Happy rainy Monday.
Below are the most notable stories that came across my inbox this past week…
Federal bikelash: Washington D.C. bike advocates are sounding the alarm that the Trump Administration plans to remove one of the busiest bikeways in the city. (Washington Area Bicyclist Assocation)
Unfair-iffs and the bike industry: One well-known bike brand (Terry Precision) was one of the plaintiffs in the landmark Supreme Court decision that deemed Trump’s tariffs unconstitutional and several other bike companies are already in line for refunds. (Bicycle Retailer & Industry News)
Looking for parking: Scientists and app makers are working hard to to solve the problem of delays due to lack of parking near destinations. If they figure out how to integrate parking availability into navigation apps like Google Maps, they could reduce VMT. (MIT News)
What your vehicle says about you: This very cool photography project includes portraits of people and their cars/bikes/rickshaws with an aim of sharing how the vehicles people use are a reflection of themselves. (NPR)
Truthers: An interesting new initiative set to launch on Bluesky this week bills itself as, “a creative, evidence-based collaboration launched to share the truth and take on disinformation about how to make better cities for people.” (Urban Truth Collective/Bluesky)
More e-bike regulation: The moral panic over e-bikes is spreading as ignorant, paternalistic politicians in California are pushing a law that would require registration and licenses for some types of e-bikes — even though the politician behind the legislation is actually concerned about e-motos. (CBS 8)
Where you live and how you walk: Researchers analyzed the number of daily steps people took after moving between walkable and non-walkable cities to reveal that, “built environments, rather than personal choice alone, might affect not just the amount but the intensity of the exercise their inhabitants get.” (Scientific American)
Video of the Week: Residents of the bustling African city Dakar loves their new express bus service…
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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One man’s “moral panic” is another’s realization that we face a rapidly growing problem with increasingly powerful motorized vehicles using MUPs and other areas traditionally seen as the realm of human-powered transportation. No, not a problem worse than human driven car mayhem, but a problem nonetheless.
There may not be a good solution, so I suspect we’ll end up with people proposing bad ones that may seem better than doing nothing.
I agree it’s a problem. I also think pointing out the irrational responses and moral panic around “e-bikes” is a problem.
I see no signs of a moral panic. I’m not a supporter of registration, but it’s not a totally batty idea, either. After all, we have a long history of requiring other motor vehicles to be registered.
I saw your blurb says, “What your VEHICLE says about you”, but the graphic replaces “vehicle” with “car”. Then, going to the article, I see your “vehicle” is correct, since the book is Homo Mobilis and is about all types of vehicles. “Car” came from NPR’s headline (Your CAR has a lot to say about who you are). The article’s author may have focused their questions on cars, but clearly understood and stated the book was about all types of vehicles. And headlines are not written by authors of articles.
So what I see is the headline writer blindly translated “vehicles” into “cars” resulting in a misleading headline. It’s not a huge deal, but c’mon, NPR. For a news source that portrays itself as environmentally enlightened, it’s a bit embarrassing.
qqq,
Feels nice to know that other people have some of the same internal dialogues that I have.
I noticed that too! And yes it shows that someone at NPR is pretty car-brained.