(Photo: John Marsh via Gothamist)
The bike links from around the world that caught our eyes were particularly rich and interesting this week.
Bike share minus sharing: You will get in trouble if you do this to your favorite Citi Bike.
Opera on bikes: Start this CBC radio report at 24:44 to hear the story of The Bicycle Opera Project, a cast of opera singers in Ontario who travel 50 miles a day by bike, with their set, props and instruments in two bike trailers, and then perform to sold-out audiences. “There’s no room for divas. … You have to be okay with changing a flat tire.”
A (Republican) mayor that bikes: Fort Worth Mayor Betsy Price, “embraces cycling as part of community outreach.” And it’s such a big deal that it was covered by the New York Times.
Bike outrage bingo: People of Earth: please consult this cycling-in-the-news bingo card before your next web comment and/or opinion column related to bicycling.
Bikes and poverty: “Cycling just isn’t popular among the urban poor (yet),” write the leaders of a survey of 260 residents of two mostly African-American wards in DC. “In 2012, respondents ranked cycling seventh out of nine transport modes, ahead of only taxis and bike sharing.”
Elevation mapping: Cross-sections have been added to bike route finding in the new Google Maps, at least for Android.
Unscientific regulation: “Over the decade in which 19 people were killed in crashes for which a sticky Toyota pedal was identified as one factor, 419,483 people died on the roads of the United States,” writes an editorial in the American Journal of Public Health, arguing that our legal system has led to a misguided fixation on vehicle malfunctions.
Heat-vision stoplights: Thermal detectors could replace in-street induction loops as the go-to way to detect (and count) people waiting at red lights on bikes.
Bike share shortage: Alta Bicycle Share’s affiliates around the world haven’t received a new shipment of new bikes since the bankruptcy of their supplier last year. It’s blocking not only Portland’s bike share plans but expansion of Chicago’s.
Urban cargo tipping point? A Whole Foods Market in Brooklyn has switched from vans to electric-assist cargo bikes for some deliveries.
Automated cars and sprawl: “U.S. history shows that any time you make driving easier, there seems to be this inexhaustible desire to live further from things,” says Toyota’s top scientist on self-driving cars.
Automated cops: As cameras take over red-light and speeding enforcement duties in D.C., some worry that other violations — distracted driving, reckless biking — are going unpunished. Portland, with its dedicated traffic-enforcement team, is cited as a model.
Counting violations: In Milwaukee, bike-count volunteers are now tracking traffic violations by people on bikes, too, and finding that violation rates are no worse than for people in cars.
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Pro-bike product labeling: What if there were “This product was delivered by a bicycle” labels? asks Seattle Bike Blog.
Bike microclimates: “Rather than the Dutch bakfiets or the Danish cargo trike, the bike that’s taking hold among New York City parents seems to be the longtail.”
Gas tax drumbeat: The House just approved a “sad excuse for a highway funding bill” that “pays for building projects through a series of budget gimmicks” and will only last 10 months, says an NYT editorial calling for a gas tax hike.
Waterfront bike lanes: After a successful trial last year (TV reporter: “So far, it seems to be working, and that has critics concerned”), San Francisco is proposing protected bike lanes along 1 mile of the Embarcadero.
Anti-pricing billionaire: Napster/Facebook billionaire Sean Parker is a major donor to a San Francisco ballot initiative that would “restore transportation balance” by freezing parking meter hours and prices.
Bike lanes vs. “safety”: A Los Angeles councilman says he’s blocking installation of bike lanes on a major street in his district because he doesn’t want the street to become less safe.
Brooklyn’s pump track: Looks pretty sweet.
A few Portland intersections pop up in your video of the week, a look at the nation’s rising street mural movement:
Audio Slide Show: Local Color from Orion Magazine on Vimeo.
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.