Safety in numbers; gas taxes; electric bikes; child safety; parking; moving house.
– The stats are in: Car culture is on the decline, according to an analysis in Esquire Magazine by Nate Silver of FiveThirtyEight.com. Silver developed a regression model that shows that the past year’s decline in driving is not entirely due to unemployment and high gas prices.
– The New York Times has published a must-read profile of new transportation secretary Ray LaHood, and the Infrastructurist has responded with an excellent analysis of what this means for the future of the transportation department and of sustainable transportation.
– After a crash caused by a Boston trolley operator who was sending text messages while driving, Boston’s MTA drivers and operators will from here on out be forbidden to even have a cell phone in their possession while aboard their vehicles.
– The Safety in Numbers paradigm continues to gain ground, with a recent UK study concluding that in cities where more people ride bikes, cycling is in fact safer.
– Facing insurmountable opposition in the legislature, Idaho’s governor has given up his mission to raise the state’s gas tax.
– The Oregonian has an interesting article about farmers and new urban residents rubbing elbows as the Urban Growth Boundary expands in Forest Grove.
– Chris Smith of PortlandTransport.com test-rides an e-bike for his commute to Wilsonville and asks “Are electric bikes active transportation?”
– A new book, Free Range Kids, takes on myths and hysteria about child safety, pointing out that the number one cause of death for children in the United States is car crashes — the author points out that a child’s chances of being killed in a crash while being driven to school is 40 times the probability of being abducted by a stranger while walking.
– The bike move revolution is spreading. Inspired by a video about a bike move in Portland, a couple in Longmont, Colorado decided to move five miles by bike, heavily supported by borrowed cargo bikes, and got some nice press.
– StreetFilms’ latest movie showcases the mother of all bike parking facilities, in Brazil. Seventeen hundred users a day pay $5 a month, and the perks are pretty sweet.