travelogue from a local bike shop owner.
(Photo: Todd Fahrner)
Here’s the news that caught our eye this week:
– Pittsburgh has announced that the city’s transit service will be cut by a whopping 35%, eliminating 47 routes and leaving 15,000 riders without a bus to catch; an estimated 9,000 more cars are expected to be driven into the city daily.
– Researchers in Melbourne found that in the course of a study using helmet cameras in city traffic, the person in the car was at fault for 87% of the collisions and near-misses they observed.
– Don’t be jealous, but in Copenhagen they’re experiencing so much traffic congestion on their famous bikeways that they’re planning to heavily invest in bicycle superhighways.
– Buoyed by the successes of Minneapolis and Denver, New York City has set its sights on being the next major US city to embrace bike-sharing.
– Reports of the infamous recent “backlash” against NYC’s latest bike lanes were overstated, according to another reporter who was also there but didn’t originally deem an event with more press attendees than protesters worth writing about.
– Meanwhile, it looks like bicycling and livable streets are officially becoming a right wing talking point, though not in a way that bodes to serve anyone well.
– One year ago, a mainstream media professional and dad in Atlanta traded in his car for a bamboo bicycle and a downtown apartment and says it’s the best thing he’s ever done. The video that goes with the story is worth watching if just to see the conditions he cheerfully rides through every day.
– A bicycle advocate in Minnesota is recovering after a serious crash which made him, he says, much more determined than before.
– The newest and most determined bicycle advocate in Maryland is the mother of Natasha Pettigrew, the young Green Party candidate for Senate who was killed while riding her bike this fall. She took over her daughter’s candidacy and is now lobbying for a vehicular manslaughter law in the state.
– It’s hard not to get inspired by this epic read about a Portlander’s epic journey down the west coast by Brompton folding bike.
– From painting crosswalks to planting gardens to replacing benches, a slideshow of “guerrilla urban improvements” to public space around the world, with plenty of links for the DIY-curious.
– And finally, the video of the week: A German electronics store has devised a clever kind of DIY bike parking…
— If you love these links, you should follow @BikePortland on Twitter.