Welcome to the week. Here are the most notable stories our writers and readers have come across in the past seven days…
This week’s Roundup is brought to you by Cyclepath Bike Shop (NE Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd and Brazee), who welcomes you into their space with excellent service, group rides and clinics, bikes and parts, and a warm and friendly vibe.
And now, let the Roundup begin…
How to do carfree: Montreal walks-the-walk when it comes to being a city that puts people first. A new initiative will ban cars on major sections of 10 downtown streets in an effort to boost businesses and livability. (Montreal Gazette)
Science knows: New research using biometrics and machine learning proves what many of us have understood forever: That humans hate being around cars in cities and are much happier when streets do not have cars on or near them. (Scientific American)
What Earl thinks: In a new interview, Portland Congressman Earl Blumenauer opines on e-bike rebates, Portland’s cycling decline, and why the bike lanes on Pennsylvania Ave are his favorite piece of infrastructure. (Slate)
Ticket timing: Seattle PD failed to process automated cameras quick enough and their expiration means the city will lose crucial revenue for safety projects. (The Urbanist)
Dangerous driving epidemic: In Washington D.C., a council member held a six-hour roundtable discussion about dangerous drivers and found there’s, “a lack of coordination among enforcement agencies, a lack of strategy, and a lack of urgency.” (DCist)
Environmentally irresponsible: A provision tucked into the debt ceiling deal worked out by Biden and Congress includes language some fear could gut the power to hold massive freeway projects accountable for environmental impacts. (Streetsblog)
Bicycling prizes: Bloomberg Philanthropies announced that a city in Brazil has won $1 million and nine others won $400,000 in a contest that awarded the best bicycling infrastructure project ideas. (The Guardian)
Video of the Week: This new film, The Engine Inside, partially funded by Shimano and bike advocacy group People for Bikes, looks fantastic! (Notable that Portland is not (yet!) on the screening tour.)
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Sounds like Washington needs to pass some legislation to allow civilians to review automated speed citations and to make it a traffic infraction to not identify who was driving your car if you claim it wasn’t you. Oregon needs to pass the latter as well if we ever hope to have widespread speed and red light automated citations.
I am very uneasy with the idea that the police will charge you with an infraction if you don’t give up someone else. We have a process for compelling testimony. Use it.
Why would you be uneasy about it? You own a dangerous vehicle you lent to someone else who drove it recklessly you should be held responsible for that. As far as compelling testimony goes. Do you really think it’s reasonable to take every car owner to court to testify about who was driving their car? There’s a reason we don’t have jury trials for speeding tickets. It’s a waste of resources. This would be too.
What if I finger the wrong person, or don’t know specifically who had my car?
pierre_delecto
1 year ago
Blumenauer: For one thing, the bike boom in the ‘70s was a fad and not a movement. It was not supported by policy and investment, such as the recent spending in bike trails, Safe Routes to School, and so on
Given the incredibly sharp decline in cycling mode share, I think it’s very possible that the 2010s also represented a faddish bike boom.
PS: I did not see another person biking on my way to work this morning around 7 but I saw streams of SUVs and trucks. This has become the norm in Portland and it really sucks because motorists simply don’t expect to see people cycling and behave in all sorts of bone-headed ways.
Mondays are low-commute days, it seems. The commute numbers go up mid-week, and by Friday, the bike lanes are downright crowded in some places. It’s nice to see, really.
I thought the Blumenauer interview was interesting, and I’m glad someone at Capitol Hill is taking advantage of the good bike lanes in DC. It was one of the first cities I cycled around that had actual bike lanes! I think biking could have been a fad in the 2010s for me if not for the increase in bike lanes in all the cities I lived in during my 20s. So, fad or not, keeping safe bicycling infrastructure and how fun it is and how great it feels in the conversation at a high level helps. Deflating vehicle size would help, too.
Michael Mann
1 year ago
The Engine Inside (film) is indeed not currently scheduled for Portland. However, that can change if someone in town wants to do the legwork of securing a location (Hollywood? Clinton? Academy?)
There’s all the info on the film’s website.
Laura
1 year ago
Portland wasn’t “left off” of the screening tour, as it was open to individuals, companies and non-profits to buy the opportunity. It appears that nobody stepped up to host a screening.
I really loved riding in Montreal.
Their BIXI bike (bike share) worked great.
They actually make sure there are bikes at the stations (unlike BikeTown),
it was affordable and their bike trails felt much safer
without trash and sketchy campers.
Portland has abandoned the notion of bike stations almost entirely but they are still in place, taking up space in right-of-ways and no doubt confusing visitors. The current practice works OK for locals who just need one bike. It’s not so good for people who aren’t carrying a phone at the time, or traveling in groups.
Our transit system is also less and less available to people using cash as opposed to devices and cards. I know, old person problem, but sometimes technology fails.
I would be an occasional user of shared bikes, just as I am of other transit, but it never seemed worth it to join the club. A bus doesn’t need your info before you get on board.
