Well, if Grist wants to pretend to be a hometown paper, sure, why not.

Meanwhile, the sociology of biking here on the island Manhattan ("Smoke on your pipe and put that in!") deserves serious study.  Mostly we observe that the people who ride bikes amidst fast-moving traffic are young men who do not quite get it that everyone else believes their lives are not worth much: messengers, and delivery people, the latter especially being immigrants from China and Latin America.

But in fact, there is no reason why the numerous residents of uptown neighborhoods who commute to work daily in midtown offices could not be encouraged more sincerely and enthusiastically to do the commute on bicycle.

And of course there is every reason to make the lives of messengers and delivery people easier.  They thrive, economically, in fact, because vehicle traffic is so impossibly tangled.

On another matter: Copenhagen and Amsterdam may be swell places, but they are hardly the only cities in Europe in which bike-riding is commonplace.  As I wrote on another thread, there are numerous places in southern Europe where bike-riding is a frequent and normal method of transportation.

Copenhagen and Amsterdam may indeed have the most admirable bike-friendly traffic laws thus far.  And it makes sense for all you guys in the small to medium-sized cities of "Cascadia" to pay attention and learn.  But we in NYC need to study how the bike-rental program in Paris works out.

Chickens are our cousins! So are other sensitive animals! Enough is enough! No more factory farms!

battery production is not the kind of activity that has the massive economies of scale of, say, steelmaking or petroleum refining.

Sure it is.
Lead Acid and Alkaline Batteries are huge.

Big thing with batteries is that they are capital intensive.  However once you have your facility, practically the whole production process is automated.

Batteries historically scale really well with economies of scale.

Same way you can now fit a businesscard calculator in your wallet that is more sophistocated than the computers that used to take up whole buildings.

Gas prices, fuel availability, improvements in urban public transit, the construction of bike & pedestrian friendly roads, a cultural shift in attitude toward cars all may make driving less appealing to large numbers of people.  But appealing or not, the logistics of driving less in the US are difficult at best. The success of European public transportation has much to do with the pattern of settlement.  

Relatively few Europeans live 15 to 50 miles from their place of employment. A 40 minute commute to work is common (if not the norm) in much of the US.  In Europe, the most desirable neighborhoods tend to be the closest to city centers.  Its the opposite here.  Suburban commuter services -- park and ride bus and trains -- add significantly to commute time.  Few people are willing to add 20 minutes each way to work.  Furthermore, many employers require schedule flexibility (staying late, coming in early, etc) that commuter services cannot easily accomodate.

Moving back to the city is no solution for many. Places of employment have increasingly moved away from the cities.  Corn fields have sprouted lots of "industrial parks" next to major highways outside cities in the Midwest in the last few decades.  The best paying jobs (white and blue collar) have moved, and now everybody must commute -- not just those in the suburbs.

Improving urban transportation is nice, and changing public attitudes toward private vehicles is wonderful, but our culture and supporting infrastructure, housing patterns, and manufacturing centers are thoroughly based on the culture of cars.  

"We must be the change we wish to see in the world." -- Mahatma Ghandi

This may not be the most appropriate one of the recent bike-related threads to put this on, but I would like to point out that the dangers bicyclists face are in part self-inflicted.  That is, bicyclists are often complete and total jerks, riding in such a way that cars can't get past on narrow, windy roads for miles on end, riding on sidewalks because it's safer for them with no regard for pedestrians' safety, etc.  And I recently had a conversation with some horse-y friends (that is, friends who are into horses, not friends who are horses :) ) in which every last one of them agreed that bicyclists are unapologetic about behavior that's not just rude but potentially deadly, whizzing past horses even when asked to slow down, etc.

We should still have more bike paths, clearly, but in the meantime, if you ride a bike, don't act like a complete asshat, 'k?

My high-school job was working as a bike messenger in downtown Seattle. I cut my biking eye-teeth commuting from Edmonds and riding up, down and around the Seattle metropolitan area. Now I live, carless, in Portland (OR) and commute to work, by bicycle five days a week (bar weather). A few quick, anecdotal, non-definitive observations:

Portland has more bike lanes than Seattle, hands down. This does not, however, make drivers any more careful. My first month in Portland I was mowed over WHILST IN THE BIKE LANE. There is only so much you can do to avoid being hit. Drivers have to take some responsibility.

Seattle's Burke Gilman trail is a marvel because it goes where people need it to go. The number of commuters that move along the Burke highlight the difference between a recreational bike-trail and a commuter bike-trail. It really ought to be extended as soon as possible.

Portland has an incredible number of bicycle racks, which in my opinion may be what makes it truly bike-friendly. I can always find somewhere to park my ride. Waiters are also famously tolerant of folk showing up with helmets strapped to their bags and bike-gloves on, so props.

As far as I'm concerned, bikes have no right and no right of way on busy sidewalks. I drive my boyfriend crazy by insisting that he get his ass back on the road, but by having a right to the road, bikers forfeit their right to the sidewalk. Sorry, dudes.

In the end, it only works if there is a mutual contract. When I was in England, I was floored by how many riders didn't wear helmets. On the other hand, I didn't know anyone who has ever been hit. I've been hit three times in eight years in the States. Bikers have to wear a helmet, ride responsibly, and stay off of the sidewalk. Drivers have to get down off of their expensive, smoggy high-horsepower thrones(I'll admit to a chip on my shoulder) and check their blind spots.

Oh yeah - and I'm really tired of hearing, "Get off the road, bitch!" I've heard it before. It's no longer shocking.

One thing I've always joked about as a waitress is that everyone should HAVE TO, at some point in their life, work in the service industry...to get a taste of what it's like to be treated disrespectfully by others. You really learn to be nice!

And it's the same thing with mutual respect on the road or trails...everyone should have to see what it's like being a horseback rider and having a bike whiz by you and upset your horse, or being on a bike and having a car pass you on a tight corner (when there's a big straight stretch coming up...). You really learn to slow down a bit and give other users some space!

Here in MT, on trails (I'm talking about dirt, in the woods type trails) bikers yeild to everyone - walkers and horseback riders. And I make sure to practice this every time when I'm biking because that mutual respect is what keeps our trails friendly for all users.

It's much much different when you're a biker on the road, of course. But the lessons of respect still apply - if you're on a bike and going slow - pull out so a car can pass. And if you're in a car and approaching a biker, have a teeny bit of patience and wait until it's very clear that you can pass easily without endangering the biker's life!