The Monday Roundup

Greenspace in inner Portland is
good for our health and our air.
(Photo: Esther Harlow in the
BikePortland.org Flickr Photo Pool.)

Hold on to your seats folks, here’s your Monday Roundup…

• A new study in California has found that more people are killed by the effects of polluted air than by car crashes. The study tallies the cost to society of dirty air at $28 billion a year.

• A Netherlands-based cycling research organization is concerned that bicycles are disappearing from Asia as cities and roads are increasingly planned around cars and motorcycles.

• The Mercury’s Sarah Mirk was doored while biking up Glisan and tells a good story about it on their blog.

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• NPR did an in-depth story on Queens, New York-based bike maker, Worksman Cycles.

• An audio documentary explores ghost bikes specifically, and Portland bike culture generally. Features an interview with Tracey Sparling’s aunt, Susie Kubota.

• Meanwhile in Portland, the Tribune reports: “City Ties Economy to Green Leadership.”

• The front page feature story in Sunday’s Oregonian profiles a low-income family who live in a “food desert” — an area in Northeast Portland where there is literally nowhere affordable to buy food unless you own a car. Many families get by shopping at convenience stores which don’t carry produce, or, like this one, taking monthly bus trips to the Winco in Clackamas County.

• Worldchanging reports on a study that finds a correlation between good health and living within walking distance of a park. “Creating equal access to green space is clearly an environmental justice issue,” writes Sarah Kuck.

• NPR suggests that the “Age of American Consumerism May Be Over,” emphasizing that “nowhere is the blow to consumption more evident than in the auto industry.”

• David Goldberg at Worldchanging writes about an Australian professor’s research into the considerable savings municipalities enjoy when they build and plan around people rather than cars.