bicycle

With gas up to a national average of $3.97 for the first week in May -- a nine-cent rise over the previous week and 48% higher since Labor Day -- it's getting hard not to panic about gas prices. My sister, who drives more than 25 miles round-trip every day for work, is starting to reduce or...

For retail employees, holiday bonuses tend toward the low-cash-value gift certificate -- and it's not unusual to get gift cards for your own store, or nearby casual-dining chains. For years, the IKEA stores have been rather run-of-the-mill in this regard. Last year, according to one employee, the...

Nokia is jumping on the environmentally friendly bandwagon with its new bicycle charger. The device will do precisely what you'd expect: allow cyclists to power up their cell phones as they ride.

I absolutely hate driving and unfortunately, the city where I live depends on cars -- overwhelmingly so. In elementary school, I would bike to school several times a week. Then, I would do it just for fun and to burn off all that extra energy you may imagine a sixth-grader might have. But now,...

In the slog toward greener transportation, cars may be headed in the (approximately, generally) right direction. But even efficient cars still pollute, in the same way that cigarettes with filters and low tar are still carcinogenic. They're better, but not a clean slate by any means. What do you do...

Yesterday, I was turned away on my longtail bicycle at a drive-through window. To be turned away on a bike at a drive-through is not unusual -- Taco Bell and Wells Fargo have both made waves for their bike-unfriendly policies -- though it was a surprise for me. My bike, festooned with "Love your...

In Portland, Ore., the second credit union to do so announced this week it was offering a new financial product: a bike loan. I think it's the idea of the decade. (In fact, it was my idea, so it's hardly a surprise that I love it.) Not everyone agrees with me.As a self-described "family biking...

AAA has never had a history of being bike-friendly. But this year, the organization debuted its own bicycle roadside assistance plan. Is the idea of AAA for bikes crazy? Though the organization, KFC-like, recently shed its full name embracing the automobile and now goes officially by its acronym,...

Why AAA decided to pick 2009 to debut bicycle roadside assistance in Oregon and parts of Idaho -- the home turf of green AAA alternative Better World Club -- is tough to divine. Was the Oregon/Idaho chapter seeing a reduction in memberships due to competition? Did the fast-growing population of...

In a thought-provoking column in Jeffrey Tierney's blog, Geoffrey Miller, author of a new book on consumer behavior, asked readers to make two lists; one of the 10 most expensive items they'd ever paid for (including services, experiences, taxes, divorce settlements, etc.) and one of the 10 things...