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World Bike Forward

@urbanupgradeglobal.bsky.social

570 followers 150 following 320 posts

Stephen Graham on global cities & biking. Urban Planning and Global Finance NYU. Former research director Citi and Goldman

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World Bike Forward @urbanupgradeglobal.bsky.social · Nov 14

If you've fantasized about blowing up your local expressway blocking access to the waterfront, here's what it looks like (Rio de Janeiro)

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World Bike Forward @urbanupgradeglobal.bsky.social · 1d

I hear that. Often places like that don't have cut-throughs even for people walking or riding a bike. You have to drive the whole labyrinth to get from one house to another or to the outside world. The two places in this video both have subways close, visible in the Sweden clip behind the bikes.

World Bike Forward @urbanupgradeglobal.bsky.social · 1d

In these two places that might paralyze the cars, but not the neighborhood, since most people aren't moving around by car ☺(Central Stockholm and Copacabana, Rio)

World Bike Forward @urbanupgradeglobal.bsky.social · 2d

Further up the same Stockholm street from the clip below is another traffic-calming device: intersections where cars may cross but the design is a sidewalk with low curb. Drivers tend to inch across, some of them likely not sure if they're really supposed to be there.

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World Bike Forward @urbanupgradeglobal.bsky.social · 2d

Urban cul-de-sacs are a cheap, immediate way to calm down side streets. Cars can reach any address, but not cut through. Foot traffic instead good for business.

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World Bike Forward @urbanupgradeglobal.bsky.social · 3d

This 1970s mosaic by Burle Marx has been called the largest work of public art in the world. Three miles by 160 feet of individual hammered stones, not counting the paved lanes, in classic Portuguese red, black, and white only. Leme and Copacabana, Rio de Janeiro.

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World Bike Forward @urbanupgradeglobal.bsky.social · 7d

In 2010 I was stuck in traffic in a black cab on London's Victoria Embankment. The driver blamed it on construction of a ridiculous "Cycle Superhighway" along the route by the idiots at Transport for London, even though no one would use it because Londoners don't cycle. Here it is at rush hour now.

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Reposted by World Bike Forward

American Fietser @americanfietser.bsky.social · 12d

*Me listening in on a lady who just tried an ebike for the first time and came back to the bike shop*

"That was amazing! I felt like I had super powers. I have to get my husband to try one!"

And yes, she bought the bike. It was a Gazelle.

Ned Resnikoff @resnikoff.bsky.social · 12d

This rules so hard. It's been a longstanding conviction of mine that the best way to convince people to replace car trips with ebike trips is by letting them try out an ebike for free.

Love the Oakland Public Library. oaklandside.org/2025/09/25/o...

Oakland launches an e-bike lending library

There are now 50 electric bikes available for rent at the Fruitvale BART. It just takes a deposit and a modest fee.

oaklandside.org

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World Bike Forward @urbanupgradeglobal.bsky.social · 11d

One smart, cheap, urban response to global warming: shade canopies. Seville, Spain

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World Bike Forward @urbanupgradeglobal.bsky.social · 12d

Seems you've missed all the important ways to stop the slaughter: street design to slow cars, networks of real bike lanes, speed cameras, lower speed limits, red-light cameras, safer SUV design, that sort of thing.

World Bike Forward @urbanupgradeglobal.bsky.social · 13d

Can't get over this building. Liège, Belgium train station by Calatrava and the Jetsons.

World Bike Forward @urbanupgradeglobal.bsky.social · 14d

Blue skies in Lisbon. Doesn't hurt that at this station electric bikes and scooters connect to electric trams, which connect to antique electric trams, which connect to electric buses, which connect to electric surface trains, which connect to electric subway trains. Even electric ferries out back.

Reposted by World Bike Forward

American Fietser @americanfietser.bsky.social · 15d

The rapture, but for cars in cities.

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World Bike Forward @urbanupgradeglobal.bsky.social · 19d

No more diesel fumes in the face from airport boarding buses at São Paulo Congonhas. All-electric.

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World Bike Forward @urbanupgradeglobal.bsky.social · 19d

this week I was happy to see its renovation is in full gear.

World Bike Forward @urbanupgradeglobal.bsky.social · 19d

This Brazilian-modernist marquise by Oscar Niemeyer in Ibirapuera Park opened in São Paulo in 1954. It's six football fields long and connects five museums and event spaces. Every weekend it was a festival of activity under its shelter. Unfortunately it was falling apart, but 1/2

World Bike Forward @urbanupgradeglobal.bsky.social · 19d

Rush hour in Stockholm. If they were all in cars, the flowers would have to go.

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World Bike Forward @urbanupgradeglobal.bsky.social · 21d

Lane assignments, Seville, Spain:
-Two protected half lanes for bikes, scooters, e-wheelchairs, etc., one each way
-One exclusive lane for buses, certain vans, taxis, and motorcycles, up to 50 km/h (31 mph)
-Two lanes where private cars are OK, up to 30 km/h (19 mph)