Here are the interesting stories that caught my eye this past week…
— New York Times columnist Frank Bruni devoted a column to praise NYC Transportation Commissioner Jeannette Sadik-Khan. The piece has a lot of very vital lessons for Portland’s transportation and political leaders and it is quite relevant to our local situation. “So if a city believes that biking is part of a better future,” writes Bruni, “it must sometimes muscle through a reluctant, rocky present.” Expect more thoughts from me about this later in the week.
— Ending a nail-biter weekend for national bike advocates, the House and Senate have agreed on a “clean” extension of the federal transportation bill. That means key funding programs like Transportation Enhancements are safe for at least another six months.
— We’ve all cringed when people on bicycles are blamed in fatal crashes; but in this story, it was the bicycle itself that authorities say is to blame (not the officer’s 90 mph speed).
— Aren’t convinced that bicycling is on the rise in American cities? Even Los Angeles is beginning to make their streets more comfortable for people on bikes. Not sure if that project deserves this glowing headline; but it’s certainly an encouraging sign.
— USA Today says a whopping 1 in 7 people in the U.S. are driving cars without insurance (it’s just 1 in 10 in Oregon).
— More signs of success for bike-sharing in America. Boston’s system is going quite well.
— Ever heard people compare the plight of bicycling as low-man on the transportation totem pole to the struggle for civil rights? Well, it really annoys this I, Anonymous poster in the Portland Mercury (I have no idea which “white straight” blogger they could be referring to).
— “Are all drivers Socialists?” wonders Andrew Sullivan on The Daily Beast.
— With as much e-bike action as we have here in Portland, I continue to watch how the issues they raise unfold across the continent. In Toronto they’ve decided to ban e-assisted bicycles on one multi-use trail, much to the dismay of EV advocates.
— Portland resident and Treehugger columnist April Streeter wonders where we should draw the line when it comes to using sexy women to sell cycling.
— Several Portlanders made the trip to Guadalajara, Mexico this past week for the International Carfree Cities Conference. I can’t think of a better host city. Guadalajara has huge challenges to overcome, and at the same time has a very vibrant, creative, and effective activism culture. Check out the video below, “La cumbia de la bici” created for the conference by David Aguilar:
