Designed by Andy Gregg who has been working with reusable bicycle material to create furniture since 1990. The furniture has a specialized contemporary and modern look made from primarily recycled steel, aluminum rims, handle bars and frames.

All designs are made in his ‘one man shop’ in Marquette in the USA and pieces range from chairs and tables to coat racks and mirrors. Gregg’s designs have been exhibited across the USA in galleries and design museums as well as features in biker restaurants in Chicago.

Prices range from $200 for a table to $1000 for a love seat, all of which, can be purchased from www.bikefurniture.com

Tags: Bike Furniture
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Cycle lanes: intended to remove the cyclist from the risk of motor vehicles and to also ensure pedestrians are kept safe. Many cyclists have experienced that this is not the case. Check out some of the worst offenders here, and the Warrington Cycle Campaign’s ‘Facility of the Month’.

This evidence of absurd road planning is entertaining and shows up the bad road designers/traffic engineers. But more importantly it highlights the danger of the cycle lanes, and that many of them can be death-traps.

Is the answer to road safety in segregating cyclists to their own path? Or is it educating and encouraging road users to share the road and respect each other’s space and safety, no matter how many wheels you use?

For other projects and schemes that address various cycling issues, check out the Bicycle Advocacy and Community section of the Design Resource.

A book entitled: ‘Crap Cycle Lanes’ published by Eye Books, is available for £4.99 at WHSmith’s, Borders and amazon.co.uk.

Tags: cycle lane
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Monday, 05 January 2009
Nadia Gilani, South London Press

VULNERABLE cyclists will have to watch their backs as motorbikes are now allowed to use most of London’s bus lanes.

From yesterday, motorcyclists were given free reign to ride in Transport for London bus lanes for an 18-month trial period.

TfL said the scheme aimed to cut accidents and traffic pile ups.

Pedal cyclists, who already use the lanes, have been against the scheme claiming it would not improve safety or reduce congestion.

London Mayor Boris Johnson said: “I have long been staggered that while motorcyclists can use bus lanes in many other cities and some of our boroughs they were not allowed to use the TfL routes that criss-cross the capital.

“One of the ways we can ease congestion is by encouraging more people to get on their bike, and I believe they should be able to share our bus lanes safely.”

In June last year the London Cycling Campaign presented the Mayor with a 3,000-strong petition against the plan.

In a letter to the Mayor, LCC’s chief executive Koy Thomson said: “While we would support measures to make motorcycling safer, there is no clear environmental, safety or congestion reason for allowing motorcycles into bus lanes.”

See more at the Evening Standard.

What do YOU think?

Tags: Transport for London
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Ekblom, P. (2008). Final report WPA2 of ‘Bike Off 2 – Catalysing Anti Theft Bike, Bike Parking and Information Design for the 21st Century’.

Standard generation through application of CCO framework. Supported by AHRC/EPSRC Designing for the 21st Century grant. Paul Ekblom with assistance from Adam Thorpe, Lorraine Gamman, Shane Johnson, Aiden Sidebottom and Chris Campbell. Final report (132pp) describing theory, methodology and procedure of risk analysis based on extensive evolution of Conjunction of Criminal Opportunity framework, illustrating detailed risk analysis in practice, and setting out comprehensive theory-based design guidance for bike stands and bike parking facilities.
Download here.

The following presentations visualise the work Professor Ekblom has done for ‘Bike Off 2 – Catalysing Anti Theft Bike, Bike Parking and Information Design for the 21st Century’, supported by AHRC/EPSRC grant.

The Thinking Thief: Crime Frameworks for Design Against Crime (November 2007) presentation originated as a brief to the MA Industrial Design students at CSM for an indoor bike park.ing project, and was delivered on 7 Nov 2007. This has come and gone but I have continued to modify the presentation in light of feedback.  The approach developed here can readily be modified for any other DAC brief. The approach is taken further and complemented in the presentation Risk analysis design guide: Using theory to analyse crime risks and generate design guidance for secure bike parking, also on this website. I am grateful for their inputs to Chris Campbell, Shane Johnson, Lorraine Gamman, Aiden Sidebottom, Adam Thorpe and Marcus Willcocks. A text version of this design methodology can be downloaded here.

The Risk analysis design guide: Using theory to analyse crime risks and generate design guidance for secure bike parking (October 2008) presentation is a synthesis of work undertaken, for ‘Bike Off 2 – Catalysing Anti Theft Bike, Bike Parking and Information Design for the 21st Century’, supported by AHRC/EPSRC grant.  It aims to document, and convey, an approach to generating Design Against Crime guidance that is based on theoretical frameworks for crime prevention, available at www.designagainstcrime.com click on ‘crimeframeworks’. Guidance based on these frameworks complements that produced via gleaning existing practical experience of secure bike parking design.
The presentation builds on an earlier one, Thinking Thief:  Crime Frameworks for Design Against Crime, also on this website. While the focus here is on secure bike parking, the intention has been to design an approach that is of generic utility.

More traditional documentation is in the accompanying report ‘Standard generation through application of CCO framework’, also on the bikeoff website www.bikeoff.org . I am grateful for their inputs to Chris Campbell, Shane Johnson, Lorraine Gamman, Aiden Sidebottom, Adam Thorpe and Marcus Willcocks
CCO Dynamic – web pages disseminating new framework derived from this project at www.designagainstcrime.com.

Tags: Bikeoff Outputs, Paul Ekblom, presentations
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