“People who drive less than average tend to subsidize their neighbors who drive more than average.”
— Todd Litman, Victoria Transport Policy Institute
Welcome to Monday. We’ve got a lot of great stories to bring you this week. But before we do, below are a few of the noteworthy items and other fun stuff you might have missed last week…
— In this excerpt from a recent stand-up comedy routine, the great Louis CK nails the “different set of values” people exhibit when they are behind the wheel of an automobile (and they’re not pretty).
— An editorial from USA Today (of all places) shares a perspective on the debate over how to generate revenue for infrastructure. They say the VMT tax and other schemes are too complicated and, for now, “The simplest, fairest and least invasive way to respond to lower gas tax revenue is with higher gas taxes.”
— The Washington Post takes note of D.C.’s flourishing efforts to encourage more women to ride bikes.
— With all the Bike Month hoopla of May, and unseasonably warm and dry weather, a lot of people are trying out bicycling for the first time these days. Check out this excellent comic from Bikeyface that captures the driver-to-rider transition perfectly.
— An interesting article in Forbes crunches the numbers on auto and e-bike sales and asks the question: “Are E-Bicycle Sales Reducing Car Sales In Europe?”
— How bad is the bike theft problem in San Francisco? Well, news cameras were rolling during a media event downtown on Bike to Work Day when a thief made off with someone’s bike in broad daylight.
— It’s one thing when a new apartment development is named after a bicycle in Portland; but when it’s happening in Chapel Hill, North Carolina you know bicycling is a force to be reckoned with in America.
— Any time Victoria Transport Policy Institute’s Todd Litman writes about the “who pays” debate around transportation infrastructure, everyone should read it. An important quote from his latest piece on Planetizen is, “people who drive less than average tend to subsidize their neighbors who drive more than average.”
— I don’t usually link to lists of cool products, but this one Brit.co was especially good. They round up 40 hot items for urban biking that can make your ride cooler, safer, and much more fun.
— You’ve got to read this heart-warming story about a man who fell off his bike 20 years ago, became paralyzed, then recently refurbished his old bike and give it to his nephew.
— The latest incident of road rage caught on tape comes from the Williamsburg neighborhood of New York. No one was hurt, but it’s an interesting insight into how tempers flare and emotions often rule in street interactions.
— For some reason, seven months after it was first released at the NACTO Designing Cities conference, the NYC DOT study about how business has boomed near protected bike lanes and public plazas is getting second life in the media. I think Elly Blue writing about it might have had something to do with it; because in recent days the study has gone all over the web including Kottke.org and Boing Boing.
— BikeBiz shares an inspiring story from the U.K. of a well-known member of the bike industry who became paralyzed after a fall of his bike.
— Bikesnob NYC says that in planning the Disaster Relief Trials event Portland has, “officially transcended smugness and attained the rarefied state of transcendental wankery.”
— The latest bike controversy in New York City revolves around their upcoming bike-share system (which will launch on Memorial Day). People have hired lawyers to protest docking station locations. Here’s how that debate is playing out in the local media.
— The League of American Bicyclists has awarded a new Platinum designation. That honor now belongs to Fort Collins, Colorado, who joins Portland, Boulder, and Davis in the upper echelon of bike-friendly cities. Portland re-applied this year and has maintained its Platinum designation.
— And in other ranking news, Portland came out #1 in Bike Score’s just-released rankings of Most Bikeable Large U.S. Cities. Last year we ranked second to Minneapolis; but this year the Bike Score folks put Minneapolis into the smaller cities category.
— The Adventure Cycling Association has unveiled the new signs that will mark roads on their official U.S. Bicycle Route System network.
— And finally today, I missed Sunday Parkways in east Portland yesterday but you can read a recap of it from The Oregonian.
If you come across an important or fun bike story, send it in or Tweet @BikePortland and we’ll consider featuring it here next Monday.