It’s time for the Bike News Roundup! I’m headed to New York City for my first time ever. I am crazy excited. I’ll keep posting while I’m out of town for the next week, but things might be a little slower than usual. And of course, email [email protected] if you see anything I should know about.
First up, Charles Mudede posted this 2003 Saturn commercial I had completely forgotten about. It’s a great visual for how much space cars take up in our cities.
Pacific Northwest News
- Washington state trails opened up to farm vehicle use » Biking Bis – Um…
- Friends remember Microsoft engineer killed in Redmond crash | www.kirotv.com – So sad.
- VIDEO: Seattle residents work to get back longtime city beach | www.kirotv.com – Just off the Burke-Gilman Trail.
- Seattle Frequent Network Maps Preview (Sept 2015) | Seattle Transit Blog – These maps are a great public service.
- Tacoma voters to decide $500 million measure to fix potholes | KOMO News
- Police find truck from Kennewick fatal hit-and-run | KOMO News
- Transportation projects which never happened | King 5
- Op-Ed: NE 130th Street Station will Provide Access to Underserved Communities | Seattle Transit Blog
- Idea to raise speed limits to 75 mph gets over bump in House :: The Capitol Record – Bad idea.
- Access Seattle fixes unpermitted sidewalk blockage! | SDOT Blog – Good work, SDOT! (and Merlin!)
- $1B Washington State Convention Center expansion means big changes across I-5 | CHS Capitol Hill Seattle
- Oregonian editorial calls on city to ‘reconsider its bike ban’ in River View – BikePortland.org – Similar (but also very different) issue as Cheasty.
- ORCA LIFT Reduced Fare Program – King County Metro Transit – Is your income below 200 percent of poverty? You may qualify for a $1.50-fare ORCA! Really great program that is even getting attention from the NY Times.
- Seattle Traffic Collision Data – 2011 and 2012 – Kenneth Trease | Tableau Public – That’s a whole lot of red.
- Explore this: Seattle’s new political district map | The Seattle Times – Includes commute mode data
- Is Rainier Ave S Off-Scale Dangerous? Yes. – Seattle Neighborhood Greenways
- The downtown bicycle revival circus | Crosscut – Don’t get the title, but the story is good.
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Pole on Mercer at Taylor has ped button located per Fed ADA. Looking to better guide bikes where they mix w peds. pic.twitter.com/XvhsopEHCV
— seattledot (@seattledot) March 4, 2015
- Seattle considers adding ‘pedestrian zones’ | King 5 – We need a lot more!
- Centennial Middle School gets sophisticated crosswalk signal | HeraldNet.com – This HAWK signal is a bit more significant than the RRFB signs Seattle installs
- Cyclist “leaning rails,” because cyclists aren’t lazy enough | The Spokesman-Review
- Walkable Washington & Awards Symposium
- Seattle City Council News Release: Seattle Transit Advisory Board Established, Seattleites Encouraged to Apply
- Meet the Architect Behind “Born Again Bertha” (Who Once Designed a Bike Freeway Using Viaduct Parts) – Slog – The Stranger
- What would bike-friendly auto parking reform look like? Seven ideas – BikePortland.org
- Bike theft booming in Portland: Even in Bike City USA, thieves are rarely caught, data show | OregonLive.com
- Woonerf? It means pedestrians, bikers and SLU developer win | The Seattle Times – Well, sort of. It’s not like this stretch of 8th is an in-demand bike route. More “pedestrianized” (I don’t really like that term, is there a better one?) space is great, but this was a pretty hefty subsidy on the city’s part.
- The Porter: The Lucky One (Surviving Rainier Avenue) | South Seattle Emerald
- Amtrak’s trains keep getting bike-friendlier, but its buses aren’t keeping up – BikePortland.org – Amtrak really needs to get this figured out. If they sell a bike ticket, they have to transport that bike. Otherwise, their service is not dependable.
- Democrats Help Pass Republican Transportation Package | Seattle Politics | Seattle Met
- Are Voters Mad at Council Members Who Voted for the Tunnel? Poll Says Yes. – Slog – The Stranger
- Westside Seattle Transit Tunnel: An Introduction | Seattle Transit Blog
- Senate Transportation Package – A Good Start to Grow Bicycling Statewide | Washington Bikes
- Seattle Weekly | Road Kill: How Bertha Left the Surface-Street Option
- Neighbors sick of speeders push to create Home Zone | www.kirotv.com
Halftime Show! This Redmond crosswalk is not safe enough:
NE 40th St at WA-520 Designed To Kill People Walking from GlenBikes on Vimeo.
