The Monday Roundup: Fast women, Vision Zero progress, Trump’s tariffs, and more

This week’s Roundup is sponsored by NW Connector, Oregon’s public transit service that can get you and your gear from Portland to the coast and far beyond.

Welcome to the week. Here are the most noteworthy items we came across in the past seven days…

Build bikes like cars: I agree with this post from Bike Shop Girl where they say in order to normalize cycling in the U.S. we first need companies to offer more normal bikes that work well for everyday errands and utility.

No cheating needed: Volkswagen, the German carmaker whose CEO was arrested after they cheated on emissions tests a few years ago has debuted a new e-cargo bike they say is the, “solution for the mobility challenges of tomorrow.”

Noble’s dream race: American Ellen Noble battled Dutch legend Marianne Vos all the way till the end and finished second at the Cyclocross World Cup season opener in Waterloo, Wisconsin yesterday.

Vision Zero varies: After a carfree street idea in London was shelved, The Guardian took a look at how Vision Zero efforts have played out in several American cities.

Urban paradise: I need to take a trip to Pondevedra, a Spanish city that has banned cars.

Women and grand tours: CyclingNews has an in-depth piece on the physiology, economics and popular opinions behind the idea of creating pro cycling events that are as hard and as long for women as they are for men.

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More on car bans: Air pollution could be the sleeper issue that changes the politics around car use in cities. It’s obvious that 1) air pollution is terrible and 2) cars are the main reason for it and 3) people love carfree spaces. Put them all together and what do you have?! More carfree cities. Just do it.

A woman did it: Denise Mueller-Korenek smashed the cycling world speed record that had stood since 1995 when she pedaled her bike an astonishing 183.9 mph.

Anti-bike hypocrisy: A woman running for mayor in Vancouver B.C. who has been outspoken against “lawless cyclists” failed to appear for a distracted driving ticket.

Blind spot: “Climate mayors” can’t stop fawning over electric-cars, even when safer and cheaper options are right in front of them.

WTH Seattle?: The public disagreements and lack of political will in Seattle has gotten so bad the city has hired a mediator to help move a project forward.

Trump’s tariffs: A trade war with China from the man who lives in the White House has cast storm clouds over much of the U.S. bike industry.

Perspective matters: Fascinating research into why people value road safety projects differently based on whether they see themselves as a “citizen” or a “driver”.

Thanks to everyone who sent in links!

— Jonathan Maus: (503) 706-8804, @jonathan_maus on Twitter and jonathan@bikeportland.org

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Jonathan Maus (Publisher/Editor)

Jonathan Maus (Publisher/Editor)

Founder of BikePortland (in 2005). Father of three. North Portlander. Basketball lover. Car owner and driver. If you have questions or feedback about this site or my work, feel free to contact me at @jonathan_maus on Twitter, via email at maus.jonathan@gmail.com, or phone/text at 503-706-8804. Also, if you read and appreciate this site, please become a supporter.

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Hello, Kitty
5 years ago

Pondevedra indeed looks nice. I have visited other cities that have pedestrianized parts or all of their medieval cores, and because those cities were designed for access on foot, it generally works well. (Though they’re never truly car free as delivery and service vehicles still have access).

David Hampsten
David Hampsten
5 years ago
Reply to  Hello, Kitty

Yes, the author seemed to imply that a pedestrianized medieval core was unusual, but even Britain has several and Belgium, Netherlands, France, Italy, and Germany each have several. Apparently the author doesn’t get out much.

Pontevedra, like most other pedestrianized cities I’ve been to, has under 100,000 people and already has a lot of tourism and an unusually large elderly population.

sikoler
sikoler
5 years ago
Reply to  Hello, Kitty

Portland could never (and should never) do this, however.

Pollution is the problem, not cars. I know that may be a controversial statement, but it’s a fact. And don’t look at the data on pollution from China and India compared to what we conserve by biking it will just ruin things for you…

The solution to car pollution is to shift to electric or hydrogen powered cars, not obtusely ban cars.

