Welcome to the week.
Here are the most notable items BikePortland editors and readers came across in the past seven days…
Stand up to hate: Portlander Molly Cameron is calling on the bike industry to stand against the hateful, anti-transgender laws in Arkansas that would prevent people from playing sports.
Build it and they will bike: One of the first peer-reviewed studies of the impact of new bike lanes installed due to the Covid bike boom found that in cities that added them, cycling increased 11 to 48 percent more than in cities that didn’t.
Get active, not electric: Switching to electric vehicles is important, but too much focus on electrification at the expense of bicycling will not get us to emissions goals fast enough.
Pandemic pilfering: NPR took a look at how bike theft is rising amid America’s bike boom and offered tips to prevent your bike from being stolen.
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Transit greener than biking: New research into modal choice and carbon emissions took into account the vast positive environmental impact of biking and transit over driving and found that transit is greenest due to the manufacture and disposal of bicycles as well as the added calorie consumption required by their riders.
Remove highways, says White House: Freeway removal fans are feeling good with new US DOT Sec. Buttigieg at the helm and a new infrastructure proposal that prioritizes out the idea.
Keeping streets open: A cautionary tale from New York City where some of the streets opened to people during the pandemic have been re-claimed by car users.
Speed bumps for bikes: A cafe owner in Manhattan was so mad at the speed of e-bike riders they installed harsh speed bumps.
New rules of roads: Bloomberg’s list of five things that will make streets and cars less deadly is rightly focused on an overhaul of federal regulations.
Dark side of Walmart utopia: The Walton family’s efforts in making northwest Arkansas a cycling mecca have attracted a lot of excitement from bike lovers, but are folks who move and vacation there helping fuel something sinister?
Thanks to everyone who shared links with us this week! Tracking the best stories is a community effort and I am very grateful for your help.
— Jonathan Maus: (503) 706-8804, @jonathan_maus on Twitter and jonathan@bikeportland.org
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