Effective public policy to keep bike lanes free from cars

The mayor of Vilnius is a keen bike rider. His passion for this popular mean of transport has led him to design a sophisticated public policy intervention to deter car drivers from parking on bike lanes in the city.

Check it out by clicking here

Since the mayor of London is also a keen bike rider, will he consider implementing in London this example best practice that Vilnius has shared with the rest of the world!?




P.S. Did Mao Tze Tung's quote "punish one, educate hundreds" inspire a similar policy to keep bike lanes free in China!?

Britain Bike Week (18-26th Jun 2011): Everyday cycling for everyone!

What an "every-rich" motto for the Bike week initiative in the UK, which is held yearly in June all over the country!

While zipping to work this morning I bumped into a stall advertising the initiative in bike-friendly Fitzroy Sq. By the stall were an employee from Camden council and an officer by the Met Police.

In about 5' they kindly stamped on my bike frame an "anti-theft" unique ID with permanent ink, that the police officer ensured it has been tested against the latest bike thieves' "entrepreneurial ideas" and technology. My bike details, as well as my contact details, are now in a database by the Met police.
My dear old Pinncle also has a flashy sticker flagging thieves that my bike is tagged, and not worth their effort.


Most impressive of all the police officer confidently knows stat.s about the share of bike stolen out of the total no. of bikes in town, which the police adjusts for underreporting to the police w.r.t. all bikes that are stolen in town. This share is in the range 20-30%.

Two hat tips:
1) Go and get your bike tagged! You can search the closest stall by postcode in http://www.bikeweek.org.uk/

2) Listen to London while you read top 10 bike maintenance tips !

rain in Spain and England sunland: Bermuda high!

"London at 24C (75F) will be comfortably hotter this weekend than Barcelona at 16C and Corfu at 17C" (source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/apr/21/weather-spain-uk-sizzle )

Why? Check the intuition behind the Bermuda high, or Azores high, a weather phenomenon that "manufactures" good and bad weather in the Middle of the Atlantic, to then distribute it to the East Coast in the USA, as well as to Europe.

Happy Bermuda High Easter!

A seed of peace in Egypt

What a peaceful sign of joy between civilians and army officials!

The contrast between the role of the army in the post-Mubarak regime and in the regime which is now over reminds me of the contrast between friendly police in the UK and the "unfriendly" police in the military dictatorship in Brasil in 1965-85 about which Caetano Veloso sang in the song London while in exile in the UK.