The Great Big Ten Reasons to be Cheerful Bike Blog Roundup

Well there's been much doom and gloom in bike blog land in recent weeks, for obvious reasons, but with Christmas approaching bloggers seemd in a cheerier mood, giving us ten reasons to ride a bike in Leicester and in Manchester, as well as reasons to use a bike share (not to mention ten reasons why bikes and food go together so well). After all, cycling is proven to make you happier, helps stave off dementia, helps us live to a ripe old age - and you don't have the inconveniences of looking for parking while even on an icy winter morning a bike still beats a car in Edinburgh. No wonder Softy Pedals had to give up giving up cycling - you have to share the love, and only through cycling can your commuting become play. It also helps if you're on one of the ten best protected bike lanes of 2013 - Seattle is pleased to be in the list twice, especially as Portland didn't even make it once.

With Bikenomics coming out, we also had five myths about the bicycle economy - and some mythbusting tackling the arguments against spending on walking and cycling - in fact it could be the most cost-effective way of getting the murder rate down. Cycle Sheffield tries to calculate the value of cycling to Sheffield's economy while Cambridge needs to invest more in cycling according to one of its most successful entrepreneurs. But perhaps UK businesses could follow Microsoft's lead and fund infrastructure themselves, or offer match funding for crowdsourced money - or just pay their employees to cycle while charging them a hefty fee to park. Meanwhile, Brighton businesses fail to understand what makes the city attractive while Glasgow businesses get a bit hysterical about parking charge rises and America shows what happens when parking gets out of hand - points perhaps to make in the Parking review consultation. Sainsbury's acts over safety hazards by telling cyclists to slow down instead of removing the obstacles. Elsewhere, Cambridge cyclist asks, if cyclists did pay road tax, how much would they pay - while K4rgo wonders if American companies really quite get the point of cargobikes.

Cheeriness aside, the Transport Select Committee looking into cycling variously caused despair and embarrassment, prompting one MP to ask us to tell her what she should know. One of those giving evidence was the chair of NewCycling - who, to add insult to injury, had her bike stolen while she was giving evidence. With politicians like these, no wonder our national infrastructure plan has no mention of cycling or walking while Chris Boardman is sensibly wary of any cycling champion job that doesn't come with real clout. Although the minister for cycling's evidence was less widely derided, the UK still hasn't learnt much since the 1960s. And local politicians can be worse, with Kensington and Chelsea not just blocking segregation, but using the image of a ghost bike in their cycling consultation report. Perhaps, as suggested in the US, it's time to dismantle the locak department of transport and replace it with a department of mobility and access instead

With accusations flying about dangerising cycling, As Easy as Riding a Bike points out it's the roads themselves that put people off - the whole swimming with sharks thing - not 'die-ins', a tactic campaigners have been forced into: the real blame lies with the politicians. After all, the 'die in' was as much about pedestrians' deaths and we don't worry about dangerising walking. Meanwhile safety isn't increasing with increasing cycling - and casualties are a steady ten a week in Bristol, while the collisions seem to be more or less continuous in Sacramento. A 'respect ride' is to be held for a young man killed by a bus in Gateshead - while in America, a concerned driver would just like the scary little yellow bike thing out of her way.

Meanwhile we want the scary big lorry things out of our way - while Boris responds to the CTC's call to action on lorry danger, the Freight Transport Association calls lorry bans a bit simplistic, but in fact all that's needed is a simple adjustment to the existing Lorry Control Orders. And while exchanging places schemes can be an eye-opener, it's the drivers who should be ensuring their blind spot doesn't cover the stop line. Meanwhile the lorry firm involved in a London fatality has put in more safety measures, while Islington is insisting that HGV drivers get on their bikes.

