(Photo © J. Maus/BikePortland)
We hope you had a great weekend. And now, to kick off another week of bike news and information, check out the best stories we came across last week…
Toddler bike ban: “A three-year-old girl has been banned from riding her Barbie bike in a quiet cul-de-sac by a Dagenham [England] housing association because of fears the tearaway toddler might damage residents’ cars.”
Freight reform: A European Union-funded project has some cool ideas for urban freight, including standardizing small, modular shipping containers.
Secure basket: The $195 Buca Boot will combine “the flexibility of a bike basket with the storage security of a car trunk.”
Sidewalk carnage: A video (not directly linked here) that shows a girl’s pelvis being crushed by a SUV in a split second doesn’t change the fact that driving on the sidewalk is not inherently illegal in New York. Nor did it stop her middle school principal from circulating a response letter that said electronic devices (which the victim doesn’t appear to have been using when she was suddenly hit from behind by an accelerating car while walking on the sidewalk next to two friends) threaten children’s safety.
Redesigning schools: Do you think more kids might walk or bike if they didn’t have to cross a massive driveway to reach the door?
Bike alliances: The director of New York City’s Transportation Alternatives says bike advocates win arguments by finding interesting allies. “As bike advocates, we are a one note band, and they know our song. With myriad and diverse allies you can create the symphony that makes politicians get off their duff and dance.”
Innovator killed: The woman who ran Amazon.com’s finances during the initial public offering that kicked off the 1990s tech boom was killed last week after a collision between her bike and a van that turned left in front of her. Joy Covey was 50.
Laser-powered sharrow: CNN reviews the laser-powered Blaze light, which projects a bike outline onto the street ahead of you.
Ugliness to bike thieves: Do not steal a bike in Nepal, or people might shave your head “in a haphazard way.” Then beat you up.
Unsafe parking? Earlier this year, Brazil’s state-owned oil company Petrobras refused to provide a bike parking rack for employees because it thinks biking in central Rio de Janeiro is unsafe. OK, employees replied, so that means you’re getting rid of the auto parking too?
Pothole lawsuit: An executive for a U.K. pro racing team just won an undisclosed sum from a local government for not fixing the pothole her bike crashed into.
Biking in pleats: The Wall Street Journal has some ideas for bike-friendly office wear.
New speed record: The fastest bike ever pedaled, an egg-shaped recumbent, moved at just over 83 mph last week.
Roads built for rage: Three reasons why the streets of Los Angeles “seem to be designed with the specific intent of frustrating drivers, pedestrians, and bicyclists alike.”
How to cross an intersection: The League of American Bicyclists should teach AAA how to make an effective bike safety video … though you’ve got to wish U.S. intersections were designed in a way that didn’t require so much explanation.
Bike share survey: Nationally, bike sharing is now more popular than President Obama.
Buses spur development: Bus Rapid Transit systems like the ones TriMet is considering for Southeast Powell and Southwest Barbur tend to be significantly more efficient than light rail at generating nearby development, according to a study by a pro-BRT group.
Bikeshare success: In previously transit-dependent Manhattan, 288,000 subscriptions sold show that the first summer of Citi Bike has gone “exceptionally better than what anyone thought.” Streetsblog takes a close look at lessons learned, which include Citi Bike staff using bike trailers to avoid congestion during rush hour.
Next federal transpo bill: Because people are consuming less gasoline and gas taxes don’t increase with inflation, “even passing an extension at current funding levels will require programmatic cuts or additional revenue — or both.”
Columbia River Highway reconnection: “For the first time in 77 years, you can ride a bike from Troutdale to Cascade Locks without having to be on the shoulder of Interstate 84,” ODOT Region 1 Director Jason Tell says in this video about the reconnected Historic Columbia River Highway.
Intersection anthropology: Say what you will about Copenhagenize‘s Mikael Colville-Andersen, but his company is doing work that nobody in the world has ever thought to do — like conducting an anthropological study of the ways 16,631 people pedaled through a single Copenhagen intersection on a single spring day.
Making bikes for women: Elly Blue has five tips for bike companies puzzled by how to sell equipment to females.
Bikes Belong rebrands: The national bike industry’s nonprofit advocacy organization (and, full disclosure, my own other half-time employer) is taking a new name and a more public face to reach “riders who have never been engaged with organized bike groups or clubs.”
Road diet endorsement: An Oregonian editorial argues that a wide street with four auto lanes should be restriped so it could be be safer to bike and drive on. Just kidding! It was a Seattle Times editorial.
Road diet research roundup: The trend of removing auto travel lanes from roads in order to reduce speeds without greatly reducing traffic capacity is “can be seen as one of the transportation safety field’s greatest success stories,” according to a recent research survey.
Despite a throwaway slur near the end, Louis C.K.’s take on why he doesn’t let his kids use smartphones is 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.