Monday Roundup: Induced evaporation, Wout’s vision, and more

Welcome to Monday.

Things will be slow around here this week due to the Thanksgiving holiday. I’ve got family in town and I probably won’t be working full days again until next Monday.

I hope you can join us Wednesday for a special Friendsgiving Bike Happy Hour at Migration Brewing on North Williams Avenue. We’ll eat together around 5:30 and the folks at Migration are offering a $20 meal (burger, drink and a side) deal for us. Sweet plantains for desert!

Below are the most notable stories I came across in the past seven days. Thanks to everyone who suggested links this week.

Best of the worst: Portland earned the top ranking of all U.S. cities with its 35th place in a global report on bike-friendly cities. We placed 11th worldwide when this list first came out in 2011. (Copenhagenize)

Clarity about a crisis: It’s infuriating that we have such a clear grasp of how many people are being killed by drivers on dangerous roads, and the response from the system feels like a huge shrug. We all need to be more aggressive in how we talk and organize around this public safety crisis. (Washington Post)

Free transit works (in Iowa City): “Since the fare-free program began, people in Iowa City have driven 1.8 million fewer miles and emissions have fallen by 24,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide a year, the same as taking 5,200 vehicles off the roads.” (NY Times)

Wout’s vision: I like that Dutch cycling superstar Wout Van Aert spent time in the U.S. and is now encouraging us to build a stronger business around professional cycling. Unfortunately, American’s won’t care about road cycling until we can cycle safely on our roads. If bike brands invested as much into advocacy as they did into R&D, there would be more people buying their expensive parts. (Velo/Outside)

Native trails: Indigenous people are turning their land into economic assets by developing trails — including many ambitious bike path projects across the country — into tourism hotspots. (BBC)

Case in point: If you think the above item is out of line, see this story about an avid roadie who’s decided to stop riding because he’s so spooked. (I know it’s from the U.K., but they have a similarly dysfunctional driving culture). (Bike Radar)

Induced evaporation: I love this deep dive into a bridge in London closed to cars due to structural problems. After it became used only by bicycle riders, predicted traffic chaos never happened and about 9,000 auto trips simply vanished forever. (Nick Maini on Substack)

High cost of bike share: The steep cost of using New York City’s Citibike has some advocates pushing for public subsidies of the wildly successful transportation mode. (Streetsblog NYC)

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.