The Economist is probably my favorite general interest, non-enthusiast magazine.  Edited in the UK, it’s been in business over 100 years and while it has a unique British perspective it is quite pro-American.  It offers excellent insights into world events.

Photo courtesy of The Economist/AWL

Here’s an interesting article they published about the rapid growth of bike sharing plans around the world; the report states that 500 cities have bike share programs.  Then they say; “Even in bike-hostile America, which in 2012 had 21 schemes with 8,500 bicycles, the Earth Policy Institute expects the fleet to more than quadruple by 2014 to 37,000.”

To an American cyclist there are two interesting ideas in the article: 1) Bike sharing in US cities is growing rapidly, though from a small base, and 2) America is known world wide for not being bike friendly.

Let’s hope that the growth in bike sharing programs makes drivers feel better about cyclists and helps to promote and improve bike safety; although there’s a very good chance it could have the opposite effect!

In the meantime, let’s all obey all traffic rules, be as courteous and helpful to drivers as possible, do everything we can to improve bike safety, and wear the brightest clothing we can find.  I naturally always ride with see me wear, I hope you do the same.