(Photo: Malloreigh)
Here are the news and stories that caught our eyes last week…
No helmet, no bike?: The police chief in Victoria, BC (one of the few North American cities where biking is more popular than in Portland) wants to let officers seize the bicycles of people repeatedly caught without a helmet.
Bike black box: There’s a Kickstarter on for a $119 “black box camera” for your bike that self-activates if it senses a crash.
The coming battle over e-bikes: “Few legal codes properly distinguish between “throttle” bikes, which operate like motorcycles, and “pedal assist” bikes, which send power to the wheels only when the cyclist pedals.”
Saudi bike movie: Wadjda, the first-ever Saudi Arabian feature film and reportedly the first directed by a Saudi woman, is about a girl who wants wheels; Slate’s Dana Stevens calls it one of her favorites of the year.
Kidman collision: A paparazzo rode his bike directly into Nicole Kidman Thursday, knocking her over while seemingly trying to get a photo. Guess which noun many outlets felt was most relevant to describe him.
Slower traffic payoff: “Drivers heading downtown from the east using Foster Road may indeed have to give up a minute in the future for livability, for improved traffic safety and for saving lives,” writes the transportation chairman of the Mt. Scott/Arleta Neighborhood Association in a Tribune op-ed.
Mixed-use skyscrapers: As more office buildings replace tracts of cubicles with collaborative public spaces that encourage chance meetings, it’s creating “acres of unused space in conventional office buildings may be transformed into hotel rooms, classrooms, theaters or retail uses, architects and urban planners say.”
Beer-specific bike: This “high-concept machine is designed to hold a traditional half-gallon growler and, frankly, nothing else other than the cyclist.”
College bike impoundment: Goofy mock newscasts written by and starring students are a creative way to convince UC-Santa Barbara students to lock to bike racks instead of fences, but you have to wonder if more bike racks might be more effective.
Despite the competition, there was really no contest for your video of the week:
This month’s Monday Roundup is sponsored by KPFF, the engineers and surveyors behind many Portland metro area bikeways, including the Eastbank Esplanade, the Vancouver Land Bridge, the Springwater Spur Trail, the South Waterfront and Fanno Creek Greenways and Graham Oaks Nature Park. You can follow them on Facebook here.
If you come across a noteworthy bicycle story, send it in via email, Tweet @bikeportland, or whatever else and we’ll consider adding it to next Monday’s roundup.