Monthly Archives: September 2020

Advanced stop line

Politicians who appreciate riding bikes as a transforming force towards sustainable cities use to support advanced stop lines on streets. An advanced stop line is a special infrastructure in those streets in which there is not bike lines, so bicycles and cars share them. It can also appear in roads with no segregated bike line. As you can see in the picture, bikes have a reserved area just before the traffic light so that cars can not occupy it while in red. The reserved area can be colored in green or red to highlight the place for bikes:

The ideas behind this, or why the advanced stop line is so important, are fundamentally four:

– Bikers become extremely visible to car drivers since these persons just need to open their eyes to see the riders.

– Bikers do not inhale pollution from the cars they have on their backs, or at least they do so at a much less rate.

– Conflicts between bikers and car drivers are reduced because this solution makes clear who is the first to start moving after the traffic light is green.

– Traffic is calmed due to cars can not reach an excessive speed the moment the traffic light is green.

Bicycle race (song)

If somebody asked you what is the song related to bikes you remember first?, you would probably answer Bicycle race, by Queen. It was released in 1978 and from the first moment it become a hymn for every biker. Freddie Mercury wrote it inspired by a stage in the 1978 Tour de France when passing Montreux, where the rock band was recording Jazz at the Mountain Studios.

The video song was controversial at the time since showed a bicycle race with nude women at the old Wimbledon Stadium. In fact, it was edited and even banned in several countries. The group was forced to purchase all the bicycle seats by the renting company once it realized the way their bikes were used. Denis de Vallance filmed the video.

And here is the song