the Great Big Easter Bunny's Bike Blog Roundup

It was another mixed bag of a week in bike blog land. Perhaps we're all a bit grumpy as winter staggers on - but it seems we're a stigmatised minority who can't win whatever we wear - all lumped together as 'you lot' - and this brochure promoting cycle to work month isn't going to help...

Either way, this was also the week British Cycling announced a campaign to to try and get a million more women cycling - the Inner Tube considers what would get Edinburgh's women cycling more while Kevin Mayne ponders the paradox of Taipei's female cyclists and Helen Blackman says it's not 'encouraging' we need - perhaps our own conference might be nearer the mark? Still, at least women have a campaign aimed at them; Can't Stand Up for Falling Down is reminded how disability cycling issues are even further down the agenda than for able bodied cycling (while Ely Cycling Campaign discovers not owning a car is almost as bad). At least the e-bike manufacturers are onto the case, while Scunthorpe Council is promoting its fleet of adapted bikes available for hire.

This week also, Ireland' road safety campaign was widely praised, while Cycling Auckland would prefer sustainable safety to an education campaign. The Road Danger Reduction Forum points out that on Britain's streets, when it comes to safety, we're not all in it together - while Chicargo considers how to teach children safe riding on city streets and Seattle schoolchildren mark a tragedy with a mass ride to school. A few days off the Brompton prompts Wisob to consider risk perception while Kats Dekker wonders if encouraging people to ride without making it safe is just sending them into shark infested waters. A lurid accident puts cyclist safety at the top of the agenda in Brazil - perhaps a cycling crash test dummy is what we need?

Or how about just safer streets? With a Sustrans poll suggesting the Welsh would cycle more if the routes were there, Brake found 90% of cyclists think speeds are too fast in their area, prompting the rest to wonder where exactly the other 10% live. Chafe City would like to see road deaths treated like bugs, not user error while a road narrowing scheme in Bethnal Green doesn't make enough space for the existing cyclists. Cottenham Cyclist checks out the safer cycle network in Cambridge, while in America Safe Routes to Schools start to make progress in California while Massachusetts school children learn how to assess their own streets - and a 10-year-old revamps the zebra crossing.

Apart from asking 10-year-olds, how should we redesign our roads? Cycle Space asks if we shouldn't re-engineer our existing cities but turn industrial wastelands into bicycle communities instead. The Dutch repurpose roads for bikes while Lambeth at least repurposes a car parking space with a bike hangar (but in Belfast, the bin-lane is re-purposed as a bank delivery parking lane instead). As Amsterdam looks to create separate networks for separate modes of transport, Pedestrianise London considers how traffic signals might separate bikes, pedestrians and cars. As Australia considers whether cars should give up roadspace for cyclists, As Easy as Riding a Bike nobly reads a Daily Mail article so you don't have to (other anti-cycling publications are available) and Ely Cycling plan discovers the gap between rhetoric and reality in plans for a new retail park. Bike lanes: not just for big cities - Streetfilms launches its Streetfacts series, while As Easy As Riding a Bike proposes a simple test for a cycling environment.

As Biking in LA points out, more people cycle than vote in LA - so perhaps its time to use that political muscle. Cambridge Cyclist wonders if you've got any questions for Cambridgeshire's aspiring councillors while Sharp Edge Trip just wants you to tell your council you love 20mph. Transport policies might be a question of social justice - or even a matter of security - but one lesson from Boris's vision for London is that cycling's not just for the left. The Bikeleague rounds up the responses from the US national Biking Summit - Adventure Cycling takes away five lessons from the event. Elsewhere, Dave McCraw finds something nice to say about Edinburgh council, and even Sheffield has some good bits like cycle tracks that bypass red lights for motorists. The good news didn't end there, with bicycle licences no longer required in San Diego, and Oregon considering allowing gas taxes to be spent on bike infrastructure.

This week we also saw some staggering round the clock numbers from the Netherlands (and, considering the environment, our kids haven't done too badly either), where the young are turning away from driving, while others turn towards e-bikes. Diamond Geezer was also considering the numbers with the projected effects of the CS2 Extension while Kats Dekker discovers missing data is an obstacle in Newcastle. DC Streets blog considers the complexity of calculating the impact of more cycling, while icycleliverpool tries to put names and details to the raw numbers of fatalities. At the same time, the health impact of a less active generation is clear; we really are suffering an epidemic of sloth.

Bike bloggers seem a well-travelled lot, with a trip to Berlin making Ann Kenrick optimistic about the future for London, while a trip to Munich encourages People For Bikes and Irreverence considers Strasbourg. Cycling Weekly visits Houten and finds a city built around bikes eerily quiet, while You Aint Got Jack can't believe Americans wouldn't want Dutch-style infrastructure and the Fietsberaad discovers Flemish high speed routes increase the distance considered practical for cycle commuting. Forbes magazine enjoys a virtual tour of Copenhagen while Two Wheels and a Lady considers the lessons from creating active public spaces and WashCycle wishes we could all just pedal that quickly. The Dutch OV-fiets scheme will be coming to the UK while Greener Leith wonders if play streets might spread to Edinburgh from Bristol - and Cambridge Cyclist is interested to see his city through other eyes

On to legal matters, and as vulnerable road user laws spread in the US, Tokyo's red light jumpers could face jail. New York cyclists and pedestrians have started posting living wills asking the NYPD to actually investigate in the event of their deaths (you can see them here) - although whether the culprits will end up being offered driver awareness training is not recorded. Streetsblog asks why the 'broken windows' approach is not applied to traffic violence (but perhaps it was The Onion that really nailed the issue). Sikh cyclists are exempted from Australia's helmet laws as long as they are wearing their turbans while Cycle Space suggests there should be no exemptions for Tasmania's pavement parkers. In San Francisco, a modern-day Orpheus descends into the underworld in search of his lost bicycle.

Want to join the cycling economy? Momentum Mag offers a guide to starting your bike-related business while Islabikes might be another UK bike success story as it opens its first outpost in the US. And once you're a successful business entrepreneur, you'll need to keep riding because you can't afford to waste time on any other form of transport.

And finally, it being Easter, what better time to consider whether Jesus would wear hi vis - or if the next popemobile will be pedal powered...