Intextication; more “resisting arrest”; slowing growth; failed bike lanes; the true cost of driving; coffeeshop on the Hawthorne; make your own bike bell
Time for the news roundup, folks:
– A bad sign for the bike economy? Trek has furloughed 300 employees from one of its plants.
– Is “intextication” the new drunk driving?
– Virginia has outlawed the cul de sac, saying all new subdivisions must have through streets.
– In Millville, Pennsylvania, three police officers caught themselves on video tackling a teenage woman from her bike and beating her in the course of pulling her over for riding on the sidewalk. She was convicted of resisting arrest and has now filed a civil suit.
– A group of PSU students had a class assignment that may have been inspired by Shift’s Breakfast on the Bridges event — design a coffeeshop for the lift span of the Hawthorne Bridge.
– The New York Times compares the costs of family car ownership and family bike ownership, with unsurprising results.
– Another city — Baltimore — has installed its first on-street bike parking corral.
– Portland area growth may be slowing with the down economy, reports the Oregonian, reducing some of the pressure on the region to accommodate all the housing and transportation needs of a flood of transplants.
– Check out some funny examples of absurdly failed bike infrastructure from the popular FailBlog, and contribute your own.
– Don’t want an ordinary bell for your bike? Check out this video by someone who made their own.
As always, feel free to add your own links, thoughts, and ideas in the comments below.
Thanks for reading.
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That’s old news on the cops beating the teen girl, but there is newer info on the resultant court case at http://www.thedailyjournal.com/article/20090129/NEWS01/901290305
I wonder if Trek having to furlough employees at a plant that makes road and mountain bikes (if by road bikes they mean what are essentially racing bikes) is an indicator that more people are looking at city bikes and cargo bikes instead of sport-focused bikes?
ingenious and nice sounding improvised bell but I hate to think what it might act like in a crash….I think it’d be like having a meat cleaver bolted to your bars.
The comments on the blog for the “girl beating” story are in some cases unintentionally amusing. On guy says the cops should deal with “the real problems, like wreckless motorists and drunk drivers” (sic)
Drunk drivers I understand, but I certainly don’t consider “wreckless” drivers to be a problem – more like a blessing. 😉
I spent a lot of time growing up in Virginia Beach, and the neighborhood was cul-de-sac central. There was only two roads that connected to the neighborhood, and both led to busy/dangerous arterials. It sucked, because it meant I couldn’t go *anywhere* outside my own neighborhood by myself. I had to be in a car.
@April
I grew up in Virginia Beach too, and at one point lived between Princess Anne and Sandbridge. I had a similar feeling of being stranded in my neighborhood. Once we hit Sandbridge Rd, there was nowhere else to go as the whole neighborhood was effectively a cul de sac in the middle of farm country.
My understanding of the Virginia article wasn’t that they outlawed the cul-de-sac. They are simply requiring that every subdivision connect to all adjacent subdivisions by at least one street. That way, you can move from subdivision to subdivision without using the arterials.
The bell design is not original. A similar design used to be offered at wallbike.com from a Scandanavian maker (Soreng, if I remember correctly). Gorgeous bells, finished finer than this example, but god-awful expensive. Good for this fellow for making one at home.