J1mb0
1 year ago
From the DCist article:
“She had clearly over and over and over the course of many years shown a track record for using that [driver’s] license in a way that put the public at risk of serious injury or death without any real evidence that her behavior changed,” Allen said. “Until we find ways to change that motorist behavior, traffic deaths are going to persist.”
I don’t understand how she still had a driver license with her record. Why are we acting like people have some right to operate a 2 ton death machine? Unlike with guns it is not a right. It really makes me reconsider my life choices when a person can have $12k in speeding tickets and still have a license.
Obviously you missed the constitutional amendment referring to the “right to ride wagons”. Clearly anything from a smart car to an 800hp lifted dually pickup truck qualifies as a wagon, and thus it is our right to ride in any and all of these freedom machines.
Ah, I can’t believe I forgot about this one. Dang. Welp, when I get run over by some maniac I’ll remember that it was their constitutional right to plow right over me on their way to the Starbucks drive-thru.
Thanks for reading.
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Please subscribe today to strengthen and expand our work.
Sounds like Washington needs to pass some legislation to allow civilians to review automated speed citations and to make it a traffic infraction to not identify who was driving your car if you claim it wasn’t you. Oregon needs to pass the latter as well if we ever hope to have widespread speed and red light automated citations.
I am very uneasy with the idea that the police will charge you with an infraction if you don’t give up someone else. We have a process for compelling testimony. Use it.
Then the car should be held responsible and be impounded or have its registration revoked.
Sure. Give the license points to the car as well.
Why would you be uneasy about it? You own a dangerous vehicle you lent to someone else who drove it recklessly you should be held responsible for that. As far as compelling testimony goes. Do you really think it’s reasonable to take every car owner to court to testify about who was driving their car? There’s a reason we don’t have jury trials for speeding tickets. It’s a waste of resources. This would be too.
What if I finger the wrong person, or don’t know specifically who had my car?
Given the incredibly sharp decline in cycling mode share, I think it’s very possible that the 2010s also represented a faddish bike boom.
PS: I did not see another person biking on my way to work this morning around 7 but I saw streams of SUVs and trucks. This has become the norm in Portland and it really sucks because motorists simply don’t expect to see people cycling and behave in all sorts of bone-headed ways.
Mondays are low-commute days, it seems. The commute numbers go up mid-week, and by Friday, the bike lanes are downright crowded in some places. It’s nice to see, really.
I thought the Blumenauer interview was interesting, and I’m glad someone at Capitol Hill is taking advantage of the good bike lanes in DC. It was one of the first cities I cycled around that had actual bike lanes! I think biking could have been a fad in the 2010s for me if not for the increase in bike lanes in all the cities I lived in during my 20s. So, fad or not, keeping safe bicycling infrastructure and how fun it is and how great it feels in the conversation at a high level helps. Deflating vehicle size would help, too.
The Engine Inside (film) is indeed not currently scheduled for Portland. However, that can change if someone in town wants to do the legwork of securing a location (Hollywood? Clinton? Academy?)
There’s all the info on the film’s website.
Portland wasn’t “left off” of the screening tour, as it was open to individuals, companies and non-profits to buy the opportunity. It appears that nobody stepped up to host a screening.
gotcha. Thanks for the info.
I really loved riding in Montreal.
Their BIXI bike (bike share) worked great.
They actually make sure there are bikes at the stations (unlike BikeTown),
it was affordable and their bike trails felt much safer
without trash and sketchy campers.
Montréal nous voilà
Portland has abandoned the notion of bike stations almost entirely but they are still in place, taking up space in right-of-ways and no doubt confusing visitors. The current practice works OK for locals who just need one bike. It’s not so good for people who aren’t carrying a phone at the time, or traveling in groups.
Our transit system is also less and less available to people using cash as opposed to devices and cards. I know, old person problem, but sometimes technology fails.
I would be an occasional user of shared bikes, just as I am of other transit, but it never seemed worth it to join the club. A bus doesn’t need your info before you get on board.
From the DCist article:
“She had clearly over and over and over the course of many years shown a track record for using that [driver’s] license in a way that put the public at risk of serious injury or death without any real evidence that her behavior changed,” Allen said. “Until we find ways to change that motorist behavior, traffic deaths are going to persist.”
I don’t understand how she still had a driver license with her record. Why are we acting like people have some right to operate a 2 ton death machine? Unlike with guns it is not a right. It really makes me reconsider my life choices when a person can have $12k in speeding tickets and still have a license.
“Unlike with guns it is not a right.”
Obviously you missed the constitutional amendment referring to the “right to ride wagons”. Clearly anything from a smart car to an 800hp lifted dually pickup truck qualifies as a wagon, and thus it is our right to ride in any and all of these freedom machines.
Ah, I can’t believe I forgot about this one. Dang. Welp, when I get run over by some maniac I’ll remember that it was their constitutional right to plow right over me on their way to the Starbucks drive-thru.