I think our message will convert more people if we ditch the “ban cars!” and turf war mentality. Both are unworkable and counterproductive.

Remember: Portlander car commuters want clean air too!!!

q
q
5 years ago
Reply to  sikoler

It’s not a fact. A car that emits nothing still takes up space and can run people over. Cities designed pre-car didn’t have acres of dead space (parking lots) or streets that people can’t safely walk in or cross, or highways or arterials that cut neighborhoods in half.

And what is this “our message”? Who is “we”? I don’t want you speaking for me, or implying that I agree with you on anything.

sikoler
sikoler
5 years ago
Reply to  q

“Cities designed pre-car…”

Tribal villages had no plumbing or running water. That doesn’t mean we can or should just tear our our water infrastructure.

Your vision is incomplete and it is hurting OUR cause. It’s not really a “vision” to say “no cars”…that’s not a plan it’s trolling.

It’s like how Republicans always say, “Lower taxes”…that’s not a tax plan. It’s a way to troll and disrupt actual productive discussion.

Even if all Portlanders wanted to ban cars in the city, it wouldn’t work because we are in the modern world.

And yes, I consider myself a part of the biking community.

q
q
5 years ago
Reply to  sikoler

I said nothing about banning cars. Quit implying that I did. Changing what people say and then arguing that your misinterpreted version is wrong is dishonest and not productive.

You’re equating making some streets car-free with tearing out water service? No comment.

The idea of making some streets car-free (while still allowing delivery and maintenance vehicles) which is what you first responded to, is hardly trolling. It’s a perfectly legitimate idea that has been done all over, including in Portland, with success. Would Portland be better if Waterfront Park and its car-free esplanade had never replaced Harbor Drive? Would Pioneer Place be better if parking were reintroduced onto it?

And again, who on earth are you referring to when you say “OUR cause”?

sikoler
sikoler
5 years ago
Reply to  q

What I’m against is the “turf war” mentality and the idea that “cars are bad therefore we should ban them”.

Of course some streets are better for pedestrian use only, but the attitude I see here is overly combative and melodramatic…focused on finding the areas that are the most congested with cars and turning those lanes into bike lanes.

It’s the wrong approach, it’s making enemies out of people who would be allies, and yes in the end is just trolling.

I’m part of the bike community…that’s OUR community (unless you don’t consider yourself part)

q
q
5 years ago
Reply to  sikoler

It’s ironic to see you criticizing “turf war mentality”, while at the same time writing about “we” and “our message”, as if everyone who reads bikeportland is part of some unified advocacy block, and then topping that off with telling us what car commuters want, as if they also all think alike.

A good first step towards avoiding “turf war mentality” would be to stop dividing people into “drivers” and “bikers”, as if people must be one or the other.

A second would be to stop assuming that everyone who bikes thinks alike, and everyone who drives thinks alike.

A third would be to refrain from inciting animosity. For instance, when someone mentions cities “pedestrianiz(ing) parts or all of their medieval cores” while still allowing delivery and service vehicles, don’t turn that into a histrionic “Ban cars!”

Bikeninja
Bikeninja
5 years ago
Reply to  sikoler

Converting cars to electricity or hydrogen just moves energy creation and pollution generation to another location. One of the things mankind must learn if we are to have any hope of surviving more than another generation on this rare “Goldilocks” planet of ours is that there is no “away. “digging 25,000 lbs of ore out of the earth to smelt in to a 5000 lb hunk of SUV powered by hydrogen split from seawater with electricity generated by a 5 billion dollar nuke plant creating swimming pools full of radioactive waste so we can drive to the quicky mart for a bag of cheese doodles is the thermodynamic equivalent of cutting a stick of butter with chainsaw. The cosmos will not allow us type of ridiculous wasteful indulgence for much longer.

sikoler
sikoler
5 years ago
Reply to  Bikeninja

Look, Eastern Oregon is there for you.

