Hi friends. Welcome to the week.
Here are the most notable stories of the past seven days…
Thoughts on e-bike speeds: “If a conservative is a liberal who’s been mugged, what do you call a cyclist who’s been hit by an e-bike rider? I’ve been mulling the question since I was struck broadside by an e-Citi Bike rider in Brooklyn Bridge Park earlier this summer.” (Streetsblog NYC)
Gamifying safe driving: A popular app used by drivers in South Korea is being lauded for making roads safer because of how it gives drivers a safety score each time they make a trip, essentially creating a competition to see how can drive the best. (Korea Herald)
Managing Parkinson’s: The story of a couple who once enjoyed major cycling adventures together, then had to adjust when one of them was diagnosed with Parkinson’s yet decided to keep pedaling through it. (Rails to Trails Conservancy)
Cycling for Israel: Several professional cyclists are sharing publicly that they are relieved to no longer race for the Israel Premier Tech team because they didn’t like having “Israel” emblazoned on their jerseys and being associated with that country’s war against the Palestinians. (Bike Radar)
Car free, but mobility rich: The Brits have discovered Culdesac, the master-planned Arizona community that was built as a carless utopia. (BBC)
Take cycling seriously, take bike regulations seriously: “The Dutch police have rolled out a new mobile device on which e-bikes can be mounted by the roadside. Once on the device, the capacity of the e-bikes can be tested to determine if they comply with Dutch law.” (Sticky Bottle)
Slow cycling: “For decades, urban cycling in North America has been shaped by high-performance gear, aggressive riding styles, and male-dominated narratives. But as more cities invest in protected infrastructure and car-free zones, a broader, more inclusive cycling culture is emerging.” (Momentum Mag)
DIY urbanism: Brilliant work by Strong Towns volunteers in San Diego, where folks are painting curbs red to help with the city’s official effort to enforce California’s intersection daylighting law. (NBC San Diego)
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.
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This Grant Petersen/Lovely Bicycle throwback piece is hilarious in the context of the e-bike revolution where I’m frequently close-passed at 25-30 mph* by parents on their Class III cargo-bikes. Although it can be a bit disconcerting to my sad Cat6 sensibilities to be close passed by a parent with kids-as-cargo, I hugely support this and don’t really care that people cycling may be technically violating NG speed limits — after all any small-degree of risk is primarily to themselves and not to others.
Viva the very fast-e-biking revolution!
* I know this because my slow Class I e-bike reduces assist at about ~18 mph and I get passed by people going a heck of a lot faster than this — LOL!
PS: The Dutch police pulling over e-bikes for speed tests are such klootzaken.
I wonder what you, or others, consider a close pass. I frequently pass other cyclists in my *class I* cargo e-bike, which tops out at ~19mph for assist, although when conditions are right I *might* be going 22.
I ask because when I’m passing like that, I frequently just pass, with a very wide berth on wide greenways like Going. I don’t ding my bell because in my experience, it’s mildly surprising to have someone ring a bell at me and I’d rather just pass silently if the speed difference is small.
Actually maybe I ask because I’m self conscious about passing people on acoustic bikes with my big e-bike and I fear stirring up irrational e-bike hate.
I would consider a close pass to be 3 feet or less. If I were always riding in a straight line a 3 foot or less pass would not really bother me but on Portland’s bike facilities I often have to swerve a little to avoid pot-holes or major road defects (those massive ripples caused by buses for instance).
What is a close pass? It’s complicated.
When a person is riding to the right side of an unstriped street with parked cars, give them six feet, or the whole right half of the street.
When a person is riding in a single paint stripe door zone bike lane, where the sweet spot is the outer twelve inches, a close pass is anything inside the center line of the ‘car’ lane.
When a person is riding in a right side double buffered bike lane near the right hand stripe, pass in the left buffer, or even outside it if they seem unstable. On a left hand buffered lane it’s the reverse.
In all cases the person overtaking has to regard parallel motor vehicle traffic, that is solely your problem.
On a multi user path, pass a single rider near the left margin when there are no conflicts with other users including the overtaken rider.
In other situations, sit up and give a single bell 50 feet back. If they react normally and take a line near the right, you’re good. If they don’t react (headphones, double file riders who don’t give way) assume they don’t know you are there. Give two bells, pass with care. “With care” means closing at walking speed, hands on brakes.
