(Image: Towards Zero)
This week’s Monday Roundup is sponsored by The Portland Century, a one or two-day bicycle tour coming August 6-7th.
Here are the bike-related links from around the world that caught our eyes this week:
Crash-proof human: An Australian artist collaborated with a trauma surgeon to create “Graham,” a full-body silicone model of what humans might look like if they evolved to survive car crashes.
Bike bridge: San Jose’s proposed biking-walking bridge over a freeway would certainly be spectacular.
Bicycle dystopia: The bicycle cops outside the Republican National Convention in Cleveland were pretty intensely dressed.
Overemphasizing commutes: Because women take more non-work trips, “focusing only on commutes overlooks women’s transportation needs.”
Santiago biking: The biking rate in Chile’s capital has doubled in 10 years to six percent, about the same as Portland’s.
Best bike sharing? A moderator of Reddit’s bicycling page who visited Portland to test Biketown says it’s better than the systems in Paris, London, DC, Montreal, NYC, Austin or San Francisco.
Protection endorsement: AASHTO, the country’s most influential transportation engineering organization, seems prepared to finally endorse protected bike lanes.
New recruits: A survey of Londoners who bike found that one-third of them had started riding in the previous 12 months — just after protected bike lanes started being built.
Forgotten killing: Gothamist takes a long loo at the case of a Brooklyn man killed by a hit-and-run. It’s been painfully slow despite a seemingly open-and-shut case.
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Self-driving bus: A prototype by Mercedes-Benz has successfully navigated a route of more than 12 miles … in suburban Amsterdam.
Indestructible murals? An obscure federal law from 1990 prohibits building owners from covering or destroying murals on their buildings unless the artists sign off, Willamette Week reported in its cover story.
Mural map: To accompany the above story, Willamette Week created a digital map of Portland’s pre-1999 murals.
NYC biking: The city’s “renaissance” in biking is happening “despite glaring failures in the design, politics, and security of bicycle infrastructure,” Slate economics writer Henry Grabar says in a personal essay.
Racialized enforcement: In the Minnesota suburbs where Philando Castile was killed during his 46th traffic stop in 14 years, darker-skinned people are seven times more likely than white people to be pulled over while driving.
Suburban efficiency: Minnesota-based Strong Towns imagines ways to make suburbs energy-efficient by putting their less-used spaces to work.
Transportation vision: The Republican party platform calls for eliminating federal funding for transit, walking and bicycling.
Uber for gasoline: A new crop of gasoline delivery startups wants to stop by and fill your car up for you.
Bike “mayor”: “Cycling is almost too successful” in Amsterdam, says Anna Luten, recently voted into volunteer office as the city’s unofficial “bike mayor.”
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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