If you want to live a pre-modern lifestyle, go for it.

Your problem is you want to force everyone to adopt your ***direct personal insult deleted*** view of the situation and for our city to ban cars, which is just trolling.

We need solutions and we need to work with car commuters, not obtusely “ban cars”

sikoler
sikoler
5 years ago
Reply to  sikoler

Part of my comment was deleted. My bad. I’m not sure what I said that was an insult, can someone help me out as to what triggers this?

Hello, Kitty
5 years ago
Reply to  Bikeninja

The cosmos doesn’t give a damn.

GlowBoy
GlowBoy
5 years ago
Reply to  Bikeninja

Converting cars to electricity does move energy creation and pollution generation to another location, but it doesn’t just do that. It also improves their efficiency by eliminating the inefficiency inherent in combustion engines. Most BEVs are rated for 100+ MPGe, more or less double the efficiency of the most efficient hybrids, and triple the efficiency of economy cars.

That in itself is not enough, of course, but there is no one solution – not even biking. We also need to reduce the distances people drive, the number of cars on the road (you can eliminate cars from dense urban cores, but probably not from most of the country) and the size of the cars on the road.

And maybe most importantly, reduce the number of trips people take in cars by making the alternatives more appealing and available. To me that’s what BP is all about.

Hello, Kitty
5 years ago
Reply to  GlowBoy

The degree to which pollution is moved is highly dependent on the energy source: wind or coal makes a big difference. And even if pollution weren’t reduced, just moved, getting it out of cities is a boon for overall population health.

Johnny Bye Carter
Johnny Bye Carter
5 years ago
Reply to  sikoler

Pollution is just 1 thing that cars make worse. Cars or part of many problems. Converting all cars to renewable clean energy wouldn’t solve most of the problems we have with cars in cities.

CaptainKarma
CaptainKarma
5 years ago

We absolutely need many more truly practical bikes. Everything in America is about “look at me”, I have bigger tires than anybody, the brightest lights to blind you with, fifty dollar gloves that make me go (no) faster. I want to be able to haul groceries! I could go for weeks w/o driving if I could haul some things from IKEA now and then without digging out my trailer and worrying if a can-dude is going to steal it while I am parked. Most people will just get in the car and go because the car is so “practical”.

Dave
Dave
5 years ago
Reply to  CaptainKarma

Wrong–we have bikes that are an adaptation to our cycling environment. Fat tires–a rational response to maintenance-free roads. Flamethrower headlights–necessary until that day far in a misty future when a motor vehicle operator can be reasonably called a human being.

world's slowest mamil
world's slowest mamil
5 years ago
Reply to  Dave

I was with you until your dehumanization of drivers. Looking past the disgusting implications of that statement, the problem for road users is precisely that we are human. Fallable, easily-distracted, and all-too-often malfunctioning in the worst ways possible. It’s why there is so much work being done to remove the human element from piloting a vehicle.

bikeninja
bikeninja
5 years ago

I think the point the previous commenter made was not the the humans that choose to drive cars have become full time monsters, but the act of getting behind the wheel makes them act in a way that humankind should not be proud of. In fact the other day it occurred to me that many folks become a lot like my cat when they get behind the wheel. They become self centered, impulsive, easily angered and devoted to fulfilling their own short term needs.

sikoler
sikoler
5 years ago
Reply to  bikeninja

“getting behind the wheel makes them act in a way that humankind should not be proud of. ….They become self centered, impulsive, easily angered and devoted to fulfilling their own short term needs.”

Put this at the top of the “Central City in Motion” website.

Dave
Dave
5 years ago
Reply to  bikeninja

Wow, what an insult to cats!!:)

Bikeninja
Bikeninja
5 years ago
Reply to  Dave

You are correct in many ways, cats are alert, have quick reflexes and don’t use smart phones perhaps they would be better drivers than some humans

David Hampsten
David Hampsten
5 years ago
Reply to  Dave

Most of our bikes (by volume if not value) are Walmart/Target bikes, Next, Schwinn, Magna, etc. Useful as long as your maximum speed is no greater than 8 mph, you don’t need brakes, and maintenance is non-existent. After all, bikes are for recreation.

