The Oil Drum: Local

There was a great post on BikeBlog about the last critical mass ride. The latest court ruling have gone against the city and police tactics and as Summer comes, expect more riders. I think Time's-Up for a chat.

Maybe New York can use a Mayor Daley v.2.0. Chicago's present-day Mayor Daley (the son of the original) is pro-bicycle. Bike-only lanes are slowly being added to Chicago's streets though they are mostly unused so far. I guess extreme gas prices will change that.

By American standards, Chicago has a good transit setup including to a lesser extent in the suburbs. (not including my distaste for the suburban buses that drove me to drive) Chicago gets half its electricity from nukes and most the rest from coal. This is in contrast to California with the NG debacle. In the summer of 1997 Chicago almost had a blackout problem like California due to some nukes being shut off for maintenance. But we didn't.

But only New York has a good-by-European-standards transit setup. Besides Bloomberg getting off his anti-bicycle kick, one thing states can do is relax insurance laws and registration laws for mopeds. In Illinois to have a moped, you must register and insure it practically like a motorcycle. You can use a moped if you have a car drivers licence though. More than hybrid cars, mopeds and scooters are more like the answer for the masses when transit doesn't exist or is too poor to be useful. Hybrids will be too expensive due to energy used in manufacture.