Welcome to the week.
Let’s start things off with a recap of the best stories our community came across in the past seven days…
How to respond to haters: This is a must-watch video of the Mayor of Quebec masterfully responding to the disingenuous “Shouldn’t cyclists pay for the roads?” question. (X)
Say “speeeed!”: As we still process a man shooting out Portland’s automated speed cameras, officials in Washington DC are learning to love them because the cameras not only reduce speeds but the drivers who do it provide a nice stream of revenue needed for other things. (The Washington Post)
Surprising helmet advocates: My head hurts after reading this story about how Dutch officials — after decades of being the example of helmet-less cycling nirvana — are now urging folks to wear a protective head covering. (The Guardian)
More helmet love: Chef Gordon Ramsay is the latest star to crash their bike and use their large platform to tell everyone to wear a helmet in case it happens to them. (BBC)
Justice: A prominent Los Angeles philanthropist received a sentence of 15 years to life for speeding in her SUV and killing two young boys in a hit-and-run. (NY Times)
Unsafe senator: U.S. Senator John Fetterman is a repeat offender when it comes to unsafe driving, so much so his staff won’t ride with him and they refrain from texting when they know he’s driving because they know he’ll respond. (The Washington Post)
Induced demand: New research on a bike lane in Switzerland revealed that the construction of a new bikeway led to a 20% jump in weekday traffic. (Transportation Research Interdisciplinary Studies)
Politics and polls: The people of San Francisco have spoken in a new poll about their city and have made it clear they want more carfree spaces and better transit. Please please please someone in Portland do a poll like this before November! (Streetsblog SF)
Training camp: What’s one of the fringe benefits of investing in off-road bicycling trails and being a place that embraces cycling with open arms? You get the U.S. Olympic Cycling Team to train in your city! (5 News Bentonville)
Biketown for none: The City of Portland’s latest move to reduce benefits of its Biketown For All program might save money in the short-term, but it was a very bad policy idea in the long term, says local reporter Taylor Griggs in her latest op-ed. (Portland Mercury)
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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the first three posts all link to the mayor of Quebec on X.
Link for Washington Post article: https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2024/06/16/traffic-cameras-dc-speeding/
highlights from the article:
“Speed cameras may be one of the leading sources of driver annoyance in D.C., but they’re doing their job: On streets with cameras installed, speeding has dropped sharply, city data shows. In 2015, Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) unveiled a traffic safety initiative called Vision Zero, with the aim of bringing traffic fatalities and injuries to zero. Cameras that automatically detect speeding and stop-sign violations were a central part of the initiative, and hundreds more began to be installed in 2023.
And many drivers find the cameras a nuisance or a real financial hardship. The fines, which start at $100 and can reach $500 for high speeds, have become the city’s primary method of traffic enforcement.
The Office of the Chief Financial Officer expects the cameras to bring in more than $1 billion in revenue over the next four fiscal years, though revenue is expected to plateau and then decline as people adjust their driving behaviors. “We will love to see lower revenue from [camera] tickets, because that would mean more drivers are obeying traffic laws and our streets are getting safer,” said Charlie Willson, the Vision Zero director.
The increased use of cameras comes as the D.C. Council and government agencies also crack down on driving infractions in other ways. The council recently passed a bill to empower the D.C. attorney general to sue drivers with multiple violations, regardless of where they live, which could help the city collect the hundreds of millions of dollars that out-of-state drivers owe. The bill will also allow the city to install speed-restricting devices on the cars of drivers who commit serious violations.
The Department of Public Works also recently began a pilot program that since April has towed nearly 70 cars carrying a total of more than $600,000 in unpaid tickets and booted 777 vehicles with a total of $1.5 million in fines.“
Collecting ticket revenue from Washington drivers speeding through our city would be amazing.
Washington DC always amazes me. Officially it has as many people as Portland but it feels far bigger, more like 3 million. Why would anyone want to be a resident paying taxes of a city that has no representation in Congress? And so a lot of people living there continue to be residents of other places where they can vote.
RE Induced demand:
It is important to note that the study did not show that people were induced to ride who were not riding previously, or to take new trips, only that they preferred the new route to whatever route they had been taking before.
In other words, no indication that any demand was in fact induced.
Is there a catchy phrase like ‘induced demand’ for satisfying latent demand?
I joined Biketown as soon as it launched, and used it frequently for the first four years. But when they switched to electric bikes and changed the membership/fee structure. I let my membership lapse. If a membership didn’t give me free ride time, I saw very little point in having a membership at at all. Since that time, I’ve barely used Biketown. I still take it occasionally: once, maybe twice a year, in time-sensitive situations where it’s too far to walk, there’s no convenient bus, and I don’t feel like springing for an Uber or Lyft.
I just assumed the new system worked well for a lot of other people. But maybe not so much?
@Douglas K, your Biketown story mirrors mine exactly. It was the perfect multimodal option with a MAX commute to Washington County. Once the electrics showed up and the fee structure changed, it no longer made financial sense to be a member vs taking my own bike, busing or driving. I’ve ridden exactly twice since they went electric. I can’t remember the first trip cost but the second was from Williams & Mason to NW Glisan & 18th. The three mile trip cost me ~$8 as a non-member and my path was direct and focused. That was over a year ago (or more) and I never even think about using Biketown anymore where as when they were ‘acoustic’, I rode them daily. I loved those old tanks, they were perfect.
Wow, that’s ridiculous and uncompetitive pricing for your trip. I was initially curious about Biketown in the good old days of its launch, but there’s no way I would get a membership today. I’ll keep going with leg power for my daily commute.
Yeah. I’m blown away whenever I see someone using one on a group ride. I saw some out on Sunday Parkways this weekend, that must have been a pretty expensive free event!