Welcome to the first full week in what some are calling “The Trump Era.”
Deep breath.
The rise of the right means different things to different people. From our end, we’re staying vigilant to the real and potential changes that Trump’s access to power might bring to all aspects of our lives. While it’s hard to focus on anything but national news right now, there’s a lot of work to be done in our respective corners of the world.
Here are the stories that caught our attention this past week…
Bike comic in New Yorker: It’s not every week the New Yorker includes a multi-page comic from the perspective of a city-dwelling woman on a bike that deals with race and urban life.
Safety message smackdown: If you’ve ever been frustrated by victim-blaming public safety messages from government agencies, you’ll love this response.
A view from ‘The Brown Bike Girl’: Some solid truths spoken by Courtney Williams with Black Girls Do Bike about how people of color see cycling and whether or not gentrification should be blamed on bike infrastructure.
Supressing the bike vote: A 99-year old man who showed up to his polling place in Wisconsin pedaling a tricycle was turned away because he no longer drives and didn’t have a driver’s license to use as a photo ID. He ultimately voted, but only after someone helped him get to the DMV.
One challenge to another: Libertarian candidate for presidend Gary Johnson will decompress from the campaign by riding the Great Divide Mountain Bike Route.
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Chicago’s Gateway Green: Want to get a feeling for what we’ll soon have at Gateway Green in Portland? Check out the new Big Marsh bike park in Chicago.
Floating bike path in Chicago: We think Portland needs to be more bold for cycling and do bigger projects. Imagine having a floating bike path like this one proposed for the Chicago River between northwest Portland and a new path suspended under the St. Johns Bridge — or to connect the Overlook/University Park neighborhoods to the central city?
NYC mayor and Vision Zero: In New York City advocates aren’t afraid to directly criticize their mayor for a lack of urgency around making streets safe.
Election Reactions
People don’t like paying for new freeways: TransitCenter says that of all the big transit funding measures that passed last week, the ones that included big money for highways did a lot worse than transit-only measures.
Focus local: Ben Fried from Streetsblog says the election makes action at the local level more important than ever.
Road lobbyists head to DC: We reported about this a bit last week, but read more about the road and highway-building lobbyist Trump has tapped to oversee his transportation transition team.
Privatization coming: Laura Bliss from Citylab has an in-depth breakdown on how Trump’s love of privatization will impact transportation policy. She too says local governments must step up to protect transit and non-motorized infrastructure.
Tell stories, burst bubbles: Chris Bruntlett with Modacity (who lives in Canada) has six bits of advice for U.S. advocates. They include using stories not statistics and getting out of the biking bubble.
Thanks for all the suggestions. It really helps now that BikePortland is once again back to one staff person. Trying to keep up. I need your support. Thanks for reading.
— Jonathan Maus, (503) 706-8804 – jonathan@bikeportland.org
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