The Great Big Twirling Tunnocks Teacake Bike Blog Roundup

As Scots everywhere recover from the Commonwealth Games opening ceremony, the world has come to Glasgow for a couple of weeks and discovered half the cycle lanes are closed - although at least the road closures don't apply to bikes - no wonder the Sri Lankan cycling team had to get a bit creative when it came to finding somewhere to train. While 25% of Brits have apparently been inspired to give cycling a go after the Tour, campaigners took the opportunity to press for a more permanent legacy in Glasgow, with surprisingly widespread online support - the sad thing is, that the city's council actually believe they're doing a good job for cycling in the city.

Place making

With summer underway, there's been some attention turned to how we can turn our cities into places that can be enjoyed rather than endured. Streetfilms have put images to William Whyte's words from a 1980 classic (can anything from the 80s be a classic?) work on small urban spaces - while Chicago plans some pop-up small urbans spaces of its own. In the Bronx, it's taken a (non-profit) housing developer to make the surrounding streets safer. As Lewisham cyclists patiently chip away at improving the plans for local quietways the Dutch demonstrate how to transform a back street route into a red carpet for cycling - while Streets.mn ponders how to determine quiet versus beauty versus happiness on walking routes. The Norwegians put a historic building to a gorgeous new use as a 'bike hotel', while a Chicago suburb lets concerns for a historic distric (and, er, parking) delay implementation of a bike plan. In Canada, an island with few cars is a perfect place to explore by bike - while when a Florida island suddenly got invaded by traffic in the 70s four determined women fought back and bootstrapped a whole network of bike paths from scratch. As Paris turns back the car tide and goes 20mph by default, here in the UK Living Streets would like to see the same approach for all our towns and cities while in Australia one street has a 5 km/h limit which actually makes for successful placee making (while if you're speeding on your bike, then you may be breathing in more pollution than if you take a more sedate approach. Smell the roses, not the exhaust emissions, in other words...)

Fighting congestion: just add bikes

Even as Maidstone attempts to fight congestion by removing a bike path other places have seen the light, with a proposed foot and cycle bridge in Cambridge offering the best chance of reducing traffic congestion. Portland explicitly recognises that the only way to increase the capacity of its streets is to prioritise modes other than the private car - as does Johannesburg. In New York, the time has come to take increasingly contested space from cars off Brooklyn Bridge (and the all-powerful Bike Lobby have a bridge to sell if the mainstream media are interested). Planned road works lead Seattle residents to take to their bikes even as the 'carpocalypse' fails to materialise, as ever. Elsewhere, the city discovers that building greenways massively increases cycling - and the good news is that there are more planned while Houston is to get 150 miles of greenways along its bayous and even Chatanooga is prioritising active travel. Streetsblog is mesmerisd by some animated maps showing the development of American cities' bike networks over the decades - while the Wash Cycle finds a throwback to the 80s (hey, maybe it is a design classic after all) in Washington DC.

Design matters

Of course, there's no point building infrastructure that remains scary, slow and inconvenient - or excludes all but the most 'normal' of bikes - as so much UK stuff is. Glasgow's latest stretch of two way track is unlikely to raise the bar much while Newcastle's latest Strategic Cycle Route offers marginal improvements but fails the ultimate 8-80 cycling test while the plans for Tottenham Court Road do not offer protected space for cycling. Meanwhile, the London Cycle Design Standards are more ambitious than many local cycle campaigns - as demonstrated by Turbogate being defended by local cyclists despite designs showing a Dutch-style track was actually considered but turned down on traffic flow grounds. With new design standards in the US, Better Bike looks at some of the new designs available and considers how they might be applied in Beverley Hills while Wisconsin Bike Federation considers when sharrows might be used. Bike Portland asks what makes a platinum - or even diamond level - bike friendly city. California has got around barriers to implementing safer cycling by using 'trials'. Gizomodo discovers transformative bike infrastructure (but slightly spoils its argument with the inclusion of London's Cycle Superhighways) while sometimes a simple low fence may be the best option - or a kerb-separated bike track.

