Here are the stories of the past week we deem worthy of your attention...

— The comments made over the weekend by Washington State Representative Ed Orcutt (R-Kalama) have become a national news story. Orcutt is the high-ranking rep who believes that bicycling isn't environmentally friendly because it causes people to breathe more heavily which results in increased C02 emissions.

— Did you know the co-founder of the Bicycle Transportation Alliance (BTA) and former Metro Councilor Rex Burkholder is now blogging?

— The competitiveness of light rail — versus bicycling or driving — as a mode choice is a growing question in the planning field. A recent study shows that we should, "caution against expecting major long-term reductions in road congestion after the creation of a light rail system."
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Let's get right to it shall we? Here are the best news stories and other tidbits we came across last week...

- The North American Handmade Bicycle Show wrapped up yesterday from a snowed-in Denver, Colorado. It looks like builders once again pushed the boundaries of bike design to even greater heights. Check the coverage at the show's official YouTube channel, lots of photos on Urban Velo, and some short but sweet builder profiles on the Cielo Cycles blog.

- A lot has been hypothesized about why American women ride bikes are lower rates than men. New research, dissected by Atlantic Cities, says that the main key to getting women on bikes is to simply make streets safer to ride on.

- The Columbia School of Journalism took a closer look at a women-only bike shop in Minneapolis. (more...)

Lookin' good Al Roker.

Welcome to our time-honored Monday morning tradition of rounding up the week's bike and transportation news...

- Aspen, Colorado is poised to be the latest city to enact the "Idaho-style" stop sign law for people riding bicycles.

- If you're a parking policy wonk, you've got to be encouraged that the scourge of free parking was part of the dialogue when a major storm approached the Northeast.

- The venerable BBC weighed in on "why cyclists enrage car drivers." Their theory? "Motorists hate cyclists because they think they offend the moral order." And of course you must read the rebuttal by Carlton Reid on IPayRoadTax.com. (more...)

Rockstar invests in racing in Red Hook.
(Image via NY Times)

We start off our best-of-the-web recap today with several stories about car ownership and car culture...

— It seems to be getting more and more expensive to own a car. A few weeks back we shared that the annual cost of ownership had passed $10,000 (in Canada), now this week comes news that the price of gas accounts for the largest shared of household income in 30 years.

— And if that's not enough, a study from the Texas A&M Transportation Institute found that America loses $121 billion in wasted time and fuel from sitting in traffic: That's an average of $848 per capita (not to mention the dire environmental impacts).

— And to make matters worse, another new study has found that when you fill up at a local gas station, a whopping 66% of your cash goes to oil company coffers, "while very little of the remaining cash goes into the local economy."
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Welcome to your weekly roundup of the best bike stories on the web...

— Big news from Colorado this morning: According to the Denver Post, the bike ban in the small town of Black Hawk has been overturned by the Colorado Supreme Court.

— It was a big week for cyclocross in America with Louisville hosting the 2013 World Championships. A Wall Street Journal piece declared the event, "The Other (Cooler) Super Bowl." From what I heard, the weather was severe, but the crowds were undeterred. If you missed the action, catch replays over at VeloNews.com.

— And just how bad can things get for Lance Armstrong? Across the pond they're wondering whether everyone who bought his "It's not about the bike" book should get a refund. "It wasn't about the bike, after all."

— Have you heard the rumors that President Obama might pick Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa for US DOT Secretary? Well, Villaraigosa says it's not going to happen (at least until the end of June).

— This is pretty sweet. A 10-year old boy from Newport Beach, California has started a bike-based recycling business.

— A lot of folks in the advocacy world are wondering how to more effectively connect health issues to active transportation. If you're one of them, there's a new page on the Federal Highway Administration website that might be worth checking out.

— This Daily Beast article asks a very good question: Where are the Bicycles in Post-Apocalyptic Fiction?

— San Francisco continues to make noise about their ambition new bike plan. Unfortunately it's largely unfunded (sound familiar?).

— If you're a fan of the Lovely Bicycle blog, you'll be happy to know that Ms. Constance Winters is now writing the "Upright Citizen" blog on Bicycling.com.

