Welcome to Monday. A bit late with the Roundup because I was working on naked ride stuff from yesterday. I hope you’ve got a great week planned.
Below are the most notable stories I came across in the past seven days. Thanks to everyone who suggested links this week!
Big win for housing: California’s governor has finally signed SB 79 into law, a groundbreaking policy that is expected to open up construction of housing units adjacent to major transit stops. (Human Transit)
Inhaler emissions: A new study found that asthma inhalers cause about the same amount of climate change inducing emissions each year as 500,000 cars. It’s unclear if the researchers considered that many of those inhalers are necessary because of cars. (Al Jazeera)
It’s a trend: Maybe this cultural moment of reconsidering our relationship with automobiles might actually stick? I mean, according to David Zipper there are three new books on the topic that are worth your time. (Bloomberg)
Smartphones with wheels: It’s hilarious to me that Big Auto is so excited about making cars feel like tech gadgets that now they have glitches just like tech gadgets. Case in point: A Jeep software update recently rendered many of them machines un-driveable. (The Stack)
E-bike rebates work: Denver, Colorado was the first city to launch an e-bike rebate program and in the past 3-4 years they’ve handed out a whopping 10,000 rebates. Portland’s program follows their lead and we can only hope it goes as well. (City of Denver)
Bike bus is rockin’: Portland’s Sam “Coach” Balto continues to transcend typical advocacy channels by luring massive pop stars onto the bike bus. Learn more about who he is and how he does it. (Cycling Weekly)
Potholes: Major e-bike news outlet uses a tragic case of an e-scooter rider in Portland to illustrate their argument that road conditions — not car drivers — are another major threat to rider safety. (Electrek)
Culture shift: “In cities that have made [bicycles] mainstream, the idea of going back to car-clogged streets is considered ridiculous.” The fact that this outlet wants to see a bike boom in cultural terms is both frustrating and welcome. (The Economist)
Get it right, media!: An unfortunate story from north of our border where the legit issue of electric vehicle safety is covered, but the imagery shows a bicycle that is almost never the cause of concern. This story should have made it clear that the “safety problem” is with e-motos and not traditional e-bikes you find in traditional bike shops (or in their lead image). (The Columbian)
Dieselgate back in court: Whether or not five automakers cheated on emissions tests and then lied to customers about how toxic their engines were, will be decided by a judge. The case is back in court and a decision is expected early next year. (BBC)
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 weird to cite the number of e-bike rebates claimed as evidence that the rebates “work”. To my mind, I’d say they’re working if, for instance, there were evidence that the people who claimed the rebates reduced their number of miles traveled in single-occupant cars.
More information can be learned by clicking the underlined word in parentheses. That takes you to the article Jonathan is citing, where they give more details.
The market barrier is the USA not giving the tiniest **** about the climate crisis.