“I’m try[ing] to catch up on my work and you know I keep my eyes on the road, but I’m a busy man.”
–Toronto Mayor Rob Ford after being asked if he reads while driving
Here’s the news and other interesting stuff that caught our eyes this past week…
– Amidst the controversy of the USADA’s decision to strip Lance Armstrong of his Tour de France titles, donations to the Lance Armstrong Foundation have spiked.
– Per capita gas consumption in Oregon and Washington has dropped to a level not seen since the 1960s according to the findings of a Sightline Institute report titled Shifting into Reverse, which concludes the decline has more to do with decreases in personal vehicle travel and less to do with fuel efficiency improvements.
– A woman in Eugene is pushing to raise the driving age in Oregon after her son was killed by a 16-year-old driver saying we should instead, “Give [teens] bicycles to ride.”
– Portland has talked about a “Vision Zero” future where traffic deaths no longer happen; but the City of Seattle has developed a plan to get them.
– This may not come as a surprise to anyone who’s seen Travel Oregon’s new video, but here are 8 reasons why bicycles are the future of travel.
– Toronto Mayor Rob Ford, the same mayor who’s responsible for the push to remove bike lanes from city streets, was caught driving while ignoring the road and instead reading a stack of papers.
– TransportationNation asked readers to send in photos of abandoned bicycles in New York City with the hopes they could help the city address the problem, but with so many submissions they’ve turned the pictures of abandoned bikes into an art exhibition. (There’s another “best-of” collection of the photos over at TreeHugger.)
– Speaking of abandoned bikes, have you ever wondered what happens to stolen bicycles?
– The League of American Bicyclists explores the important role women and minorities are playing in expanding the culture of bicycling in the United States.
– People who ride bikes in California might be able to breath a little easier after Monday when the state Assembly is set to review a safety bill that would mandate a 3-foot buffer between passing vehicles and people on bikes.
– A man in Toronto died in a collision while operating a gas-powered bicycle, which raises an interesting question about the legal grey area these bikes operate in. Are they motor vehicles or bicycles?
– As distracted driving continues to be a problem on our roads, there’s an effort to get people to choose a “designated texter” before they climb behind the wheel and it seems to be catching on.
– Young people’s preference to ride bikes more and drive less might be one symptom of a greater desire by Millennials to own less in general.
– An effort to ticket people who run stop signs on bicycles during an organized ride in Virginia seems to be an act of retribution against event organizers who declined to hire county officers to manage event safety.
– Google announced it will bring voice navigation to bicycling directions in Google Maps.
– We’ve all seen wooden bicycles before, but you’ve got to see this effort to build 4,600 bamboo bicycles for Brazilian students brought to us by Copenhagenize.
– The Fliz Sling Bike is a new and interesting pedal-less bike concept and although it doesn’t look comfortable, it’s likely to turn heads wherever you go:
– The DIYers out there will get a kick out of this homemade rack to transport a surfboard on a bike:
– And finally, have a look at what five professional cyclists have to say about bike safety:
— Did you find something interesting that should be in next week’s Monday Roundup? Drop us a line. For more great links from around the web, follow us on Twitter @BikePortland.