We came across many noteworthy and important stories last week that deserve your attention. Here we go…
— David Alpert of the excellent Greater Greater Washington blog argues in the Washington Post that, instead of focusing on fault when tragedies occur, we should instead look at road design. “Our roads shouldn’t exact such a high price for our inevitable moments of carelessness, especially when the pedestrian pays the higher price for the error either way.”
— The Lovely Bicycle blog shared a thoughtful review of Grant Peterson’s book, Just Ride.
— One aspect of bicycling that is enjoying quite a renaissance these days is bike touring. Don’t believe me? Check out this rundown of nine indicators that bicycle travel and tourism is “booming.”
— As a big basketball fan, I got all excited when I read this Streetsblog post about how Miami Heat stars participated in Critical Mass. And I followed a link in that story to see that NY Knick star J.R. Smith recently biked around Manhattan on a Dahon folder. Yes!
— After I posted a story about Portlanders picking up their Christmas trees by bike, I noticed the Yuba Bicycles blog put out a call for holiday-themed bikes and loads. Check out what folks sent in.
— The SSCXWC was held in Los Angeles this year and Prolly is not Probably captured all the single-speed action and shenanigans.
— Seems like every week there’s a new development in the bike theft wars. Check out Bikenapped, a website created by a Harvard Graduate School of Design student.
— Research about how mode choice impacts consumer behavior made headlines (including NBC Business News!) this past week. The research — which shows how people that arrive by bike and foot spend more per month than those that arrive by car — comes from the Oregon Transportation Research and Education Consortium (which is based here at Portland State). We’ve reported about it several times in the past, but the recent publicity bump came after a new draft of the report was made public.
— On a similar note, The Urban Country went in-depth on the topic of how bicycles can boost commerce.
— We all know Portland is prone to earthquakes. We also have a lot of bikes. Is it time to invest in earthquake-proof, underground bike storage?
— The Unstoppables documentary up for funding on Kickstarter looks to be very inspirational. It chronicles the story of amputees looking to compete in international competition on the track.
— There’s a gorgeous Christmas tree made of bicycles in Sydney, Australia. We need one of those in Pioneer Square!
— The State of Oregon has a Drive Less, Save More
marketing campaign. I like the twist Chicago has put on a similar effort. They call theirs Drive Less, Live More.
— In Los Angeles, a front page story by the LA Weekly about their “bloody hit-and-run epidemic” has added to a growing feeling of urgency around how to prevent hit-and-runs.
— Here’s an interesting study published by the American Journal of Public Health that I hope to read more carefully this week: Route Infrastructure and the Risk of Injuries to Bicyclists: A Case-Crossover Study.
— People in Boston are reeling and calling for tougher bike safety laws after their fifth fatal collision involving someone on a bike this year. The most recent one was a young Boston University student who had, tragically, written his own obituary as part of a class assignment.
— I found this short video clip detailing the severe blind spot in a large truck to be very compelling (and a bit scary)…
