(Photo: M. Andersen)
This week’s Monday Roundup is sponsored by the 15th annual Worst Day of the Year Ride, coming your way on February 14th.
Here are the bike-related links from around the world that caught our eyes this week:
Business turnaround: Five years after Vancouver BC’s downtown business group spoke against removing parking for a protected bike lane network, the group’s executive director has reversed his position, saying “it’s obvious that separated bike lanes [are] working.”
“Mechanical doping”: Hidden electric motors are the latest way to cheat in a bike race, apparently.
Pronto bailout: Seattle (home to a mandatory helmet law and a downtown surrounded by hills, it’s worth noting) is considering a $1.4 million purchase of its little-ridden, money-losing nonprofit bike-share system.
Uber safety: The hail-a-ride company is testing ways to track its dangerous drivers.
Cards Against Urbanity: The party game for city wonks was “on every planner’s wish list this past Christmas.”
“Minimum grid”: The coinage by Toronto-based advocate Gil Penalosa is a major rallying cry as the city considers a protected bike lane network built over the next two years.
Population boom: “We have a crunch coming,” warns Ashok Sinha of the London Cycling Campaign. “Cycling is one of the ways we’ll be able to keep this city moving.”
Commute inequality: In the Bay Area, low-income commute times have nearly doubled since 2010, while middle-class commute times are flat.
Housing infill: Increasing the number of homes in neighborhoods that are already bikeable is just as important as spreading bike infrastructure, says Seattle Bike Blog.
Traffic jam museum: Belgium’s national rail system has launched a creative ad campaign: satirical advocacy to honor “the Belgian traffic jam” with a World Heritage Site.
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Vancouver bike lanes: The Washington city has begun using solid green bike lanes and dashed green mixing zones in some spots, much like Portland.
Party bike: Vancouver is also about to get “Couve Cycle,” its first 13-seater downtown sightseeing pedal vehicle.
Tolerating congestion: The Federal Highway Administration wants more states to scrap the “level of service” system that often makes free-flowing traffic (rather than, say, shorter trips) the top policy priority.
Snowy plazas: Wired Magazine helps popularize the concept of the “sneckdown” that reveals potential street changes in heavy snow.
Mandatory stops: South Dakota has killed a law that would have required people biking to pull over and stop if a faster vehicle overtook them.
Bathroom map: A New Zealand road safety campaign is hanging maps showing traffic crash locations over urinals.
L.A. transit: Streetsblog LA does a nice job slashing up a scary Times headline about allegedly declining transit use.
Parkingless cars: Mother Jones devoted a cover story to the potential for driverless cars to dramatically reduce parking demand.
Blizzard priority: Why does even a city where most people don’t drive still shovel streets before sidewalks?
Fatal homelessness: Seattle Bike Blog grapples with the parallels and links between living on the street and biking on the street.
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.
— Michael Andersen, (503) 333-7824 – michael@bikeportland.org
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