"bicycles" news and stories

The trend in gourmet food trucks may still be going strong, with mobile units serving everything from tapas to dim sum. But wait! What do we spy? Is it the next generation in the mobilization of food?Get ready for BikeCaffe. That's right; as Mother Nature Network reports, the U.K.-based company is looking to unleash an army of its pedaling baristas on U.S. shores, with at least one BikeCaffe operating in Denver already and others planned for Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and (of all places) Phoenix. (Not sure we'd want to commit to trying to hawk hot coffee in the desert from the seat of a bike, but okay.)

The fancy, three-wheeled contraptions are outfitted with a full-service coffee bar in front, which serves 100-percent fair-trade coffee, Italian-style espresso, and most other coffeehouse staples. And as the fact that the story was picked up by MNN suggests, the company is billing itself as ultra-eco-friendly. (After all, this is a bike we're talking about -- no worries about global-warming emissions here.)

There would seem to be another side benefit of operating a BikeCaffe: after a few months of pedaling that thing uphill, you're pretty much guaranteed to be able to eat all the biscotti you can manage and never pack on a pound.

The last people you would imagine finding at a fast-food restaurant are health-conscious bicyclists. Yet many bike riders are angry that chains like McDonald's and Burger King don't allow them to order food at drive-thru windows.

Most fast-food eateries, large and small, will only serve customers driving a car or motorcycle. They argue it's nothing personal, but allowing cars to co-mingle with pedestrians, motorized wheel chairs and bicycles, is dangerous for everyone.

Bicyclists say they're getting a raw deal. They insist that they have as much right to be served on two wheels as their counterparts do on four. More bikers and less idling cars would also have an environmental benefit, they say.

"It makes no sense," says Wiley Norvell, the communications director for Transportation Alternatives, a New York-based bicycle, pedestrian and mass transit advocacy group. "If it's not dangerous in a bike lane with cars going 35 miles an hour, how can it be dangerous in a parking lot with people traveling less than 10 miles an hour? There are fewer safety issues than on an average street."