Hemispheres Magazine, the in-flight publication of United Airlines, features an article this month on the growing attraction and popularity of bike trails, greenways and cycling in general in cities throughout the United States.
The piece notes trends from usual suspects in the bike-friendly race (like Minneapolis, Boulder and Davis) and even mentions places you might not always hear about — like Southwest Missouri and North Carolina.
Here’s what the author, David Butwin, had to say about Portland,
Black Sheep.
(Photo © J. Maus()
“In bike-mad Portland, Oregon, an outfit called Shift [shifttobikes.org] runs an informal moving service not with fume-belching vans but with trailers pedaled by human beings. Once a month, volunteers serve breakfast to commuting cyclists on bridges over the Willamette River [Breakfast on the Bridges].”
Then, and I’m not sure where Mr. Butwin got this idea, he writes,
“Motorists in bike-loving Portland, Oregon, are no more than second-class citizens…Bike-through windows are a staple of Portland coffee bars, and one of the tastiest is the Black Sheep Bakery Cawffeeshop, by the Hawthorne Bridge [more on that here].”
Imagine, an inflight magazine writing that “an international car-free revolution is under way.” It’s just the latest sign that things are changing, not just around here, but around the world.
More validation for my newest mantra — cars are the new smoking.
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Read the article here.