There was a lot of news this week. We broke it down by region.
National news
– The $3 billion federal Cash for Clunkers program has been slightly hard on used car dealerships, but is great for auto salvagers, con artists, people who couldn’t previously afford to get an SUV, and new car manufacturers, particularly ones in Asia. The program has, however, helped catch one hit and run perpetrator.
– One major car company claims its new electric vehicle gets 230 mpg on short trips; one news source points out it would only get 62.5 on longer ones.
– Check out this Kafka-esque saga in Los Angeles — when residents protested a plan to remove bike lanes from a major thoroughfare, LADOT claimed that no such plan had ever existed.
Local news
– Starting in January, you’ll have to pay full fare for a short bus ride in downtown Portland — transit agency TriMet has decided to limit its downtown fareless square to light rail and streetcar rides only.
– Portlanders had a chance to test various bikesharing programs this weekend (Jonathan demo’d bikes from all the vendors and he’ll post a full report with photos soon); Boston may become the first US city to implement such a system on a large scale.
– A visitor to Portland is alarmed by the high cost of used bikes here, and does some comparative research.
Around the region
– Bicycle transportation is becoming politically viable in Washington County (the mayor of Tigard likes his electric bike so much that he started an online e-bike store) and looks likely to get a further, major boost from Metro’s active transportation initiatives.
– Public works crews in Eugene will increase the clean-up of leaves in the city’s bike lanes this fall.
– Bend is the Oregon city with the most bicycle fatalities in 2008.
– August 19th is a banner day for train travelers — you’ll now be able to take the train all the way from Portland to Vancouver, BC, without staying in Seattle overnight or switching to a bus.
Around the world
– Auto pollution is the prime culprit in the unbelievable 70% incidence of respiratory disease among residents of Calcutta.
– A man in Britain has been jailed, and faces a year-long ban on driving for causing a fatality while on his bicycle when he ran down an elderly man who was walking.
– The nation of Samoa is planning a controversial transition from driving on the right to driving on the left, so Tom Vanderbilt treats us to a comprehensive history of road directionality around the world.
– The world’s longest bike tunnel has been built in the Basque region.
– In Australia, one woman is on a crusade to fight her country’s all-ages helmet law.
– A couple of fun, inspiring links: Want to fix yourself up a Dutch style ride without buying an imported bike? Here’s what it takes. And here’s the story of a couple bike punks on a tallbike tour of Indonesia.
Thanks for reading.
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Howdy–
I’ll be moving to Oregon in a couple of weeks, so I was startled to read that 21 people died in one Oregon town. I spent a couple months this summer in Corvallis, and Oregon cycling seemed pretty safe (even in Corvallis, cited as having the highest bicycle/car collision rate in the state).
So I clicked on the link to get the details. Actually, two people died in Bend that year (still too many, but much better). 21 cyclists were injured in collisions with cars.
Happy Trails,
Ron Georg
Moab, UT
(for now)
Sorry about that, Ron. I was reading too quickly — ugh. Edited the story.
Thanks for the link to the tallbikes story on Bikejuju. BikePortland RULES!
The ‘… world’s longest bike tunnel has been built in the Basque region.’ item was worth a read. Never read any to speak of over on the blog Copenhagenize, but besides this story, it had links for some great, other tunnel related project stories; one in Bath, England and another in Norway…I think…that would be a free-standing plexiglass structure to address the issue of fierce winds that discourage biking there.
The Basque tunnel is, of course, a converted formal railway tunnel. Given the image the pics present, the idea of riding a half mile or more through something like that seems creepy to me. Still, to be able to make the trip to the other side of the city easily by bike must be hugely worthwhile.
This is something sorely lacking in our area for people on bikes needing to commute daily between Portland and points west of the Sylvan hill.
If we could convice Trimet that they need an emergency tunnel for the MAX line we just might be able get use of it as a cycle path during non-emergencies.
The video on making a Dutch style bike was interesting in that besides the fact they don’t like to wear helmets when riding, they apparently don’t like using goggles when cutting metal with a high speed disc cutter. Now that’s scary!
note the hit and run in arizona the guy is not charged with manslaughter, just leaving the scene and tampering with evidence (both felonies, but not homicide).
“”If we could convice Trimet that they need an emergency tunnel for the MAX line we just might be able get use of it as a cycle path during non-emergencies.”””
LOL!!LOL!!
Re; Trimets limiting elimination of fareless square to buses only… . There was a letter to the editor in todays O, that soundly criticized the transit agencies for its decision limiting elimination of the fareless square to buses only; detailing how this would relegate bus riders further into the second class status their mode of transport already bears compared to MAX, WES and the streetcar. The O’s unweildly Oregonlive website refused to let me locate the letter to post a link to it here.
Trimet made a number of fabulous claims about how much the bus riding experience for passengers would improve if every person riding were obliged to pay whenever, wherever they rode; they more or less said, as ‘pc’ as possible: lots fewer people riding the bus to do drug deals, and a lot fewer homeless people that can’t take a bath everyday, riding the bus.
I think the cost of street drugs is probably going to go up…just a little bit…to adjust for bus fare expenditures. Don’t know what homeless people might have do to deal with the situation.
– “when he ran down an elderly man who was walking.”
“ran down” ???
poor choice of words…you run down someone in a car, not a bicycle…is this the oregonian? sheesh
Anonymous-
Why do you “run down” a person in a car, and not on a bike? Seems to me that term suggests it was done purposefully, not by any particular means. What if it had been a motorcycle? Scooter? Scooters above 50cc and below? Where does the line get drawn?
Monday roundup item:
“- In Australia, one woman is on a crusade to fight her country’s all-ages helmet law.”
In all the discussions here on bikeportland and through some looking around on my own on the web, I’ve never been able to learn why Australia felt compelled to, using the words of cycle_helmets.com website, “…impose uniform national mandatory bicycle helmet legislation…”. It’s also hard to learn how the legislation managed to pass. It must have had sufficient support to pass at one time.
Reading from this article and others in past, Australian citizens really, really don’t like the law. If you can believe statements made, studies conducted, aussies just quit riding with implementation of the law. Wonder why then, the law isn’t just dropped. If they really have been down, the numbers of people riding would probably pick up again…a lot of people would then probably make their own choice to wear the helmet.
The legislation was probably a secret petroleum industry agenda item…(tell the suckers they have to wear a bike helmet in Australia’s hot climate, and just watch..they’ll throw the bike in garage, buy gas and drive the car instead!)