Welcome to the week. I hope you’ve taken a few minutes to soak up my video and photos from the Bike Summer Kickoff Ride on Saturday. It was an incredible display of cycling spirit and an atmospheric river of bike joy. This will be a big week with lots of great rides, a warm sun, big Bike Happy Hour Wednesday, and the Oregon Active Transportation Summit kicking off.
Let’s start things off with a recap of the best items our community came across in the past seven days…
Protesting the right-of-way: As we enter what could be a big summer of protests, it’s time to brush up on the ethics and laws that govern our rights to assemble on public roads. (Streetsblog USA)
A cautionary tale: As Oregon embarks on a debate about transportation funding, California shows us that even in 2024 it’s possible for leaders to prioritize freeway expansions over bicycling and walking projects. (LA Times)
**This week’s Roundup is sponsored by Ride the Dirt Wave, a mountain biking event on the Oregon Coast that happens monthly and starts on June 8-9th at the Klootchy Creek Trails in Cannon Beach.**
What the hell(cat): This dude up in Seattle thinks his big Instagram following gives him a right to race his souped-up Dodge “Hellcat” around city streets at night. Hopefully the car is booted along with his rights to drive it before he kills someone. (NY Times)
Bike-on-bike collision: A popular carfree path in Washington was the site of a scary bike-on-bike collision that sent a woman to the hospital with head injuries. It’s interesting to see how local media handles crashes when no car user is involved. (King 5)
No men: If you’ve ever wondered why some folks love to host rides where men are not allowed, this cyclist offers a good explanation of why she prefers all-women rides. (Cycling Weekly)
Ride to remember: Long bike tours are such great ways to raise awareness about historical events because they give participants endless hours to ponder what they are pedaling for. This ride to remember the forced removal of Cherokee tribe members from their land is a good example. (Cherokee Phoenix)
E-assist upgrade: This attachment known as the Clip has been banging around for a while now and it seems pretty nifty. It turns almost any bike into an e-bike. But it’s the aesthetics that I just cannot get used to. (Ars Technica)
A tired take: The idea that New York’s ubiquitous e-bike delivery riders have made the city a “nightmare” is entirely missing the point. Yes they are an issue to deal with, but a major reason they are so problematic is because they operate mostly on crowded scraps of space left over from all the damn drivers. I bet that when congestion pricing hits and NYC reduces the number of drivers in the city, this issue will magically balance itself out. (NY Times)
Tariffs and you: The expiration of a tariff exemption will add an additional 25% onto the cost of many e-bikes produced with Chinese parts, adding even more urgency for states to subsidize costs to promote purchases. (Global Cycling News)
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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Bike on bike collision: If you read closely, you’ll find it’s actually a bicyclist hitting a pedestrian hiking on a trail.
howdy, FYI, the NY Times link goes to the clip article
ugh sorry. Here’s the correct link https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/27/nyregion/street-wars-e-bikes.html
The comments at the bottom of the article touch on the confusion the author has between drivers showing respect for a protest moving across a street and the street being closed to all traffic, effectively physically restraining the people on it from moving. This was not a very coherent or strong article with the quotes taken contradicting each other.
I thought that roads were for cars and other transportation to travel on from one place to another. Is blocking a road not interfering with it’s purpose?
Also, since you seem to be doubling down on the Gaza war while continuing to ignore worse problems around the world because they are not trendy enough, I would like to know what the people with the signage stating “Free Gaza” think Gaza needs to be freed from. Does it need to be freed from Hamas? Egypt? Israel?
Just a couple quick corrections/notes:
They were free from Israel for 18 years and look what they did. Spent every dollar on bombs, rockets and tunnels while subjugating and murdering women and anything that wasn’t a heterosexual male. Why don’t you protest American action in Israel? Where are the “American out of Israel” banners? It’s because that’s really not what people are protesting. They are indeed protesting the existence of the state of Israel as it was formed when Jordan was formed. I’m tired of reading of westerners trying to fit a situation that they literally can not imagine or understand into a box that corresponds to their preconceived notions of who is right and who is wrong. I’m tired of westerners mindlessly explaining away “From the river to the sea” and “Intifada” as somehow bloodless expressions of resistance when they are bloodfilled cries for the destruction of Israel. I’m tired of willful ignorance.
