CULTURE BUZZ – White bicycles — known as Ghosts Bikes — are installed to memorialize cyclists killed by car accidents. The tradition began in St. Louis in 2003 and quickly caught on across the country. The tributes, often adorned with plaques explaining the details of the accident, are also an attempt to raise awareness about sharing the road.

The Best Links:

1. Ghost Bike
2. Ghost Bikes - The City’s Viral Memorials for Cyclists
3. Ghost Bike History
4. NYC Direct Action Environmental Organization - Ghost Bike Memorials
5. “Ghost Bikes Memorialize Accidents”
6. “Ghost Bikes” Eerie Reminders of Accidents
7. Ghost Bikes Photos

View the Buzz »

CULTURE BUZZ – Crazy-looking bikes with colorful two-tone spinners are popular in Oakland, CA. The video is kind of old, but if you’re not in the West Coast, it’s a phenomenon you’re likely to not have heard of. Apparently, asking a girl if she wants a ride on your handlebars is the new way to cruise for chicks.

The Best Links:

1. YouTube - SCRAPER BIKE - Trunk Boiz
2. East Bay Youths Call Themselves the Scraperbike Crew
3. Scraper Bikes Photo Gallery
4. The Self-Professed King of the Scraper Bikes Has a MySpace Page
5. Urban Dictionary: What is the “Hyphy” Movement?
6. “Someone stole my scraper bike”
7. Gram Shipley’s Colorful Scraper Bike-1-2.jpg On Flickr
8. A colorful Scraper Bike

View the Buzz »

SPORTS BUZZ – As New York and other large cities prepare to construct (or at least mark off) more bike lanes, a debate is brewing about their efficacy. Lax enforcement and a slew of fatal accidents are leading many cyclists to the conclusion that bike lanes are merely a token effort on the part of urban planners and city officials.

The Best Links:

1. Good Intentions, Questionable Results
2. The Case For Physically-Seperated Bike Lanes
3. Bike Lane of Death
4. An Unofficial Violator Database
5. “Gridlock” Sam Schwartz Says Lane Seperation is a Must
6. 22 Year Old is Struck and Dies on the West Side Highway Bike Path
7. Nice Ad, Idiots
8. There Are Some Who Disagree…
9. The Original Promise
10. A Sixth Avenue Bike Lane Death
11. A Double-Parking Fatality

View the Buzz »