Ribbon cuttings, close calls with fame, Idaho Stops go viral, the importance of litter, Manifest Destiny, the bikestache
Your weekly news roundup, celebrity edition:
– Obama has announced a plan to invest billions of dollars into high speed passenger rail. The Oregonian’s editorial board, among others, wants more and faster.
– Last week, Obama also chose a ribbon cutting for a new highway expansion project to grace with his presence.
– The EPA has opened the door on regulating greenhouse gas emissions.
– So has Washington State, in a bill that also calls for transportation planning to reduce vehicle miles traveled.
– Jeffrey Totten, a Seattle man who suffered a traumatic brain injury after he hit a pothole while riding his bike, has won a $3.5 million settlement from the county.
– Elizabeth Hasselbeck is getting some publicity mileage from her good-humored commentary about a collision she experienced with a bike messenger as she stepped out to hail a cab in NYC. She’s fine.
– David Hembrow in the Netherlands discusses litter as a factor in our perceptions of the safety of bicycling.
– Browne Molyneux in L.A. also blogs about litter this week, calling it out as one of the inequities of her local bus system.
– BikePortland contributor Spencer Boomhower’s video explaining the concept of the Idaho Stop has been making waves on transportation blogs around the country and is approaching 10,000 views.
– Bike Snob NYC, in an ambivalent analysis of New York’s recent surge of bike friendly infrastructure, has this to say about separated bike lanes, aka cycletracks (like the one planned for Portland’s North Park Blocks):
The other thing they clearly didn’t account for is that non-cyclists would also annex these protected bike lanes. It’s like the sidewalk is the 19th century United States, the new bike lane is the western frontier, and suddenly all the pedestrians have been smitten by Manifest Destiny.
– And last, as well as least: The Bikestache is now available at an online retailer near you.