— One way to improve bicycling that is relatively inexpensive and not too ambitious is to make neighborhood streets nicer to bike on. It's great to see that concept continue to spread as our friends in Pasadena, California get set to enjoy their first bicycle boulevard.

— Fat biking is set for a big year. If you haven't thought much about it yet, this story from KATU is a good primer.

— Here's a fun one from pseudo-news site NewsBiscuit: Cyclists furious as council paint everything else luminous green.

— Has anyone tried this Lovetrack iPhone app (video below)? It looks pretty nifty. Sort of like Strava but more visual and for around-town rides instead of serious training rides.

Lovetrack from Lovetrack on Vimeo.

We round up the best bike-inspired things we find on the web each Monday. If you'd like to share something you come across, drop us a line and we'll give it a look. For more great bike links, be sure to follow @BikePortland on Twitter.

It costs over $10,000 (Canadian) per year to own a car.
(Source: Price Tags)

Quite a lot of news to get to this morning, so let's get started...

— We've heard the push for hi-vis clothing before, and we know that it sometimes crosses the line into victim-blaming. Well, police in Columbus, Ohio have taken it to a new level. After someone was struck while riding their bike, police said, "the driver will not be charges (sic) because the person on the bike was not wearing a reflective vest."

— On the other side of the equation, a U.K. transportation blogger feels that the inclination for bike advocates to wear neon jackets actually hurts their cause. (more...)

D.C.'s protected bike lanes aren't protected from
people parking illegally.
(Photo: Who's Blocking the L St. Bike Lane Today?)

Happy Monday everyone. Welcome to our weekly cheat-sheet of all the noteworthy bike news and stories published last week. If you've fallen behind on your reading, first check out last week's BikePortland headlines and then scroll down for stories from around the web that caught our eyes...

— The 92nd annual meeting of the Transportation Research Board — known as the Super Bowl for transpo wonks — is going on right now. Follow the big ideas and get links to coverage via the #TRBAM hashtag on Twitter.

— The always-interesting (and increasingly active transportation focused) writer Tom Vanderbilt took a deep dive into D.C.'s Capital Bikeshare system for Slate to uncover its genesis and components of its success. A must-read for city planners and bike share boosters as well as skeptics.

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Good thing that barrier was there!

After a few weeks off for the holidays, it's time to get back into rounding up the best bike news and stories around the web...

— Has Chicago taken two steps forward and one step back? Grid Chicago reports that the Chicago Department of Transportation plans to convert a stretch of protected bike lanes on Independence Blvd to buffered bike lanes after receiving complaints from neighborhood leaders.

— Speaking of protected bike lanes, this photo of a van on the Flushing Ave lanes in Brooklyn, NY pretty much sums up their safety benefits.

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Let's get started shall we? Here's the news and stories that caught our eyes this past week...

— So what really happened in terms of transportation behavior in New York after Sandy? The Rudin Center at NYU has released results of a survey. One takeaway: "Walking and biking commuters were, on average, the least frustrated."

— Some people wonder why I'm so impatient to redesign streets and improve access for bicycling. Here's part of the reason: Twice in the past few weeks I've heard of people being killed on sections of streets that were planned for traffic calming or other changes, but for some reason the changes had been stalled or rejected. One in New York City, the other in Redwood City, CA. Tragic and avoidable.

— Cars or people? League of American Bicyclists Policy Director Darren Flusche continues the important conversation about performance standards and how we choose to measure success of streets.

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Welcome to Monday. Hope you enjoyed the holiday. Let's get right back to it shall we?

— The big news (just hit this morning) is that Mayor of Toronto Rob Ford — a bike hater who will live in infamy for ripping out a bike lane — was removed from office for improprieties surrounding a conflict of interest case.

— We've had 15 stolen bike listed since Thanksgiving, so you might want to check out this solid roundup of bike locks as shared by the Brisbane police department.

— Speaking of bike thieves, did you see what happened to the guy in Ft. Lauderdale who got caught stealing a $600 bike? A serious beatdown.

— Last week I shared a link to a story picked up by media outlets all over the world saying how the "cycling utopia" of Amsterdam had become choked with bicycles and that it was "a big problem." Well, it turns out that's not exactly the case, at least according to the Bicycle Dutch blog. Read their breakdown of what's actually going on. (more...)