Here are the bike links from around the world that caught our eyes this week:
Pixel bridges: An online artist has made renderings of all 12 that cross the Willamette. They’re even animated — check out Tilikum’s light rail cars.
De facto Idaho: In response to a police crackdown on people who bike through stop signs, a San Francisco city supervisor has proposed a law to make such enforcments a low police priority unless someone is actually at risk.
Amish bikers: A new ruling allowing Amish people to ride bicycles has swamped Kentucky roads with new riders.
Times Square: NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio shocked New Yorkers by speculating that the best way to prevent mostly-nude women from posing for photos in with Times Square visitors might be to replace its six-year-old pedestrian plazas with several lanes of auto traffic.
NYC outcomes: Since its economic recovery began in 2009, New York has posted the biggest jobs boom in its history, an all-time high in tourism and the fewest walking deaths it’s ever recorded.
Bike industry trends: Regular bikers are getting rarer, real bike sales are down and shop visits are falling too, writes Rick Vosper in a first-rate assessment of grim data. What’s to be done?
Driving high: Marijuana has the same sort of effects as alcohol behind the wheel.
Speed spike: Oregon’s rural highway speed limit will finally rise to 65 mph next March, thanks to a new state law.
The Blue Route: Looks like Nova Scotia has created a reply to the Route Verte, Quebec’s provincial bike touring network.
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Cool bus ad: Four years after a viral Danish ad campaign about the insane greatness of municipal bus travel, Edmonton has made its own version.
Lost road: A road-widening project on Southwest Farmington Road in Beaverton unearthed wooden remains of the Great Plank Road that connected Portland with the Tualatin Valley in the 1850s.
The end of walking: “Only the most recent neuroscience research is beginning to grasp the bidirectional link between cognitive and motor functions, and the role cardiovascular health plays in our mental wellbeing. Yet walking as a way of life is more out of reach than ever.”
Accidental self-parody: A new “safety” video from the Colorado Department of Transportation opens by ridiculing people who expect cars to yield to them at crosswalks.
Traffic deaths: Cheaper gas and a growing economy seem to have gotten more people on the road, which has sent road fatalities up 14 percent.
Batman killed: A Maryland man who spent years dressing as the Caped Crusader to cheer up kids in hospitals was killed on the side of the freeway when a Camry hit his stalled Batmobile.
Bike lane prescription: A new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends protected bike lanes, traffic calming and lower speed limits to improve biking safety while boosting biking rates.
Thai cycling: With 294,800 participants, a Bangkok bike ride broke the record for the world’s biggest.
Biking while richer: Poorer people without cars are still likelier to bike commute than rich people without cars, but that gap is narrowing.
And for your video of the week, it’s humbling but inspiring to compare Portland’s best infrastructure to this video of Copenhagen’s new Cycle Snake and harbor bridge, shot from the helmet cam of Tyler Bump of the Portland Bureau of Planning and Sustainability:
— If you come across a noteworthy story, send it in via email, Tweet @bikeportland, or whatever else and we’ll consider adding it to next Monday’s roundup.