The bikes won! (see first item for explanation)
Here’s the bike news from around the world that caught our eye this week:
– First, the fun news. LA’s much hyped freeway closure this weekend resulted in traffic free streets throughout the city — and a friendly, ad hoc race between contestants traveling across the city via plane and bicycle. The two wheeled racers won by nearly an hour and a half, followed closely by a transit rider who and then by a rollerblader who had joined the race at the last minute. This is all over the web. Read the tweets that started it here, the live-updated tale of the event here, a recap from the transit rider here, and an erudite recap and commentary here.
– Now for the bad news. In Marietta, Georgia, a woman whose child was killed in a hit and run by an impaired driver as they crossed the street has been convicted of vehicular homicide and may serve jail time — because they were not crossing in a crosswalk, though that stretch of road has no crosswalk in sight.
– Back in Los Angeles, the city’s proposed anti-harassment ordinance intended to make bicycling safer is gaining momentum, as is an ordinance that would create more and better bike parking.
– Toronto’s city council has voted to remove a bike lane from a major street and plans instead to install separated bike infrastructure elsewhere. (Anyone want to buy a lightly used bike lane, cheap?)
– Advocates in Virginia want bicycle rights written into the DMV manual and driver education.
– A New Yorker looks to Europe and tries to suss out why her city doesn’t fully embrace bicycling.
– In Cleveland, Ohio, the city’s growing bicycle movement now includes a bike tour company with a fleet of rental bikes.
– In Springfield, Illinois, Critical Mass gets praise.
– In New Haven, Connecticut, a free, social breakfast for morning commuters on the city’s main bike route has been running for five years.
– In Portland, a parable plays out about the consequences of tying bicycling with quality of life messages at the same time as gentrification is uprooting many communities.
– In London, the stereotype that bike sharing is only for wealthy, middle-aged white men is disputed by advocates who say most of the attendees of the city’s free classes for new bicyclists are young, immigrant women.
– A demographic look at who commutes how, where, and why.
– When a press car ran two Tour de France contestants off the road, injuring them, a U.S. sports commentator insisted repeatedly that the crash made him laugh, and then apologized but not really.
– A collection of excellent and terrible bike commute stories, for your browsing pleasure.
– And finally: Why Bicycle Quarterly isn’t a blog.