It's the infrastructure, stupid

Even as Northern Ireland's latest cycling safety video proves unintentially honest about the cycling conditions in Belfast, a Guernsey judge places some of the blame for a cyclist's death on a confusing road layout. People for Bikes looks at how we should be changing the 'user interface' for roads rather than blaming the users - not a lesson that seems to be being learned in either Richmond or across the Atlantic in Boston. Meanwhile the Road Danger Reduction Forum responds to London's Cycle Safety Action Plan in two parts

That said, the law is still an ass

Too often, road deaths in the UK are still seen as 'shruggable offences' - and it's as bad in the US where a driver gets credit for not hitting more pedestrians - while the police continue to go after pavement cyclists. Even as the Bike League looks at the laws that underpin bike-friendly communities, here in the UK the law is about to become even more of an ass, with Southark planning to apply speed limits to cyclists the Guardian wonders if that's even possible (we're sure they'll find a way ...). Meanwhile, lorries are to be allowed to speed up completely ignoring the impact on bikes and pedestrians - time to lobby for safe passing laws? And in Jersey the under 14 helmet law seems to have no reasonable justification and means public health will suffer overall. In Toronto, one very busy police officer battles to keep a cycle track clear of parked cars, stirring some debate in the comments as to whether the city is wasting money - or has discovered a moneyspinner. And sometimes there is a little justice in a naughty world as one Edinburgh cyclist discovers when he takes his own stolen bike for a test run to the police, while a missing Boris Bike shows up after three years in Wolverhampton.

And sometimes it's the nut behind the wheel

Whatever the legal situation, of course, there's still the 'nut behind the wheel' - such as the Russian drunk driver who killed a global 'peace cyclist'. Helen Blackman asks if your overtake is really necessary or just a pointless waste of fuel, while some drivers would rather spend hours bending the council's ear over the horrors of their drive to the station than just walk the 0.9 miles, and a social media intern discovers she's a lot to learn about social media. Nor are drivers the only sinners - frustrating as it may be not to find a bike share bike when you need one 'baggsying one' with a bike lock is not the answer.

All politics is local

As the Bike League urges Americans to get their local congressmen and women out on a bike, Lancaster Dynamo have already got a councillor out on the A6 while New Cycling are mapping who's signed up to support Space for Cycing - could 'rolling town halls' be next? Of course, sometimes, you need a central government boost, with Seattle welcoming a bit of top down provision - and at the European level the European Environment Agency finally recognises how transport and public health are linked.

Making cyclists count

As the authorities move swiftly in New Mexico to stop the horrors of businesses springing up all along a popular bike path, and Cycle Sheffield plans 'cash bombing' the city's Sky Ride to help businesses appreciate cycling, others see the potential in bikes already. In Portland the city has been offering a bike parking for car parking swap scheme while Copenhagen gets a bicycle powered hearse for your final big consumer opportunity. Cambridge has put in 600 new bike parking spaces - while in West Yorkshire, the newly employed are being given bikes to get themselves to work where there is no alternative. The latest census figures show they won't be that unusual - in Islington the majority of residents walk or cycle to work, even though the streets barely reflect that, while sustainable travel modes are growing in Edinburgh. The Bike Walk Alliance considers the many ways that cyclists are counted in US cities, while People for Bikes considers why more African Americans don't ride bikes (apart from all the manifold reasons why Americans generally don't ride bikes). And finally, spare a thought for the lonely cyclists of Calgary who can in some areas be counted on a single finger of one hand...

Going multimodal

For some journeys, a bike alone is not enough: in Kansas City you can take your bike on the bus while in the UK even a disabled teenager who uses his bike as a mobility aid struggles to do the same. Tucson's streetcar will take bikes - which might be a better option than trying to ride your bike around them - Sheffield are also looking into how bikes and trams can get along. And as we can only look and drool at the bike carriages Czech Railways are planning to introduce on a popular touring route, perhaps we should take a leaf out of LA's book and become a train ourselves - a bike train, that is.

And finally

Skipping lightly over the latest innovation in anti-smidsy technology we turn instead to our new heroine - and wonder whether cycling-and-fisticuffs couldn't be a new Commonwealth Games sport. It might come in handy in some parts of Glasgow after all...