The Weekend Event Guide is sponsored by Abus Bike Locks. Thanks Abus!

Homeless activism with bikes: I can’t decide what’s more awesome, General Dogon’s life story of criminal-turned-activist, or the fact that he uses tricked out low-rider bikes to help gain attention for his causes.

Inanimate victim-blaming: When drivers failed to control their vehicles and drove up onto cement barriers protecting new bikeways in Queens, critics of the bikeways said it was the barrier’s fault.
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This week’s Monday Roundup is brought to you by Chris King Precision Components who would like to invite you to their upcoming Open House and Builder’s Showcase this Saturday, October 14th.

Welcome to the week. I had a wonderful time exploring Paris, the French countryside, and Amsterdam over the past few weeks (photos and thoughts coming soon!). It looks like the site was in great hands while I was away. Let’s hear it for guest editor Michael Andersen, comment moderator Ted Timmons, and contributors Steph Routh, Kate Johnson, Leah Benson (on Instagram), Kiel Johnson, and James Buckroyd.
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Lots of kids and families took advantage of (relatively) carfree streets throughout Paris yesterday. This is a scene from the Quai des Tuilieries along the Seine River.
(Photo: J. Maus/BikePortland)

Here are the bike-related links from around the world that caught our eyes this week:

Car-free Paris: For one day, the City of Light banned non-local private cars from all its streets Sunday for the first time ever. Related news: Car trips from one location within city limits to another are down 30 percent in the last decade.

Outlawing chop shops: San Francisco may be close to banning sales or distribution on public land of bikes and bike parts.

Delaware stops: The Eastern state is posed to become the second (after Idaho) to make it officially legal for people biking to treat stop signs like yield signs.

Suspended licenses:  In most of the United States, losing the ability to drive sends anyone who needs income into a “hellhole of desperation.” Maybe that’s why three in four Americans with suspended licenses choose to keep driving, even though that can lead to a crushing debt burden if they’re caught.

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The wide protected bike lanes are in green.
(Image: Perkins+Will, Nelson\Nygaard)

This week’s Monday Roundup is sponsored by Urban Tribe, the affordable family cargo bike.

Here are the bike-related links that caught our eyes this week:

Lane allocation: Check out the lane capacity charts on Lyft’s vision of LA’s future streets.

Against stoplights: Amsterdam flipped off the traffic signals at a busy multimodal intersection and saw startlingly good results. “People pay more attention,” said one man.

Private bike share: The 4,000 private shared bikes in Seattle have been “far more successful in two months than Pronto ever was in its two years.”

Rose Quarter freeway: CityLab’s headline calls our local expansion battle “the freeway fight of the century” and Mayor Ted Wheeler’s argument for it “rather disingenuous.”

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Here are the best stories we came across in the past week…

$150 million for bikeways in Montreal: Montreal is planning to spend $50 million a year for the next five years to build the projects in their first citywide bike plan.

The Pedestrian’s Tale: Portland transportation engineer and planner Brian Davis performed this poignant and entertaining poem at a recent conference held at Portland State University.

A lot of miles: 24-year-old Amanda Coker rode a record-setting 86,573 miles in the past year. That’s an average of 237.19 miles per day for 365 straight days. Dang.
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Welcome to the week.

Here are the most noteworthy stories we came across over the past seven days…

Pothole leads to payout: The City of Los Angeles will pay a man $6.5 million to settle a lawsuit that blamed them for a pothole that caused him to crash his bicycle and sustain serious injuries.

Smarter bikes = safer bikes: A Michigan tech company wants to build software into bikes and bike parts that allows them to “talk” to computer systems inside cars in order to warn of the presence of bicycle riders (and vice versa presumably). Trek is a partner in the venture.

Froome does the double: Professional road racer Chris Froome cemented his legacy as an all-time great by winning the Vuelta de Espana and the Tour de France in the same season.

Bikes save the day: Look what transportation mode people are turning to in Houston when all else has failed.
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Welcome to September.

I know there’s a lot of despairing news these days. All the floods, fires, and fools in position of power are enough to make you want to drop everything and ride your bike off into the sunset. But if we’re going to get out of this mess, we can’t divert our eyes. (Especially those of us who are relatively well-off compared to those knee-deep in the stuggle.) We must learn what’s happening — and more importantly why it’s happening. In our little part of this world, one way we can help is by sharing the most important stories from the bike-transportation-mobility webospheres.

So without further delay, here are the most important stories we came across last week…

Sexism, still: UK-based Cycling Weekly magazine mistakenly printed a photo with “token attractive woman” as a caption. Now the magazine is facing mockery and a boycott from women who are tired of the sexist attitudes that pervade the industry.
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This week’s Monday Roundup is sponsored by Urban Tribe, the affordable family cargo bike.

Welcome to the week! (Note: I’m out of the office today doing this. Please be patient if any issues or news arises. I’ll be back at my desk Monday evening.)

Here are the most noteworthy stories we came across last week…

Injustice in Louisiana: A jaw-dropping combination of cultural dysfunction on display as three black men are cited for not wearing reflective clothing and blocking a public road — after they were hit and injured by a motor vehicle user on a road with no sidewalks. I don’t even know where to begin. Thankfully Streetsblog took a stab at explaining it.

Portland’s problem with race: An ex-Portlander penned a must-read about why he — and other people of color — are leaving our fair city. One person quoted in the piece said she’s afraid to bike at night. “No way. I’m Black. Even Black people are shocked to see Black people ride their bikes here.” (Note: I’m working on a follow-up to my post about white supremacy. Thank you for all your amazing comments!)

Driving is the problem: Love this piece from Vox that lays out an inconvenient truth for many enviros and progressives who are afraid to aggressively discourage driving (or who don’t see that it’s imperative). Say it with me (and replace “California” with your state): “California has a climate problem, and its name is cars.”
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This week’s Monday Roundup is sponsored by no one. We need advertisers! Text me at (503) 706-8804 or email for more details.

We hope you enjoyed the eclipse. Wasn’t it cool?!

Here are the best stories we came across last week…
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This week’s Monday Roundup is brought to you by Chrome Industries, who recently moved their headquarters to Portland and they’ll celebrate by having a Warehouse Sale with deep discounts on last season/sample bags, apparel and footwear. Sales runs 8/18 – 8/20 at old Shleifer builder at 224 SE 2nd Ave.

Welcome to Monday. Before we start another big week, let’s not forget the most interesting stories from the past seven days…

Driving privilege and racism in America: Transportation reformers and racial justice advocates see disturbing parallels between our overly permissive car culture and the accused murderer who intentionally drove his car into a crowd of people protesting against a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville over the weekend.
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