Earth Policy Institute reports on Bicycles

Of special interest to Luz (Nieve44) and Dave9.

The world produced an estimated 130 million bicycles in 2007—more than twice the 52 million cars produced.Much of the recent growth has been driven by the rise in electric, or “e-bike” production, which has doubled since 2004 to 21 million units in 2007. Overall, since 1970, bicycle output has nearly quadrupled, while car production has roughly doubled.
While biking remains popular for recreation in the United States, it is woefully underused for transportation. Total cycling participation has declined nationally since 1960, dropping 32 percent since the early 1990s, and now accounts for just 0.9 percent of all trips. Cycling to work is even less frequent, at 0.4 percent of trips.
Bicycle advocacy in the United States continues to grow as well. The League of American Bicyclists now honors 84 U.S. towns and cities as Bicycle Friendly Communities, compared with 52 in 2005. Cycling advocacy groups operate in 49 states and Washington, D.C. Perhaps most exciting, a Complete Streets movement has blossomed in recent years, in which a broad coalition of citizen and environmental groups is calling for safer, pedestrian- and cyclist-friendly roads designed for everyone, not just cars.

Do you live in Bicycle Friendly Community?
Read the whole article here.

Electoral Projections Done Right

I've been tracking the upcoming election by using the website linked below & above. You might find it useful. Be aware there is a lot of superfluous and frankly useless numbers and graphs, but the "nitty gritty" is there on top. Five Thirty Eight, by Nate Silver.

Active "senior" brain and the internet

I've been thinking recently about how much time I've been spending on the internet and wondered if I am robbing myself (as TV viewing does)of brain power in my senior years.

Well Live Science's on line article proves the opposite. The article "Internet Searching May Boost Brain" makes me feel better about surfing the net.

"Our most striking finding was that Internet searching appears to engage a greater extent of neural circuitry that is not activated during reading — but only in those with prior Internet experience," said study leader Gary Small of the Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior at UCLA.