow fines of at least $35 for drivers who impinge on bicyclists’ buffer zones.

* Brazilian bike schools turn kids into future urban cyclists. Sao Paulo, the largest city in the continent and Brazil’s economic capital, recently launched the program ‘Cycling Schools,’ which intends to turn kids into urban cyclists. Schools received 100 bamboo bicycles to be used in one-month courses to teach children all aspects of cycling culture, and also to implement games and activities within the school. Children learn about transit, sustainable transportation, bicycle types, basic mechanics, history of the bicycle, environmental education and even conflict mediation.In a second phase, the kids begin to ride to and from school every day, in a convoy of 15 to 25 students with supervisors escorting them.

*An injured Vancouver cyclist says he is moving ahead with legal action against the District of North Vancouver over a bike lane. The cyclist suffered a head injury, chipped teeth and damage to his tongue after he was hit from behind on a road where the city had recently removed a pilot-project bike lane.

* What Happens to Stolen Bicycles? San Fransisco-based Priceonomics takes a look at the economic incentive for bike thieves that underpins the pervasiveness of bike theft.

* A Sightline Institute report titled Shifting into Reverse states that gas consumption in Washington and Oregon has dropped to a level not seen since the 1960s. The report concludes that this decline is the result of people driving less in the Northwest–young people especially – rather than the results of a recession-related trend or fuel-efficiency movement.

* After the death of a man driving a gas-powered bicycle in Toronto, police and citizens are raising questions about the legality and the lack of regulation surrounding such vehicles

* Demobilizing ‘War on Cars’. In a Planetizen article, Herb Caudill explains why the need to plan for a range of transportation modes and uses of space in urban environs is common sense – not part of a concerted assault on cars.

* While safe roads matter to everyone on a bike but professional cyclists spend more time on them than almost anyone. It’s how they make a living. And like anyone else, they are vulnerable on the open road. In this video from People for Bikes, five professional U.S. cyclists reflect on their experiences with bicycle safety.

* City launches safety campaign, urges Seattleites to “Be Super Safe”. On Wednesday, Aug. 29, the Mayor’s Office and Seattle Department of Transportation launched their 2012 Road Safety Action Plan and a new superhero-themed road safety campaign. Titled “Be Super Safe”, the goal of the action plan and safety campaign is to eliminate fatalities and serious injuries on Seattle’s streets.

* Burke-Gilman Trail Missing Link designs get sent back again. On Tuesday, Aug. 27, the City of Seattle Hearing Examiner disappointingly ruled in favor of the Ballard Business Appellants by sending the updated design for the Missing Link stretch of the Burke-Gilman Trail back to the Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) for a full Environmental Impact Statement.

*Aerofex has redesigned hover vehicle technology so that it responds to a pilot’s natural sense of balance without the need for flight control software. The result: a hover bike.

*Bicycle lanes draw wide support among New Yorkers.  Six years after the Bloomberg administration began its controversial campaign to edit the city’s streetscape, adding 255 miles of bicycle lanes onto streets previously dedicated to automobiles, a hard-fought acceptance for the lanes may finally be at hand. A new poll by The New York Times finds that 66 percent of New Yorkers surveyed think the new bike lanes are a good idea.

* (San Fransisco’s) Critical Mass turns 20 in September and they’ll be celebrating this milestone in a big way, and everyone is invited!

San Francisco hosted the first-ever Critical Mass ride on the last Friday of September 1992. This leaderless ride became a monthly “organized coincidence”, and in the years that followed, spread around the world.  Organizers are expecting riders from across the globe to attend the celebration. Visit their anniversary webpage to find out how to be part of the celebration, to find lodging, and rent a bike.

You don’t have to travel all the way to San Francisco to participate in a Critical Mass ride. Seattle Critical Mass occurs on the last Friday of every month. 

*Alastair Bland of the Smithsonian Blog questions whether Portland really is the best city for bikes in the country. “…I battled traffic on loud, gridlocked boulevards that could have been the main drag of any American town, and I crossed and recrossed the Willamette River via the snarling, bumper-to-bumper, almost-a-freeway Ross Island Bridge—no fun at all,” he states.  ”And I was appalled at the freeways and concrete overpasses that crisscross parts of Portland like giant, tangled braids of electrical wiring. In fact, I felt less and less each day that this city was any more remarkable a cycling haven than San Francisco or Santa Barbara or New York or London.”

* Momentum Magazine meanwhile is raving about Montreal, a city that welcomes cyclists with a “Bienvenue cyclistes!”  sign  proudly displayed at every metro/ light rail entrance.  Montreal has the highest number of cyclists per capita in North America, and the most extensive network of cycling infrastructure of any city in Canada.

* The Dutch have raised the bar on bicycle infrastructure again. The Eindhoven “Hovenring” opened recently, which is essentially a floating bicycle roundabout, taking bicycles completely out of the intersection.

