We had a flurry of activity on the blog early this week so we pushed the round-up back a couple of days. We hope you didn’t miss it too much! This week features some cracking stories from around the globe including two important petitions, an inspiring ride organised by the prince of Thailand, the Tour de Yorkshire route announcement, and a mayor’s attempts to put his city on the map.
The top image is the winning entry for the Reddit cycling community’s 2016 kit design competition, which we thought was pretty snazzy. Some of the other entries were pretty great too:
Our first item this week is a petition currently collecting signatures on the parliament website, requesting cycling awareness to be added to the current driving theory test. At time of writing there are around 6,000 signatures; at 10,000 the government will respond and at 100,000 they will consider it for debate in parliament.
Various people and organisations have been calling for this for a while so it’s good to see momentum gaining. We think that any attempts to increase road safety for any demographic is a welcome addition, so we’ve signed!
Another petition with perhaps a slightly more ambitious request is one being hosted by Rai, an Italian radio show, which wants to nominate the bicycle for a candidate for the 2016 peace prize.
Their rationale is quite charming: “The bicycle is an instrument of peace. It’s the most democratic means of transportion for all mankind, it does not cause wars and pollution, it decreases car accidents.”
We agree!
Back in August we wrote about a ride organised by Thailand’s prince Maha Vajiralongkorn in honour of his mother, which attracted tens of thousands of cyclists.
This week he has organised another ride, this time in honour of his dad. He was followed along the route by military and political leaders, as well as a very impressive estimated 100,000 riders. Tying into our previous story, the bike ride is being heralded as a gesture to promote unity within the country after a military coup 18 months ago.
This video, courtesy of the Wall Street Journal, shows well some of the striking scenes during the ride.
Exciting news for Yorkshire this week, as information for all 3 stages of the 2016 Tour are revealed.
The event hopes to maintain the excitement and momentum associated with the 2014’s Tour de France Grand Depart, and last year’s Tour de Yorkshire – both of which bought huge amounts of tourism to the region.
Vitals as follows:
Taipei’s incumbent mayor recently rode 250km in 15 hours to promote the Velo-City conference, which his city will be hosting in 2016. This ride and conference mark efforts to make Taipei into a “cycling city” over the coming years – the fact that this is the first Asian city to host the prestigious conference bodes well!
On the agenda is discussion on how to improve Taipei’s cycling infrastructure, to expand the amount of bike lanes available, and to address other public concerns preventing people from riding.
Good job!
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