X
X
5 years ago
Reply to  David Hampsten

Which is this “our bikes” that you speak of, man of the Southeastern US? 😉

I did once have a four-speed built up on an Autobike frame. Ugly welds, rattle canned with black primer. It was a lot of fun. I sold it to a friend and it got stolen from his garage, alas.

Hello, Kitty
5 years ago

I’m not really a fan of bike racing, but was intrigued by this (in the article about women’s racing):

>>>
Cromwell also points out that women race differently to men; the women’s peloton is much smaller, with teams fielding six riders in a race instead of the men’s eight or nine. That in turn affects the style of racing, since it’s harder for a six-person team to control a race. Women’s events are therefore less predictable but arguably more exciting.
<<<

This suggests that an 8 or 9 person peloton is more effective than a 6 person peloton. It would seem that by fielding a slightly larger group, a women's team could gain a big advantage over other teams. Why don't they do it?

Jason H
Jason H
5 years ago
Reply to  Hello, Kitty

Team sizes in field limited by sanctioning agency.

“The maximum allowed for all races will now be seven riders, with teams of eight for the three Grand Tours – the Giro d’Italia, Tour de France and Vuelta a España.

For the Women’s WorldTour, teams will continue to be limited to six for one-day races and seven for stage races.”

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/uci-approves-reduced-team-sizes-for-2018/

Hello, Kitty
5 years ago
Reply to  Jason H

Why the difference in rules?

John Liu
John Liu
5 years ago
Reply to  Hello, Kitty

Women’s pro road cycling teams have much lower budgets than men’s team – far lower. Fielding larger squads would be a bigger financial strain on the women’s teams.

Many feel the smaller squads in women’s racing produces more exciting racing. The trend in men’s racing is toward smaller squads, partly for that reason.

Jason H
Jason H
5 years ago
Reply to  Hello, Kitty

The difference between genders? Probably would be cited for “safety” or something, but mostly just out-dated curmudgeoness. The reduction in men’s fields did improve both safety and spontaneity this year, but women certainly deserve to have the same rules (and equal payouts, and equal length races in miles and days, and media coverage, etc. etc.).

bikeninja
bikeninja
5 years ago

I think that the U.S. Bicycle industry and consumers will have to adjust to the Trade War. Retired Alibaba founder Jack Ma, and other experts in international trade have warned that the current trade battle with China will go on for 20 years. It is not just the hair-brained scheme of the current resident of the white house but the inevitable clash of industrial civilizations that once kicked off will go on for a long time. Do we get large scale bike manufacturing going in other countries? or do we ramp back up here in the US and adjust to higher prices. I think bikes will never be as cheap as they have been for the last 20 years, but the competition ( owning and driving cars) will continue to become more and more expensive until it crashes on the rocks of oil depletion and credit collapse about 2022 or so. We better get busy a lot of people will need human powered two wheel transportation in the years ahead.

Dave
Dave
5 years ago
Reply to  bikeninja

I’m a full time bike industry worker and not yet panicked by Orange Julius Caesar’s wacko tariffs. Bicycle merchandise isn’t so monolithically Chinese that either prices will skyrocket or supplies completely dry up. Too many different countries have bike and bike parts manufacturing. This morning I built a customer’s new wheels with Chinese rims–but the hubs are from Taiwan and the spokes and nipples from Belgium, for instance. Not cheap stuff but not crazy high-end, either. I do not think terrible harm will be done to any but the lowest end of the industry, really!

Johnny Bye Carter
Johnny Bye Carter
5 years ago
Reply to  Dave

The lowest of the industry is all most people know: department store bikes.

