It’s time for the Bike News Roundup! First up, Martian scientists discovered life on Earth in 1966. Here’s a report of what they found:
What on Earth! by Les Drew & by Kaj Pindal, National Film Board of Canada
Pacific Northwest News
- Cyclists! Redhook Brewery’s Forecasters Pub Welcomes You Once More | The SunBreak
- Seattle’s most dangerous intersections for cycling – seattlepi.com – The slideshow is a bit frustrating to navigate (especially on a smartphone), but the data is interesting.
- What happened at Flying Wheels? « Cascade Bike Blog – Apparently, there were some jerks on this ride.
- 23-year-old killed in collision while turning into her driveway near Arlington | Seattle Times – Very sad
- Expect hundreds of cyclists on Whatcom County roads Saturday | The Bellingham Herald – The Canadians are invading Seattle this weekend disguised as 3,000 cancer-fighting cyclists
- Opposition fails to derail three new separated bike lanes in Vancouver | Metro – After a couple highly-controversial protected bike lanes have proven successful, the next couple lanes have met much less resistance.
- Teen hit by car at school bus stop wasn’t found for 90 minutes | Q13 FOX News – Just awful
- Car rams through Montlake home in explosive crash | www.kirotv.com
- Man suffers serious injuries after hit by Smart Car at 12th and Pine | CHS Capitol Hill Seattle
- West Seattle Blog… » Update: Police investigating Fairmount Ravine mystery after injured woman found at roadside – Hit and run
- West Seattle Blog… » West Seattle Crime Watch: Runner chases, catches would-be thief
- Weekly Reading: Be Sure to Bring a Helmet to the Bike Helmet Debate « SvR Design
- 7-year-old girl hit by car in North Seattle crosswalk | Seattle Times
- Better Institutions: 34th and Stone: the Burke-Gilman’s most dangerous intersection? – Restricting right turns is certainly a start.
Halftime show! A tour of Salt Lake City by bike share:
Streetfilms Shortie – Checking out GreenBike in Salt Lake City from Streetfilms on Vimeo.
National & Global News
- Credit downgraded for company that built 85-mph toll road | kvue.com Austin – Turns out, the free market also thinks an 85 mph speed limit is stupid and dangerous.
- Physical and Mental Health Costs of Driving | Everyday Rider – Reporter Elly Blue embedded herself into a wild world where people spend countless hours inside strange and expensive oil-burning, four-wheeled bicycles.
- BikePortland.org » The Hovenring and Rijksmuseum path: Two wonders of the bicycle world – Does Seattle have any bike infrastructure that rises to the level of wonder? The I-90 bike tunnel?
- Voice-Activated In-Car Systems Are Called Risky – NYTimes.com – We’ve known it for years, but hands-free is not distraction-free. If you’re driving, you simply have to pay attention to driving. I’m sorry it’s boring.
- Bike-Share Effort Draws Riders and Hits Snags – NYTimes.com – I sure hope Alta gets this software issue taken care of before the launch of Puget Sound Bike Share.
- In California Cities, Drivers Want More Bike Lanes. Here’s Why. | Streetsblog Capitol Hill
- Raquel Nelson Finally Cleared of Homicide Charges, Pleads to Jaywalking | Streetsblog.net – The world owes Raquel Nelson so much. I can’t imagine how awful this ordeal has been for her.
- For immigrant women, bikes make goals and dreams possible | Twin Cities Daily Planet
- BikePortland.org » Inspiration from… Indianapolis?!
- San Francisco Eyes Congestion Pricing – WNYC – What once was a non-starter issue is starting to gain traction.
- Study of the Day: 40 Percent of Designated Drivers Drink Before They Get Behind the Wheel – The Atlantic Cities
- Copenhagenize.com – Bicycle Culture by Design: The Choreography of an Urban Intersection – Part One: On Bicycles & Behavior
- The Horrifying Inequality That Plagues Ohio Students’ Routes to School – The Atlantic Cities
Comments
2 responses to “Bike News Roundup: Martian scientists come to Earth, assume the car is the dominant species”
I love that little movie! I first saw it years ago when I was exploring the variety of things you could check out at the Seattle Public Library. If I remember right, you could check out a movie projector to go with the movies, which of course came as a big roll of film in a metal case. It’s kind of depressing that after almost 50 years, cars are still the dominant species on the planet, doing their best to exterminate the parasites.
I agree that the intersection of the Burke-Gilman trail and Stone Way is in need of a redesign. SDOT recently said that they’d extend the walk phase for cyclists and pedestrians on the trail to 15 seconds, although that has not happened yet (it’s still ludicrously short at 4 seconds, which exacerbates the problem, because cyclists get frustrated and just cross anyway).
However, as bad as it is, I don’t think it qualifies as the most dangerous intersection on the Burke-Gilman. The intersections with University Way and with 15th Ave NE are both awful — not just because of the design, but because of congestion and poor behavior on the part of cyclists, pedestrians, and drivers. I think that the crash data bears this out, although I could be wrong.