On bridge decks I sometimes choose not to pass. If a person is holding a steady line I might give a bell at 50 feet and pass very carefully–there’s no place to bail to if things don’t go well.
If a person is riding inside the right hand rail of a trolley track, stay back, between the rails, and try to think good thoughts. Or, turn off the street.
If you have negative feelings about another rider it might be best not to pass them at all, or only very carefully, because one of you may be about to make a mistake.
Class III bikes have a cap of 28mph, AND it takes quite a bit of work from the cyclist to hit that speed and maintain it.More likely a class III bike rider would ride 21-24, but not 25-30 which would require pro/Tour De France-level fitness to sustain on a cargo bike with kids. The bikes going that I see going that fast are not Class III and are likely not “legally” bikes. I ride a Class III bike myself, and am in the “experienced” cyclist category (x-bike racer) and I get passed by out of Class bikes frequently, not Class I,II, or III. And, yes, I can tell by looking – I also work at a shop and sell Class I and III bikes. Lots of bikes that are outside of the 3 legal classes are being sold via the internet. Those bikes have throttles and can exceed 20 mph without the rider pedaling – therefore NOT within the I, II, III class structure.
This misunderstanding about class is exactly why I am concerned about the not-in-class bikes. They often have riders that lack manners and disregard speed limits and other road rules. So, they make a bad name for the in-class bikes and that leads to some unfortunate proposed legislation, bad will with human-powered bike riders,etc.
Is there even any actual specification on how much assistance a class I/III can give? I haven’t seen any. So it should be possible to have a perfectly legal class III that will “assist” you by doing 99.9% of the work, essentially making the pedals into a throttle.
Not saying that’s what’s happening, I don’t know. But I don’t think it’s true to say it requires someone super athletic to hit and maintain 28mph on a legal class III.
There is none. You are exactly right.
I’m in the “makes us look bad” scofflaw cyclist category but “categories” are not something I think are relevant to my comment.
First of all, it’s easy to bypass/hack the speed limitation on some class III bikes*. Secondly, many Class-III mid-drive motors taper out around 27 but some have full assist up to 28 (e.g. R&M). I would guess that most of those who are passing me on class III bikes are going 24-26 mph which is about the speed I would ride on a class III bike. I should note that I tend to ride during commute hours on major bike routes so people tend to be in a hurry. On my infrequent leisure rides, people tend to ride a lot slower than during peak commute hours.
We will have to disagree about whether the law is in any way relevant to classifying what is and is not a bike.
*If I were to purchase a class III e-bike, I would specifically buy a model that allows my to hack and eliminate the speed limit.
Well, if you can really sustain 24-26 mph on a Class III e-bike, my hat’s off to ya. I also wonder where you’re seeing all of theses Class III bikes going that fast. I can’t say I’ve seen one myself and I don’t drive so lots of opportunity for other bikes to pass me, including during peak commute hours. The majority of bikes that pass me at high speeds (above 24mph) are out-of-class bikes, not class I, II, or III.
Cool, if you want to comment about me using “experienced cyclist” as a label – my point here is, even a strong cyclist has to exert a fair amount of effort to sustain speeds above 22-24mph on a Class III bike. Riding at 25-30 is a ton of work!
As for the hacking – it’s possible, but for the majority of Class III bikes I see and sell, it is SUPER rare.You claim that you would do it, but I don’t think you’re the majority AND, you can hack a Class I as well so being concerned about hacking for just Class III is not quite logical to me. Hacking may be easy but it can also mess up a bike’s logarithms, void the warranty, etc. so it’s not attractive to many Class I/III owners. Hacking would also make your bike an out-of-class bike – for example, if not capped at 28 mph, or if a throttle is added, the bike is not technically a Class III.
As for the “law”, perhaps you’re correct that “legally” is not the right term here BUT each class has clear definitions – so out-of-class, is more accurate if one is trying to talk about which e-bikes do what. Additionally, the 3-class system is widely adopted a variety of cities, states, etc., in the US, and the legislation being adopted across the US does clearly define the classes I, II, and III system for regulatory purposes (laws to regulate use). In other words, the 3 Class system is not fluid. It’s very specific and consistent for how it defines which e-bikes fit in each class.
