Free Republic

A daring daytime armed robbery ended this morning with the victim chasing the robbers and police catching them, both who were on bicycles. The victim tells WITN News that he was painting the outside of a home on Rock Spring Road around 9:20 a.m. when he saw two men riding by on bikes. A short time later one of the men armed with hand gun approached him and demanded money. The victim gave the gunman about $30 in cash and the robber made his getaway on a bike. The victim and then another co-worker decided to chase the gunman while...

It was a typical early summer evening in Portland: cloudy skies threatening rain, temperatures in the mid-60s, and thousands of naked bicyclists gathered near the city's waterfront for a clothing-free night ride. The Portland version of the World Naked Bike Ride was about to begin. "It is the most liberating, natural feeling possible," said Brooklyn Jay, who came all the way from Phoenix for the ride. World Naked Bike Ride is a globally observed event among hard-core bikers designed, at least ostensibly, to promote the use of the bicycle for transportation. But Portland cyclists have been especially adamant about making...

The car turned from a blind corner and hit riders who had stopped in a traffic lane to wait for others to catch up, said Sgt. David Krumer, the LAPD's bicycle liaison. "It appears that they were stopped in traffic" and some who had dismounted to chat with friends technically were pedestrians, Krumer said. Bicyclists have a legal right to use the right traffic lane unless they impede traffic, and pedestrians are barred from traffic lanes, Krumer said. Violators potentially could be cited, he added. However, drivers have a legal responsibility to exercise caution regardless of the circumstances, Krumer said....

All do respect to Andy Schleck but Fabian Cancellara is a two time winner of Paris Roubaix, the defending champion at the Tour of Flanders and is a four-time World Time Trial Champion. With credentials like that, Cancellara should be just as big a cog in the Leopard Trek machine as Schleck (if not bigger) and I wanted to know how the move was going to affect him?

"To prove that they had registered their "motor vehicles," each rider would have had to attach a license plate to their human-powered transportation that would read "BICYCLE," reports NJ.com. ... “My intention was never to impose a burden or additional costs," Tucker said in a statement. "My goal was to at least begin a discussion of how best to protect elderly pedestrians. No idea is perfect, but protecting elderly pedestrians deserves attention." Tucker says that her bicycle-plate bill was inspired by several senior citizens who called her and complained about kids on bikes. "

The message of peace pedaled into Pueblo on Saturday. Riders with Bike4Peace, including former U.S. Rep. Cynthia McKinney of Georgia, who ran for president in 2008 on the Green Party ticket, stopped in Pueblo on a cross-country trek to the White House. "We started at the House of Common Sense in Oakland (Calif.) and we're going to end at the White House, which needs some common sense," McKinney said Saturday at the Unitarian Universalist Church on the East Side, where the bikers were treated to a potluck meal. McKinney and five others cyclists are biking across the U.S. promoting peace...

There is something profoundly wrong with a nation where more adults ride bicycles than children. America might now be such a nation. While kids sit at home texting their friends and slaying computer-generated monsters, a growing number of their parents and grandparents are clogging the roads atop a contraption that was once considered a child’s toy. We will have accurate data when the 2010 census is complete, but there are already strong indications of bicycling’s rise in popularity. Fortunately for red-state America, the phenomenon is more common in urbanized regions along the coasts. The Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia recently...

HERMANN, Mo. -- The 19th century German settlers who saw visions of the Rhineland in the rolling Missouri hills likely didn't anticipate the more modern voyagers who flock to these parts: Spandex-wearing, energy-bar-chowing cyclists lured by a 236-mile rails-to-trails path -- the nation's longest. What they instead discovered was fertile farmland ideal for growing grapes while hardy enough to endure the extremes of Missouri weather. For Katy Trail riders, the abundance of wineries in what before Prohibition was the nation's second-largest wine-producing region makes for a memorable two-wheeled vacation. An added bonus for bicycling history buffs: much of the trail...

