Aside from the issues of safety and the ongoing bike lane wars there's another reason that riding your bike in the city sucks: it makes your lungs black.

In the U.S., mayors deal with cars parked in bike lanes by saying We have bike lanes? Are you sure? In Lithuania, mayors deal with cars parked in bike lanes by running them over with a goddamn tank.

Is Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood a hipster? "I don't even know what that term means," he claimed when asked recently. But isn't that exactly what a hipster would say?

Why is everyone so damn worked up bike lanes, those green strips of pavement that have been popping up all over New York (and causing disputes) in the past few years? A New Yorker scribe is virulently opposed to them, and now everyone seems opposed to him.

Ever wonder what's it's like to race a bike from one tip of Manhattan to the other? Now you can practically sit on the handlebars as one rider takes you on his winning obstacle-laden journey downtown.

[Someone applauds the necessity of a bike lane as the racers in the 15th leg of the Tour de France ride through Pamiers today. Image via AP]