Well the rain has settled in and those wonderful fall leaves have gotten soggy and slimy. Hope you’ve avoided flooding and that your rain gear is holding up.
Here are the most notable stories our community came across in the past seven days…
**Sponsored by Ender for East Portland**
End ‘motorized violence’: Protests have erupted in France and the country’s transport minister held a meeting with cycling advocates after a driver allegedly murdered a bike rider (who happened to be a well-known advocate) with their car on the streets of Paris. (The Independent)
Rail-biking: Turning defunct railroad lines into pedal-powered thoroughfares with rail-bikes is a quicker and easier path toward human-powered access that rails-to-trails ever was. (NY Times – paywall)
Bikesketball: Love it when my worlds collide! Retired National Basketball Association player and legend Reggie Miller is a cycling fanatic who loves racing ‘cross and mountain bike. Such a great ambassador for both sports! (Velo)
E-bike racing: It’s one thing to be cool with e-bikes in the bike lanes, but should hardcore training rides and racing organizers look to embrace them in competitions? Marley Blonsky says it’s time. (Cycling Weekly)
No more McKenzie Pass? There’s confusion and outrage among many Oregon cycling lovers after the State of Oregon seems to have made an about-face on their policy of welcoming riders onto a carfree McKenzie Pass before it’s open to drivers in spring. (Statesman Journal)
IBR team in la-la land?: The Draft Environmental Impact Statement for the Interstate Bridge Replacement Program doesn’t account for induced demand even though the project includes five miles of wider freeways and seven new freeway interchanges. (The Urbanist)
Boo!: Don’t want to dull anyone’s excitement for All Hallow’s Eve on Thursday, but this is our annual reminder to please drive carefully and remember there are a lot of kids running around enjoying streets and that your car can easily kill one of them. (Vox, 2022)
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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There’s something bitterly ironic about the McKenzie Pass and IBR stories being next to each other here. ODOT has hundreds of millions of dollars to spend on marketing and planning the expansion of the freeway network in the Portland area (including the IBR, Rose Quarter, Abernethy Bridge and Boone Bridge projects), but no money to spend on maintaining any of the existing infrastructure that rural Oregonians rely on. This extends far beyond McKenzie Pass, but it’s shocking to me that this hasn’t metastasized into a larger political issue. Spending the lion’s share of road money on Portland projects feels like it ought to be way less popular in a state that loves defining itself in relation to Portland.
And I mean it’s not like saying “you can use McKenize Pass at your own risk in the off season if you aren’t in a car” even costs them anything. If they are worded about liability, be clear about what is allowed and not allowed when people interact with plows. That’s basically free!
Bitterly ironic, yes, but the sad reality is that that perverse incentives exist to encourage this reckless behavior. First, the money is divided between O&M costs and capitalized costs, where the capital costs can be bonded and paid for over a long period of time. Also, the IBR is expected to be largely paid for with Federal grant money, which does not exist for O&M work and which doesn’t carry a requirement to ensure that the asset’s maintenance and operation can be paid for by the owner(s). ODOT is incentivized to build these huge megaprojects that attract a lot of Federal money that would otherwise go elsewhere out of state, even as the same ODOT struggles to maintain what they already have.
As far as e-bike racing is concerned, it’s been around awhile already. They just used gas engines in bicycle frames instead of electric back then. At least the author calls for a separate category for them.
Rail bikes are indeed fun (try one in Hood River), but those carts they use are really more like electric cars with pedals than bikes. They have 4 wheels, side-by-side side seating, an electric throttle, and pedaling is optional (and exhausting).
Go Pacers! REGGIE REGGIE REGGIE!