EU transportation plan draws fire; Cash for Clunkers rolls on; kids are losing freedom to roam; $20/gallon gas; septuagenarian smashes cars in China; blog news; cool stuff.
– Oregon land use officials have voted unanimously against adding environmental protection to the state’s list of land use goals.
– After hard lobbying by the governor (and by Mayor Sam Adams), Portland is set to receive $2.4 billion in federal funds for building and promoting electric cars, as well as winning a contract with a major overseas car company to test its new electric product, beginning in fall 2010.
– Toyota has reported a $819 million loss in the last quarter.
– The European Commission has released its vision for the future of transportation in Europe, beginning in 2010, with a focus on technology and integration of modes. Environmental groups are already applying pressure to increase the plan’s focus on sustainability.
– Local media is still processing the Cash for Clunkers program — Sarah Mirk at the Mercury is pissed off, Leslie Carlson at BlueOregon thinks it should include bikes.
– A new sociological study reports that since 1929 children have gained considerable freedom (ie, in self-expression, chores) inside the home, but have become extremely restricted in their activities and movement outside of the house.
– Forbes has run a column positing that $20/gallon gas will make us “skinnier, safer.”
– In China, a 74 year old man has taken to “smashing cars” with a brick whenever someone runs the red light at a pedestrian crossing near his home. He’s posted a manifesto and gained a good deal of press. The Beijing Times interviewed him, and it’s well worth reading.
– Remember the firefighter in Asheville, NC who shot a guy in the head because he was angry with him for riding on the road with his kid? Murder charges have been dropped, leaving him to face a felony assault charge with a possible 20 – 25 months in prison.
– Here in Portland, on-street parking downtown is no longer free on Sundays.
– Like Portland, Chicago is experiencing setbacks trying to get a bike sharing system up and rolling.
– Vancouver, BC has put a hold on one of its major weekly carfree street fairs.
– Boston.com “reports” that people on bicycles don’t follow the rules of the road. Much commentary ensues.
– Baltimore, Maryland (we’ve covered their burgeoning bike scene) has its first ghost bike after a right hook fatality.
– Bus Chick, a Seattle columnist, has one major complaint about being carfree with a young child. The problem? Carseat logistics when they use rental cars or catch rides with friends.
– A Portland blogger has some suggestions for Amtrak on streamlining its processes for allowing bikes on board.
– A reporter from Vancouver, BC write a glowing feature about Portland’s bike-friendliness.
– A design student is getting set to produce a folding bike that collapses down to the size of one of its wheels.
– Worry about forgetting your bike lights, running out of batteries, all that? Check out this light-up bike frame.
Thanks for reading.
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Wow! – That was a depressing round-up… Electric cars? Really? They still steal public spaces, and use a lot of fossil fuel – we just don’t have to deal with that directly.
Kudos to Yan Zheng-ping, though!
Re; the chinese smasher of motor vehicles whose drivers are stoplight scofflaws;
““You look – the 6 people who died on zebra crossings in Lanzhou in the past half year didn’t make major news. Yet when I smash cars, it becomes huge news. Is this because the lives of those six people are not as significant as me smashing cars?”
Isn’t there something about that statement that sounds familiar to complaints frequently heard in our own area from non motor vehicle driving road users?
Venturing to be a bit facetious in saying so, I think Yan Zheng-ping’s effort..is art. By the way, a bit of advice to him…he should wear gloves when he handles bricks. Much easier on the fingers.
Re; the Asheville, NC fireman gun fool; Wouldn’t it have been interesting to sit in on the grand jury that decided to drop the murder charge? Despite his having come dangerously close to killing someone, they probably had to conclude that he didn’t actually intend to kill the father, but rather…just scare him. Great.
Is this the kind of person anyone could depend upon to help to put out a fire? ‘Lets see…nope..shouldn’t have been using candles for light when the house has electricity…just let it burn for awhile…that’ll teach em’!
Regarding the situation in Asheville, grand juries often do not indict law enforcement officers because District Attorneys do not pursue these indictments aggressively. It’s a “professional courtesy” of sorts which has apparently been extended to firefighters as well.
Having visited China and somehow avoided getting killed crossing the street for a whole week, I sympathize with the old man. Nobody follows the traffic signals — in fact, you put yourself in danger by doing so. The taxis I rode in would actually slow down at green lights, because they weren’t sure of what was coming the other way. It amazes me that a country whose citizens are used to such strict centralized control over their lives tolerates such utter lawlessness on their streets. I believe it’s not a coincidence. The higher-ups in the government decided that it was more important to encourage the explosion of personal car consumption than it was to worry about safety, and as a result, the traffic death rate is about 75,000/year (a grossly undercounted official estimate).
Worldwide 1.2 million people a year die from car crashes, more than all murders and wars combined, yet no great movement is afoot to do anything about it that would inconvenience anybody who drives.
Re; the Asheville, NC fireman gun fool; 1st degree attempted murder:
Proving guilt for 1st degree murder requires PREMEDITATION. He might have been an idiot, he might have been an angry redneck incapable of controlling his fits of rage but this was not a premeditated attempt at murder with a specifically intended target.
If anyone was complicit in protecting this fireman it was the prosecutor; he set up his case for failure when he chose the charge.
[insert joke about duplicitous lawyers here]
Boston has traffic laws?
The Oregonian article points out that only a portion of the $2.4B is for Oregon — about $40M, plus an unknown portion of a third grant, plus the Nissan plug-in program.