"Ever thought what the tube network would look like if you took out the expensive Zone 1? Me neither, until this morning, when I was wondering if it was possible to utilise my current “Boris Bike” bikeshare 24-hour membership to save a bit of money on commuting in to work."

"One person with two tickets is a waste, so I was joined by fellow blogger (and French speaker), Tom for the day out, on a mission to take the Boris Bikes to Paris, take photos in suitably Parisian locations, and return them back to London on the same day."

Another article from Design magazine on cycling, with a guinea pig trying to get from once side of the central area to the other on a folding bike.

I'm amazed that I haven't bookmarked this before: a 1973 article in Design magazine, from the London College of Communication. "In their blind devotion to the interests of private cars and goods vehicles, Britain's traffic planners have forgotten the pedal cyclist."

"The $7.9 million pilot project would provide bikes in San Francisco and along the Caltrain corridor in San Jose, Palo Alto, Mountain View and Redwood City for use by registered subscribers." Interesting, but Londoners complained about only 3000 bikes. 1000 for that area seems worryingly minimal.

An interesting piece on cycling in cities that aren't designd for it (it's written for NYC but I expect it applies to most British cities (like London), as well as, say, SF. "Cyclists get no respect as road users. Instead, tragically, they’re treated like pedestrians." It's also self-reinforcing: "Bikes can and should behave much more like cars than pedestrians." "[Cyclists are] still in the human-powered mindset of pedestrians, who feel pretty much completely unconstrained by rules."

"The Cycle Challenge is a competition to see which team can cycle the most miles in a month. Teams that come top win great prizes."

A not entirely serious race between various bike "tribes" (fixed-gear, road, mountain, Dutch) comes out with a possibly unsurprising result: "Once you factor in the time taken to get showered and changed it seems that the tortoise really is faster than the hare. For front door to desk speed, the dawdler took the gong."

"The BBC's portrayal of a mortal threat, they say, is best understood as a negotiating ploy on the part of JCDecaux." This makes sense, I must say. I also liked Dan Hill's comment on the original BBC story: "It's public transport, not a profit-making enterprise. Funny how this crops up in a crunch."

A nice video showing the amount of the Velib rental bicycles at each of the stations for a single day in February 2008.

Appeal Court overturns the High Court's decision two to one, and say that Critical Mass must give notice of their route before it's allowed.

Some lovely photos of bikes in movement here, although they also remind me why I could never go anywhere near a fixed gear bike myself.

A reaction to the increasingly mainstream nature of cycling, and in particular cycling looking like a messenger, in London. (I've got the Timbuk2 bag and Converse but I don't pretend I'm anything but a commuter otherwise.)

"the Nocturne will be a celebration of cycling in all its forms. With historic bikes, ProTour cyclists, an elite criterium and a quintessentially British feel it will be an amazing night for the 5000 people expected to attend"

Very good.

Ken ponders this and a jaywalking ban. Hmm.

Candace has one of the bigger of these.

bike messenger thing to read if I have time