By advocating (and thats all people do since I sure don’t see a lot of Americans flocking to fight or protest in Jordan or Egypt) to keep Hamas from being destroyed you are literally ensuring that the Gazans remain under the control of a patriarchal theocracy that would happily commit endless slaughter of every last Jew on the planet if only they could. You cry about genocide? Give me a break!
If Israel laid down it’s arms, Hamas would slaughter every Jew, Arab and Christian Israeli they could. They have told the world what they want to do and they have shown the world what they want to do. Why don’t people listen?? Hamas isn’t playing around, do not infantilize them. Take them at their word. If Hamas laid down it’s arms, the war would be over and Gaza could be rebuilt to be the Mediterranean paradise it should have been if Hamas hadn’t stolen all the money that was meant to bring that paradise to fruition.
Unless the generation of children who has watched their families be killed by IDF soldiers and bombs wants revenge.
On October 8th I saw a possible solution without another generation of slaughter; now I don’t.
Another reply by somehow who I doubt has ever set foot in Israel.
Wrong.
This has been brought up before and it seems to ignore history. That pattern you mention was broken when we rebuilt Germany and Japan from ashes. Their regrettable leanings were not passed down to the next generations despite infinitely worse happening to their populations. Stop teaching jihad and hate to children, provide them with a future worth living for and Gaza could very well be the next power as was Germany and Japan.
That pattern never really existed with the Allies and Germany and Japan. We didn’t occupy and exclude them the majority of the land that the German and Japanese people felt was theirs, and we weren’t building on a long history of oppression and violent reprisals. We established functioning democracies in both places, and helped rebuild their economies.
This is a very different situation than exists in Palestine/Israel. I’ve lost all interest in assigning blame for the current state of affairs; my only interest is finding a way forward for everyone to live in peace.
It seems clear that this can’t happen with Hamas in power, but I also can’t see it happening until the children living in Gaza today are too old to fight. It’s human nature.
I believe Israel had a window of opportunity after Hamas attacked, but it has closed. Now we all need to live with the consequences.
You might have lost all interest in assigning blame, but with statements such as this
“We didn’t occupy and exclude them the majority of the land that the German and Japanese people felt was theirs” that mis-characterizes history to the extreme it sure sounds like you are blaming Israel for existing. Israel started occupying Arab lands after the Arabs invaded their country 3 times (not counting intifadas) starting 3 bloody wars. All Hamas needed to offer was peace for land as Israel did with Egypt, but peace would allow the Gazans focus on their misery while Hamas hordes its billions.
I believe you are a skilled thinker and writer so I have a hard time believing you are missing your own bias.
As an aside I haven’t had the chance to visit Israel yet. You implied you had been there and I hope you enjoyed yourself and was curious if you had any personal insights between Israeli and Gazan life?
I think that is a totally fair characterization. Isn’t the core of the conflict about Palestinians feeling dispossessed of their homeland?
I’m not making a claim about whether they are right to feel that way, but I think it is hardly a mischaracterization to state that they do.
As I said, I no longer care who did what to whom, or who wasted what opportunities; that is something for the principals to sort out (or, more likely, agree to disagree about). We need to look forward.
There is not a chance in the world that a significant part of the population of Gaza will not want revenge when they’re old enough to fight. The entire place was destroyed, everyone left has family who was indiscriminately killed, they have nothing. The only chance in the world of peace is if Israel stops it’s genocide and Gaza is rebuilt and people have actual opportunities to flourish without the boot of the IDF on their necks their whole lives. It seems unlikely. I practically want revenge and my family wasn’t even murdered by them. Imagine being 12 in Gaza right now.
A fair number of Israelis might feel the same way, and not without reason. I don’t know if what Israel is doing now constitutes a genocide, but the sheer barbarism of what Hamas inflicted on Israeli civilians convinces me they would happily kill every Israeli if given the chance.
How are these people going to live together?
