Hi friends. Welcome to the week. I hope everyone is doing okay amid talk of federal troops and the latest onslaught of unhinged behavior from Trump and his cronies. Meanwhile, we have a city to run and work to do. Let’s get right to it by making sure we’re up to date with the most notable stories and other content from around the web in the past week.
Who doesn’t drive? Making the rare exception of sharing an older story (November 2024) because it’s important and this is the first day of Week Without Driving. Bookmark this one: 1 in 10 Americans are nondrivers, and people who live in cities, have lower incomes, and/or who are Black are even more likely to be in that group. (Pew Research Center)
More no car news: “Between 2017 and 2023, Seattle added 35,000 households, but just 3,300 cars, new Census data has revealed — in news that is music to urbanist ears.” (The Urbanist)
DIY path lighting: A cyclist in Minnesota was frustrated about lack of lighting on his local bike path, so he bought lights, grabbed a ladder, and hung some up himself. (Minn Post)
Journalistic malpractice: Not only is “defensive walking” a completely off-base and tone-deaf framing for a story about road safety, but there’s no mention that the advocate source of the entire piece (National Safety Council) heads a nonprofit with major funding from several auto companies. Do better NPR!!! (NPR)
‘Israel’ a toxic term in cycling: A billionaire who sponsors a World Tour cycling team acknowledges that his “Israel Premier Tech” team should drop “Israel” from its name next season due to intense pressure from fans, protestors, and other sponsors. (BBC)
Politics in the peloton: American pro cyclist Chloe Dygert weighed into the Charlie Kirk assassination with a sticker on her bike at World Championships that read, “I stand for the truth. I stand with Charlie Kirk.” (Cycling Weekly)
My two favorite things, together: I’ve loved following former basketball star Reggie Miller’s journey into bike racing (my brother has even raced with him down in So Cal), so it’s cool to see him get his due with a full major profile piece. (LA Times)
To EV or not EV: Interesting fight brewing in the auto industry as the largest lobby group for automakers asks Trump to ease emissions standards and rules they say force them to make (allegedly more expensive) EVs, while Tesla begs Trump to keep the rules in place. (Reuters and Reuters)
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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I think it’s crystal clear that the USA is going to “not EV”.
After all, even in Oregon EV adoption has been a failure with the state only registering ~30% of its 2025 “zero” emission vehicle registration goals.
That’s not clear to me at all — the transition is inevitable, even if we lag the world a bit. If the USA is the only market for gasoline cars, innovation is going to stall while EVs continue to advance. And Trump isn’t going to be in office forever — will his successors continue with what is an objectively bad policy?
EVs are coming, one way or another.
Talking to two friends each with newer plug-in hybrids, I think there’s a lot of merit to going that route for urban dwellers who want a car (as opposed to long-range full EVs).
If they mostly stay in town, they rarely engage the engine and can get over 1500 miles on the small tank. So they have a mostly electric means of travel with no “range anxiety”, it’s easier to charge at home, and its battery required far fewer expensive-to-extract minerals to manufacture.
People with plug-in hybrids predominantly use them as gas-burning cars.
https://insideevs.com/news/731090/plug-in-hybrid-charging-data/
Cool. What’s a bigger shift in behavior, plugging in the car that you have or buying a whole new car that must be plugged in?
A bigger shift in behavior would be for Portlanders and ‘murricans to give a **** about ecocide.
PS: I don’t think this will happen until there is sheer societal panic.
Lithium extraction is not inexpensive and the environmental destruction and externalities left in its wake are horrendous. I get that lithium has to be sourced from somewhere, but green-washing to wipe away the original sin is folly.
It’s a real shame that Minneapolis would let its paths go dark because people kept stealing the copper wires. That should be the real story.
On the plus side, now I know where to get a couple of free solar powered lights for the next time I go camping and want to light up my site!
I’d say that’s a negative.
Many people want to enjoy a night sky without the interference of unneeded lights in campsites. We have enough light pollution already, why would you want to add to it?
What if I want to stay up late working on my bike collection?
DIY Path lighting shows what one person can do all on their own, with their bicycle.
We shall not wait for the city to fix things permanently when our safety is at risk.
“Through no fault of anyone in particular, the city has this attitude of ‘We have to fix this permanently,’” Tsatsoulis explained. “Obviously, with hundreds of lights out and miles of these lights to fix, it’s millions of dollars. But for me, it’s unsafe right now.”