(Or could it be Naito Parkway in Portland?)
Sorry for the delay in getting this out. I got back from Washington DC last night and had a crazy morning. So without further ado, here are the best bike stories and other stuff we came across last week…
— The story everyone’s talking about is the big — and I mean Big — bike plan announced by London mayor Boris Johnson last week. It calls for a complete retrofit of the city’s existing roads to create a network of separated bicycle highways with a goal to double bicycling rates in 10 years. Johnson wants to put £913 million into the plan. But before you pack up and move to London, sources say there’s a lot of politics going on and the funding is far from a sure thing. That being said, this is a major development from one of the most admired cities in the world. Stay tuned.
— Another huge story that just happened today: The NYPD has announced a major change in protocol that active transportation advocates have been clamoring for for years. They will investigate a greater number of collisions and they will stop using the term “accident”.
— I never tire of looking at photos of celebrities riding bikes for transportation.
“An accident is when a meteor falls through your house and hits you in the head. Collisions can be prevented.”
— Paul Steely White, executive director of Transportation Alternatives in the NY Times
— In Baltimore someone has booby trapped a popular mountain bike trail by sticking razor knives through pieces of wood to cause flats (and who knows what else).
— Here’s some bike advocacy in action. Remember how Cascade Bicycle Club posted that email from Washington State Rep. Ed Orcutt that claimed people polluted the air while bicycling? Now the advocacy group has met with Orcutt and according to this blog post they had “A great conversation.”
— In the, don’t-say-it-never-happens department comes a tragic story from the UK where a man died in a bike crash caused by a pothole. Now friends of the deceased man are pointing the finger at the city for failing to maintain the road.
— In another odd bicycling story, that guy in San Francisco who rode into a crosswalk and struck and killed someone will face charges of manslaughter.
— Volvo, a carmaker known safety, has announced, “the world’s first cyclist detection system that detects and automatically brakes for cyclists swerving in front of the vehicle.
— Coming off the ‘Bikes Mean Business’ theme of the National Bike Summit, this post on the Green Lane Project blog reminds us how bike-oriented development is the future of urban planning.
— A new documentary about high school racing programs dubbed “Singletrack High”? Sounds good to me.
— And since we can’t go a week without a bike theft story, did you hear about the teacher from Abu Dhabi who’s ramping up a search for his bike that was stolen 20 years ago?
— If you’re intrigued by Google Glass, you might be interested in these Recon sunglasses for cycling that put your ride data right at the top of the lens.
— Via Copenhagenize, learn more about the success of Nørrebrogade, the “busiest bike street in the world.”