(Photo: J.Maus/BikePortland)
Good morning! Starting today it’s summer vacation season on BikePortland, with first me and then Jonathan taking a little time to decoil. So expect slightly slower posting than usual for the next month or so — though you’ll usually be able to count on at least two posts almost every weekday.
(If you’ve been yearning for a chance to put together a guest post, this means it’s a golden opportunity. Get in touch!)
This week’s Monday Roundup is sponsored by Western Bikeworks. Check out their big 5-year anniversary sale going on now through June 5th.
Here are the bike-related links from around the world that caught our eyes this week:
Distracted biking: Even the Dutch are considering a mobile-phone ban.
Straddle bus: The thing about China’s new bus that drives over congestion is that you could achieve basically the same thing with a dedicated bus lane, says Canaan Merchant.
Sleeping driver: A camera caught a man dozing behind the wheel of an “autopiloted” Tesla Model S.
The enemy is us: “If there is a war on cars in Seattle, it’s a civil war,” writes Tom Fuculoro in a rebuttal to a Seattle Times editorial writer. “Your enemy is basic geometry.”
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Transit retrench: The American Public Transit Association, in the midst of a leadership change, should dump its alliance with “asphalt salesmen” and join with “biking and walking advocacy groups,” argues TransitCenter.
Transportation equity: The U.S. Department of Transportation has a comprehensive whitepaper about biking, walking and justice.
Caltrans reborn: Under Gov. Jerry Brown, California’s DOT is pledging “no new highways” and pushing for transportation reform instead.
Illegalizing NYC: 40 percent of the buildings in Manhattan would be illegal to build today: they’re too tall, too dense or too commercial in their use.
Too tall? Portland has lost its way by keeping skyscrapers legal, a local development pro argues.
Opportunity projects: A bill sponsored by U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters would have the federal transportation department measure whether a given transportation project helps or harms “multimodal connections to economic opportunities.”
Autonomous cars: Following Google’s recent words of caution, Vox lists five reasons they might be 30 years away.
Davis guru: After 29 years running the bike program at the country’s bike-friendliest university, David Takemoto-Weerts is taking his extensive opinions about bike racks and going home.
Sidewalk assault: After a police officer stopped 19-year-old Jordan Lloyd for biking on a California sidewalk but refused to say what he’d done wrong, things escalated quickly.
“Garden bridge”: London is having a big argument over whether to build a tree-lined pedestrian bridge across the Thames.
Prepaid transit: A German program that bundles discount transit passes into university fees cut driving by 18 percent and saved most students money.
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.
— Michael Andersen, (503) 333-7824 – michael@bikeportland.org
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