Welcome to the week. I hope you were able to get outside and recharge a bit over the weekend. I rode down to Sellwood on Saturday and saw so many folks out on bikes enjoying a dry and mild fall day. It was beautiful!
Below are the most notable stories I came across in the past seven days. Thanks to everyone who suggested links this week.
Dark times at Rad Power: The once industry juggernaut, Rad Power Bikes, is reeling after years of cutbacks and after a recent effort to find investors to return the company to glory has fallen through. The company is now facing a real threat of closure. (Seattle Times)
Cycling with heart: A rider shares his personal journey of a heart condition diagnosis, and how it’s more common among cyclists than you might think. (Bike Radar)
China is anti-speeding: Looks like China has seen enough crashes and carnage from absurdly fast e-cars and might pass new national regulation that would limit how fast the cars can accelerate. (CNEV Post)
Our vehicular health crisis: A major public health news outlet highlights that the time has come for stronger policy interventions to tame drivers as our current efforts to reduce traffic deaths are simply not working well enough. (KFF Health News)
Good bad news?: Trump and his cronies have no clue how to regulate cars and their attempts to influence the auto industry are actually doing the opposite of what they want — which I guess is a good thing? (Grist)
Roadmap for Mamdani: NYC’s advocacy group has laid out a five-point plan to help Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani achieve his goals. Second on the list is, “Biking should be a safe and accessible option for everyone.” (Transportation Alternatives)
Tin track: I refuse to let the dream of a velodrome in Portland die and this news about a Canadian-born, aluminum velodrome opening in Tucson really makes me happy. (KOLD TV)
Growing pains: Seattle seems to be experiencing the good problem of their e-scooter and bike share system being so popular that more regulation is needed to keep it running smoothly — and to thwart the advance of haters. (The Urbanist)
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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Note: Sorry everyone. I mistakenly had comments turned off on this post until Tuesday morning! I had last week’s MRU comments turned off after 100+ came in and when I duplicated the post I forgot that setting carried over.
The anti-speed (quick 0-60 acceleration) law would be great. It is insane how fast most EVs are, and the fast ones are even quicker! Like, most are as fast/faster than a sports car, and a lot are faster than a supercar. And they’re cheap!
This is especially important in our urban setting, where a parked EV can startup, accelerate, and cover the length of the block in mere seconds. I now try and look both ways twice, as that “clear” block of street may now have a silent EV speeding down it as you start to cross the street.