Welcome to the week.
Everything has changed in America with the killing of Alex Pretti by U.S. Border Patrol officer. Pretti was the second person to be fatally shot as part of the Trump Administration’s occupation of Minneapolis. Now the line is crystal clear that Trump is the leader of a fascist government and to make matters worse, his top officers and spokespeople have doubled-down on blatant lies and propaganda. While cycling and transportation news feels less important against this backdrop, let’s remember that what we do here (in a broad, general sense beyond this blog), has never been just about news and information. It’s about building bonds between each other — one event, one ride, one story, one comment, one person at a time.
On that note, I look forward to seeing you at Bike Happy Hour this week. We’ll have a special open mic where I’ll ask folks to introduce themselves and share what they need from our community and/or what they can share with our community. Together we can process what’s going on and we can help each other respond. See you Wednesday from 3:00 to 6:00 pm at Migration Brewing on North Williams Avenue. (Yummy snacks on me at 4:00 pm!)
And now, a few notable stories that came across my inbox in the past week…
Industry reacts to Alex Pretti killing: Pretti was a bicycle rider and customer of a bike shop in Minneapolis. His death has shaken that state’s bike industry to the core. (Bicycle Retailer)
“Thermal incident”: A Rad Power Bikes retail store in southern California caught fire. The company confirmed it was a “thermal incident” and given the recent battery recall and other problems with the once mega-brand, this will stoke concerns and speculations. (Seattle Bike Blog)
Delay on trail vote: A key vote that would strip the Yamhelas Westsider Trail from the Yamhill County Transportation System Plan has been postponed until January 29th due to a high volume of testimony. Advocates should see this as a win and commissioners should see this as a sign that a lot of folks care about this trail! (Newberg Graphic)
That’s clever: A company in New York City has adapted their technology to provide swappable e-bike batteries to food cart owners in bid to replace loud and toxic gas and diesel generators. (Electrek)
Transit cheaper than highways: How much would it cost to build world-class transit in the U.S.? “It’s not as much as a skeptic might assume, and it’s substantially less than what the country already spends on maintaining its highways, according to a new report. (Governing)
A good sign: Bike and scooter share is alive and well in Seattle as new numbers from Lime report a 61% (!) jump in 2025, with rides to Pike Place Market becoming a top destination. (Geek Wire)
Kids these days: Amid growing popularity of young people riding together in large groups, a man in San Francisco was attacked and beaten by riders after he told them to slow down. (ABC SF)
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 wonder how much Seattle closing Pike Place Market to vehicles last spring/summer contributed to the uptick in trips there on lime. It’d be cool if they released more granular data for the time it was closed to non-essential vehicles.
Transit cheaper than highways: My main issue with stories like these it that it would require all members of Congress and all 50 states’ legislatures to end their addictions to highway funding. Most Democratic politicians are just as addicted to highway funding as Republicans, both nationally and locally, be it in California, Texas, Florida, or NY. It basically ain’t gonna happen – you’ll have an easier sell getting legislators to defund the $9 Billion ICE program.
Not only that, but highway funding is seen as benefitting rural communities (or suburban communities that like to cosplay as rural) but transit is seen as a mostly urbanite concern. Highway funding = good, honest down-to-earth blue collar rural folks. Transit funding = expensive trains for degenerate yuppies and criminals.
There’s a growing constituency for plucking that $9B turkey, if that’s the actual number.
One outtake from the story of our recent experiments in government is that our military has been very pliable in this business of adventurism (if not outright piracy). It’s not soon to look at the resources being consumed and what we get for that. I’m still waiting for my peace dividend check.
I did some envelope math before. The billion dollars that ODOT likes us to ante up for a given freeway would crisscross Oregon with MUP. I’d give the roads people a lean budget and tell them they could either keep the current roads together or look for jobs, and meanwhile figure out what it would cost to build what we need for the future and get busy financing that.
Maybe to just nitpick a little . . . it’s not the highway funding that the politicians love. It’s that construction companies love that funding, and we know very well that large campaign donations (above and below the table) are made to the politicians. That’s what the politicians adore, more and more campaign money so they can stay in power.
What a Public Transit ‘Moonshot’ Would Cost the U.S.:
This is the most important paragraph in the whole article.
IMO the best thing the federal government could do for transit would be to focus on inter-city transit. There’s lots of rail corridors that could be upgraded to be as faster or faster than driving for a hell of a lot cheaper than high-speed-rail. Those corridors should have curves straightened, grade crossings eliminated or mitigated, and be electrified. Tracks should also be upgraded to facilitate more frequent trains. Our own Cascades line comes to mind, of course, but there’s dozens of similar situations all around the country where trains are already getting good ridership and upgrading them would be a net benefit to the communities they connect.
If the feds are taking the lead on the infrastructure upgrades, the FRRA/DOT or whoever could have a whole team of engineers and project managers on staff who are really good at upgrading rail corridors. They could bop around the country making incremental upgrades, gaining experience and expertise along the way.
In places where rail service doesn’t make sense, good, frequent, intercity express bus service should be provided, with comfortable, centrally-located bus stations.
I think giving people a way to get between cities without a car or expensive plane ticket (not to mention; sans emission if electrified) would be a great catalyst for local transit systems and land use patterns to improve.
I strongly agree. I’ll also add that any serious higher speed rail project will involve a passenger-dedicated double track electrified railway, and there will basically always be excess capacity for regional and suburban trains in addition to intercity service. More passengers use the Northeast Corridor on the combination of NJT, Metro-North, MBTA, SEPTA, and MARC services than they do on Amtrak by a huge margin – I think NJT’s NEC line alone gets more ridership than Acela and the Regionals combined.
There would be huge transit benefits if the skeleton of local services that parallel Cascades from Eugene to Seattle (and up to Bellingham) could be replaced with hourly local trains originating at the major regional hubs. Intercity services often skip places like Canby and Woodburn, but if you’ve ever ridden the 99X you know people do want to get to the Portland area from those places. Having better integration and frequency would go a long way to supporting the folks living the valley who have limited car access or who just don’t want to drive.
IT would be great if somebody could organize a big bike ride/protest/memorial for Pretti this weekend in PDX
Regarding youth with e-motorcycles and “gang” like activities: Honolulu has struggled with this a lot as it ignored the sales of e-motorcycles as e-bikes too long and then when they attempted regulation many police officers were not prepared at the push back: see link for one of many large such events https://www.hawaiinewsnow.com/video/2025/03/24/hundreds-e-bike-riders-swarm-an-ewa-beach-neighborhood/?utm_source=chatgpt.com