* Portland lowers speed limit to 20 mph on 70 miles of neighborhood greenways. In an effort to ,ake neighborhood streets safe for kids, bicyclists and pedestrians, the City of Portland has officially lowered the speed limit to 20 mph on 70 miles of neighborhood streets.

* Vancouver police set out to do helmet checks on two mornings last week, ticketing cyclists without helmets.  Vancouver cyclists say rash of bike helmet fines are the wrong way to encourage ridership, not to mention a “waste of police resources”.  A violation for not wearing a helmet can cost someone up to $100

* How’s this for a marketing strategy? Instead of advertising in the local publications, Christian Petersen and his partner decided to put up 120 bicycles on the facade of their bike shop in Atlandsberg, Germany.

*Cars aren’t cool anymore writes Taras Grescoe in the Ottawa Citizen, and statistics show it: In the United States, less than a third of 16-year-olds now have drivers’ licenses, versus half in 1978, and across the continent, vehicle miles travelled, the most reliable measure of automobile dependence available, have been in free fall since the middle of last decade. Car sales are down 20 per cent from their peak in 2000, and the declines have been sharpest among the young.

*George Hincapie has officially retired. The seventh and last stage of the USA Pro Challenge on Sunday, Aug. 26, was the final race of Hincapie’s 19-year professional career.  The 39-year-old will be remembered for his legendary selfless efforts as the domestique for Tour de France winners Lance Armstrong, Alberto Contador and Cadel Evans.

*This video of the world’s smallest rideable bike been making the social media rounds:

Seattle:

* An app for Seattle bike parking is coming soon, reports Tekna Design.

The Seattle Department of Transportation currently has 2,230 parking spaces all around Seattle for bicyclists to use and Tekna is working on an iPhone application to help you find them. Tekna Design is creating the Seattle bike rack app in support of Seattle’s Bicycle Master Plan to spur greater interest in cycling.

* The Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) reports that there were more bicycle trips in 2012 than the year before.  According to the counts up to this point, the total number of bike trips in 2012 has increased 4.6 percent compared to the number of bike trips in 2011. SDOT plans to use this date to help planners in making bicycle travel easier in Seattle.

* Seattle Transit Blog argues that bike share doesn’t (yet) belong in downtown Seattle. “I have a great enthusiasm for bikeshare, and I think it could be very successful in Seattle — if done right,” pens Zach Shaner. “ I am, however, deeply unsettled by some parts of [the Puget Sound Bike Share business plan], in particular its phasing, and the prospect of putting bikeshare users — who, if the project is to succeed, must be drawn from the full spectrum of ages and abilities — on the streets of downtown Seattle with the current bicycle facilities.”

* With over 30,000 bicyclists on Seattle roads daily, it’s amazing to note that 125 years ago there were one third as many.  Despite the hills, biking in Seattle has been a frequent mode of transportation for sport, commuting and recreation since the development of our city. The Capitol Hill Times takes a look at the history of bikes in Seattle and the Interlaken Park bicycle route.

*The Seattle Times’ editorial staff believes that the Seattle City Council should approve bike lockers for Metro Transit park-and-ride lots. “There are already 240 lockers in use, but the new ones make a lot more sense,” the Op-Ed states. “Tuesday’s proposal is for 68 new lockers. It’s another good way of getting more people traveling on two wheels and the bus.”

Elsewhere: 

* The speculation regarding a new launch date for New York City’s Citi Bike program has been high ever since the original July launch date came and went, but Mayor Michael Bloomberg put them to rest last week when he announced that the city’s much anticipated bike-share program won’t launch until next March.

The program, which will be the country’s largest, is to be constructed and operated by Portland-based Alta Bicycle Share which has encountered problems with the software.

*Following the whimsical account of a New York Times reporter about learning to ride as an adult, Washington Times’ Laura Sesana and Grist’s Laura Schlaback both gave their accounts of being a novice bike commuter and how biking changed their lives.

* Canada’s Globe and Mail reports that after the death of a Toronto cyclist whose wheel became caught in an unused stretch of streetcar track, City Councillor Denzil Minnan-Wong says the city should consider banning cycling on the quiet, residential street. Cycling advocates and local politicians have called for the city to examine the dangers that streetcar tracks pose to cyclists since the death of Joseph Mavec on Aug. 6.

* Soapbox Cincinnati features a bike-friendly guide for non-bikers on how to share the road.

* Pure Fix Bicycles has released The Kilo: the very first glow in the dark bike to help commuters be seen at night.  While the company claims of The Kilo being the “very first” glow-in-the-dark bikes is false –On One bikes have been producing them for a few years – the bikes are still pretty neat.

