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Cycling Through Spain with My Dad
Plus, the father of Quebec cycling, an Idaho bike trail, and Stats for the Nerds
Sam Westby
July 17, 2025
Welcome to the Bike Bulletin. It’s as helpful as a perfectly timed energy gel.
—Sam Westby @samcwestby
This is a weekly newsletter about bike trips, urban cycling, and a love for two-wheeled transit. The more time you spend on a bike, the better. I share new editions every Thursday, gearing you up for the ride ahead.
Here’s what we have today.
🌍 RIDE: Trail of the Coeur d’Alenes
❓ RESEARCH: Protected Bike Lanes Increase Urban Cycling
🎥 WATCH: Touring Europe with My Dad - Week 1
🚲 ARCHIVES: The Father of Quebec Cycling
📰 NEWS: Pulled funding and new bikeshares
ROUTE ON MY RADAR
Trail of the Coeur d’Alenes
A 1920’s trestle-style bridge crosses Lake Coeur d’Alenes in Idaho. Source: Wikimedia Commons.
Here’s what you’d be getting yourself into.
73 miles (117 kilometers) with 1000 feet (305 meters) of elevation. Pretty flat
Runs east-west across the Idaho Panhandle
Smooth asphalt trail built on an old Union Pacific Railroad
FROM THE IVORY TOWER
Protected Bike Lanes Increase Urban Cycling
In another unsurprising finding, protected bike lanes make people want to ride more. Although it’s an obvious result, this work is still important. It gives advocates and policymakers concrete evidence to show skeptics.
The pre-print, written by 3 New York University researchers, looks at ridership in New York City.
One amazing thing about bikeshare systems is that they provide open-access ridership data to anyone. You can view the start and end docks, time, and user.
Trips rose ~18 % near new protected lanes and ~14 % near painted/sharrow lanes in the 12 months after installation.
New protected lanes added ~380 extra rides per station per month.
This boost does not appear in majority-Black neighborhoods.
You can find the pre-print on arXiv.org.
NEW VIDEO FROM SAM
Europe With My Dad - Week 1
We did it!! Thanks to everyone who emailed me to hold me to the deadline. I’m a day later than I said, but here’s the Week 1 Europe Vlog. It just went live.
You can expect Week 2 to come out around the same time next week.
Over the past two years, I’ve made hundreds of short-form vlogs and zero long-form vlogs. It was great to get back into the format. The last long-form adventure vlog that I made was in 2022, when I did a century on a Boston Bikeshare bike. (How far can you ride a 45lb City Bike?)
Watch the 15-minute Europe vlog on YouTube.
FROM THE ARCHIVES
The Father of Quebec Cycling
Louis Quilicot (in the middle) made big strides to build the Montreal cycling scene. He founded the first Canadian cycling club in 1918. He donated $2,000 to build a velodrome in 1929. And he founded the Quebec-Montreal race in 1931.
Read more about Louis on Wikipedia.
$8,500 - $16,500. The cost of Tour de France riders’ road bikes. (bikeradar.com)
200 bikes. Raleigh, North Carolina, is partnering with Lime and Spin to provide dockless bikes and scooters. (News Observer)
Utah. A new state law prohibits cars from blocking bike lanes. How was this not already a thing? (Deseret News)
$3.3 million. The new Clemson, South Carolina revitalization budget. The city will move toward a more walkable, bikeable, and inviting downtown. (Go Update)
Density. A new U.S. study shows that population density predicts the rates of walking and biking. Sprawl = Drive. (Government Technology)
$750 million. The amount of funding taken away from the Neighborhood Access and Equity Program because of the “One Big Beautiful Bill”. (Rails to Trails)
A Note From Sam
You can reply to this email and let me know what sections you liked / topics you’d like me to write about.
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