Here (one day later than usual — happy holiday) are the bike links from around the world that caught our eyes this week:
Oops: Six mountain bikers were hospitalized in Norway Friday after mistaking a bottle of detergent for a new energy drink.
Legalized distraction: A Los Angeles sheriff’s deputy who killed a tech executive because he veered into a bike lane while typing on his mobile digital computer won’t face criminal charges because California law exempts emergency workers from the state’s anti-texting law.
Electric mountain bikes: They’re on the way.
Car privilege: Lots of people who drive handle their cars responsibly, and lots of people who are white handle their race responsibly, writes a white guy about how biking helped him understand the idea of privilege.
Downzoning Eastmoreland: In a few Portland neighborhoods (including the mayor’s own, which isn’t far from a new light rail stop), the city is “plotting something unthinkable in the 1990s and 2000s — reducing density.”
A life lost: Sher Kung, who was killed while biking in Seattle on Friday, one week before a protected bike lane would have eliminated turning conflicts on the street where she died, was a 31-year-old lawyer on the ACLU legal team that successfully challenged “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.”
Carmaker bike share: General Motors will be the first automaker with its own bike share system on its corporate campus in Warren, Michigan.
Cargo savings: Dutch shipping giant DHL has cut 430,000 Europs annually from its labor and fuel costs by replacing 10 percent of its vans with Bullitt cargo e-bikes.
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Bike share matures: Mobility Labe has a Q&A with two founders of the new North American Bikeshare Association to talk about this new industry group.
Road rash armor: New carbon-fiber-reinforced athletic clothing is designed to prevent road rash if you take a spill.
Downsizing Ikea: “Paradoxic though it may seem, building an Ikea in an area it’s tough to drive to actually increases the number of visitors,” marvels Gizmodo about Ikea’s new small-parking-lot pilot store in the middle of Hamburg, Germany. One of their key offerings: cargo bike rental.
Raised bikeway: San Francisco is getting its first grade-separated bike lane next year. Portland has these on Southwest Moody and Northeast Cully south of Killingsworth.
Robocar safety: “Should a driverless car protect its occupants, even if it puts non-passengers at risk?” Self-driving cars complicate Vision Zero but make it more important.
Living by sharing: Willamette Week’s Aaron Mesh rode a bicycle for the first time in 18 years as part of an experiment living for a week using peer-to-peer sharing services: Airbnb, Uber, Spinlister, TaskRabbit, Getaround.
And in your video of the week, the BBC for some reason decided to ask a bunch of bike polo players what they thought of various electronic bike gadgets. They gave a good review to exactly one:
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.