International

London, UK  Pedal cycles travelled five billion miles (8 billion kilometres) on Great Britain’s roads in 2020, 45.7% further than in...

In another sign of how cycling is rapidly becoming ‘mainstream’, two very different bicycle companies are both reaching out beyond the usual audience of bicycle brand marketing campaigns.

One of the downsides of electric bicycles is that they’re heavier than conventional bikes. But imagine if the bicycle frame itself could also be the battery.

Social-distancing, sustainability and accessibility helped accelerate e-biking during the pandemic, and the trend is showing up in urban bike-sharing programs.

Ralph Buehler and John Pucher are two highly regarded and widely published American academics. It has taken them almost a decade, but in early 2021 they’ve published Cycling for Sustainable Cities.

On 12th March 2021 Canada’s federal government announced C$400 million (A$416 million) in funding to be invested over five years to help build new and expanded networks of pathways, bike lanes, trails and pedestrian bridges.

Lime customers can now take advantage of new features like app-less riding, 10-minute reservations, and vehicle configurations.

Australia and Canada have a lot in common. They’re both former British colonies, who to this day enjoy friendly sporting rivalry every four years at the Commonwealth Games.

If you’re wondering why bicycle factories cannot produce enough bikes, parts and accessories to keep up with both Australian and global demand, a look at the 2020 sales figures of just one country, Germany, will help to explain why.

New Zealand’s national capital of Wellington has a greater urban area population of 429,700 in 2020, but due to its extremely hilly terrain and limited land, being surrounded by ocean on three sides, only half of these people, 215,100 to be exact, live in the city of Wellington itself. The other half live in nearby urban areas including Lower Hutt and Porirua. Also due to this extremely rugged terrain, a single four lane motorway is the only main road that links Wellington to the rest of New Zealand. Currently there is no separated cycle route along this main road, that has been built on a narrow strip of in some places reclaimed land, wedged between the mountains and the sea. The only space for cyclists is the shoulder of what is an extremely busy high speed road.

Not many people would wish to hit speeds in excess of 100kph on a transport device with no roll cage, completely open to the elements and riding on 16 centimetre wheels travelling just a few centimetres off the ground. This is, however, what anyone taking a trip on an eSkootr S1X racing e-scooter can look forward to. The eSkootr S1X has been created for the planned eSkootr Championship (eSC) which will start towards the end of the year. The races will be conducted on specially built circuits – concrete seams and cracks in pavement would not do at these speeds on a ride with such tiny wheels – in city parks, streets or within stadiums.

Cycling advocates around the world know that if they can overcome entrenched resistance and actually get protected facilities installed, the riders will come. Now a recent study by the Paris city government has found that new cyclists account for almost six in ten users of pop-up cycle lanes in Paris, installed first in response to a public transport strike last winter with the network subsequently enlarged due to the coronavirus pandemic. The study also revealed that prior to the pop-up bike lanes being put in place, women made up 36 per cent of cyclists in Paris, which has now risen to 41 per cent.