Fearing that bicycles parked along the route that President Obama plans to take on an upcoming visit could contain pipe bombs, New York City police cut the locks and carted off hundreds of vehicles. The confiscation was so hasty that no procedure for owners to recover their bikes has been established. The fact that owners might become alarmed at finding their bikes missing was brushed off by Mayor Michael Bloomberg. “The convenience of a few hundred cyclists has to take a back seat to the safety of the President,” Bloomberg said. “No potential threat, no matter how remote or seemingly...

On a windy Monday night, Pete’s Candy Store—a bar in Williamsburg with a railcar-shaped performance space in the back—is crammed to capacity with the thin and the bearded. Almost no one is drinking. The mood is pregame, expectant and nervous. We’re at one of the oddest New York City powwows in recent memory: a panel designed to quell a metastasizing dispute between bicyclists and Hasidic Jews. Except no Hasids are present. For a moment, it looks like the bicyclists will have to debate themselves. At immediate issue is the Bedford Avenue bike lane. It’s the longest in Brooklyn and runs...

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood has announced a “major policy revision” that aims to give bicycling and walking the same policy and economic consideration as driving. “Today I want to announce a sea change,” he wrote on his blog last week. “This is the end of favoring motorized transportation at the expense of nonmotorized.” The new policy, which was introduced a few days after Mr. LaHood gave a well-received speech from atop a table at the National Bike Summit, is said to reflect the Transportation Department’s support for the development of fully integrated transportation networks. It calls on state and local...

"Obama Transportation Secretary: ‘This Is the End of Favoring Motorized Transportation at the Expense of Non-Motorized’" Wednesday, March 24, 2010 By Terence P. Jeffrey, Editor-in-Chief SNIPPET: "(CNSNews.com) - Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood has announced that federal transportation policies will no longer favor “motorized” transportation, such as cars and trucks, over “non-motorized” transportation, such as walking and bicycling. LaHood signed the new policy directive on March 11, the same day he attended a congressional reception for the National Bike Summit, a convention sponsored by a bicycling advocacy group, the League of American Bicyclists. LaHood publicly announced his agency’s new direction four...

My favorite Chicago political photo of all time wasn't even shot in Chicago. It was shot in Paris in 2007. It depicts Mayor Richard Daley riding a bike outside Paris City Hall, wearing a suit and tie, squeezing the handlebars while steering a wobbly little circle, an impish grin on his face. Happy days. The bike was part of a unique program in which the mayor of Paris provided bikes to the people to make his city more "green." For a small fee, Parisians could pedal whimsically for hours through the city of light. And what did the bikes cost?...

Lawrence police detectives have identified a man who allegedly tried to grab a Lawrence girl off her bike on the Kansas River levee on Aug. 4. Detectives made contact with the 45-year-old man on Aug. 15, but he has not been arrested.

PHOENIX — Prosecutors have charged 23-year-old Phoenix resident Timothy M. Kissida with using the Cash for Clunkers program to ditch his BMW after a fatal hit-and-run crash. Phoenix police say Kissida was driving his light blue BWM 325i shortly after midnight on Aug. 8 when he hit bicyclist Charles Waldrop. The 52-year-old was riding home from work and his bike had lights and reflectors.

PARIS (AFP) — US President Barack Obama and his family received a hero's welcome in Paris on Saturday as they were given a private tour of the famed Notre Dame cathedral. Thousands of cheering Parisians and tourists lined bridges over the River Seine as the presidential motorcade swept past, desperate for a glimpse of Obama, his wife Michelle, 10-year-old Malia and seven-year-old Sasha. Applause and whistles erupted as Obama's 20-vehicle motorcade pulled in to the large square in front of the cathedral, closed off to the public specially for his visit. With Paris abuzz, the presidential party spent more than...

Eugene’s naked bike riders are back, and this time they have the police on their side. This evening, cyclists in various states of undress will pedal through downtown Eugene to protest the country’s dependence on oil and other nonrenewable energy sources. City officials initially tried to prevent the ride, citing a city ordinance against public nudity. But when the bicyclists objected, the city conceded it had no legal grounds to bar the ride. Courts have found that government can’t ban public nudity that’s aimed at conveying a political message, the city acknowledged.