Again, my original comment was to address the perception that Class III bikes are the ones zipping by at 25-30. I’m saying that unless the bike is gravity assisted, a Class III it’s extremely unlikely to be going 30 mph, and by my experience, cruising above 24 is a ton of work! I’m just wanting to dispel myths about Class III bikes so that in the future they get regulated appropriately and not based on out-of-class bikes being perceived as Class III.
Tell my how you’ve never ridden a Bosch 750 watt mid-drive e-bike without telling me that you’ve never ridden a Bosch 750 watt mid-drive e-bike.
I did indeed hack my Class I but the dongle was damaged during a scofflaw maneuver that made me and all cyclists look bad. And for record, I was able to bike up to 24 mph with this magic dongle and some of those class III cargo bikes were still passing me.
I am not concerned about hacking Class III bikes at all. In fact, I would encourage it! The entire “Class” system is an unworkable joke, ATMO.
Most class I bikes have tiny motors. Sure, I could hack my 250w Bionx, but I don’t think it’s going to give me much more oomph.
a 250-watt “tiny motor” is equivalent to decently trained amateur’s functional threshold power.
more importantly, it’s additive.
Wiggo produced 440W for an hour to get the UCI hour record (54km IIRC).
Aurelian Boneteau (sp?) produced 370 for his 56km hour record on a fast recumbent highracer.
I produced 350w for 24min in a 10mi time trial (25mph) at age 48.
WIth a 250w assist, even one HUP (human unit of power, 75w) will get you to low 20’s on a decent bike on a flat/rollers.
I’m firmly of the belief that anything with more the 250w should not get to use HPV lanes.
Culdesac sounds incredible! I am surprised that a suburb of Phoenix of all places was able to build such a physically interactive and person friendly environment. Definitely something for Portland to aspire to, no need to go overseas with such an amazing example available close by to copy and emulate the bits that will translate to a wetter environment. Although one can’t go wrong with bright and cheery paint to keep the winter blah’s away regardless of weather type.
It was rather disappointing that the article emphasized how Waymo “self-driving” cars make Culdesac “connected” to the rest of the city. Motor vehicle USE is not the same as motor vehicle OWNERSHIP, and using pay-for-ride motor vehicles is not going to save us.
It also continually mentioned the light rail and the various places it would take a person. You got disappointment out of that article? Culdesac seems like an amazing breakthrough, especially when considering it’s physical and cultural location.
As far as “saving us” goes, you just have to step outside your air conditioned area and breathe in the smoke and heat from yet another ever hotter summer and feel the noise from unrestrained auto engine use pulp your senses to see we’re a bit behind the curve.
The crisis has been here for a few years. We can’t “save” ourselves; we can only mitigate the change that has already started. The city can and should be planting trees, preparing neighborhood wells, fortifying the electric grid, investing in public transportation that serves the community at large and incentivizing electric vehicle use (as long as the grid lasts).
All while also trying it’s best to emulate Culdesac regardless of whether people rent cars or not as we still all exist in the greater world as it is and not how it might have been.
I don’t actually use air conditioning, because I know the climate crisis is here. And I agree, we are only able to mitigate that reality. And yes, there’s lots that is admirable in the article. But we have already seen the way that access to private ride service has impacted use of public transit in places like Portland where public transit use had previously been pretty good. So the presence of light rail doesn’t mean a dang thing if people are using Waymo or similar instead of using light rail. Last I checked, Portland had light rail and still has way too many motor vehicles on the road.
It’s nice to not have a chronic disease, be disabled, or be vulnerable to heat due to age or other medical conditions.
This kind of take causes me to temporarily lose hope that a better world is possible.
Yeah, the strain of self righteous ableism that runs through here at times is mind blowing. We have a/c as my partner would be at physical risk without it and it’s frustrating to hear them mocked and looked down upon by people (albeit I hope unintentionally).
Lois mentioned she does not use air conditioning.
You go to the “ableist” trope as you do about every thread.
There was zero self righteous tone in her comment and yours OOZE with it.
The person who constantly says the grid will collapse, that the climate emergency is overwhelming but runs the AC at full blast and gets incredibly defensive about it.
