Statistics show we are hipsterer than I thought.

“We look like the Beverly Hillbillies,” said Cindy Lewis at one point. To drivers passing by we might have looked like gypsies, or a low budget circus on bikes.

When you get behind the wheel of a car you are arming yourself with a potentially lethal weapon. If you kill someone with that weapon, you should be held responsible. “I didn’t mean to do it,” just doesn’t cut it.

The citizen/cyclists of Bike Norfolk are fighting for you, and change is coming.

There’s something profoundly askew in the American perception of transportation safety, an unthinking acceptance of the risks of driving, and a blindness to the accumulation of deaths that result from our car-centric policies.

If you take away one message from my column today let it be the phrase “complete streets.”

Ours is a tough city, a military town with an enlightened soul, a town that knows violence and yet clings to its cultural assets with fierce pride, knowing, as a city of veterans, that the alternative to civilization is unthinkable.

Tide saves cyclists!, Big news in Richmond, Cycling community in cities grows, and more in If You Read the Bicycle News for Tuesday, October 4, 2011.

In the cycling world, the mantra is, “don’t get mad, get active.”

Local bicyclists in the world amateur finals, down with the Brambleton barricades!, urban cycling tips, and more from BC Wilson.

Working out the kinks in the Tide/bicycle relationship, riding vegan in the Pro Cycling Challenge, and more.

A healthy serving of fresh, local (mostly) cycling news.

The good, the bad, and the smelly, today in If You Read the Paper.

I’m reading the news backwards, skipping over the headlines that are clamoring for my attention, and instead, digging deeper to find the stories that actually interest me.

Let’s help the people in the heart of Norfolk to improve the area by supporting the new YMCA.

The Tide rolls in on August 19. And if you can’t stand spandex, try riding naked, in If You Read the Paper, Tuesday, June 21

It’s clear that anti-cycling madness is infecting a certain part of the population–a violent, dangerous segment of society.

An archetypal interpretation of today’s news, in If You Read the Paper.

Help us guide The Pilot to offer more innovative content sections (and bury the sports section). And don’t miss Out in the Park!

Coal plants kill, saving Pleasure House Point, extreme weather the new balmy and in the 70s, and more.

Sitting is extremely dangerous, unless you’re sitting on a pedal-powered party machine (franchise available…). Plus more in today’s bike-powered If You Read the Paper.

I don’t think so. Country music versus social progress, today in If You Read the Paper.

We had been hunting Bin Laden for so long, hoping to settle our score with him, that most people were caught off guard when we finally cornered and killed him. And more in If You Read the Paper.

The news is slow today, so let me tell you about free canoe trips, and the triumph of street music in Norfolk.

Saving the world by paying attention to trash.

In Japan, whether it is a level 5 disaster or a level 7 disaster is not important to the tens of thousands of people who have been forced to evacuate, with no timetable for return.

In a world where people sit in their homes all evening watching crappy shows on TV, one website is fighting to save street life in Norfolk…

Riding from Norfolk to North Carolina, the drivers make all the difference. Plus sea level rise, nookular power nose-dives and more in today’s If You Read the Paper.

As chickens are a hot topic this week, I’d like to share the story of my Japanese chicken and the Buddhists who saved him. And more in today’s If You Read the Paper.

In today’s If You Read the Paper for Tuesday, March 15th.

Life looks different when you’re in San Francisco, in today’s If You Read the Paper.

The Pilot features two stories about local groups that are struggling, even though they were passed over in the wave of budget cuts. Plus, a bunch of bike news.

Study threatens to allow cars to threaten threatened pedestrians. ODU has seizures. And a 10-year-old girl who’s saving the world. Today in If You Read the Paper.

The Smile Train gets over itself, Portsmouth’s mayor tells it straight, and why I write for free (it’s not my secret plot to destroy old media), today in If You Read the Paper.

If you like mercury in your fish, you’re going to hate today’s top story. And more in today’s If You Read the Paper for Tuesday February 8.

Save the menhaden! Raise the gas tax! Watch out for red light cameras! That and more in the news from Cannonball City, in today’s If You Read the Paper.