The man tried to back up, but bumped into a biker. "This enraged the group," Jamieson said.> The driver tried to drive away, but hit another bicyclist.Critical Mass riders cornered the car again and started spitting on it and banging against it. One bicyclist punched the driver through his open window, and another used a knife to slash the Subaru's tires, Jamieson said.

Young dogs today, they’re so lazy. It seems to me they only want to take the car when it’s time to go somewhere. That’s why I was pleased to see this video of a dalmation taking his bike for a spin. Sure he isn’t very good at it, requiring training wheels, but at least he’s getting his exercise.

Dear Ann Romney: This newspaper devoted a lot of space last month to a series about your husband and his run for president. I'd hate to see all that grunt work come to naught. So please get him to stop talking about Vietnam, OK? The Romney men have a genetic predisposition toward self-destruction on that topic. First, Papa George blows up his campaign in 1968 by claiming to have been "brainwashed" by the US military. Now here comes Mitt, in this paper, talking about his own, completely imaginary, experience in Southeast Asia. "I was supportive of my country. I longed...

WASHINGTON, April 30, 2007 – Nathan Potts was one of about 50 seriously wounded servicemembers who went for a two-day, 110-mile bike ride this weekend, just to show they could. Assistant Commandant of the Marine Corps Gen. Robert Magnum greets Eric Frazier, a former Marine, April 29 at the National Naval Medical Center, in Bethesda, Md., after Frazier took part in the 2007 Face of America ride sponsored by World T.E.A.M. Sports. Defense Dept. photo by Linda D. Kozaryn  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. “The ride proves that I can still do something. I’m not going to waste...

It was supposed to be a birthday night out for the kids in San Francisco, but instead turned into a Critical Mass horror show -- complete with a pummeled car, a smashed rear window and little children screaming in terror. The spontaneous Critical Mass bike rides, in which thousands of free-spirited cyclists roam the city, have been a fixture on the last Friday night of the month since the early 1990s. But even bike-weary cops, who have seen their share of traffic disturbances and minor skirmishes, weren't prepared for what happened during the latest exercise of pedal power. Here's the...

WASHINGTON, Oct. 6, 2006 -- Jeff Klare put his bicycle where his heart is Oct. 1, and set out on a 300-mile trip to raise awareness of the need for more corporations to hire workers with disabilities. Eric Madaus, 8, leads Jeff Klare, chief executive officer of Hire Disability Solutions, to the finish of a 300-mile bike ride at the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial in Washington, D.C., Oct. 6. Klare began his ride at the foot of the Brooklyn Bridge in New York to bring attention to the need for more corporations to hire workers with disabilities. Madaus suffers...

COVINGTON, Ind. -- A vehicle hit by a truck slammed into charity bicyclists Tuesday, killing a state trooper and a sheriff's deputy and injuring three other riders, police said. Indiana State Police spokesman Sgt. Joe Watts said several police agencies were participating in the ride. The group was traveling south on Indiana 63 about two miles from Interstate 74 in Vermillion County near the Indiana-Illinois state line. Riders were raising money for survivors of police officers killed while on duty. Karen Shelton, director of operations for the Indiana Troopers Association, said a state trooper and a Lake County Sheriff's deputy...

President Bush, in York, Penn., gets on a motorcycle during a tour of the Harley-Davidson vehicle operations plant. At right is roll test operator Joel Toner.

CROSBY TOWNSHIP -- A bicycle outing turned deadly when two people were struck and killed by an oncoming car on New Haven Road near Crosby Road on Sunday. At about 11:15 a.m., deputies said Anthony Gerike, 25, of Batavia, lost control of his Geo Tracker and drove left of center and head-on into a group of 10 cyclists that was traveling westbound. Gerike's car continued to travel out of control and also hit a Chevrolet Cavalier that was traveling behind the group. Two bikers, 51-year-old Amy Gehring of Cincinnati and 53-year-old Terry Walker of Fairfield, were pronounced dead at the...

I would challenge you democtatic underground lurkers (or a freeper with a DU account) to post this over there and see what sort of repsonses come from the left... I keep hearing how oil dependent we are and how higher consumption is driving up prices... I hear how it is adversely affecting 75% of americans, It seems like if that was the case, 75% of americans would cut the amount they use! I know I cant be the only person in america that has drastically cut the amount of fuel I use over the past year. I want to know...