Hard to make it up…
Sigh, did you read why we use our heat pump? Try adding content instead of just harassing people. I don’t want you stalking me.
Hilarious. Always a victim.
I was going to let this go as its pretty clear you are simply upset that your earlier 5 post diatribe against another person was deleted and lashing out. However, it was a rough night and bad morning being a caretaker so I’m extra annoyed with your comments on ableism and you and Lois’ clear disdain for people who need accommodations.
Lois pointed out she did not use air conditioning because “I know the climate crisis is here” as if not using a/c is a condition of doing ones best to struggle against the risen tide. However, her comment is laughable since I suspect that unless she stays home all day and does not work, run a business, purchase groceries or shop in any way she uses the climate control of the building she goes in. She might be wealthy enough to live in a cool, tree enveloped neighborhood (honestly, I hope she does as I hope everyone can) and is healthy so she doesn’t need a/c, but few people are able to live that way.
https://www.wweek.com/news/2025/08/25/extreme-heat-claims-third-victim-of-the-year-in-multnomah-county/
“The deadliest month on record for heat fatalities was June 2021, when a freak, three-day heat dome settled over the metro area, driving temperatures to an all-time high of 116 degrees on June 28. Sixty-nine people died during that event, according to Multnomah County, and a total of 72 died that summer.”
Thats a lot of dead people who would be alive if they had access to a/c. To think that something that is not needed by Lois is not needed by anyone is what ableism is all about.
And yes, if nothing is done to the grid it will indeed physically fail while causing wildfires or urban fires. If Oregon and Portland specifically doesn’t grow a spine and work out a way for electricity to be prioritized for people in medical need and not data centers and AI farms, then more people will die of the ever increasing heat.
Do they allow Air B&Bs?
Thoughts on e-bike speeds:
“I’m an experienced cyclist and…” now goes in the same round bin with almost anything a person might say out an open car window. As in skiing, a bike rider overtaking another person on the street has a duty of care to that rider. Life is not a single track race and saying “on your left” just as you lap wheels is BS. Honking the horn on your one wheel from three meters back, same.
Soren, thanks for “klootzak”, I’ll file that one with my small collection of French phrases. (“Oh la vache” is a good one, it’s not absolutely profane).
Thoughts on e-bike speeds
This is a great write-up and underscores how woefully behind PBOT is in heir planning and designing. The Green Loop planning and design is straight out 1990’s-era thinking that cobbles together existing infrastructure and routes and creates graphics of leisurely bikes amongst toddlers and picnickers. Not a bad vision, but they are usurping already meager bike/ped infrastructure. To take just one example- The Broadway Bridge is already too small. There is almost no pedestrian traffic, and very little bike traffic, but I witness conflicts regularly/weekly. IF the Green loop became a success, and IF the Broadway/Rose Quarter development happened and IF the I5RQ happened and the that development was successful- those little sidewalks would be woefully inadequate. Add in e-bikes, e-skateboards, one-wheel things, cargo bikes, etc and its a non-starter. I do not expect the green loop planners to design the deck extensions, but they should at least do a feasibility study- is is in the realm of possibility to widen the MUP’s to accommodate the hoped-for users? If yes, show it! Even i f it is expensive, show what it might look like and how it could work so people know what they are signing up for and the City can start planning. If it is not feasible (which is a realistic answer, honestly), then STOP this insane planning. If there is no way to support the final vision, then it is colossal waste of resources to plan and design pieces of it. The Blumenauer Bridge is a great example of this: terrible planning and worse design. We have an amazing bridge that cost millions, but there is barely a suggestion of a connection to it. The north end requires 2 90-degree turn down a sidewalk to just continue along 7th! What happened! The only saving that bridge from being a laughingstock is that no one knows about because there is no reasonable route north or south of it. This is what I fear for the Green Loop: we are going to build of of really nice isolated little chunks without a realistic big picture and it will just be a dismal failure. PBOT and bike advocates and planners all need to grapple with the realities of our changing transportation system and get much better at planning and design.