Cars have always been expensive to most people. But bikes have been cheap. If the entry level bikes get expensive then there’s no entry level market. I don’t know if we’ve reached the point where the general population appreciates a well made bike.

Jim Lee
Jim Lee
5 years ago

While stopped for a crossing at Sunday’s Parkways–the best ever–I chatted with a charming young lady on a Schwinn “Suburban.”

Absolutely Pristine! There is the practical everyday American bicycle.

She admired my bright yellow custom-frame & wheels S&S coupled fixie, but I must that the Schwinn is more practical. Plus it has a silver-soldered joint on the seat tube!

Al
Al
5 years ago

The VW cargo bike and the Gazelle bring up an interesting possibility.

Of course, there’s little opportunity for cars to scale down due to the fact that roads are already packed with cars (average curb weight of 3,000 lbs), SUV’s (average curb weight of 5,000 lbs), personal trucks (curb weights of 7,000 lbs and higher), commercial vehicles which might as well be buildings on wheels and road speeds in the 40 – 70 mph range.

However, what if someone wants the comfort (isolated from the weather) and convenience (no special clothing or helmets or effort required) of a car without the need for it to go 40 – 70 mph all day long. It would be possible to build a fully electric vehicle for a person or two offering everything a car does except that it travels at less than 25 mph and weighs less than 100 lbs. Many retirees in mild climates and special communities already prefer golf carts to cars.

You wouldn’t have the cost of a car. You wouldn’t have the carbon output of a car. You would have a fraction of a car’s road footprint and related garage and parking space and because speed and weight are both low, you wouldn’t have the same safety risks.

The problem is that such a vehicle would occupy legal space that’s entirely outside of all modes of transportation today! You can’t take a golf cart on a drive around town or the Springwater. But it’s the exact vehicle which addresses so many problems in our society.

In the meantime, we’ll have to make do with e-bikes I guess.

X
X
5 years ago
Reply to  Al

The VW *concept* cargo trike might sell for $10,000 if you made a million of them, but $20,000 is more likely. You can’t see the front end moving parts but it sounds pretty complicated. It also sounds like they stole a little from Tom Stites but again, it’s out of sight. I think I’d rather have something like an e-assist bullet with perhaps a short-travel front suspension. Of course a car company is going to think it has to be a trike.

B. Carfree
B. Carfree
5 years ago
Reply to  Al

It seems like you’re talking about something like this (manufactured at the southern end of the Willamette Valley):
https://www.arcimoto.com/

Al
Al
5 years ago
Reply to  B. Carfree

Yes, but that’s still huge. At 1,100 lbs, that’s in the golf cart category mostly because they’re trying to achieve road speeds and a reasonable charge duration at those speeds.

I’m thinking something more like the vehicles used for the World Solar Challenge:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Solar_Challenge

BradWagon
5 years ago
Reply to  Al
Johnny Bye Carter
Johnny Bye Carter
5 years ago
Reply to  BradWagon

I really want one, but it’s so impractical as a bicycle due to how large it is: 9′ long and 4′ wide. There’s no way this will fit on all the narrow openings of bike paths and on the bridge sidewalks.

Hello, Kitty
5 years ago

It looks like the intent is you would ride it on the street, in auto lanes, not on bike paths or bike lanes.

Johnny Bye Carter
Johnny Bye Carter
5 years ago
Reply to  Hello, Kitty

It’s a bike so the mandatory side-path laws apply. It’s too large to fit on the sidewalk over the I-5 bridge. But I think it would fit the path of the I-205 bridge if you’re willing to go a dozen miles out of your way.

And if you’re stuck on the road then you’re stuck in traffic. Being able to go around traffic is the biggest benefit of a bike to me. Traffic is why I stopped driving.

We need larger bike facilities. Lack of proper facilities is why I don’t like to bike anywhere downtown. Not enough bike lanes and I end up stuck in traffic and walking on the sidewalk.

