Bicycle commuters in Washington DC have a striking new Bike Transit Center to use at Union Station.

Through text displays, logical instructions, and product displays that look like exploded diagrams, customers are easily guided through the process of creating their own unique bike.

Mash SF, a hardcore group of cyclists, have produced a particularly stunning collection of images from around the world of their tightly-knit community.  The mostly black and white photographs portray their culture and obsession with all things bicycle.  Massan, a prolific photographer of their crew, has amassed a great collection of images on his personal site, including the photographs displayed below in the gallery.  The vibrant society of bike messengers and other worshipers of fixed gear or even brake-less bicycles have bred some incredible media and it’s a pleasure to see the content produced.  The rider and assumed photographer Massan [...]

Casey Trees, a non-profit dedicated to planting trees in the Washington DC area, recently unveiled a new program to mulch and water trees with custom bikes fitted with trailers.  The Water-by-Cycle project is the first of its type in the nation and the inaugural ride allowed tree care over a wider range than previously possible.  The custom bike trailers carry hoses that hook up to city fire hydrants and have full permission from the DC Water and Sewage Authority.  The bikes allow for the field crew to water newer trees with specialized care without requiring a parking spot or a [...]

The Copenhagenize blog has come up with a radical concept – warning labels on cars. Similar to the bold text warnings found on packs of cigarettes in many parts of the world, the labels would reveal the hidden dangers of driving, encouraging people to bicycle instead.
Copenhaganize explains:
I think it’s safe to say that we have a pressing need for marketing cycling positively if we’re to encourage people to ride bicycles and begin the transformation of our cities into more liveable places.
Instead of scare campaigns about cycling [a life-extending, healthy, sustainable transport form], wouldn’t it be more appropriate to begin campaigns [...]

Bicycle lifestyle blog Copenhagenize has shared some striking photos of a local Copenhagen beach at Amager Strand Park . In wonderful illustration of how pervasive the usage of bikes are in the city, the images show off the beach’s 5000 bike racks, all of which are filled to overflowing on any given weekend day. As one commenter on Copenhagenize said “It’s the ideal life for a green planet”.

[via Copenhagenize]

Despite the ubiquity of cellphones, most people in Africa still need to travel great distances each time they need to charge their battery, a fact of life for many living in remote Kenyan Villages, where an estimated 17.5 million people out of Kenya’s 38.5 million population own a mobile handset – up from 200,000 in 2000. And once they reach a charging location – typically shops that utilize a car battery or solar panel – charges can take up to an hour and cost around $2, which although a necessity, represents no small fee.
Having grown up in similar circumstances, two university students, Jeremiah [...]

Don’t let your eyes deceive you: those aren’t two separate pairs of shoes. Rather, they are one very special collaboration between cyclist and Creative Director of Intersection Magazine, Yorgo Tloupas and Nike as part of the City Tempo/CTRS/Livestrong collection, in which 8 cyclists from 8 different cities choose a colorway for the Nike City Tiempo shoe. The shoes, which are all black under natural light, but when exposed to car headlight or the flash of a camera becomes white with a black swoosh. This design is not just interesting from a design perspective but is also very useful for those [...]

Artist Damien Hirst has used the bodies of real butterflies on the frame of a Trek bikes for Lance Armstrong’s final stretch of the Tour De France 09. He spread the butterflies across the bike’s frame and onto the rims.

In an effort to provide a bit more incentive to would-be cyclists in the style of “keeping up with the Jensens,” the city of Copenhagen has installed a public bicycle counter on a popular greenway that passes through the City Hall Square. The digital readout displays both the daily and yearly traffic totals, with the numbers being uploaded to the city’s Center for Traffic, helping officials better gauge the need for bike-friendly infrastructure. As thoughtful add-on, the unit includes a free air pump as well. To bring greater attention to the project, the city will be giving away a brand [...]

Back in February we reported on a conceptual product called LightLane that would create a virtual bike lane using lasers projected behind the rider.  Due to the overwhelming response from bikers around the globe and its success at design competitions, the folks behind the idea have decided to put it into production.  As of right now, it’s in the “production engineering” phase, but it’s already looking great.
LightLane will hopefully provide cyclists with some much needed safety on car-cluttered roads and we have high hopes for the forthcoming commercial product.  The LightLane currently uses two Diode-Pumped Solid State green lasers to [...]

While the dominant paradigm for our society – from parking garages and roadways to gas stations and AAA – may still be the automobile, more and more we’re seeing thoughtful approaches to designing the bike into our world view. To wit, RentaBikeNow, a site that lets you research the rental bikes available in 157 locations across the U.S. and Canada with information on rates, routes and accessories like racks and helmets. The service enables users to reserve bikes online in advance and easily incorporate them into their travel plans, though we imagine this will be just as useful to locals [...]

Green activists have been asking the rest of us to repair, reuse and recycle for years now but it looks like it’s had to take a recession for us to listen. A car parts chain called Halfords in the UK says that it’s growing sales in this economy is due to people deciding to fix their old cars or save money by jumping on a bicycle. The Telegraph reports:
Chief executive David Wild, who has been in the top job for almost a year, said the company will be increasing its focus on bikes as more people use cycling as [...]

Inhabitat points us to the Early Rider – a bike designed by Andy Loveland who set out to design a stabilizer-free bike that he would admire and his son would love. Loveland says his company Early Rider combines British innovation with West Coast style and world leading manufacturing. The brand also sells fashion to wear with their ‘Classic’ bike.

Early Rider

We noticed this rather stylish rack to park your bicycles in Tribeca last weekend. It also has seating for weary or over-pumped legs.
Anyone have any information on it?