people parking illegally.
(Photo: Who’s Blocking the L St. Bike Lane Today?)
Happy Monday everyone. Welcome to our weekly cheat-sheet of all the noteworthy bike news and stories published last week. If you’ve fallen behind on your reading, first check out last week’s BikePortland headlines and then scroll down for stories from around the web that caught our eyes…
— The 92nd annual meeting of the Transportation Research Board — known as the Super Bowl for transpo wonks — is going on right now. Follow the big ideas and get links to coverage via the #TRBAM hashtag on Twitter.
— The always-interesting (and increasingly active transportation focused) writer Tom Vanderbilt took a deep dive into D.C.’s Capital Bikeshare system for Slate to uncover its genesis and components of its success. A must-read for city planners and bike share boosters as well as skeptics.
— Thanks to the “low-car apartments” brouhaha, the debate over density is a hot one in Portland right now. Transit blogger Cap’n Transit wrote a thoughtful post about how, “Most conflicts about “density” are really conflicts about parking or road space.”
— A new Apple Store in Santa Monica got a ton of bad bike press for its lackluster bicycle parking.
— In Cleveland, Ohio a church group has teamed with homeless men to set up a thriving business manufacturing bicycle racks.
— Yosemite National Park is in the midst of a planning process and it looks like one of the preferred options for an overhaul includes the elimination of bike rentals while increasing the number of parking spots.
— Portland-based writer Anna Brones recently spent time in Kabul, Afghanistan and shared her perspective on bicycling in that historic city.
— A physician in Candada calls proposed new bike lanes near a hospital a “health risk” because he’s worried that they might slow emergency vehicles down. That’s a myth that’s already been busted (not to mention that it’s odd to have a doctor lobbying against healthier streets).
— Not surprisingly, D.C. is having some growing pains in their development of protected bike lanes. This hilarious (and sad) Tumblr blog, “Who’s Blocking the L St. Bike Lane Today?” is a great bit of citizen activism.
— A city council member in The Bronx boasted on Twitter that he introduced a bill to allow people to double-park outside schools while picking up and dropping off kids. Seriously.
— Along with helmets and whether blinky lights are good or bad, a new safety debate is happening around high-visibility and reflective clothing. We recently shared how Mr. Copenhagenize advocated for cars to have reflective materials, now a new study shows that wearing bright, neon, hi-vis clothing might not have as much impact as many of us thought.
— A British rock star loves to ride fast, expensive bicycles. He also despises locking them up and has had 30 bikes stolen in the past few years.
— If you can’t get your head around the new transportation bill — known as MAP-21 — the League has put together a nifty infographic. If you are wonky enough I recommend printing it out poster-size and pinning it up on your bedroom wall.
— Things have gone from bad to worse for Todd Wyatt, the former Captain of the Portland Police Bureau Traffic Division.
— The C-Tran bus driver who was involved in a fatal collision with an 11-year old boy last year in Vancouver won’t face any charges. The Columbian reports that the Clark County Attorney’s Office said the investigation showed the bus operator was, “driving in “a normal fashion” and the bus was traveling its normal route,” prior to the collision.
— I joined Michael Andersen and Lily Karabaic on the Portland Afoot podcast last week. You can download the episode via iTunes here.
— Our friend Chris Sanderson has released a new promo video for his “Builder by Bike” business:
