Here are the most noteworthy items our community came across in the past seven days…
Love and a bicycle: A 15-year-old girl rode over 700 miles on a $20 bicycle to pick up her penniless and injured father and ride him back home to their village, prompting a call from the Cycling Federation of India.
Transit in trouble: Politico has an overview of how transit systems across the country are responding to the coronavirus. It doesn’t look good.
Scared to ride: A survey from Denver’s transit agency found that only 18% of respondents would feel safe riding buses and trains during a viral pandemic.
Welcome to cycling: So far it looks like cycling is refuge for much more than former transit riders, given the nationwide bike shortage we’re facing at the moment.
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Local bike boom: It’s tough to get service for your bicycle and/or find one to buy because local shops are so slammed with business.
Cars as refuge: I get a deeply unsettling feeling when I see how cars are becoming an even more central part of some people’s lives due to virus concerns.
Tread lightly: As urban planners consider sweeping changes to city streets they must do so by first addressing the pre-existing inequities that have made the pandemic deadlier for low-income and nonwhite residents says Los Angeles-based writer Alissa Walker.
London’s carfree zones: Portland has often looked to London for inspiration so it’s great to see that city will not only create 100% carfree streets they’ll also consider banning drivers on several popular bridges.
A revolution: “Mayors who once might have equivocated about balancing transportation needs are firmly declaring that streets that prioritize pedestrians and cyclists are not cute amenities, but necessities for a happy populace and a thriving economy,” writes our friend Doug Gordon (Brooklyn Spoke, War on Cars podcast) in his debut in The New Republic.
A radder RadWagon: The SUV of bikes, the RadWagon electric cargo bike, has gotten several major upgrades.
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Commute crystal ball: Another poll that shows people who bike to work are much happier about doing so than those who drive. Perhaps the post-pandemic era is a chance to give more people this option?
Eat in the streets (and parking lots): Portland is not the only city that’s considering formal rules for outdoor dining in parking lots and streets.
Bike un-friendly: Is Miami-Dade County the worst place in America to be a bicycle rider? Their virus-related responses like closing bike racks sure make it seem like that.
New voices: At the Intersections is a group of four women who describe their work as, “a new publication centering the narratives, experiences, and expertise of Black, Brown, and Indigenous people in transportation and mobility.”
Dispatch from Oakland: Oakland’s “Slow Streets” are very similar to Portland’s, so this piece in Curbed is worth reading to understand how the “local access only” experiment is going.
Oakland expands to “Essential Places”: Read this blog post from Oakland’s DOT about how they’ve expanded their Slow Streets program to arterials in places without calm neighborhood streets and you can’t miss the similarities to east Portland. The question is: When will PBOT expand our “Safe Streets” program?
— Jonathan Maus: (503) 706-8804, @jonathan_maus on Twitter and jonathan@bikeportland.org
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