Did the “sheer barbarism” at Harper’s Ferry lead you to believe John Brown would happily have killed every American if given the chance?
It just doesn’t follow. When oppressed people fight back, that often gets violent. They are out of options, or so they see it.
I’m not saying it won’t make people want revenge, especially given the widespread anti-arab racism in Israel. Just wondering how anyone could honestly, really, believe they would kill every Israeli given the chance.
“Just wondering how anyone could honestly, really, believe they would kill every Israeli given the chance.“
Because Hamas tells us they want to. They are not children, why don’t you believe them?
That doesn’t even come close to explaining the horrors Hamas fighters inflicted on Israeli civilians, including children. You don’t get a pass to commit disgusting, sadistic acts because you’ve been oppressed by other people.
Kidnapping, rape, and torture are never acceptable in my book, and I’m honestly a bit surprised to hear you try to defend it.
Well, I didn’t try to defend all of it. I wouldn’t have suggested anyone do that. But I’m not in their position. From their position, they are cornered and don’t see options. I wouldn’t be surprised by anything they do, given their position.
That said, much of the most egregious reporting has since been debunked or never substantiated. Many of the civilians killed were killed by IDF indiscriminate fire. And people like to flatten the situation as “every Palestinian is Hamas”. Once the fences were breached, all sorts of people came through. Bad things happened which can’t be put at the feet of all of Palestine or even Hamas.
I’m not here to say what they did was good. I’m saying if you put yourself in their shoes, I mean truly, think about it. It’s hard to imagine not wanting to lash out in any way possible. It’s not that it is good, it’s that it was predictable.
Wow, John V, just wow. We obviously get our news from different sources.
Probably. If you listen to the New York Times, for example, you’re getting a lot of misinformation. They have repeatedly been reporting unsubstantiated claims without evidence. This is enough to take their reporting with a grain of salt. It isn’t useless, but it can’t be trusted uncritically.
For another take: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/3/21/october-7-forensic-analysis-shows-hamas-abuses-many-false-israeli-claims
Yes there were abuses. My point is that a lot of the reporting that focused on especially inhuman acts like “mass killing and beheading of babies” and widespread and systematic rape. Neither have evidence.
I’m not going to defend all of the attack as good. It was clearly criminal and don’t worry, nobody has forgotten that. I just want people to have a little more skepticism about some of the reporting that has been used to cast all Palestinians as barbaric animals. The reports have been exaggerated to push for the even more barbaric response, which can’t be justified. Yes, ~800 civilians were killed that day (some by Israel’s own response), but that simply doesn’t compare to the 30,000 killed since and utterly demolished cities.
https://time.com/6565186/october-7-hamas-attack-footage-film/
They filmed themselves raping, torturing and murdering. I am trying very hard not to regress into personal attacks, but your willful ignorance and hatred are making it very hard. Please just stop spouting your Hamas propaganda. Please??
What you are expounding isn’t even true. I know there are a lot of people in the area and most likely reading this who agree with you and it’s quite upsetting.
What you have is video of an attack we all know happened. Nobody denies that it happened. But it doesn’t show what you’re saying it shows. It’s showing a brutal attack. Yeah. A warcrime, for that matter. The response from Israel is a currently ongoing months long series of warcrimes that must be stopped. Both sides must be stopped. Do you understand that? I don’t think Hamas propaganda says that Hamas did warcrimes and must be stopped.
This whole thing is just maddening. What is being reported by a lot of media (and especially the Biden admin) is blatantly false. Much of it is used to confuse people, make them think they can’t trust their lying eyes, make them think it’s so complicated.
It isn’t that complicated. Watts gets it. It’s going to be an infinite back and forth and for obvious reasons.
What is maddening is that people throw out these hazy, scary, gruesome details to distract from the very real, concrete horror that Israel is carrying out. No matter what you think of October 7th, however bad it was (given the fog of war, we won’t know for a long time), it pales in comparison to the response.
The response has been barbaric. It should make Israel a global pariah. I don’t know how anyone can dispute that unless they don’t see Palestinians as fully human.
Just monstrous and shocking.
