The Monday Roundup

The Hawthorne during Bridge
Pedal. To the NY Times, this is
a solution to congestion
on the Brooklyn Bridge.
(Photo © J. Maus)

A lot of bikes in the news this week — and plenty of other transportation news as well.

– A smart and inspiring New York Times op-ed calls attention to the “war” created by forcing people to bike and walk together on the relatively narrow Brooklyn Bridge walkway, and calls for a separated bike path on the car deck.

– An op-ed in the London Times this week calls for the British government to make cycling “dull” and criticizes the much-touted new “cycling superhighways” for not being particularly good for cycling on.

– Streetsblog has the best analysis I’ve seen yet of who pays what for roads, positing that the almost complete lack of direct cost for using the highway system is what causes freeway congestion and low ridership on facilities (like transit) that are less subsidized and must charge fees.

– A highway expansion project in Wisconsin looks to be nearing an early demise, after a judge found its environmental impact assessment lacking.

– Some interesting inside baseball from Streetsblog about the politics of federal transportation funding under LaHood (who has recently praised NY’s great strides in sustainable transport).

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– Scientific American says if you want to get more people bicycling on the roads, look to women and focus on what they want — “safety and utility,” according to PSU’s Jennifer Dill, whose studies the article cites.

– A World Bank working paper emphasizes the importance of transportation in the struggle for gender equality worldwide.

– Boise’s Kristin Armstrong, who won the gold last week in Olympic cycling time trials, was interviewed about how to improve conditions for cycling in Boise — she’d like to see safer infrastructure, like in Europe.

– A Swedish study has found that the noise generated by car traffic contributes significantly to risk factors for heart disease and strokes.

– Time Magazine writes about what might be a bike renaissance in Detroit (the topic might sound familiar).

– Parade Magazine highlights Columbia, Missouri as an up and coming bicycle friendly city. The mayor rides a bike and he’s led the city to participate in a pilot program for funding bicycle infrastructure, including lanes and corrals.

– Oregon’s DJC covers the new buffered bike lanes on far SE Holgate.

– The Mercury’s Sarah Mirk has a nice feature out this week on Portland’s “Dead Freeway” history and how our relative lack of inner city freeways has made the city what it is.

– Portland mayor Sam Adams has declared a war on potholes… but some local media see it a bit differently.

– Just in time for last week’s World Carfree Day — the winners of the first International Car Cartoon Contest have been announced. Here’s another one in the same vein.

– Smartypants culture/lit blog Making Light has challenged the public to take a photo every 50 feet along their bike commute and post to flickr with the tag “bikecommute.”