Here are the best stories we came across in the past week…
$150 million for bikeways in Montreal: Montreal is planning to spend $50 million a year for the next five years to build the projects in their first citywide bike plan.
The Pedestrian’s Tale: Portland transportation engineer and planner Brian Davis performed this poignant and entertaining poem at a recent conference held at Portland State University.
A lot of miles: 24-year-old Amanda Coker rode a record-setting 86,573 miles in the past year. That’s an average of 237.19 miles per day for 365 straight days. Dang.
Indianapolis upgrading paint-only bike lanes: Paint is not an adequate material for bikeways. Portland needs to get inspired by Indianapolis and start upgrading our existing bike lanes into something more permanent — and as this Urban Indy blogger astutely points out — something less controversial.
AV future: How will autonomous vehicles impact Portland streets? Will we see the “hell scenario” as described in this dispatch from Atlanta?
Public distrust in AVs: While the auto industry and city leaders are eager to find a new car-oriented solution to our car-oriented problem, there’s reason to think people aren’t ready to let software do their driving.
Bike to transit resource: Tons of excellent inspiration and advice in Alta Planning’s deep dive into why so few people bike to transit stops — and what cities can do to reverse the trend.
Why not dockless too? Required reading about how a private, dockless bike share company (Spin) is eyeing the Manhattan market currently monopolized by Citi Bike. We have a similar situation in Portland.
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Seniors for safe streets: In San Francisco, senior citizens are at the forefront of transportation reform activism.
Who benefits? Transit Center uncovers the vast, taxpayer-funded government subsidy for single-occupancy vehicle users who cash in on the “commuter parking benefit”.
Skin color and air quality: A new study from the University of Washington found that due in large part because of where we’ve put our freeways, people of color suffer from a disproportionate amount of polluted air.
Dueling I-5 Rose Quarter editorials: Healthy earth advocates say we don’t need a wider I-5 freeway, while the Oregonian Editorial Board says we do.
Bikes save the day again: We see this after many disasters; the simple and humble yet sophisticated bicycle emerges from the ashes as a hero.
Anti-road diet backlash: Activists in Los Angeles want to recall a councilman who they say is threatening their way of life with his support of road diets.
Tinted windows are no joke: An LA Times reporter got ticketed for having tinted windows (and driving 88 mph), a pet peeve of mine because they prohibit communication between road users that’s vital for safety.
Helping riders: Hartford Connecticut funds free roadside assistance for bicycle users. Ironically, the organization that performs the service is the equivalent to our Downtown Clean & Safe, which is funded by our historically anti-bike Portland Business Alliance.
Reckless cycling: Another city in Connecticut passed an ordinance to crackdown on “dangerous bicycle operators” and police in Toronto spent months trying to find a wheelie-popping marauder only to pull him over while driving.
Tweet of the Week: Goes to Seattle Bike Blog for cleverly responding to this absurd headline about Park(ing) Day…
How dare these two guys play music for a dancing child in a space where someone could have stored their car for a few hours. #parkingdaySEA pic.twitter.com/6jFBycMf89
— Seattle Bike Blog (@seabikeblog) September 15, 2017
Thanks for all the submissions! Keep them coming and we’ll include the best ones right here next week.
— Jonathan Maus: (503) 706-8804, @jonathan_maus on Twitter and jonathan@bikeportland.org
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