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Welcome to Monday.
Here are the most noteworthy links and tidbits that came across our desks last week…
LA’s next “Great Street”: What was standing in the way of the City of Los Angeles’ exciting vision for updating Venice Blvd from car-centric thoroughfare to a modern, world-class street? It used to be owned by their state DOT. Now in City control, the project can begin. (Sound familiar?)
Thanks, Trump: The United States House Transportation & Infrastructure Committee’s new director of outreach and coalitions is the former director of federal relations for the American Petroleum Institute.
Now what? The numbers are in. And just as we suspected, road deaths have taken a striking spike in the U.S. Now the question is: What are we going to do about it?
Blame millenials: Most of the media coverage and official agency response to the increase in deaths has placed the blame on human behaviors — especially humans between 19-24 years old, 88 percent of whom say they have gone over the speed limit, texted, or ran a red light in the last month.
Safety through less driving: Road agencies love to frame big road projects as “safety projects” — but to make roads safer we need to invest more in transit so people can drive less.
Not Top 10: Oh look, a list of the “10 Best” bike lanes in America (from a very credible source) and Portland isn’t on the list.
Kroger lawsuit: The parent company of Fred Meyer faces a lawsuit because Portland resident Michael Trimble says they unfairly terminated him after he made requests to push his bicycle across a courtyard and carry it up stairs to his office. Trimble has no arms and uses an adaptive bike to get to work.
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Tech and gridlock: A team of students from Cornell Tech found that better data about parking availability could help prevent gridlock in downtown Manhattan.
911 bikes: It’s no surprise that the most nimble and efficient vehicle to get through daily gridlock in cities is also the preferred vehicle of first responders at crowded events.
Ride pain-free: Portland Physical Therapist Kevin Schmidt (Pedal PT) was the featured expert in this Bicycling Magazine article on riding in comfort.
Even Mr. Money Mustache gets it: This is an excellent treatise on America’s wrong-headed approach to transportation from an unlikely source: a popular personal finance blog.
Against the wind: San Francisco bike advocates are facing an interesting new challenge: How tall buildings in the downtown core impact wind patterns (which can make cycling very difficult).
Soccer and road safety: The Portland Timbers will help carry the torch of Vision Zero for the City of Portland by in-match PSAs and other education and outreach efforts.
Outdoor industry politics: Massive outdoor industry trade show Outdoor Retailer has pulled out of Utah after 20 years because of that state’s stance on privatizing federal lands. Interbike has also said it won’t consider Utah as a new home.
Not just for kids: A company has designed a helmet in the style of Lego hair. You know you want one.
Bike-friendly, Euro-style: The certification program for being a “Cycle Friendly Employer” in the EU is subsidized by the government. It also makes excellent bike parking one of the top two essentials to even start the process.
Thanks to all the readers who sent in suggestions!
— Jonathan Maus: (503) 706-8804, @jonathan_maus on Twitter and jonathan@bikeportland.org
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