Hope everyone had a great long weekend. Check out the links below for the news that caught my eye this past week…
— It’s rare for the Surgeon General of the United States to get so personal, but last week Dr. Regina M. Benjamin told a packed house at a hair convention in Atlanta that good health is more important than bad hair (an African-American woman standing next to a bicycle was the lead photo in the story).
— Curious about e-bikes? Here’s a different way to go about it: Put the power in a trailer with the RideKick Motorized Bicycle Trailer. I checked these out at Interbike last year and noticed a comprehensive review by local eco-blog Earth Techling.
— On the same topic, a company in Switzerland is offering Alps tours by e-bike.
— As the City and the BTA prep Portland for a bike-sharing system, Washington DC’s Capital Bikeshare continues to win fans. A Washington Post opinion column called it one of the regions “biggest recent success stories.” Here’s my favorite line: “Building roads or trains is expensive, while growing CaBi (usually pronounced “cabbie”) is one of the cheapest ways we have to quickly improve mobility.”
— Also from D.C., a rare case of bike-by shooting.
— This short video below shows a very young Steve Jobs (co-founder and former CEO of Apple) waxing on about how inefficient humans are at propelling themselves when compared to other animals. Put us on a bicycle however, and we’re off the charts. With that analogy, he shares that, “Computers are like bicycles for our minds.”
— Wired.com had an interesting Q&A with Mark Gorton, the dot-com pioneer who finances the Streetsblog network. Turns out Gorton and I have very similar ideas about cars and their impact on cities. Gorton believes they do more harm than good and he calls on planners to do more to discourage them.
— A new mobile app helps people in San Francisco find a car parking spot and looks to decrease time spent driving around the block a bunch of times. I think it’s just trading one problem for another.
— Here’s another video worth a look from last week. It’s the new video for “Bike Chase” by Detroit rapper (and bike lover) Breezee One:
— I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that the “Top 10 Transportation Project” Awards as chosen by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO), AAA, and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce don’t include any complete streets or active transportation projects.
— Everyone should read about Hugh Ferguson, the Hillsboro (Oregon) resident who plans to celebrate his 80th birthday with an 80 mile bike ride.
— According to this article in The Oregonian, the new head of Downtown Clean & Safe wants to see more bike patrols.
— In case you missed it, I joined Brock Dittus and Brandon Rhodes on the Sprocket Podcast last week. We had a wide-ranging chat on local bike politics, a bit of my personal past, and more.
Note: As I shared last week, Elly Blue is no longer doing the Monday Roundup. I’m trying to do it myself and would love some help. If you come across interesting links — from Portland or around the globe — feel free to send them in. For more bike-related transportation links throughout the week, join the 9,000+ other folks that follow me on Twitter.
— Thanks to the non-profit Community Vision and their annual Harvest Century (October 8th) for support of the Monday Roundup!