Aware supermarkets

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Urban mobility has been changing from a model based almost exclusively on cars to a more sustainable one with special attention to bicycles. Regarding sustainability, every person who lives in cities in the most advanced countries realizes small changes at diverse levels such as urban architecture, streets, infrastructures, pieces of news, companies which want a better future for everybody, you name it. It is one interesting aspect the fact that some supermarkets have introduced bike facilities in their site boundaries by adding bicycle racks. This way bikers are attracted to buy in those bike-friendly supermarkets. After all, there is only the need to change one or two car parking by, preferably, inverted U shape bike racks.

Fancy Women Bike Ride

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Women and bikes are necessary actors in streets as key factors to diminish machismo and pollution. Following this spirit, a group of girl friends met through social nets in order to pedal the downtown of Izmir, Turkey, in 2013. They opened this event to every woman who wanted to spend some happy time since proposed rules such as participants were dressed up or their bikes being decorated with flowers were compulsory. The event was a success and more than 500 women spent the day laughing and making new friends. Indeed, the Fancy Women Bike Ride took place the September 22nd, the Day Without Cars.

The Fancy Women Bike Ride is an organized group leaded by Pinar and Sema Gür which is supported by local volunteers all around Turkey. Participants ride their bicycles by free on a previously decided two hours route. If you contact to Pinar and Sema, they provide you with banners, flyers and knowledge on how to organize it no matter which city you live on.

The Fancy Women Bike Ride proposed two clear targets: to motivate women to use bikes in cities (and villages) and convince local authorities to create permanent bike infrastructures and services so that pedaling was a more secure activity. All in all, they demand it with a big smile.

In September 19th, 2021 Fancy Women Bike Ride was celebrated in more than 150 cities of 30 countries in which thousands of women claimed for their right to move on bikes in a happy, kind, secure way. Good for you!

Batteries

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One of the main advantages of bicycles over cars is the low environmental impact they produce. However, as it comes to electric bikes (as well as other electric vehicles) there is the issue of the batteries not only in the production step in the whole object life span, but also the end of life. This last stage causes negative environmental impacts when not following individual guides made by some experts in the field.

As time goes by, it seems like the e-bike market is increasing year by year. For instance, 4,5 million of electric bikes were sold just in Europe in 2020. This is a good idea specially when electric bikes substitute pollutant cars or motorcycles. Nevertheless, the traditional bicycle is always better than the electric one at least from the environmental perspective because of the energy it consumes (person-originated vs probably not renewable energy) and the batteries.

At the time of writing this post, there is not an international guide on how to treat batteries from e-bikes at the end of life. Some countries welcome bikers to deposit them in recycling points whereas others make bike stores responsible for the correct treatment of them, usually with agreements with expert firms in the treatment of gadgets batteries. Logic says it is better to trust in such companies due to the fact that they are used to manipulate batteries and extract its components to give them a proper end of life under the most challenging quality and environmental standards. Under no circumstances should you manipulate batteries since they can emit poisoning gas or even get burnt.

Finally, what can I do in order to expand the battery of my e-bike? Here you have some tips:

  • Do not lock your electric bike under the warm sun

  • Keep your battery at medium temperatures when not using

  • Keep it at medium charge (30% – 60%) so that you avoid an important discharge which would seriously deteriorate it

The Goonies

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What have you thought when reading the title of this post: The Goonies? You have probably thought about adventure, freedom, friendliness, risks and nostalgia. The Goonies was an iconic movie in the 80’s which marked a whole generation with other materials by George Lucas, John Carpenter or Stephen King. The four friends plus a three-people group of teenagers faced an impressive quest: To find a treasure of gold and diamonds which was hidden by the pirate One-Eyed Willy. The magical quest starts and finishes with bikes as powerful symbols. Remember some other movies from the 80’s such as E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, It or BMX Bandits.

Nostalgia is also powerful since we can say that The Goonies is the seed of the series Stranger Things. Besides, nostalgia made Youngbuck to create an internet forum called BMX Musem (https://bmxmuseum.com/) in which he wants to get the necessary accessory to build the four bicycles that appear in The Goonies like the fabulous Wester Flyer Invader Mag of Mickey.

The Goonies, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, BMX Bandits and some other movies from past decades in which actors and actresses move by pedaling are impossible to make because of cities which have made compulsory bike helmet no matter the biker age. Most of urban bikers have learnt riding a bike without wearing it. Most of us do not pedal like mad people and respect other actors in street, specially the pedestrians. Besides, making it mandatory reduces the number of cyclists as were the cases of Australia and New Zealand. Moreover, in a crash between a bike and a car, the decisive factor in determining whether or not the biker dyes is not the helmet, but the car speed. Numerous studies demonstrate that if the car speed is above 50 km/h (31 mph), most of the time the cyclist dyes. Thus, authorities should focus on preventing too fast cars by using radars, speed bumps or winding car line designs.