Helmetless in the holy land, mountain bikes in Seattle, two-wheeled EMTs, carfree babies, how women park, Caribbean cargo trikes, and royal disapproval
Here’s the news that caught our eye this week:
– “There were just too many cars for the system,” was how an ODOT representative explained the worst car traffic backups that Portland has ever seen after an unexpected weekday afternoon snowstorm last week left 4 inches of snow on the ground just in time for the evening commute.
– Distracted driving is the new drunk driving, and a growing number of states are joining the charge led by new transpo sec’y LaHood to curb all manner of driving while texting and talking on the phone — though few are even discussing a crackdown on hands-free cell phone use.
– Communities across the US are starting to follow Virginia’s lead in eliminating cul-de-sac development. This article makes the case for why grid streets are safer and less of a drain on municipal resources and public goods.
– Israel is one of the few countries in the world with a mandatory, all-ages helmet law for bicycling. The government is considering legislation that would allow helmetless riding within cities.
– Portland could learn a lot from Seattle’s urban mountain bike skills park that lives happily under one of its freeways.
– A town in England has been successfully experimenting with a team of bicycle-mounted paramedics.
– A blogger has unearthed a decade-old Chinese language bike map for Toronto, and urges cities to look at their demographics and produce more multi-lingual materials.
– Why drive — or bike — when you can walk, asks the Oregonian’s editorial board in a moment of clarity.
– A San Francisco man spent a year without getting in a car, and lived to blog about it.
– You don’t need a car to have a baby, says this Portland couple, shown here getting a pedicab ride home from the hospital with their newborn.
– Ever wondered what the street in front of your house or school or office or business would be like without cars for a day? Here’s a primer for how to make that happen, recently re-published on the web.
– Take a ride into the little-explored world of the gendered psychology of parking.
– Our colleagues over at Bike Rumor took a cruise through the Caribbean and documented the bikes and bike culture they found there.
– In the category of things to read online instead of working today, we present to you the tour diary of two young women who biked halfway across the country in the late 1940s.
– Video of the week: Prince Charles expresses dismay at car-oriented development.