Good collection of articles this week. I’m a big ebike guy and really enjoy the utility I get out of my class 1 ebike. I usually ride about 12-15 MPH and really just like being able to go longer distances, up hills, or ride on hotter days without being a sloppy, sweaty mess when I get to work. I do see a lot of bad behavior, particularly from people on ebikes. I see parents engage in some shockingly risky behavior on their kid-filled e-cargo bikes too.
I think there’s room in the discussion to recognize that bad behavior and mopeds sold as ebikes are a big problem. Not just as ammo for anti-bike reactionaries, but also for the comfort of all vulnerable road users. Sure, I’d much rather get hit by a fat-tire ebikealike moped than a pickup truck, but I’d just rather not get hit at all. I could see someone try biking to get around and be really turned off by that rude behavior.
This recent video by the youtube channel Berm Peak talks about the grey area ebikes that are really mopeds occupy. I have no problem with people riding electric mopeds and electric motorcycles. In fact, for a lot of folks, it could be a great low-carbon mobility option that can cover similar distances to a car at a fraction of the cost and external impact. Though they should have to be licensed and wear full-face helmets like motorcycle/scooter/moped riders. But surely we can draw a distinction between Soren and I riding our dinky ebikes at 15 MPH and a fat-tire throttle monster that can break 40 MPH.
At the end of the day I think we all need to be a little more kind and considerate of each other on the streets. Whether you’re on an ebike or trying to KOM just be patient, give people space, and for the love of god stop for people crossing the street.
Are full-faced helmets required on motorcycles in Oregon? Best I can tell, open-faced helmets are perfectly legal.
No, you can get by with just a DOT approved helmet. This includes the Cruiser-Helmet. This is an Open-Face helmet that is also know as a 1/2 helmet. It covers as much head as a bicycle helmet. The old saying is “If you have a $5 dollar head wear a $5 helmet”. I have changed that to say “If you have a 1/2 brain wear a 1/2 helmet. Now before everyone get upset. This only applies to Motorcycle Helmets.
For the record, I think any attempt to make this distinction is pointless and unenforceable.
Since the legality and safety of (actual) e-bikes and mopeds-in-disguise is today’s hot topic, I think yesterday’s video from Berm Peak deserves a view.
Thank you I was thinking the same thing. I just had not got around to putting it on this site.
Nice to see the article that I missed – and the topic on Dutch traffic safety professionals developing tech to field evaluate [post purchase] e-bike / fat bike speeds. I can speak from experience, as this was my major take away from my last trip to the Netherlands in 2024. Personally, it was a lot less enjoyable to [analogue] cycle around Amsterdam’s urban bikeways, many of which dated to the 1990s…things were not that bad as recently as two years earlier. Lost was that feeling of organic-ness of many cyclists flowing through the city ‘as one’…what with ‘Super73-ick’ fat bikes running through / along packs of oma fiets. [My insights go back to 1996 on cycling the streets of Amsterdam.]
This traffic safety issue was top of mind of the local traffic engineers, as I talked to them after the design sessions [Micromobility Industries Conference Europe], they were developing a strategy to move all e-powered vehicles into the car lane once 80% of all roads had speeds reduced to ~19 mph (GOW30). https://nltimes.nl/2025/06/27/amsterdam-road-safety-increased-lowering-speed-limit-30-kmh
Thus then there would be ‘human powered lanes’ and ‘motor powered lanes; vs “bike lanes” and “car lanes”. Something we strongly need to consider in cities.
It’s interesting to compare Culdesac to Seaside, Florida, which was probably the most famous and one of the first New Urbanism towns in the U.S. (built early 1980s to incredible fanfare from the design press and academics). New Urbanism promoted walkability and mixed-use, but cars and parking were still prominent. In that regard Culdesac seems like quite a step forward.
The planners of Seaside were vehemently anti-cul-de-sac and pro-connected street grid (at Seaside and in their writing/teaching/consulting for other towns) so it’s a bit ironic to see Culdesac named after what those earlier planners abhorred.
“A conservative is a liberal who’s been mugged” is another way of saying that conservatives are driven by fear and the desire for revenge instead of what’s good for society as a whole. Maybe not something to brag about.
A Liberal is a Conservative who wants it both ways.
