Usually it's the light sentences, or lack of charges in bicyclist fatalities that make me angry. But here's a case where an Arizona woman received almost the maximum sentence, and it still makes my blood run cold.

The judge in Tucson gave Melissa Arrington, 27, a 10-1/2-year prison sentence after hearing a jailhouse phone conversation between Arrington and a male friend in which they joked about how she should get a medal and parade.

Arrington was convicted of negligent homicide and two counts of aggravated driving under the influence stemming from the December 2006 death of Paul L'Ecuyer...   more »

Ciclovia is a regular event in several Latin American cities where cars and trucks are banned on weekends and the streets are given back to bicycles and pedestrians.

The largest is in Bogota, Colombia, where 70 miles of streets are blocked every Sunday and holiday. Among other cities, the regular car-free streets idea has been picked up by Guadalajara, Mexico (picture at left), where 7 miles of major thoroughfares are closed every Sunday to all but bicyclists, walkers, joggers, and skaters.

El Paso, Texas, was the first city to adopt the event in the US. Chicago, under the guidance of the Chicagoland Bicycle Federation, held a few car-free events called Sunday Parkways the past couple of years and is planning on making it a weekly event...   more »

Some New York City investors plan to build a bike parking lot -- "the premier bike parking facility in the country" -- on a lot on West 33rd Street in midtown (artist rendering at left).

Stonehenge Management has offered the 34th Street Partnership a 1,200-square-foot lot that's about a block from Penn Station, and the execs are looking for a corporation to invest about $200,000 in the idea.

Similar facilities available in six cities on the West Coast are called Bike Stations. Chicago has the McDonald's Cycle Center. All offer secure parking, as well as showers and repair shops ...   more »

It's nice to know that some cities want to be considered bicycle friendly. It shows that town officials believe that thoroughfares should be used for more than gas guzzling cars and trucks, and that bicycles are a form of transportation too.

Some cities actually apply for the official Bicycle Friendly Community designation from the League of American Bicyclists. That's no rubber stamp. Of the 200 communities that have applied, only 73 have earned the designation. 

Here are recent stories about three communities -- Boca Raton, Florida; Franklin, Pennsylvania; and Roanoke, Virginia -- that want to be more bicycle friendly...   more »

While the big suits of the electronics industry waited in traffic in their limos, taxis and rented cars last week, analyst Roger Kay found the easiest way to get around Las Vegas for the Consumer Electronics Show was by bike.

The first thing Kay did when he landed in Las Vegas was rent a Cannondale mountain bike, which he used to speed from his hotel to meetings or to the convention floor.

CES is spread out between two convention sites (including the Sands Expo Center, home of Interbike) and dozens of hotels where industry gurus take meetings. Instead of spending up to an hour waiting for buses, taxies or just plain walking, Kay made the rounds on his bicycle...   more »

You might find the name Kajuan Cornish in more bicycling stories than that of Floyd Landis or Lance Armstrong for the next few days.

A judge in Newport News, Virginia, ordered the 19-year-old man to pay a $1,050 fine for recklessly riding his bicycle across an intersection during rush hour.

Virginia has an abusive driver law that charges fines against drivers with egregious traffic offenses. Even before this incident, the governor said the fees had failed and called on the legislature to repeal them...   more »

It's good to know that Mark Blum's Mission With Bikes did not fade away when he died in October.

Members of several churches in Ventura County, California, have stepped forward to continue repairing and finding worthwhile homes for the donated bicycles.

Blum founded Mission With Bikes in 1996 and had repaired and given away some 3,000 bicycles worldwide by the time he died at age 54 from complications from multiple sclerosis ...   more »

While Washington and New Jersey became the first states to prohibit motorists from text messaging, Japan will enforce similar laws in 2008 -- for bike riders.

The ban on text-messaging while riding a bicycle is just one of the new laws enacted for 2008 to make bicycle-riding safer in Japan. Others rules include a ban on triple-riding (an adult hauling two kids by bicycle), riding while holding an umbrella or talking on a cellphone, or listening to music with headphones.

Also to be discouraged -- and this is just plain confounding -- is constantly ringing a bicycle bell on a footpath. Doesn't just about every hike-bike trail in the US suggest that bicyclists use a bell?    more »

Results of a year-long hospital emergency-room survey in Austin find that bicyclists are 65% to 88% less likely to get a head injury if they're wearing a helmet while riding a bicycle.

The full report from 7 area hospitals run by Brackenridge Hospital and St. David's HealthCare will be issued in a couple of weeks.

The study was designed to put some hard information into the debate that ensued when a mandatory helmet law for adults was put before the Austin City Council. Opponents charged, among other things, that the law diverts attention away from the need for bicycle lanes and more training for cyclists and motorists...   more »