Here’s the news that caught our eyes this past week…
– Riding a bicycle in Los Angeles is a little bit safer now that the city has installed a bright green bike lane in downtown, a treatment made popular here in Portland. And just like Portland, L.A. is having to contend with wet weather. Moist conditions have caused the green paint in their new bike lane to dissolve in many areas.
– If you have doubts about how fun it is to ride in L.A., you should talk to Russ and Laura from The Path Less Pedaled. They took a car-free weekend vacation in Los Angeles and ended up having a great time.
– Tragically, despite how fun it is to ride in L.A., the State of California saw fatalities and injuries from motor vehicle crashes jump over the Thanksgiving weekend.
– In an effort to reduce injuries and fatalities in their city, New York has installed signs at dangerous crosswalks with haikus reminding people on bikes and on foot that it’s a bad idea to leap into traffic.
– This won’t be a surprise if you ride your bike on a busy road, but the UK’s Department of Transportation released a new report that concludes the most effective way to keep people on bikes safe is to slow down motor vehicles, especially at intersections.
– For anyone who wants the ultimate DIY experience, a bike shop in Brooklyn has started offering customers a chance to help build their newly purchased bicycles.
– As you’re assembling your new bicycle, you might find a “Made in Taiwan” sticker. Companies like Giant and Merida have shifted their focus on production in the country from quantity bicycles to quality of components.
– Good news for anyone who rides on rural roads: the Federal Highway Administration has adopted better bicycle-friendly guidelines on installing rumble strips on highways.
– A small town in Arkansas is going on a road diet in an attempt to spur business development, and many stores are already seeing an increase in foot traffic.
– In an effort to curb noise pollution, the city of Hamburg, Germany is building a park to cover a section of the autobahn.
– We may not need to worry about noise from the autobahn if current trends continue; more and more young people are choosing to drive less or not at all. StreetsBlog has a rundown of the tactics car companies are using to influence children, some as young as preschoolers, into wanting to own a car.
– Young folks (and everyone else) on bicycles have the privilege of bypassing traffic jams in an editorial cartoon from The Onion.
– In Toronto, one man used pieces of trash to build a temporary bike lane, as an experiment, near the location of a recent fatal collision. The results: there’s more than enough room in the intersection for people driving trucks to share the road with people on bicycles.
– Portland is home to many creative street markings, but a sharrow-tree could be a festive addition.
– Steve Vance at GridChicago debunks common (but unfounded) concerns about using bicycles and public transit, recently stirred up by a lecturer at a local university in response to the Kinzie Street protected bike lane and other projects in the city.
– To see the new bike lane in Chicago yourself, check out this video from StreetFilms featuring the protected bike lane on Kinzie Street. (As you watch it, imagine how nice it would be to ride on a similar lane on SW Broadway in Portland!)
Kinzie Street: Chicago’s First Protected Bike lane from Streetfilms on Vimeo.
Did you find something interesting that should be in next week’s Monday Roundup? Drop us a line.