It’s State of the Union Day! Head off to a SOTU party and play “jobs” bingo with your friends. And more in If You Read the Paper for Tuesday Jan 25.

Gabrielle Giffords is a warning that the crazies are tuned in to the conspiracy channel, and they’re on the hunt once again. And more in today’s If You Read the Paper.

Reflections on a Park Place Civic League meeting, and other stories in If You Read the Paper.

You can sit on your ass waiting to win the idea lottery, or you can get to work to solve a problem in a hundred small ways, today in If You Read the Paper.

Why Buffalo gives me hope for Norfolk, and how AltDaily made me see it. And more in today’s If You Read the Paper.

Happy Solstice Day! Let’s celebrate with a spiced cider and a frantic dance of happiness for passenger rail.

It’s not crazy to suggest that Bush could have enacted this law, either. In Today’s If You Read the Paper.

Have a happy Hanukkah and enjoy a cupcake while you remember Pearl Harbor. Plus the news in today’s If You Read the Paper.

The President is a baller, but he’s not the first chief executive to suffer minor wounds in office. And Johnny Depp cracks me up, today in IYRTP.

Reflections on the new choice we have at the airport, and more from today’s news. (Some of it in poem form, even.)

What are the best ways to get from A to B in Norfolk by bike? You tell us.

When you see it on a map, the long-range transit plan for Hampton Roads is a beautiful thing. That and more in today’s If You Read the Paper.

Norfolk is a city that knows what it wants, and it wants Marcus Jones. Plus, Kerry Dougherty speaks out against snark and bile. That, and more in today’s If You Read the Paper.

Want a chance to ride your bike in the Grand Illumination Parade dressed like Mary Poppins, Dorothy, or a Storm Trooper? Here it is.

People throw away a lot of bicycles. The lucky ones meet Andrew Hund.

When I block out the babble and look at this election from a position of mental clarity I realize that no one can tell me who to vote for, and that no one can really know in advance who is going to win.

If You Read the Paper | Tues Oct 19

Some days I read the paper from back to front–today I’ll dish out some jewelry and local food, before getting to the pollution and wind power stories.

A few suggestions for what to do today: halt the inquisition, look at some bras, and lift a glass for trains.

The Pilot keeps dishing out yummy local stories, so get ready for another serving of Jill McGlone pie. And, a little Sharktopus for desert.

Kerry, we’re going to solve this budget problem. We’re going to finish this light rail, pay for it, and get it running. And then we’re coming for your city next. Just sayin’.

The scary fish are coming. So grab your bike and some hard cider, and run with me to this tiny island made of plastic bottles.

Summer is over, the pools are closed. Break out your hoodies and long pants, pour yourself a little moonshine, and settle down for a digest of today’s news.

Fighting the Cities, the truth about global warming, Hurricane Earl, and then some good news.

Cooch and abortion. Sovereign immunity and the city. Water pollution and the state.

Note to Pilot readers: requiring Americans to buy health insurance is not the same as requiring them to buy a Chevy. Note to Pilot writers: asking average people to rule on constitutional matters, especially when they have a financial interest at stake, is not likely to arrive at a meaningful conclusion.

If every time the military makes a temporary expansion it becomes a permanent addition, then our military, and our spending, will only keep growing, unnecessarily and indefinitely.

Cooch wasn’t about to let the fact that Virginia is on the other side of the country from Mexico, without a significant Latino population, stop him from pursuing a bold and dynamic strategy of harassing people because they are brown.

Inform yourself, citizen! And stay out of the heat, for Odin’s sake.

Today we offer a good reason to be proud of Norfolk, and to hate Alberto Contador.

Continued from The Cycling Life: Tour de Pants

With the Tour de France entering its last week, we thought it an opportune time to take a look at Hampton Roads’ bizarro version of the race, the Tour de Pants.

It’s recall (or not) day in Portsmouth. Who’s voting?

Now I know why so many Norfolk properties are sitting empty. The US, land of soccer and cycling. And the good and bad about education and homelessness, today on AltDaily.