This whole Liberal/Conservative dichotomy is a very ironic outgrowth of early 19th Century British politics, or rather the way we use it in the early 21st Century in the USA is very ironic. The original Whig Party (formed in 1726 under very ironic circumstances) was at first in favor of slow steady progressive changes in society, but in the early 19th Century started to take on the “liberal” economic theories of Adam Smith and David Ricardo of open markets (as opposed to mercantilism), low-cost labor, capital accumulation, etc – and started calling themselves the Liberals. About half of the British Prime Ministers from 1726 through 1920 or so were Liberal or Whig. In the 1970s they merged with the Social Democrats to form the Liberal Democrats. (In the US, the colonial Whig Party later became the Democratic Party.)
The Whig’s opposition in the 1700s were called the Torys. They stood in support of God, King, and Country (i.e. the established churches, the aristocracy, and the landed gentry), but mainly existed to oppose the Whigs. They started to use the term Conservative sometime in the 19th Century, more or less as being resistant to change. About half of the British Prime Ministers from 1726 through the present have been Conservative or Tory. (Most of the US colonial Torys moved to Canada after 1783, mainly to Ontario and New Brunswick – they now call themselves Progressive Conservatives.)
Traditionally, a “liberal” is someone who is in favor of a free-market capitalistic economy; a “conservative” is opposed to it.
Cool story bro. But that isn’t how those words are used anymore.
“A conservative is a liberal who’s been mugged” is another way of saying that liberals are naive about the willingness of some people to prey on others.
But it’s really just a quip, not something you should take too seriously or read too much into.
How ironic, since it’s conservative policies that directly create the conditions that cause people to prey on others, while leftist/liberal policies are the ones that actually contribute to a functioning society.
I’m sure you’re right that all our problems are caused by conservatives. If Democrats could only get a supermajority in this state, then they could just fix everything.
Strawman. There’s one major political party that has made denial of reality its entire platform, and it isn’t the “liberal” one.
“Liberal” does not mean “Democrat”, as the recent failure of the state transportation bill should have made clear.
Conservatism is also ubiquitous in the democratic party, albeit a modestly less overtly racist, xenophobic, and fascist strain.
Soren, you’ll probably agree that everyone looks conservative from where you’re sitting. Oregon’s failures are from basic mismanagement and petty political corruption, not too many conservatives in power.
“Oregon’s failures are from basic mismanagement and petty political corruption”
Wait a second!
You just bluntly said the truth??
Is that allowed?
Close! Add syllable
to your first and last lines and
you’ll have a haiku.
Re: Gamifying safe driving
When I switched car insurance, the new company I used had a discount for using an app to track driving habits like this article describes. I used it for a few months and it tracked things like acceleration, breaking, etc. It really did make me more conscious of the smaller aspects of safe driving. Pulling away slowly, breaking earlier and more smoothly.
I’m not a person who’s interested in earning gift cards or social clout or whatever, but saving money on my insurance was enough of a motivation for me to do it.
I hope something like this takes off in the US.
If you installed an app on your phone, they are absolutely selling your location data to advertisers.
When AllState tried to get me to install the same app, the rep on the phone told me that I could delete any ride from the app where I wasn’t the driver OR if I “happened to brake hard to avoid a kid or something”
I did the same but with a dongle that I plugged in to my car. The thing that really annoyed me is that in the associated app, it showed that it tracked my drive time (night is more risky I guess) and hard braking. So I could see all those events that counted against me. In the fine print though, it also tracks “sudden acceleration”. You know, like you have to do in order safely merge on to a freeway, for example. I got give a B- because I did too much “sudden acceleration” in my tiny little gutless 1.5 L Honda Fit
I don’t think that an app or tracker dongle or whatever really captures whether or not someone is actually a safe driver. Doesn’t check if they’re going the speed limit, staying in their lane, or running red lights.
It sucks to be cheated out of the A you deserved.
The bicycling world isn’t obsessed with speed. That’s just the way it has been marketed all of my life. The appeal is adopted by young folks, mostly white males with money and time for some arbitrary life goal of riding faster than you. This makes for some great competition among strangers convinced their bikes aren’t fast, light or expensive enough to ride in public unless they are ahead of you somehow. I pass them on the Springwater when they realize they can’t fix their plastic stems on the fly.
How many riders have you witnessed trying to adjust their stems while stopped or moving, regardless of material, on the Springwater Corridor?