After their 'bike to school' video, Sustrans ask how we can break the prisoner's dilemma that is the school run - and if you need a reminder of the alternative here's Bicycle Dutch's timelapse of a typical secondary school bike parking lot - but then again where would all the helmet cammers be without a bit of bad driving to spice up their footage of the school run? Meanwhile in America more kids are walking to school, although more are also being driven (does being cargo biked count as cycling or being driven we wonder) while cycling numbers are down - not helped by the towns that ban kids from cycling in the streets altogether. Elsewhere in America, a programme on the LA Bike Trains showed the real barriers to be intolerant motorists, including one who admitted to doing a punishment pass, while Woman on a Wheel wondered whether we should be belittling such small scale efforts and concentrating only on infrastructure.

Bike share schemes remained in the news with a new planning guide coming out (for the time strapped you can watch the video). In San Francisco, the Bay Area Bike Share reports back after it's first few months - and in London the Boris bikes spread west - but will that halt the recent decline in usage year on year?

With car commuting falling right across the US, it's time to start planning for people not traffic, and stop inducing demand - Streetsblog considers two different scenarios for America's transport future. Meanwhile here in the UK, what lessons do other cities have for the UK - including New York - if experts aren't going to come and laugh at our cycling provision? Not getting a drunk spider to lay out our cycle network might be a good start - and we need to remember that a bicycle is a vehicle capable of speed and design accordingly. The planned closure of Putney Bridge might lead to some interesting results. As misleading blue paint is scraped of Bow Roundabout, bike lanes on another roundabout in Bournemouth are criticised by campaigners - while Pedestrianise London reminds us what a really cycle friendly roundabout looks like. And while Delaware studies how to optimise clearing debris from bike path 'hot spots', Cycling Dumfries just wants to see an end to leaves on the line.

On the legal front, Bristol traffic does a little experiment to see what it takes to make drivers obey road signs - while in Toronto the traffic police have been stopping drivers who blow through pedestrian lights. Could twenty be plenty for Coventry - or indeed Auckland? As the Urbanist considers whether a one metre passing law is good policy, and a California town considers an anti-harassment ordinance protecting cyclists, in Oregon, it seems the passing laws put the onus on the overtakee rather than the overtaker. In New York, the new mayor starts the process of implementing 'vision zero', and a quick thinking Seattle woman gets her stolen bike back

With Evans Cycles and the Bicycle Association getting behind the Space for Cycling, cyclists are dismissed as a voting bloc (we're all too young, apparently). As a new campaign is born in Solihull, bike shops are urged to grow sales by working with their local campaigns to build a cycling culture. Sometimes it's all about how you ask the question and sometimes a little education can turn the haters into allies - and sometimes effective visual advocacy material is what you need (and sometimes just a can of spray paint). And with cyclists and pedestrians stronger together than divided - perhaps you could help Living Streets go local?

Meanwhile Bike Biz wants your nominations for the most influential people in British cycling, while in Northern Ireland they want your vote in the Belfast Fred awards, comments are invited on Derby's core strategy and the Bike Station wants cyclists' opinions and is giving out free cake to encourage them. In Tooting more petitions reach the local council, while Ely Cycle campaign is pleaseed to see the riverside route is to open up in Ely. Tufton or Death gets some unwitting help from a hapless driver while in Leicester the same car seems to always block the cycle track

If you're looking abroad, Newcycling handily gathers all it's 'you report' posts in one place. Utrecht plans to spend €100 million to overhaul its cycling infrastructure (you'd think they'd give us at least a sporting chance to catch up, but no) while Copenhagen gets some handy new infrastructure despite political rumblings against out of control cyclists (sound familiar, anyone?). Cycleways are coming to New Zealand but bikes still don't seem to be considered transport, certainly not if this train station is anything to go by. Bicycles return to China's car-clogged streets - as long as they're electric. Cambridge (Massachusetts ...) gets a buffered cycle track - while New York's 5th Avenue could become a complete street. And Christmas seemed to have come a bit early in some states with funding approved for multiple projects in Washington state and coastal trail in Santa Cruz while there's huge demand for lottery funding for cycling and walking projects in Oregon.

And finally, while London just gets one lone cycling Santa, what we really need are cycling Santas on the rampage ... Rudolph eat your heart out.