HIGHLANDS RANCH, Colo. (AP) -- A 17-year-old likely will face misdemeanor charges after allegedly losing control of his car while text messaging and hitting a bicyclist. The bicyclist, Jim R. Price of Highlands Ranch, died Friday, two days after the accident. "We do not believe it was an intentional act, but it was inattentiveness to the roadway," said Lt. Alan Stanton, spokesman for Douglas County Sheriff's Office. "The investigation showed that he was text-messaging on his cell phone" at the time of the accident, said Stanton. The driver could face a charge of careless driving resulting in death, Stanton said....

WASHINGTON (AFP) - More bicycles than cars have been sold in the United States over the past 12 months, with rising gas prices prompting commuters to opt for two wheels instead of four. ADVERTISEMENT Not since the oil crisis of 1973 have bicycles sold in such big numbers, according to Tim Blumenthal, executive director of Bikes Belong, an industry association. "Bicycle sales are near an all-time high with 19 million sold last year -- close to the 20 million sold during the oil embargo in the early 1970s," said Blumenthal, whose association is based in Boulder in the western state...

LONDON -- Subway stations closed, traffic backed up and offices were emptied Thursday after a new assault on London's transit system. Even with little bloodshed or damage, fear spread. Panicked and screaming commuters fled the affected subway stations, some running out of their shoes. One Londoner said everyone he knew was buying bicycles. "I won't be taking the Tube or bus to work tomorrow," said Dean Duffy, a 28-year-old bricklayer, who heard a bang as he left the Oval Station in south London. Near the Warren Street station, witness Ivan McCracken told Sky News that people began coming into his...

Before or after last year's Tour?ff

Okay, so I am looking at some photographs taken of D-Day, June 6, 1944, when the American, British, and Canadian armies landed in France. Most of the photographs are the usual standard routine seen-them-before photographs, but there are a couple of them, involving the Canadians landing on "Juno" beach, where these guys, instead of coming ashore bearing weapons, are carrying bicycles. Yes, bicycles, hundreds and hundreds of Canadians with bicycles, wading ashore under gun-fire. The text does not explain why. So then.....what were the Canadians doing with bicycles, and did such instruments have any effect on how the invasion went?

RIYADH, 5 February 2005 — “Satan’s horse” is not a myth. As narrated by an elderly Saudi, it is the name local residents of Buraidah, Al-Qasim, used to call a bicycle some 47 years ago at a time when new inventions were unacceptable to the majority of people there and ignorance prevailed. In the 1940s and early 1950s, ignorance made people reject anything new, particularly a device of any sort. History tells us that many Saudis rejected the telegram, the radio, the car and other inventions that the late King Abdul Aziz, the founder of the Kingdom, was keen on...

August 26, 2004 -- The "Bike National Convention" may have just had its tires slashed. The NYPD yesterday announced a crackdown on a group that promotes monthly mass bike rides and has promised traffic-disrupting events during the GOP convention. The group, Time's Up, founded the so-called "critical mass" rides on the last Friday of each month. The crackdown was spurred by Time's Up's planned Bike National Convention, timed to coincide with the Republican gala. On Tuesday, the riders evoked Paul Revere's famous ride, with bicyclists chanting, "The Republicans are coming!" along Lexington Avenue. A police source said that caught the...

NOTE: I did not write this diatribe, I will voice out in the "afterward". This weekend lots of folks are gonna be tearin' it up in NYC at the Republican National Convention, showing not only the country, but the rest of the world that not all of us are "united" behind the Bush administration and their "War on Terror." "Bring the war home," went a slogan for the Weather Underground. Similarly, Fugazi said, "There will be two wars." As long as the power elite wages war abroad, we will inevitably feel the effects at home: immigration restriction, and hightened racism,...