I’m glad you spoke up though because people need to see where the anti Israel rabbit hole goes.
Tell me what is shocking. Don’t just point at the whole thing and say that. Do you disagree with my sources? Do you dispute the facts? I’m not alone here, this isn’t my words, I didn’t make this up. The ICC and other authorities are raising these same concerns. This stuff will all be sorted out, but unfortunately the idea of “international law” is being shown to be toothless against the might-makes-right of the United States.
What’s shocking is your belief in aljazeera who I am familiar with from the war and whose “reporters” participated in the initial assault on 7Oct. They are not even remotely interested in neutral storytelling. I wholeheartedly disagree with your sources. The video you deny, but are afraid to watch because it might upset your preconceived intersectional white colonialism hatred is simply a recording of what happened that day.
The frightening part is that I’m sure you are not making it up and I’m equally sure they aren’t your words. Other people are making it up and you are simply parroting talking points without thinking them through because they conform to your world view.
Not once have you refuted anything that people have told you. You simply ignore and repeat the words of others without thinking through what we are saying.
I’m sure you will ignore this part of what I’m saying as well, but I’m honestly curious why you are still here in the U.S. Many of your posts focus on how terrible it is here, and yet you stay here, succored by the hard work and sacrifice of others while cheering on pure, brutal savagery. I would have thought you would want to be somewhere that more closely matches your values.
Nobody has really said anything to refute, it’s all rumor or undisputed events. What I refute is your interpretation of events. And more importantly, your defense of the response.
Ah, the old “if you don’t like it, you can leave” right wing trope.
No thanks, I’d rather try and fix this place than go somewhere else.
But like I just said as a top level comment, I’m done engaging with this nonsense. You will not change your mind (at least when it matters). It’s futile to talk, I’ll just stick with the comment:
Everyone can see the attack that is happening now is wrong. Believe what you’re seeing, and don’t let people tell you you’re wrong to be against it.
To be blunt…so are you. And BB (especially BB), and the vast majority of folks who discuss this at the amateur level online. Everybody assumes their sources are the best. Nobody assumes that they’re consuming one of the most sophisticated and well-funded propaganda campaigns on the planet.
This whole exchange is emotional, not rational, utterly pointless, and basically masturbatory.
…but a good reminder I need to avoid subscribing to any article that includes the topic.
We shattered Imperial Japan, made their Emperor who was considered divine state he was only human and nuked it. Twice. We also firebombed Tokyo and bombed the profanity out of just about every urban center. They didn’t hate us to the degree you assume the Gazans will hate Israel.
The only chance for peace is when Hamas surrenders, releases any living hostages and then the Arab nations can rebuild Gaza so they are not constantly reliant on aid trucks.
One can reasonably be disgusted by the manner in which Israel is prosecuting this war while also recognizing that Hamas started this round off with a horrific attack against civilians, and is a repressive, abusive regime that has done the Palestinian people great injustice.
In this progressive era of “impact, not intent”, why can’t the selective outrage directed at Israel plausibly be interpreted as being motivated by antisemitism?
And you can certainly say that you disagree without the personal vitriol.
Quite truthfully, I’ve watched what’s been going on in the Middle East for over 50 years now. I’ve talked to folks from the region on both sides and it will forever be a repeating pattern where leaders want to thump their chests and show their followers how macho they are. It will NEVER end.
As a result, quite frankly, I don’t care anymore. It’ll eventually stop, and then start up again in a few years anyway. So I’ve decided to quit wasting angst over what is going on and spend my energy on things that are important to me.
Yeah, it’ll end when Israel ethnically cleanses the region with the weapons I’m helping to pay for. Or, you know, someone could finally say no, this is too far. No thank you to staying neutral, I can’t do it. If this was just some tragedy being carried out by some random country, that would be one thing. But I am casually connected to it and I can’t stay quiet about it.
But I get how it can be tiring. It feels like (and effectively this is true structurally) we have no democratic influence over our foreign policy. Maybe it is hopeless. I haven’t been at it as long as you, maybe I’ll give up eventually.
More Palestinians live in the West Bank and Israel proper (3 million) than live in Gaza. If it’s ethnic cleansing they are not doing it very well.
