With the assistance of air travel and a boat, they'll eventually make their way to Ireland, Wales and finally down to London, where they plan to end their journey on Portland Place, home to the Royal Institute of British Architects, in August.
Along the way, they've met with the government officials and bicycle advocates in Portland, Ore., Minneapolis and several other cities to learn about the "cylicization of cities," absorbing ideas that they'll compile in a report. Their project has drawn the attention of London Mayor Boris Johnson, who earlier this year pledged to spend 1 billion pounds ($1.54 billion) on cycling infrastructure over the next 13 years. He's so synonymous with London's efforts to be more cyclist-friendly that the signature blue bikes in the city's bike-sharing system are colloquially known as "Boris Bikes."
The cyclists gathered Saturday at Bike Pittsburgh, whose Lawrenceville office is on one of those very streets -- a narrow passageway flanked by parked cars -- that may have reminded Mr. Murray of London. There, they talked shop with city officials -- including bicycle/pedestrian coordinator Stephen Patchan and Councilman Bill Peduto's policy director -- and Bike Pittsburgh co-founders Scott Bricker and Louis Fineberg.
In a roundtable discussion, they touched on a variety of topics related to challenges of making cities more bike-friendly. Both Pittsburgh and London deal with a similar problem with infrastructure: how do you adapt roads that were built for horses and carts to accommodate cars, parking and cyclists?
Patrick Roberts, the principal transportation planner for the city of Pittsburgh, said it's going to require a paradigm shift, getting transportation engineers to build roads to include cyclists. As it stands, roads are constructed with the idea that there will be a growth in the number of cars, which becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy when roads aren't built with cyclists in mind.
Roger Hawkins, a 53-year-old rider and architect, said reducing speed limits had a dramatic effect in bringing out cyclists. Of the 100 employees in his office -- based in the London borough of Islington -- none drives to work and about half ride their bikes. He attributes the proliferation of cyclists to Islington's maximum speed of 20 mph. He called it "simple physics" that fast-moving traffic would scare cyclists off their bikes.
With the assistance of air travel and a boat, they'll eventually make their way to Ireland, Wales and finally down to London, where they plan to end their journey on Portland Place, home to the Royal Institute of British Architects, in August.
Along the way, they've met with the government officials and bicycle advocates in Portland, Ore., Minneapolis and several other cities to learn about the "cylicization of cities," absorbing ideas that they'll compile in a report. Their project has drawn the attention of London Mayor Boris Johnson, who earlier this year pledged to spend 1 billion pounds ($1.54 billion) on cycling infrastructure over the next 13 years. He's so synonymous with London's efforts to be more cyclist-friendly that the signature blue bikes in the city's bike-sharing system are colloquially known as "Boris Bikes."
The cyclists gathered Saturday at Bike Pittsburgh, whose Lawrenceville office is on one of those very streets -- a narrow passageway flanked by parked cars -- that may have reminded Mr. Murray of London. There, they talked shop with city officials -- including bicycle/pedestrian coordinator Stephen Patchan and Councilman Bill Peduto's policy director -- and Bike Pittsburgh co-founders Scott Bricker and Louis Fineberg.
In a roundtable discussion, they touched on a variety of topics related to challenges of making cities more bike-friendly. Both Pittsburgh and London deal with a similar problem with infrastructure: how do you adapt roads that were built for horses and carts to accommodate cars, parking and cyclists?
Patrick Roberts, the principal transportation planner for the city of Pittsburgh, said it's going to require a paradigm shift, getting transportation engineers to build roads to include cyclists. As it stands, roads are constructed with the idea that there will be a growth in the number of cars, which becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy when roads aren't built with cyclists in mind.
Roger Hawkins, a 53-year-old rider and architect, said reducing speed limits had a dramatic effect in bringing out cyclists. Of the 100 employees in his office -- based in the London borough of Islington -- none drives to work and about half ride their bikes. He attributes the proliferation of cyclists to Islington's maximum speed of 20 mph. He called it "simple physics" that fast-moving traffic would scare cyclists off their bikes.
A day before the six-month anniversary of the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre, the National Rifle Association extolled Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval for "standing up for the Second Amendment."
Sandoval, a rising Republican star, had followed through on a pledge to veto one of the few gun control measures ever to have emerged from the Nevada Legislature.
Sandoval's veto message two weeks ago said Senate Bill 221 would have eroded "Nevadans' Second Amendment rights under the United States Constitution" and subjected "law-abiding citizens to criminal prosecution."
Not wanting to let the moment pass, the NRA urged its members to email Sandoval and "thank him for standing up for the Second Amendment and law-abiding gun owners in Nevada."
Facing loss of federal funding for his state's largest psychiatric hospital, Sandoval halted the busing last month. The exportation of firearms is an entirely different matter.
California has laws protecting against gun sales to felons and people who have a history of severe mental illness. But people so inclined can drive to a Reno gun show, find a private individual with a weapon to sell and throw down sufficient cash to cover the price.
The seller need not ask questions. The buyer doesn't have to offer answers. There's no requirement that private-party sellers run buyers' names through the National Instant Criminal Background Check System to check for a history of criminal convictions, domestic violence or mental illness. It's called the gun show loophole.
Legislation by U.S. Sens. Patrick Toomey, R-Pa., and Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., would have closed the gun show loophole nationally. It failed in April. On June 3, the Nevada Legislature gave final approval to Senate Bill 221 to close that state's gun show loophole, only to have Sandoval veto it June 13.
The author, Sen. Justin Jones, a Las Vegas Democrat, viewed it as a stopgap until Congress can pass legislation requiring all sellers nationwide to run background checks. Without a national standard, gun laws in one state are "only as effective as the laws in the next state over."
Two months earlier, Bedell tried to buy a gun from a California dealer, only to be denied because of his history of hospitalization for mental illness. Nineteen days later, he bought one of his handguns at a Las Vegas gun show, no questions asked.
As part of his research, Dr. Garen Wintemute, a UC Davis medical school professor who studies gun violence, has counted license plates in the parking lots outside Reno gun shows. Fully 30 percent of the cars had California plates, he said.
"Northern California had a direct personal interest in that debate in Nevada," Wintemute said. "It would have made it more difficult for prohibited persons to obtain firearms. It would have made it harder to get crime guns into California."
Last week, the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives issued its latest annual report documenting the origins of guns used in crimes in all 50 states. The agency traced 31,244 guns used in crimes in California. The largest number came from within California.
Read the full story at www.ecived.com/en/!
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