Cars are weapons: There’s been another intentional attack using a motor vehicle in a crowded city. It will be interesting to see if governments respond by limiting auto access and/or creating more protected areas for vulnerable users (both of which have been encouraged by transportation reformers for many years).
Bike-share’s latest boom continues: We continue to track the explosive growth in next-gen bike share systems taking over Chinese streets. Check the latest data from private companies operating the largest systems China. One of them is manufacturing 100,000 bikes per day to keep up with demand.
Seattle as a test market: Our neighbors to the north might have missed the first bike share boat, but they’re way ahead of any other U.S. city when it comes to prepping for the influx of the cheap, decentralized systems run by private companies that have taken over China and earned hundreds of millions in startup investment.
Fight them or welcome them?: European and North American cities are faced with this question. Here’s a look at an Irish businessman is betting on dockless bike share; while a planning expert says the new systems have major drawbacks and should not be allowed to “run wild”.
Apple can do better: Turns out their new “Do Not Disturb While Driving” feature is really weak. Apple has a responsibility to be tougher on distracted driving, too bad they don’t step up to the plate.
How Oslo is (slowly but surely) banning cars: The Norwegian city boasted an ambitious carfree city plan two years ago; but business owners balked and now the plans have been tweaked in ways that can provide an important lesson for Portland.
Baltimore’s bikeway saga: People For Bikes shared the twists and turns of a bizarre bikeway fight in Baltimore that resulted in a court-ordered restraining order against removal of a protected bike lane.
L.A.’s new green compromise: After a kerfluffle with the film industry about bright green bike lane paint that clashed with cameras, the City of Los Angeles has agreed to a new color.
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Where the TNCs hit the road: Cars being used by people driving for companies like Uber and Lyft have a profound impact on San Francisco’s traffic: to the tune of 5,700 cars on an average weekday and about 20 percent of daily VMT says a new report.
Fight fallacies: A website dubbed Cycling Fallacies has an impressive list of myths used to argue against cycling and the facts it takes to dispel them.
We’re not so hot: Just for perspective, Portland isn’t even on the list of top 20 bike-friendly cities in the world.
Cars and climate change: It was nice to see this Slate article state, “Want to fight climate change? You have to fight cars,” as a follow-on to our article about hypocrisy from Oregon’s leaders on the topic.
Auto racers like bikes: Turns out cycling is the hottest training method for NASCAR racers.
Questioning our self-driving future: Mother Nature Network asks some good questions about how our “irrational” car-centric culture will react to a future of self-driving cars.
Influential bike leader says goodbye: Tamika Butler, who became one of the most high-profile bike advocacy nonprofit leaders during her tenure, is moving on from her position at the L.A. County Bicycle Coalition.
Learning about — and from — the past: “Bike Boom” author and reporter Carlton Reid has a fantastic series on the forgotten history of bike advocacy in America — including the origin story of Oregon’s “Bike Bill” — in The Guardian.
Bikes, riots, and peacemaking: Portland was at the forefront of using bike-mounted police officers in street protests — now in the Trump era, the tactic is gaining popularity all over the country.
— Jonathan Maus: (503) 706-8804, @jonathan_maus on Twitter and jonathan@bikeportland.org
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