Here’s the news that caught my eye this week:
– Hangzhou, China boasts the largest bike sharing system in the world, with 50,000 bicycles and strong integration with public transit.
– Bicycle transportation is hardly the proprietary realm of creative class residents of gentrified inner cities–in fact, bicycling has a rich heritage all over the globe, though that isn’t always reflected by outreach efforts, advocacy, and facilities locations in U.S. cities.
– While global consortia are unable to agree on approaches to climate change, cities around the world are tackling the problem, in part through promoting bicycling.
– Could it be true that a fifth of all crashes on city streets happen because of driveways? One researcher has found as much.
– In a Toronto public opinion poll, 72% of respondents were in favor of investing in separated cycletracks.
– Huntington Beach is now the first city in California to offer a diversion class for people given traffic tickets while riding bicycles.
– In Vancouver, B.C., they’re talking about the safety in numbers phenomenon–the more people riding bikes, the safer bicycling becomes.
– An intriguing look at a bikes-on-trains solution that was tested a couple of years ago in Seoul, South Korea, and a glimmer of hope for being able to roll your bike on board Amtrak trains.
– In India, a program to give free bicycles to girls helps them to complete their education.
– After being in a hit and run, a musician writes a bicycle commuter’s anthem and tours Canada singing it, by bike.
– A profile of randonneuring — that’s really, really, really long distance riding.
– In Denton, Texas, a lawn mowing business is run off of an intriguing electric bike setup.
– A how-to photo essay about something not to do, or maybe to do only in calmer waters: Bike rafting.
– Video of the week: A scintillating, behind the scenes look at the installation of those red pavement bike paths in the Netherlands.
Cycle Wild lead 15 cyclists to Milo McIver State Park for free camping (First Saturday of June) and CAKE! Great weather and great people. One cyclist’s absolute first time camping by bike!
“Huntington Beach is now the first city in California to offer a diversion class for people given traffic tickets while riding bicycles.”
Not your fault, since the LA Times got it wrong, but Huntington Beach is NOT the first California city to offer diversion classes to reduce fines from tickets given to people while bicycling.
Marin County has had a bicycle safety diversion class available for at least four years, probably longer: Marin County Bicycle Coalition | Traffic Citation Fee Reduction.
Last I checked, Marin is a COUNTY, not a CITY. Technically, Jonathan is still correct.
Geez dude, did you notice that I said the onus was on the LA Times, not Elly??
Last time I checked, traffic tickets everywhere go through county courts, the county/city distinction of who is offering the classes pretty much only a technicality. Props to Huntington Beach, for sure… just thought it was worth giving Marin a mention too.
We’re lucky enough to have roll-on Amtrak bike storage already: Amtrak Cascades.
The new trains will have 15 spots:
http://www.oregon.gov/ODOT/RAIL/docs/Passenger/Open_House/New_Talgo_Trains.pdf
If these schematics are right, then the bicycles will still be in the baggage car. 🙁
Thanks for sharing that L.A. Streets blog post… so important and entirely inspirational. (also makes me miss CA a bit, sniff sniff, even after 14 years of life in the NW!)
I’ve thought about bike rafting before… but my boat is a 2-person inflatable and pretty damn heavy for 1 person to carry once they get on the bike… I’d need to pack a trailer…
Really good article about the Euro-American-centrism of active transportation advocates! Thanks for highlighting it, Elly. I’m gonna have to start reading L.A.’s Streetsblog, since I’ve all but given up on NYC’s, which has become so pro-Bloomberg/Sadik-Khan, pro-gentrification, and anti-equity that one might easily mistake it for BikePortland.org.
I wish the article had gone more into the need to link transportation planning with housing and economic policies that promote equity and prevent displacement. In Portland, we only excel in creating “livable, walkable” communities for white, upper-middle-class residents, and we end up (whether inadvertently or by design) promoting policies that result in thousands upon thousands being moved farther out of the inner city or result in mass homelessness. That’s just not good enough, it’s not good at all, in my view.
What policies do we have that favor white people over minorities? I’m not aware of any. Individuals make these choices, not governments. There are poor people (you can apply racist labels to them if you want) that live near me in my “walkable” “bikeable” Hollywood neighborhood in apartments, and there are some that choose to live in car-dependent Gresham. I don’t see the problem here.
the developers, banks, real estate agents, and servicers who receive absurd sums from city coffers thank you for your support.
This is BikePortland. We are talking about bike projects, not TOD, the Pearl, or South Waterfront.
Then your comment was curiously off-topic.
Chris, you can read more about your specific question here and see the effects on diversity of Portland’s anti-equity policies in the recent census data . Go here for data about the decline of affordable housing stock in the central city. As of 2010, Oregon’s foreclosure rate was the 3rd highest in the nation. Meanwhile, wealthy property developers get tax credits and TIF money to build luxury housing developments like South Waterfront, where the originally planned affordable housing units were scaled way back because there was “no money,” even though there’s plenty of money for streetcars and cycling amenities that make the area more attractive to prospective residents who will can pay top dollar to live there. Just a few weeks ago, the PDC proposed cutting the required affordable housing allocation for the Rose Quarter in favor of business interests who will profit off redeveloping Memorial Coliseum. Urban renewal was conceived of as a way to benefit low-income inner-city residents; in our so-called “progressive” city it’s about clearing those residents out of the inner cities for the benefit of banks, real estate interests, and their investors. It has worked like a charm in Portland, which is why the number of people experiencing homelessness in Oregon has jumped 29% in the past two years.
What part of this sounds like “individual” choices, not government policies?
HB is home to PCH and Beach Blvd, sites of almost 30 pedestrian deaths in the past decade alone. Rather than give tickets to people riding bicycles, why not bring their city of high walls and wide thoroughfares down to people scale? I can say from experience living there that Orange County’s drivers are among the most aggressive and impatient I’ve encountered — a dangerous combination for anyone walking, biking or even being.
Woo Hoo! Thanks, Elly! Our 1200Km Randonnée, The Big Wild Ride, got passing mention in the NYT randonneuring article you linked to.
There were some real choices responses on this thread. It almost reminds my of cnn.com. llamas