I should be happy about the Pilot’s local investigative reporting, but something is off…

On this slow news day, let’s talk about beaches, after a little bit of sad-time for the birds in the Gulf.

We’ve posted an interactive Google map called Bike Routes in Norfolk that shows the best ways to get from the North to South and East to West.

Dolphins with frickin’ laser beams on their flippers; Phish school in Portsmouth; Safety on Shore Drive; Norfolk screws with Afr’Am Fest; and a video of Dr. Evil.

It’s Alternative Headline Day! The Pilot works hard to craft concise, informative headlines that allow readers to quickly parse the content of the paper and find the stories that interest them most. My headlines, on the other hand, will tell you only what I think of the story. You decide which approach is better.

Rabbit, rabbit! It’s June 1. Today we’ll look at health care in our state and in my neighborhood, we’ll take a moment to praise Roger Brown, and we’ll let Noam Chomsky tell us why Adam Smith was a certified lefty conspiracy theorist.

On May 25, 1925, Tennessee indicted biology teacher John Scopes for violating the state’s law against teaching evolution. These days, the part of William Jennings Bryan is played by Ken Cuccinelli…

Let’s play SimVirginia! Cooch plays coy with tainted funds, and Norfolk enjoys public art and maritime jobs.

If the city of Norfolk/Virginia Beach were a comic book, today’s news might go something like this…

Election day, rethinking offshore drilling, and Climategate.

Today’s newspaper is full of talk about insufficient beginnings and untimely endings. And the mayoral forum reminds us that into every life some rain must fall.

Obama in space, felons writing essays 4 voting rights, right whales, and the best offenses to free speech.

Berkeley Bridge, Beer Fest, W&M Griffins, shipwrecks, dead whale found.

Obama ok’s drilling, no-zero grading, light rail back on track, McDonald’s-funded rec center.

Health care bill, scary vice-principals, future journalists?, and putting ads in the paper to pay for college.

Our robustest economy, ghost in the graveyard, new meaning to “shooter,” summer camp!, potholes, and gunshots rang out in the Starbucks night.

Cheating teachers, layoffs at Daily Press, PETA and Bob Barker, equal protection for gays, and the all-access beach park

A giant oceanfront slide, 19 judges axed, pre-K cuts, a coal-fired plant’s approval, redistricting voted down, and more of today’s headlines.

The possible end of the Virginia Arts Commission, more school testing issues, the value of Beach homes fall, there will be drilling off the coast of VB, and Chesapeake isn’t on board with Light Rail (yet).

B.C.’s take on some potentially shady testing practices by Norfolk schools, the purchase of the Franklin Mill, light rail’s “soft costs,” and evidence that people around here really do care about the environment.

The mere existence of a site like walkscore.com, and of studies that relate walkability to higher home values, gives me hope that more people will start to put a value on getting around by foot.

Looking for something unusual to do this Halloween? Got a bike? Then put on your inappropriate costume and head over to Colley Ave and Spotswood in Ghent (right by Blair Middle School), at 9pm for a Halloween scavenger hunt, urban cyclist-style.

Continued from Part 1… As an all-season cyclist, he’s had to learn to ride in cold, in rain, in hot sun, sometimes all of those conditions in a single day. He’s learned to wear wool, even in summer, because it wicks away sweat it doesn’t smell bad after you’ve worn it a few times without [...]

“One thing that keeps me safe on the roads,” a local bike rider, David, told me, “is I assume all drivers are trying to kill me.”

I’ve been a cyclist for years, worked as a bike messenger, even ridden a hundred-mile century. But I’ve never blended into a “paceline,” the fast-riding groups of would-be racers that cruise the streets in single-file, hunched over the handlebars and pedaling like locomotives.

Continued from Part 1 True to its reputation, the streets of Norfolk are no place to ride fast. We start and stop along Lafayette Avenue, avoiding potholes and broken glass, never getting much past 14 mph. Riding in a group has some advantages over riding solo. You can take a whole lane and the drivers [...]

BC Wilson covers the Norfolk cycling scene; the Critical Mass, a ghost bike ride, and Wes Cheney, the unofficial King of Norfolk’s Bicycle People.