Safest Bicycle Cities

Here's yet another reason why I wish I lived in Seattle: Bicycle Master Plan Approved. The Seattle City Council just passed the Seattle Bicycle Master Plan in order to, "increase bicycling and improve bicyclists' safety in the city." I only wish LA were so progressive.

And while we're on the subject of cool cities, the Wired blog recently published Where Are The Most Bicycle-Friendly Cities in the World. It's odd how bicycle-friendliness tends to go along with other great civic features like good public transportation and a good helping of hippies. And just to give some cheers to the left coast: 3 of the 4 U.S. cities to make the list were on the west coast. It's too bad I'd have to travel a good 380 miles to be in such a city... There's always hope for the post-doc.

Update: What's even better? The comments on the Wired article indicate that the study reeks of ::gasp!:: Eurocentrism. On a related note: today I discovered that the only remaining copy of the above book in the UCLA Research Library was damaged with pages torn out. Who does that anyway?

Another Update: For a city that made the Bicycle-Friendly list, Portland sure has a lot of Ghost Bikes... Maybe the criteria that Wired used needs to take cyclist deaths into account.