ASPINWALL: Nine-year-old Maddy Beard is hoping to get nabbed by police for zipping through town on her two-wheeler. Propped on her pale blue Schwinn, Maddy said she follows the rules and cruises along the sidewalks. Her friend Paige McLaughlin, riding alongside on a purple, sticker-adorned bike, chimed in, "We don't speed!" Still, they want stopped. The girls learned Friday of a new program, sponsored by the Aspinwall Civic Association and Kieffer Optical, in which police will stop cyclists to give them a ticket -- a $1 coupon toward a purchase at neighborhood convenience store, J&W Variety. There is a catch,...

FRANKLIN -- With the growing network of bike trails near this Venango County seat, gasoline isn't required for touring the birthplace of the nation's petroleum industry. Franklin is both a charming river town 85 miles north of Pittsburgh, and the perfect access point for 35 miles of paved bike trails that provide glimpses of the region's oil heritage. In 1859, the first commercial oil well was drilled near Titusville, about 20 miles north of Franklin, and the area is dotted with relics of the 19th-century oil boom. On the Allegheny River Trail, just east of town, cyclists pass near the...

They appeared late Monday around Allegheny County, 14 bicycles painted a ghostly white and chained to poles with a cryptic sign: "Cyclist Struck Here." The roadside memorials are the work of Ghost Bike Pittsburgh, a loosely organized group of bicycle enthusiasts seeking to improve the lot of bicyclists in a sometimes hostile world. "That's all we're going for, is for people to know that cyclists have been hit," group member Brad Quartuccio, 22, of Bloomfield, said yesterday. "Some people have lots of respect. The problem is, it only takes one motorist to have no respect."

Radio host infuriates cyclists By BRUCE SICELOFF, Staff Writer G105 radio host Bob Dumas told listeners last week that he just hated to see bicycle riders on the road. He laughed at stories about running cyclists down, and he talked up the idea of throwing bottles at bikers. It wasn't funny to cycling enthusiasts across the Triangle. This week they are lobbying government officials and local advertisers in a campaign to punish radio station WDCG and its corporate owner, Clear Channel of San Antonio, and to promote bicycle safety."One caller said her dad had purposely hit a biker on the...

Arson suspect may be linked to other attacks Housemates say suspect is not a terrorist By JANNISE JOHNSONSTAFF WRITER Saturday, September 13, 2003 - POMONA — The garden of the Regenerative Co-Operative of Pomona is in what Kathe Todd-Brown calls typical summer disarray. Some of the herbs are overgrown, the banana trees hang low with fruit nearly ready for harvest and a few of the ornamentals need to be cut back. But there was more disarray Saturday, both inside the co-op and within the minds of those who dwell there. Authorities arrested their housemate, Joshua Thomas Connole, early Friday...

Why A Naked Bike Ride? Every day we are bombarded with countless messages demanding our obedience to the corporate dictates of a consumption dependent society. Little regard is paid to the future of our planet and generations left with a legacy of waste and environmental contamination. How many countless times each day do our media masters spin the same message: Unless you buy this, you are not worthy. Unless you look like this you should be ashamed. By cruising naked down the spending frenzy capitals of the world, we are saying.NO! ...a fancy new car is not a mark of...

Bill would exempt bicycle riders from stopping at stop signs (Salem-AP) - A bill that has passed the House would exempt bicycle riders from coming to a full stop at stop signs and flashing red lights. They would still have to ride at a safe speed and give the right of way to vehicles or pedestrians approaching an intersection. Cyclists had complained of the inconvenience of getting in and out of toe clips at the signs and lights. The bill goes to the Senate.

<p>Pittsburgh has long worried about how to keep and attract young people. The availability of good jobs (or lack thereof) is obviously central to such concerns, but lifestyle considerations also play an important part. What can the city do to make itself more attractive? Clearly, some wheels must turn to make it happen.</p>

Schoolboy on scooter mows down police patrolman KAWAGUCHI, Saitama -- A schoolboy has been taken into custody after he used his motor scooter to mow down a police officer sent out Monday night to stop him and his friends from creating a disturbance, police said. The officer sustained major head wounds in the clash and remains hospitalized, though is expected to recover fully from his wounds. Police said that they were contacted by a Kawaguchi resident complaining that a group of schoolboys were creating a disturbance. A 28-year-old officer rode his bicycle up to the boy and asked him to...