DIY bikeway infrastructure from Guadalajara.
-Watch video below-
Here’s the news that caught our eye last week…
– From the misguided to the punitive, proposals for anti-bicycle legislation have come fast out of the gate in 2011, from the quickly shot down plan in Oregon to ban children from being carried by bicycle to an equally short lived New Jersey proposal to require bicycle license plates to an enraged demand for mandatory bike registration in New York City.
– Plenty of people bike right through the snowiest parts of winter. A story from Portland, Maine, and tips from the midwest show how it’s done.
– An in-depth look at the City of Lights program in LA, which reaches out to the city’s immigrant population with free bike lights and education.
– A recent study found racial disparities in health—which may be correlated with disparities in the availability of livable communities and active transportation.
– Another lawsuit has been filed against a police department for violence against Critical Mass participants, this time in Los Angeles. The cell phone camera footage of the incident survived the phone being smashed to the ground and stepped on.
– In Santa Cruz, a bike lane intersects with a set of railroad tracks, and the debate about how to handle the situation—or not—is on.
– On the national front, bike advocates met with the U.S. transportation secretary and are forming a new coalition in an effort to build up lobbying efforts in a potentially less-friendly (or maybe not) legislative climate.
– An interview with the doctor who discovered that while riding a bicycle the symptoms of Parkinson’s disease temporarily disappear.
– As states increasingly struggle to maintain and expand their road infrastructure, a survey shows that Pacific Northwest residents would prefer not to pay higher gas taxes, tolls, or other fees.
– A professional boxer has been killed while riding in London, adding fuel to the discussion of how to handle the city’s many bicycle-truck collisions.
– Also in the UK, signs will soon allow people on bicycles to ride in either direction on a one way street.
– If you have it in you to wade through dense paragraphs of opaque prose peppered liberally with historical upper crust British name checks, I think that what you’ll find here boils down to a dismissive indictment of London’s bike sharing system.
– During the last oil crisis, children were required to ride bikes…on school field trips, according to this collection of old photos.
– Could wearing regular clothing while riding have a traffic calming effect?
– Video of the week: In Guadalajara, five kilometers of beautiful new bike infrastructure spring up overnight — no thanks to the government…