Welcome to the week.
Here are the most notable items BikePortland writers and readers came across in the past seven days…
Stand up for bike lanes: With striking similarities to the North Williams Avenue debate, residents of a neighborhood in Tulsa, Oklahoma fought to get bike lanes removed. But cycling advocate Kolby Webster, who is Black, believes bike lanes are good for the community and wants to save them.
Remove freeways, give land back: Those words would have seemed radical just a few short years ago, but freeway removal and community restoration are ideas being talked all over the country, including this feature article in the Texas Observer.
Get paid to be carfree: Berlin policymakers are smart enough to know that cars kill cities, so their plan is to pay people €1,100 per year to not own one — and the funds will be paid out from a carbon tax.
Tours de France: Slovenian rider Tadej Pogacar won the Tour for the second year in a row, while Australian Lachlan Morton completed an equally impressive “alt Tour” all by himself.
Advertisement
Electric car obsession: We are in trouble when Oregon Governor Kate Brown and ODOT’s boldest transportation policy is pushing a faster switch to electric cars because — as this Oxford professor argues — we don’t have time to mess about with car fleet changes and it takes our focus away from shifting trips to active modes like cycling.
Data-centric perils: When a D.C. road safety advocate analyzed police scanners they found pedestrian and bike crashes were three times more likely than car-only crashes to be left out of the city’s official count.
They’re squirming: State DOT and road construction lobbyists are getting scared about new transportation funding policy that’s working its way through Congress. That means we should fight like hell to make sure it passes.
Jersey collectors: If you scoff at people who collect Nike sneakers, maybe you can more easily relate to these collectors who fantasize over cycling jerseys.
Turnouts work: Very cool to see new turnouts coming to famous Mt. Diablo in California. I’ve pushed for bicycle safety turnouts for years and think we should build more of them on rural roads — especial narrow climbing routes.
Thanks to everyone who submitted stories!
— Jonathan Maus: (503) 706-8804, @jonathan_maus on Twitter and jonathan@bikeportland.org
— Get our headlines delivered to your inbox.
— Support this independent community media outlet with a one-time contribution or monthly subscription.