Here’s the news that caught our eyes this week:
– You have to make transit cool, says the organizer of a program in an exurban office park in San Ramon, California where a third of 30,000 workers choose not to drive to work.
– A new study is the latest to raise serious concerns about the health effects of spending time near freeways — in this case, the resulting pollution may cause brain damage.
– An update on the case of the man who allegedly attacked a Critical Mass ride in Porto Alegre, Brazil, and a look at efforts to improve the town’s bicycle infrastructure.
– One U.S. airline has announced that passengers with bicycles will pay only their standard $20 baggage fee rather than the hundreds of dollars in bike check fees charged by other airlines.
– Denton, Texas is the latest city in the U.S. to enact a law requiring that people on bikes be passed safely.
– In Maine, a proposed law would tax bicycles to pay for adding shoulders to roads.
– In Copenhagen, a whopping 35% of trips are taken by bike, but city officials won’t be content until that number goes up substantially — to half..
– A Norwegian study has found that bicycle helmets offer less protection than experts have long believed.
– A commentator from the U.K. chimes in on the helmet issue — he’s “pro-helmet, but anti-compulsion.”
– A look at a new bamboo growing and bike building collective in Alabama.
– Why do bicycles stay upright? A team of scientists has tackled this long-unconsidered question and come up with a surprising answer.
– A look at the design and ecology of New York’s famous street grid from the 1800s to today.
– Videos of the week: What happens when you give people in a small town 20,000 bikes? Also, is the real menace to society on two wheels…or one?