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.
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
