Here’s the news we came across last week. Thanks to everyone who sent us links and tips.
– President Obama has signed an order prohibiting federal employees from sending text messages while driving.
– You can now download your own copy of Robert Moses’ 89 page plan for Portland’s transportation future, drawn up in 1943 with its famous plan for a network of inner-city freeways.
– The new bikesharing scheme in Dublin has run into an unexpected snag — it’s too popular. The hope was to achieve 5,000 subscribers in the first year; instead 11,000 signed up in the first two weeks.
– Few in Israel drive during the Yom Kippur holiday, celebrated last week. A radio story tells how the day turns into an impromptu celebration of bicycling, particularly for children.
– The national Distracted Driving Summit was last week, and you can find the proceedings (including video) here. Coverage includes notes and reflections on the culture of driving and some interesting technology-based proposals that are on the table. Even Fox News noticed the summit.
– A long, interesting essay calls on bicycle advocates to steer away from the all-too-common strategy of promoting bicycling only by talking about about fear, danger, and injustice. (And there’s an interesting discussion of the article going on at BikeForums.net.)
– Sarah Mirk at the Mercury thinks we should make bicycling so normal it’s boring, and tells us how.
– An article about employers who provide free bikes to encourage employees to ride to work profiles a brewery in Ashland, Oregon that had 17 workers sign up.
– The Oregonian has a write-up of local small businesses that operate by bike, or even on bikes.
– An update on the Saratoga Springs bike-to-school ban; one family continues to ride in protest, the school district may reconsider the policy.
– Bike industry leaders are increasingly stepping up to ask politicians to support bicycle infrastructure.
– Bike blogs (including this one) are included in an interesting roundup of uses of social media to make cities safer.
– Mikael Colville-Anderson of the blog Copenhagenize is on tour in the US (he’ll be in Portland soon) and has posted some really enticing photos of New York City’s new bike infrastructure.
– Forbes Magazine profiles the force behind much of this new infrastructure, NYC Transportation Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan.
– The pedestrianization of a popular shopping street in Madrid has turned out to be great for, well, shopping.
– The Believer has published a history of the automobile, particularly of car salesmen, that reads like a eulogy.
– The Streetsblog network recently compiled photos of bike traffic from all over the country. For their next slideshow they are seeking “photos of cars hogging space in your communities — graphic examples of how they crowd out other users.”
– An LA photographer has an exhibit coming up consisting of portraits of 100 Angelenos who live carfree.