When I have the opportunity to travel I always keep an eye open to infrastructure that is welcoming, surprising, unique, or very hostile to humans. Over the winter break I was in New Zealand, so I thought I’d give a quick tour of what caught my eye.

There is a lot of public art in Auckland; this was my favorite mural:

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(Photo courtesy Samantha Taylor)

We met Samantha Taylor during Steph Routh’s interview series. In it we learned why she isn’t commuting:

The most that I’ve ridden a bike was this summer when I had a GenZe bike. I have chronic pain, and I have arthritis. I know that there are other people out there with similar experiences. Having an e-bike allowed me to ride comfortably in a way that suited my body’s needs. It’s unfortunate that e-bikes are so expensive. Since I had to give mine back, I haven’t been riding.

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Ciclopaseo through Old Quito with Basílica del Voto Nacional in the background.

I had an interesting opportunity to visit Quito for a long weekend with my bike. I spent 6 weeks in Quito 10 years ago while finishing a motorcycle trip, so I was excited to go back and explore it from a bicycling point of view.

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It appears a person walking on North Columbia Boulevard was struck and killed on Monday. According to reports, a man ran a red light in his Ford Mustang, striking a person who was in the crosswalk. The driver has been booked for Criminally Negligent Homicide.

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Westmoreland Park and 22nd Ave

Jonathan’s enjoying Europe, so I wanted to revive the Weekend Open Threads and ask what bikey or outdoorsy things you did this weekend. I got out to Sunday Parkways- maybe the first one I’ve been able to attend this year. Parkways was well-attended; I suspect that’s because people are feeling the “end of summer” pressure.

Native American presentation at Westmoreland Park

Native American salmon bake/smoke at Westmoreland Park

Welcome to my mostly-weekly video roundup! I’ve gone through about a hundred videos this week, and I’m starting off by featuring this fantastic video of Darren Alff’s tour of Norway and Sweden. He has a great recording style and the terrain is beautiful. Also, he’s riding a Co-Motion, how great is that?

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Volunteers sweeping a bike path on SE Division near 87th.
(Photos: Ted Timmons)

I inquired what was going on and found out the project was to do some winter gravel cleanup. I thought that sounded like fun!

Ultimately five of us showed up. PDX Transformation loaned some safety equipment, and we each brought brooms. We rode out to the raised bikeway at 85th and Division and went to work. The raised bikeway was a good choice, because I assume it’s one of the harder places for PBOT to run a sweeper, and it also doesn’t get any vehicle traffic to help push the debris away.

See more photos below the jump…
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Tonight was the route announcement for Cycle Oregon’s 30th anniversary ride. There’s a large loop that includes Crater Lake and Sisters/Bend. The start/finish is at the town of Tumalo, just north of Bend. The route is very similar to the 2007 route; here’s the breakdown.
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Welcome to my mostly-weekly video roundup! Today seems as good as any other day to watch bike videos. Right? I’ve watched about 100 bike videos this week so I can share the best with you.

We’re starting on a safety/wonky/political note this week- a fantastic overview of Vision Zero. Watch the first 40 seconds for this: “mobility is a basic human right. No one should have to risk their life to get to work, to go shopping, or to go out with a friend.” While talking about systematic safety, “we’re human, a system that is safe only if people don’t make mistakes is not a system that is made for humans.”

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Welcome to the first Video Roundup of 2017! Since I missed a few weeks there are a lot of videos. I watched about 150 videos this week so we can show you the best.

First up is this video from Giant/Liv. I usually shy away from featuring a promo/marketing video, but this is low-key with beautiful footage.

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