Here’s the bike-related news that caught our eyes this week:
Trauma detector: A new product that attaches to your helmet immediately detects “if the force of the impact you are experiencing is consistent with a concussion or major head trauma”.
Forest mountain biking: “The local forest is like an amusement park, where you get to select your desired level of difficulty or excitement.”
Simulated city: Two years after moving into its suburban campus, Facebook is responding to its workers’ housing preferences (and Silicon Valley’s code-enforced sprawl) by developing a 394-apartment building for its employees, a five-minute bike ride from its headquarters.
Rethink Paris: Since 2001, “185 acres of Paris’s streets have been given over to cyclists, sidewalks have been widened, parking has been restricted, and many public spaces have been redesigned” as part of the French capital’s citywide campaign to make the most of some of the planet’s most beloved neighborhoods. It’s also transferring the right of way on some streets entirely to people on foot.
L.A. biking: The Los Angeles Times editorial page declares itself “pro-bike” and endorses reallocating road space for biking in order to reduce the damage done by excessive car use.
Latina bike group: A group of Latina bikers are challenging L.A.’s “macho cycling culture” … by having fun while being themselves.
Police cars in bike lanes: A concept that was born to tumbl.
Buy a coffee, get a bike: A group of cafes in the Czech Republic’s second-largest city have had “no problems with abuse or theft” since starting a program that offers a free day-long folding bike rental with a cup of coffee.
Copenhagen right hooks: Though the Danish biking capital remains far safer per trip than U.S. cites, it’s had a string of right-hook fatalities this year.
Mandatory single file: A Georgia lawmaker who said his constituents are annoyed by slow-moving bikes is solving the problem by introducing a law to ban riding side by side. He also wants to require bike license plates, for good measure.
“I am not a cyclist,” writes a Vancouver man. “I am no more an avid cyclist than I am an avid walker or avid eater.”
No more ‘Allies’: “Actions count, labels don’t,” writes Black Girl Dangerous writer Mia McKenzie in a case against the term. Relevant to fighting racism as it is fighting for better transportation.
Cars vs bees: Diesel exhaust “zaps the aromas” of flowers, confusing and starving bees, research has found.
Mobile tech vs driving: Here are four reasons smartphones are cutting the demand for driving.
Highway texting: Illinois State Police issued 135 citations for texting while driving in 2.5 hours on Chicago’s Kennedy Expressway last month. A similar enforcement in England had similar results.
Bikes on commuter rail: TriMet’s WES line is among the majority of U.S. commuter rail systems that now allow bikes on board.
Google Glass tricks: The new on-your-face hardware makes a sweet on-bike camera and more, says Bikehugger’s DL Byron. Intel, by the way, is investing in a competitor that’s aimed squarely at the bike market.
Road-rage stabbing in Springfield: A man driving a truck in Springfield, Ore., allegedly chased a man on bicycle down after a road-rage incident and attacked him. The man on the bike then pulled a knife and stabbed his assailant, police said.
Electric cargo bikes: With e-assists growing in the U.S., can they make cargo and family biking mainstream?
Toll hike: New York’s Tappan Zee bridge project got a smaller federal loan than expected and may have to make up the difference with “far higher tolls” than predicted.
Dumb bike ban: Congested Kolkata is wondering if maybe banning nonmotorized vehicles from major streets wasn’t such a good idea.
Oil city casualty: A drunk driver whose vehicle killed Dubai triathlete Roy Nasr got a month in jail and a $54,000 fine.
Is safety ignored? Shaken by the traffic death Thursday of cyclocross pro Amy Dombroski, Tim Blumenthal of national advocacy group PeopleForBikes argues in a much-shared essay that our enthusiasm for boosting biking shouldn’t keep us from talking about safety — or modeling safe and legal behavior ourselves.
Awkward cargo: A Brazilian soccer star is being lambasted after being filmed pedaling slowly on a flat gravel path while carrying a young child in one arm. Admittedly, it’s not clear how much fun the kid is having, but this outrageous behavior is your video of the week:
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.