This topic should be discussed on a forum with educated people.
Genocide, the only definition that has any weight, is the destruction in whole or in part. And ethnic cleansing already happened, they’ve all been moved to a concentration camp.
You can’t really believe that, do you? Words are supposed to have specific meanings and to say Gaza as a whole which could be a paradise if Hamas wasn’t stealing all the aid/money is a concentration camp is an affront to the reality of language.
Of course I believe it! It’s the obvious reality! Most of Gaza has been moved to Rafah and then bombed right there. This isn’t even debatable, all sides are saying this. That’s ethnic cleansing. There is also clear evidence Israel is carrying out genocide, per the definition that was reached as a response to the Holocaust itself!
Anyway, I’m not here to convince True Believers. I wish I could but I think your mind will never be changed except maybe in hindsight when this atrocity is long behind us. I just want other people who are feeling like they’re going crazy from the lies and attitude of people who defend mass killings by Israel. You’re not crazy, they are the bad guys here, they’re doing what it looks like they’re doing, and our government is helping make it possible.
“Of course I believe it!“
I believe you, it’s a serious concern. This is why I was worried when JM started writing in anti-Israeli tropes. It’s a short trip to an ugly place where ones information is written by people who only mean Israeli harm for the crime of existing.
The crime isn’t existing, it’s existing where they had to displace people from their land! It’s crazy people talk like this and get away with it.
No anti-Israeli tropes are being used, unless simply reporting what is happening is a trope.
Palestine homeland is mostly in Jordan and there are 3 million Palestinians who live in Jordan.
History can be fun, open a book.
Jordan and Israel came into being at roughly the same time. Then came the first of three Arab invasions of the newly established Israel. I’m going to stop here and see how much you disagree with this simple, factual statement.
It’s hard to even believe someone can be this misinformed.
There is almost as many Palestinians (1.6 million) who are Israeli citizens as there are people in Gaza.
They were not all moved there, not even close.
There are another 1.5 million who live in the West Bank.
Stop posting propaganda.
And there were a lot of black Africans living in apartheid South Africa.
I didn’t say all Palestinians were moved to Rafah, I’m talking about Gazans.
Says the guy defending mass killings by Hamas.
Hamas committed an unspeakable atrocity. Israel responded with disproportionate force. Why do people otherwise uninvolved, a world away, feel the need to choose sides, weighing one evil against the other, making excuses for their chosen sides because of what came before?
I’m disgusted by it all; both the events themselves, and our response to them.
I didn’t. Don’t lie and put words in my mouth. I said it was predictable. It is unsurprising that it happened. I also said some of the atrocities laid at their feet didn’t happen. Truly, they have been debunked. *Obviously not all*, I’m not denying that it was an atrocity. But it’s important to correct rumors on a matter such as this.
We are not. We are not uninvolved, this is the whole entire reason this is getting attention. We’re paying for it to happen, and so it merits our attention.
There is no magical arithmetic, but the response has been unbelievably brutal and unjustifiable. And importantly, is currently ongoing. That’s the whole point, one you’ve even suggested. This needs to stop.
It would stop tomorrow if Hamas surrendered and released any living hostages.
Unortunately they have murdered most of them. Grandma’s, children, etc.
It was a war they started , they lost you know like Germany in WWll
Hamas political positions are close to the Third Reich so it’s a fitting analogy.
That’s essentially an impossible demand. Hamas will never surrender en masse. If you were some low ranking Hamas official (i.e. a teacher, involved in municipal government, or a military bookkeeper) would you turn yourself over to the IDF? I sure wouldn’t. Doubly so for fighters, especially those with blood on their hands. And the leadership knows that surrender will mean a harsh life in prison, if not worse.
And once the fighting stops, there will be a reckoning for Netanyahu and some top military leadership, and a collapsed government, so everyone involved has a strong incentive to keep things going as long as possible.
My apologies. I said earlier that Hamas had committed kidnapping, rape, and torture, and you said you didn’t defend “all of it”. Neither of us specifically referenced the mass killings of civilians they committed, so I falsely accused you. I am sorry.
