One of the most difficult parts of riding a bike every day isn't just transporting yourself. If you have panniers (check!), a basket (check!), and a cup holder (check!), you can pretty much pedal yourself and all of your goods around town. The PROBLEM is the city planning- how do you bike around without getting run over by a car? Or, in Miami especially, a BUS? Maybe I should buy some rear-view mirrors.
Anyhow, I like to cruise around the Internet and check out other cities and their solutions to urban congestion and city planning. Stockholm is a fantastic example of a bike-friendly city. Okay, so it's a little cold in the Winter, but hey, snow happens.
Stockholm City Bike is a private and public bicycle rental system that is totally rad! You just buy a card and then you can rent the bikes for up to 3 hours at a time- similar to the stations we find in Paris, Montreal, and (supposedly, though I believe it will happen when Bigfoot shows up at the beach!), here in MIAMI!
After we saw
Let The Right One In a couple of nights ago, I really have Sweden on the bran...
Below is an excellent article on city planning in Stockholm.
The most interesting part of this article is that it refers to the importance of creating clear paths to public transportation; i.e., trains! I d't expect everyone to ride their bikes to work, especially if you work far away. But, do you really need a car, when it's so easy to bike on up to the train, lock it up safely, and be on your way?
One day, all cities will have this structure...
The bicycle plan, which was updated in 2006, not only makes Stockholm’s car, tram, bus, pedestrian and bicyclist-filled streets truly complete, but also provide Stockholm’s 1 million residents access to transit stops that may have previously been inaccessible by bike. This, in turn, increases transit ridership and decreases the reliance on the automobile and the need for costly road expansion. As the Chicago region is finalizing its plans for a state capital bill, a 2009 federal surface reauthorization measure, and the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning’s long-range, 30-year plan (to be released in 2010), bicycle improvements like those in Stockholm should be a key component of all transportation and infrastructure proposals.
(CLICK HERE FOR FULL ARTICLE)
Courtesy of LINUS 