Hello, Kitty
5 years ago
Reply to  Hello, Kitty

I think the motor it has pushes it well out of bike/ebike territory.

X
X
5 years ago
Reply to  BradWagon

You’re-doing-it-wrong guy says, that’s not what a bike should look like, that’s what a car should look like.

Champs
Champs
5 years ago

Some people… their common trait I leave you to guess… will always look to northern Europe for the answer. The bad news is that imitation is not innovation, and inspiration is not limitation.

If bikes want to be more like cars, they need to *compete* with cars. On a war-ravaged continent, they were not so bad compared to the alternative of French tin cans so long as you never had to fix a rear flat.

In our place and time, cars are superior at everything. It’s not like bikes are even trying on reliability. For all the concern about helmet laws and safety, these seem pretty academic when it’s so hard to get a bike going after just a couple months off. In a literal thousand mile journey, that proverbial first step is a doozy.

q
q
5 years ago
Reply to  Champs

What do you mean by “it’s so hard to get a bike going after just a couple months off”? I just put some more air in the tires.

Hello, Kitty
5 years ago
Reply to  q

If I had to put air in my car’s tires after not driving for several months, that would deter me from using my car.

q
q
5 years ago
Reply to  Hello, Kitty

What I hate is carrying my car up the steps from the basement.

BradWagon
5 years ago
Reply to  Hello, Kitty

You don’t check your car tire pressure every couple months even when regularly driving it??

Hello, Kitty
5 years ago
Reply to  BradWagon

I haven’t regularly driven for many years. I do check before a big trip, or when the sensor goes off.

GlowBoy
GlowBoy
5 years ago
Reply to  BradWagon

Um, no most people don’t check their tire pressure, ever. They let the quickie-lube place top them off when they get their oil changed, and that’s it.

(For the record, I’m not “most people” in this respect. I have to top off my tires after a shop has had their way with them, because I run higher tire pressure than printed on the door jamb, because doing so improves mpg, provides more grip in non-winter situations and lengthens tire life – it’s perfectly safe to go up to the pressure printed on the tire’s sidewall, though I don’t go quite that high).

Dan A
Dan A
5 years ago
Reply to  q

Monthly? I have to top off my tires weekly. And I have enough bikes in the garage that I usually have to pump my tires up every time I grab a different bike off the rack. I’ve found that the key is to use a pump that you really like. I’ve got a Bontrager Supercharger with a Kuwahara Hirame pump head.

GlowBoy
GlowBoy
5 years ago
Reply to  Dan A

FWIW, only if you have a skinny-tired racing bike should you have to top off your tires weekly. If you run 2″ slicks, as I do, you can go weeks at a time.

Dan A
Dan A
5 years ago
Reply to  GlowBoy

Sure, but you would not want to ride my commute on 2″ slicks.

GlowBoy
GlowBoy
5 years ago
Reply to  Dan A

They’re really not that much slower.

Dan A
Dan A
5 years ago
Reply to  GlowBoy

Not with e-assist I’m sure, but I’m doing 30 miles & 3000 feet per day. I’ll stick to my road bike, thanks.

Johnny Bye Carter
Johnny Bye Carter
5 years ago
Reply to  Champs

You say that cars are superior at everything. I counter that they’re superior at nothing.

Reliability? In the first 2 years of owning my bike all I do to it is put air in the tire and adjust the little screws on the brake handles. I’m sure you know that the list for motor vehicle maintenance in the first two years is a lot more time consuming and expensive.

Hard to get a bike going after a couple months off? Because the bike has flat tires or because you haven’t ridden it and your muscles are weak? Are you blaming the bike for your laziness?

I don’t choose to bike because it’s inferior to driving. If I’m driving I’m also usually hating myself for being too lazy to bike. There are only a couple occasions a year that I need to take multiple beings and all their luggage a considerable distance that transit doesn’t serve and I feel that driving is the answer. And I certainly don’t need to own a car for that much use.

