There's some good bike news out of New York City- starting in less than a month, office buildings will be required by law to allow people to take their bikes upstairs.

 

The law is restricted to buildings with freight elavators and doesn't require building owners to install or provide interior bike storage space, leaving building inhabitants to suss out those details on a case by case basis.

 

Even still, little steps can accumulate to big strides. Bike riding in New York City is up a whopping 66% from 2007 to 2009. They've built 200 new miles of bike routes in the past three years, placing a lot of emphasis on safer physically seperated routes. And as we're seeing here, they are loosening up legal restrictions on bike riding.

 

There are so many reasons covering the whole political spectrum of why it makes sense to get more people out on bikes (and electric bikes!). We'll cut down on our reliance on foriegn oil, reduce our greenhouse gas emissions, save money in health care due to a healthier citizenry, and save some lives (less driving equals less accidents).

 

How bike friendly is your town or city?

 

Check out a couple other stories about biking on MNN:

• Now THIS is a bike lane

• Bike culture reviatlizes NYC communties

• Danish bicycle activists win $200 million upgrade

• Bamboo bikes to get Africa moving