National & Global News
- U.S. Bicycling Participation Benchmarking Report | PeopleForBikes – A lot more people bike in the US than previous studies suggested
- Minneapolis plans big push for protected bike lanes in city core | Star Tribune
- How a Group of Local Shovelers Dug a 40 Foot Snow Tunnel on a Medford Bike Path | BDCwire – This looks fun, though so is a properly cleared path.
- Amsterdam Has Officially Run Out of Spaces to Park Its Bicycles – CityLab
- Copenhagenize.com – Bicycle Culture by Design: Top Ten Ways to Hate on Pedestrians
- Why We Should Worry About London’s Nine Elms to Pimlico Bridge Design Competition – CityLab – Curving pathways look like fun in concept drawings, but in real life people want a short and direct path.
- St. Louis Gets Rolling on Plans For Bike Sharing | Riverfront Times – Yes!
- Hamburg is burying the Autobahn and putting parks on top – Vox
- Boston, Columbus, Detroit, Indy, Minneapolis, Houston, Denver & Seattle all unveil protected lanes | PeopleForBikes
- Chilling footage of cyclist’s road death sparks passionate debate – 9news.com.au – This is why door zone bike lanes are not good enough.
- The Terrible 60-Year-Old Parking Advice That’s Still Haunting America | Streetsblog.net
- The Dark Side of Cheap Gas | Sightline Daily
- Route 66 by Bicycle: The Complete Guide – CityLab
- Can Protected Bike Lanes Help Close the Gender Gap in Cycling? Lessons from Five Cities (pdf)
- Race, ethnicity, class and protected bike lanes: An idea book for fairer cities | PeopleForBikes
- Eben Weiss: Cycling’s Most Famous Snob | The Bicycle Story
- Phoenix bike share lets you park anywhere, but most people stick to docks | PeopleForBikes
- Outer London is about to activate the ‘secret weapon’ of the suburbs: the bicycle | PeopleForBikes
- Copenhagenize.com – Bicycle Culture by Design: Watching Copenhagen Bike Share Die
- The L.A. Dodgers Are Named After Terrified Brooklyn Pedestrians – CityLab
- Halifax advocates hand their city an entire protected bike lane plan on a platter | PeopleForBikes
- Proposed Helmet Law for Adults Has Some California Cyclists Upset – Next City – Take it from a place that has one: Don’t do it!
- The Complete Guide to the Final Move NY Plan | Streetsblog New York City – “Move NY” sounds a lot like “Move Seattle,” but it is not. It’s a congestion pricing concept, and it could change NYC transportation forever.
- An Urban Cycling Guide for Even the Most Skittish Riders – CityLab
- Barcelona Expands their Public E-Bike System | Momentum Mag
- Driver Who Plowed Into Minneapolis Protesters Won’t Be Charged | Streetsblog USA
- Paris mayor announces plans for ‘car-free’ day – The Local
This is an open thread.
Comments
7 responses to “Bike News Roundup: In 2003, Saturn made a really great ad about how much space cars take up”
Please post about your experiences of NYC! ;-)
Please write about your experience in NYC. I grew up near there and went back recently once it was deemed the “#1 bike city” in the US. It was terrifying to say the least…I hope you have a better experience. As bad as drivers are here, I have to admit it made me appreciate how much more respectful we are to cyclists and pedestrians, which is still not nearly enough….
The only thing “lazy” I could see in the article on leaning rails was the journalism.
Agreed! I tried to post a comment to the piece, but comments were closed. Makes it easy decide where I don’t want to spend money on bike tourism in Washington, though! :)
I’m not sure, but I think it might have been a joke.
Did you read past the headline? especially the paragraph below the video.
Yes, it is a bit of an inside joke, but the people who wouldn’t get it probably don’t think people who ride bicycles have any right to exist in the first place, so the article isn’t going to change their opinions much.
Love that Saturn commercial. Kind of fitting that they are no longer manufacturing cars.
It might be useful after viewing this commercial, to find and read a 1990’s novel by Christopher Buckley called “Thank You For Smoking.” This is a darkly humorous take on how industries that make big $ by doing harm put on a fig leaf of social concern.