Big plans: Berlin is the latest city to unveil a bold infrastructure plan that will vastly improve bicycling conditions. By 2025 the city will aim to build 62 miles of “cycle superhighways” and 100,000 new bike parking spots. Existing bike lanes will be “rigorously protected by bollards.”
Welcome to 2018! Hope everyone had a fruitful and fun holiday.
Here are the best stories we came across over the past week or so (keep in mind I haven’t kept up as carefully as usual since before Christmas).
Why governments run transit: Forbes zeroes in on the “elephant in the room” of Uber’s story: The company’s inability to make money.
Not rocket science: To reduce congestion, the tourist town of Whistler slashed transit fares and increased the cost of car parking. And it worked.
Love live MAMILs: Often mocked and reviled by more utlitarian-minded riders and planners, here’s a rare article that sings the praises of those Middle-Aged Men in Lycra.
Learn from masters: Like when Luke went to the Dagobah System to visit Yoda, you can still apply for a spot at the Planning the City summer school in Amsterdam and learn all the Dutch tricks.
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Sucking in what cars spew out: Overuse of cars is an epidemic plague that’s ruining our health and scientists are finding out the pollution it creates is even worse that we thought. And by the way, switching to electric cars won’t solve the problem.
Perspective from people with disabilities: One quarter of the bike commutes in Cambridge, London are made by people with disabilities, underscoring the fact that city planners must think proactively about accessibility for all riders when they design infrastructure.
Aging and access: With 80 percent of older Americans living in the suburbs, the weaknesses of our our automobile-first transportation networks become even more apparent.
Dockless bubble bursting: CNN reports on a shakeout of dockless bike share companies in China and there’s also talk of a possible merger of heavyweights Ofo and Mobike.
Dockless haters in D.C.: Residents of an upper-income neighborhood in Washington D.C. are fed up with dockless bikes in their neighborhood and have resorted to calling police on people who use them.
— Jonathan Maus: (503) 706-8804, @jonathan_maus on Twitter and jonathan@bikeportland.org
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