* The Associated Press reports that a judge has dismissed Armstrong’s case against USADA.  A federal judge in Austin, Texas, threw out Lance Armstrong’s lawsuit against the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency on Monday, a decision that allows the agency’s drug case against the seven-time Tour de France winner to move ahead. Armstrong, who repeatedly has denied doping, claimed in his lawsuit that USADA lacked jurisdiction and its arbitration process violates his constitutional rights. U.S. District Judge Sam Sparks dismissed the lawsuit as speculative.

*Louise MC Grody penned a post for the Bike Alliance about The Value of Playing with Bikes and how riding bikes teaches kids how to play creatively and actively on their own.  Biking also helps them learn how to be resourceful, set their own rules, interact with each other, and structure their own play time without any high-tech tools.

* Need some inspiration? Here’s a list of the Top 7 most inspiring bicycle quotes, as collected by Mission Bicycle Company.

* High-Wheelers descended on Frederick, MD, for a penny farthing race.

* China-born artist Zhao Huasen created this fun collection of images where bicyclists float along city streets, pedaling and steering invisible bikes. For the project, entitled ‘Floating’, the artist captured hundreds of cyclists going about their everyday lives and he then digitally removed the bicycles from the images.

* The Solo Cup Bike Lane might start inspiring bike activists everywhere to create their own removable, temporary bike lanes.

* Bicycle counter to go live this week on Portland’s Hawthorne Bridge. Installation of Seattle’s bike counter had been planned for July, but has met with delays. We can report that the counter is in Seattle. Expect news on it shortly.

* A London cyclist was killed after being struck by an Olympic bus last week. Following the news of the cyclist’s death, UK gold medalist Bradley Wiggins started some debate regarding bicycle helmets. Wiggins believes riding without an helmet should be made illegal, “because ultimately, if you get knocked off and you ain’t got a helmet on, then how can you kind of argue”. 

* Doug Palm and Jamie Cheney remember Mike Wang by rethinking how we behave on roads. A year ago, Mike Wang was killed as he bicycled home from work in Seattle. Palm and Cheney state more is needed to make the roads safer.

* West Thomas Street Pedestrian and Bicycle Overpass Project has been delayed yet again. Slated for a May 2012 opening, the project has been delayed due to trouble acquiring materials. The new anticipated opening is in late August or early September.

* Bob Mionske pens about bike-on-bike collisions in Bicycling Magazine. In his recent post, Mionske explores how an increasing number of bikes on the road affect other cyclists, and who’s at fault in a bike-on-bike collision.

* Seattle’s Craig Etheridge has again been crowned the top bike messenger in the world. Etheridge competed in the Cycle Messenger World Championship in Chicago this past weekend and claimed his second  title.

* Milton, Washington, located 28 miles south of Seattle, recently repealed its bicycle helmet law. Portland never had a bike helmet law to begin with, nor did Paris, Amsterdam, and Rome. Anne Larking at Seattle Met magazine looks at the No Helmet Law and whether it would work in Seattle.

 * Jonathan Maus of Bike Portland reports that the City of Portland is taken a big stride forward by looking beyond auto-centric ‘level of service’ standards.

* Thigh-Popping success on a bike lies in the quads, says New York Times.

* Following attacks on women, Brooklyn Bike Patrol volunteers provide safe escorts home from subway stations.

* Randy Cohen penned an interesting New York Times Op-Ed titled “If Kant Were a New York Cyclist”, in which he makes an ethical defense of running red lights on his bicycle.

* Felix Salmon at Reuters responded to Cohen’s Op-Ed with a post on his own about why it’s not OK for cyclists to run red lights.

* Neil Bezdek of Bicycling Magazine describes the five stages of grief following a bicycle crash.

* New study the market for electric bikes in the US will triple in the next six years.

* Barb Chamberlain, new Executive Director at the Bicycle Alliance of Washington, moved to Seattle last week and wrote about her first impressions of biking in Seattle.

* Biker’s Ed Class debuts in NYC for cycling scofflaws.  As a penalty for certain offenses, a new sentencing option sends New York City’s cycling scofflaws to a remedial class to learn about bicycles and traffic, reports J. David Goodman. Of the 30 students initially entered in the class, the most common infractions were riding on the sidewalk and not using the bicycle lane.

* “Be Predictable” campaign encourages bikes and buses to safely share the road. You may have seen the green and white banners on the sides of Metro buses encouraging commuetrs to “be predictable” in order to safely share the road. The ads, which have been running on the sides of 30 buses running throughout the central business district since May, are part of a larger Share the Road campaign created by a new Bicycle/Bus Education & Safety Team and sponsored by King County Metro, Cascade Bicycle Club, and the Bicycle Alliance of Washington.

* Cyclist robbed at gunpoint on Beacon Hill in Seattle.

* Sign a petition to ask Governor Gregoire for Fair Share for Walk, Bike, Transit.

* Gear: Hiplok, a wearable bike lock.

* Something funny: