Each week we will be focusing on blogs from around the world dealing specifically with urban environments. We’ll be on the lookout for websites outside the country that approach themes related to urban experiences and issues.

• UPDATE: For more on New York City's bike lane woes, check out: How one New York bike lane could affect the future of cycling worldwide (The Guardian), Battle of the Bike Lanes (The New Yorker), John Cassidy vs bipeds (Reuters).

• Michigan Governor Rick Snyder's Local School District and Fiscal Accountability Act allows state-appointed emergency managers to seize control of local governments in financial emergencies to renegotiate contacts, terminate collective bargaining agreements, close schools and dissolve or reorganize governments and districts. As Slate discovers this power is not unprecedented.

• Twenty-first century airports have a life of their own. As John Kasarda and Greg Lindsey explain in Aerotropolis, if Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport were to become its own country, its annual workforce and user base would make it the twelfth most populous nation on Earth. BLDGBLOG has an interview with the authors.

• MIT's CoLab Radio has an interesting post on the economic benefits of bicycle parking as compared with car parking. The Australian study found that while drivers tend to spend more than their two-wheeled counterparts, the small space requirements for bike parking generate more efficient economic returns.

Image from Andrew Hinderaker, courtesy of Transportation Alternatives, via Streetsblog New York City

Do you have a World Wide Wednesday worthy article you'd like to share? Send the link to www@spacing.ca