Welcome to the week. Here are the best stories we came across in the past seven days…
Latinos and family biking: A Harvard study about cycling preferences showed that Latinos and Latinas are, “far more likely than other Americans to say that friends or family are a major factor in their choice to ride.”
Bike share a gentrifying force? But in the Latino Cultural District of San Francisco, residents and business owners successfully blocked a bike share station based on the belief it would lead to gentrification. The SF Examiner also reported that business owners feared they’d lose auto parking.
Lance is back: Floyd Landis isn’t the only former pro bike racer pedaling back into the public eye after drug scandals ruined their careers. Mr. Armstrong has found a massive audience for his Tour de France podcasts and likely has a bright future in the media.
Going carfree, more easily: The Frontier Group says cities should create transportation policies that make it easier for people to choose to live without owning motorized vehicle.
Distracted walking crackdown: In Honolulu a proposal would make walking while using a smartphone more illegal than driving with one.
No touchy in WA: New distracted driving law in effect in Washington says you cannot touch your phone for any reason while driving. And you can’t scarf down your lunch either.
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Slow down on ‘self driving’: We’re seeing more and more headlines based on concerns that the auto industry is moving too fast with plans for self-driving cars.
How bike riders will fare: NPR looks at the latest efforts to make biking next to self-driving cars safer. (Our advice: The ultimate solution is to vastly improve bikeway infrastructure, which will lead to more predictable cycling behaviors.)
Bus-only inevitability: A town in Massachusetts had the guts to put up a few traffic cones in an auto parking lane to create a bus-only lane. It worked so well the bus lane is now permanent. Why can’t Portland do this?
Projects over products: The mainstream media is obsessed with the idea that cool new bike products will be enough to create a biking revolution. (Hint: It won’t, only great bikeways will do that.)
3,000 car parking spaces for Nike: The sneaker giant announced a $1 billion (with a “b”) expansion in Beaverton that will come with 3,000 new parking spaces. I sure hope the City of Beaverton gets them to pay for excellent bikeways to and from the expanded campus.
No helmet needed: From Canada, some sensible talk about why it’s not always necessary to wear a helmet while biking.
Innovation over maintenance: Great NY Times opinion piece about the curse of pursuing new projects and “innovation” instead of making what we already have great. Bike advocates suffer from this too — always attracted to a new project instead of fixing gaps and making existing bikeways excellent.
Thank you to all our readers who sent in suggestions or flagged articles on social media.
— Jonathan Maus: (503) 706-8804, @jonathan_maus on Twitter and jonathan@bikeportland.org