B. Carfree
B. Carfree
5 years ago

Ah yes, Just Do It, it being get the cars off the streets to clean our air and so much more. Meanwhile, we see cities doing tiny Sunday Streets type things and other little parties while we watch our cycling participation numbers either stay flat (PDX) or decline precipitously (Eugene, now down 60% from 2009 and on target to go to zero by 2025).

Sometimes, one cannot jump a chasm in two leaps. If we are serious about removing the car from its throne as the one and only mode that goes very nearly everywhere, we may need to push for large expanses of landscape that simply prohibit personal cars. If the only way to get to the cool cafe or new restaurant is to take transit, walk or ride a bike, I think people will happily do so.

We still have the open question of why Portland’s cycling numbers continue to be flat and Eugene’s are in such dramatic decline. I have some notions, but would love to hear other’s ideas. (Don’t say it’s gas prices, I already looked and it doesn’t correlate. Also, don’t say it’s weather, because Corvallis is growing leaps and bounds in cycling participation. Other than that, fire away with hypotheses.)

David Hampsten
David Hampsten
5 years ago

I came across this on the BBC:
Children to be banned from cycling to school without number plates.
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-london-45636870

Article quote, for pro racers wanting to make the world a better place after retirement:
“Another critic of Stanley Park High’s policy is Chris Boardman, former professional cyclist and Greater Manchester’s cycling and walking commissioner.”

X
X
5 years ago

Call it friction. Portland’s streets are still bike-able for the accustomed, the economically constrained and some would say, the foolhardy. But from the point of view of a car user, it’s too crazy out there to make the switch. So much depends on where you sit, behind a windshield or on a saddle.

I complain a lot about PBOT but I do believe they are doing some of the right stuff. Sunday Parkways seems kinda like fluff to me but it does induce people to find their bike and pump up the tires, go out there and find out what their biking radius is, and have the experience of encountering other humans while traveling.

Sometimes I walk to the store just to get out of my bike bubble. That’s probably how I’m going to die, crossing Fremont or Prescott.

X
X
5 years ago
Reply to  X

That’s a response to B. Carfree. Love your handle. To the rest of the crowd: could we stop complaining so much about, um, unhoused people on Bike Portland? By percentages they are a huge part of the bike riding public. Nobody has to tell them to ride a little more. I have a definite feeling of kinship with some of the chronic bike tourists that I see. There’s a lot that I could learn from them.

They shouldn’t be riding your former bikes? Hmmm. Bike theft is one crime where I tend to blame the victim. Shoulda kept your hand on it bro! But then again I’ve never had a bike stolen, just a trailer, and I recovered that from my alley ranger neighbor. I know at least one person who is in double figures in lost stolen bikes. Why the difference?

Johnny Bye Carter
Johnny Bye Carter
5 years ago

Trump’s tariffs: Until they’re over 100% then the tariffs aren’t high enough. China is destroying the planet and their own people in the name of money and power. If I were Trump I’d be putting a lot more restrictions on products from countries that don’t have the same oversights as we do.

X
X
5 years ago

If you liked 2008 you’re gonna love 2019. It’s gonna be one tasty bug as Trump diddles with international trade, the Fed creeps the interest rate up, a lame-duck Congress guts the safety net, and investors figure out that fracking is the money pit of hell, so, oil price shock overlaid with a bursting financial bubble.

Bikeninja
Bikeninja
5 years ago
Reply to  X

You forgot Brexit, The subprime auto loan bubble, the giant teetering student loan mountain, and the coming crash of the highly leveraged and overvalued stock market..

X
X
5 years ago
Reply to  Bikeninja

Completistas! I figured since it’s only gonna take about three of the above to put us in a trough, why sweat the details? But thanks, now I’ll go fret about those for a while.

Andrew Kreps
Andrew Kreps
5 years ago

“The three-wheeled cargo e-bike ” Yeah. Not putting the ‘bi’ in bicycle there.