Let’s get right to it shall we? Here are the best news stories and other tidbits we came across last week…
– The North American Handmade Bicycle Show wrapped up yesterday from a snowed-in Denver, Colorado. It looks like builders once again pushed the boundaries of bike design to even greater heights. Check the coverage at the show’s official YouTube channel, lots of photos on Urban Velo, and some short but sweet builder profiles on the Cielo Cycles blog.
– A lot has been hypothesized about why American women ride bikes are lower rates than men. New research, dissected by Atlantic Cities, says that the main key to getting women on bikes is to simply make streets safer to ride on.
– The Columbia School of Journalism took a closer look at a women-only bike shop in Minneapolis.
– In Ohio, a $2.6 billion-dollar bridge project is set to begin construction, even as critics of the project work to alter the plans. A grassroots group wants to ship one of the proposed highways away from the waterfront and to the edge of town in order to allow the waterfront to have some “Portland-style vibrancy.”
– In the latest sign that cardboard is taking over the bike world; a designer has created a cardboard helmet inspired by a woodpecker.
– This ranting, anti-bike opinion piece in the LA Observer seems like it was written using an anti-bike opinion piece template.
– I’m happy to see that Enrique Penalosa’s spot-on perspective about urban transportation policy continues to make people think. I’d be even happier if I started seeing politicians and advocacy leaders take him seriously.
– The largest-ever study on cycling injuries in Canada found that, “Cyclists are at risk of injury due to the lack of cycling infrastructure in large urban centres,” and that, “painted and shared bike lanes… offered no significant protection for cyclists.”
– The story of how the Dutch beat back car-centric planning and policies in the 1970s — and thus laid the groundwork for their safe and equitable transportation system — is told by the London Cycling Campaign.
– Good to see a judge in Colorado not allow a road-rager to get off easy.
– A professional cycling team training in Tucson, Arizona was victimized by someone driving a car who ran into the team and then failed to stop.
– Remember that bicycle tax proposed in Washington? Turns out the lawmaker who proposed it doesn’t even support it. Huh?!
– I repeat: Do not give any weight to what politicians say; only to what they actually do. Case in point via Streetsblog: Despite “Fix-It-First” Rhetoric, Obama Still Promoting Highway Expansions.
– Car-sharing is still car-using. I think that explains why the San Francisco chapter of the Sierra Club opposes a city ordinance that would give apartment developers a parking exception for car-sharing spots. They object on grounds that, “building more parking spaces — even for car share — violates the city’s Transit First policy.”
Thanks for all your link suggestions last week! If you come across a noteworthy story, feel free to drop us a line via email or @bikeportland on Twitter and we’ll consider including it in the roundup.