I appreciate that, thanks.
This logical framing of the genocide argument and definition is a narrative violation, though. There are “journalists” who likely don’t even know there are Palestinians in Israel and that they live about the highest quality of life in the Arab world. It becomes harder to hate the oppressor when you realize they aren’t that great at oppression or genocide.
You vote for the president who carries it out, and the members of Congress who can set its parameters. Yeah, I know that’s somehow not “real” democracy, but it’s more than most people get.
Strangely enough, all the reason Lou Vardeman enjoys riding with women vs. men are very similar to why men enjoy doing stuff with other men vs. women. Shocker, I know! The fact is that living as a person comes with innate viewpoints that are part-n-parcel of that life. Women can relate to things in a way men can’t. Men can relate to things in a way women can’t. So yeah, we should all enjoy being with all people and shouldn’t discriminate against people because of their gender. But it’s OK to want to hang out with persons of your gender (or similar experiences) because they just know, you don’t have to explain or worry.
I will add that Cade Media’s Emily had a great monolog (here; 20:30 to 25:15) about feeling unsafe with men as a woman. She also talks about how that figures into marketing (& 29:40 to 34:45). I you haven’t heard it, go listen, especially if you are man.
Speaking of cars with modified exhausts; they’re quite a big problem here in Portland as well. I live downtown and have to listen to the gangs of “car enthusiasts” who spend all night revving their cars which have been modified to sound like automatic gunfire. We also have to deal with them driving like psychos. AFAIK the police refuse to do anything about it, despite this being a pretty important public safety/quality of life issue.
The level of self absorption which produces this behavior is really hard to understand.
The sound your hearing is their Anti-Lag system. This explosion helps to keep the turbocharger spinning even when the driver is off the throttle, which reduces turbo lag and improves engine response. The sound is caused by the explosion and the pressure wave that follows it, which creates a loud popping or banging noise that is similar to a gunshot.
Whatever it is, it should definitely be illegal because it’s noise pollution. If I went biking with a giant speaker playing recordings of gun shot all night the cops would probably do something….
It is illegal on a couple of different levels
2021 Oregon Revised Statutes
1) A person commits the offense of causing unreasonable noise with a vehicle if the person operates upon any highway any motor vehicle so as to cause any greater noise or sound than is reasonably necessary for the proper operation of the vehicle.
(2) The offense described in this section, causing unreasonable noise with a vehicle, is a Class D traffic violation.
Oregon used to have actual decibel numbers (measured at 25 feet). Max was 94db. The numbers differed base on year of manufacture. The new statute is easier to enforce. No need for a sound meter. But like most other violations it is not enforced.
The 2nd violation is for EPA rules. It is a illegal for anyone to modify the emission system of a vehicle. Exhaust is part of a vehicles emissions. The problem is that the EPA does not any law enforcement to force compliance. State and local police are not responsible for enforcing EPA rules.
As for riding around with gunfire blasting from a giant speaker. 3 outcomes come to mind. 1. you get a visit from the police. 2. One of your neighbors shoots you or 3. nothing happens. Please don’t do it. I don’t want anyone riding a bike to be injured or killed.
It is frustrating that an article referencing protests about Gaza immediately brings out a pointless back and forth that cannot possibly be resolved or lead anywhere good. This time it wasn’t even about that! It was an article about someone driving a car into protesters!
I think people are generally reluctant to weigh in because of the smears and derision (and threats, although not here, thanks mods) that immediately follows if you simply speak your conscience. Oh, you don’t like what is happening? You must be uninformed! Without someone to speak up, the conversation goes one way.
I’ll try not to engage except surface level response, and to reiterate the following:
I think people are right to be disgusted by this current siege specifically, and you are not alone in feeling that way. Don’t let anyone talk down to you about protesting or even just feeling sick about what is happening right now with your help.
Does that also apply to you?
I agree. That makes half the people involved in the pointless back and forth who want it to end. If the other two agree to shut up about it, the problem is solved. I’ll skip the traditional and customary insertion of my argument in the “let’s stop arguing” thread.