Welcome to the week. Hope you had a nice holiday and were lucky enough to take advantage of the spectacular, sunny weather.
Here are the best stories we’ve come across in the past seven days — from sources you can trust.
The (bike) motor city: Imagine if Detroit became a hub of manufacturing and design for light electric vehicles like bicycles? Some folks are actually making that happen. (Bicycle Retailer & Industry News)
Size matters: There is no doubt that the ever-increasing size of SUVs (for no reason other than design trends) is terrible for people and the planet with a new report showing that auto emissions could have gone down significantly if cars were smaller. (The Guardian)
DOTs and deaths: Federal crash data proves a point many of us know far too well — that state-owned roads and highways claim a disproportionate amount of lives each year. (League of American Bicyclists)
Break car culture: An op-ed from New York City that has strong relevance in Portland because of how it addresses the need for leaders to lead and help us “break” car culture if we truly want to save public transit (and so much else). (Streetsblog NYC)
More of this, please: What happens in a country with functioning advertising regulations? Auto ads that show terribly irresponsible behavior are banned. This is a huge problem I’d love to see treated more aggressively here in the states. (Jalopnik)
Why are climate talks stalling? Maybe because some lobbyists from major oil and gas-producing countries in the Middle East are co-opting the most important international climate change conference to negotiate fossil fuel deals. (BBC)
Where Vision Zero is reality: “The idea behind Hoboken’s Vision Zero is to make its streets less car-focused, and more welcoming and accessible to all kinds of transport,” says mayor of the one American city that has tamed traffic to keep its residents safe. (Bloomberg, and for more about Hoboken’s recipe for safety success, see our profile of their DOT director from back in April.)
Just in case: A new company offers bike-specific insurance policies that will cover full cost of your damages in event of a crash or accident. (Bicycle Retailer & Industry News)
More coolness from Montreal: Imagine how cool it would be to rent a bike-share bike with studded tires so you can roll easy on snow and ice! (Cycling Magazine)
Thanks to everyone who sent in links this week. The Monday Roundup is a community effort, so please feel free to send us any great stories you come across.
Thanks for reading.
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“Break car culture:”
An antagonistic combative approach like often seen in the bike portland comment section is not going to be effective. It’s imperative to make the “average Joe and Josephina” realize the value of and happiness brought by the use of human powered transportation. Once a majority wants this it will happen.
That is a direct quote from the article BTW and FWIW.
Also, I disagree with you that we have to be all happy-talk all the time. Nothing wrong with strong words and framing if it’s done well. Respectability politics is a trap and a scheme by the dominant culture to silence the marginalized one and maintain their power.
“Break car culture” can mean “Today I’ll ride my bike to the store instead of driving my car.”
Almost all of my neighbors reflexively get into their cars to make *ANY* trip, even a few hundred feet to the corner store. This behavior has grave implications for all of our futures.
Is there a good case study where the will of the majority has been altered by the minority without the use of incentives?
This is another important article.
https://www.politico.eu/article/london-mayor-sadiq-khan-cop28-climate-change-summit-clean-air-zone-cars-emissions/
That was an incredibly depressing article.
The capacity of human beings to profoundly harm others (and future generations) because they are resistant to small changes in their lifestyles is horrifying. I think it’s very likely that we will see greater than 2 C of global heating (1.5 C is already unavoidable).
Break car culture: An op-ed from New York City…a lot of this article is about the way that car congestion throttles bus travel. Portland has its own version of this. I think that if PBOT is going to pick away at incremental stuff I’d like the next 100 projects to be removing bus bottlenecks. Buses don’t have the flexibility that bike riders do, the drivers have to stay on the route and a passenger’s only option is to get out and walk which is rarely a winning bet.
To their credit, I think that PBOTs Rose Lanes projects are a slam dunk. There’s not always space for bus lanes but I do think that what they’ve done has really helped smooth out bus bottlenecks and provide transit the priority it should have.
Now if only all buses could get signal priority like FX2 does…
Yes – look at how well the Rose Lanes are working in Hillsdale, where the business association predicted The End of the World if they went in.
The buses are now running much faster and more predictably, and – OMG! – cars see a bit more congestion but they still get where they are going, and – double OMG! – the businesses in Hillsdale are doing just fine.
Reports of transit-induced demise were greatly exaggerated. Turns out it *IS* possible to limit automobility in service of other transportation goals.
Theft is the most common way people lose their bike. $25 a month seems a bit steep when many renters insurance policies will also cover theft of your bike even from outside your home. I own now and have homeowners insurance but I kept my renters insurance for this very reason and it’s $8.25 a month with a $250 deductible. My homeowners insurance also covers my bike but the deductible is much higher.
Just in case: the insurance most likely to really help you and your family in the time of greatest need i.e. after a very bad crash is uninsured / underinsured motorist coverage (UM/UIM). Ironically and unfortunately, you or a household member need to have automobile insurance. But it covers you if you are hit by an at fault driver, ***including if you are biking or walking***. And it covers medical bills, loss of earnings, and “pain and suffering.” It is not uncommon for those to reach into six or seven figures for a crash that involves broken bones, surgery, months off work, etc. Coverage for damage to your bike is trivial by comparison, and likely only a good value proposition for a very few people. Anyone who walks or bikes in Portland should try to get on an automobile policy, and max out the UM/UIM coverage. Getting $1M or more can be cheaper than you’d think. As a lawyer who sues insurance companies, I’m not generally a fan of insurance but that is the exception.
Yes! Uninsured motorist coverage is a bargain–I have experienced the need for it and beenhappy to have it.
Props to Hoboken but it absolutely needs to be noted that Hoboken has a total area of less than 2 sq. miles and if Wikipedia is accurate, only 1.25 sq. miles when you remove water from the equation. Lents is 3 sq. miles.