It’s time for the Bike News Roundup! Here’s a look at some of the stuff floating around the interwebs recently that caught our eye.
As always, this is an open thread.
First up, I bet you didn’t know Philadelphia is the bikiest US city with more than one million residents:
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The Philadelphia Bike Story from STREETFILMS on Vimeo.
Pacific Northwest News
- Growing Bike Advocacy in Yakima – Washington Bikes
- VIDEO: Cyclists in Eastlake say new bike lanes could mean boost to local businesses | www.kirotv.com
- Seattle’s antidote to aggressive driving on neighborhood greenways – BikePortland.org
- Portland parents launch national Vision Zero PAC to push ‘traffic violence apologists’ out of office – BikePortland.org
- A Bike Ride with Governor Inslee – Velocity: The Seattle Area Cycling Blog
- Safety Improvements started along Lake City Way and 24th Avenue NE | SDOT Blog
- Homeowner shaken after truck crashes into Edmonds home | King 5
- City eyes eliminating another Burrard Bridge car lane | Metro – Worked so well they wanna do it again!
- Create Adventure: Bikepacking the John Wayne Trail – Washington Bikes
- This Seattle Woman Builds Pathways For Bees, Birds And Other Pollinators | KUOW
- Seattle’s smart plan to remake its streets | Grist
- Rider released from jail, says Broadway bikeway stabbing victim’s push caused crash | CHS Capitol Hill Seattle
- Cleaner streets for cleaner Puget Sound planned | The Seattle Times
- Two experts on the words and images that defuse anti-bike sentiments | PeopleForBikes
- In Seattle, fold-down posts can take a punch while protecting bike lanes | PeopleForBikes
- City to seek new partnerships for Public Bike Share System | City of Vancouver
- Pronto Cycle Share • #PeopleForPronto Portrait Series (8/10) – Featuring Mama Tits
- Motorcyclist arrested after hitting woman in downtown Kirkland crosswalk – Kirkland Reporter
- 2 teens killed after SUV hits 4 gym-class students on Ferndale sidewalk | The Seattle Times – Horrifying and terribly sad.
- Books on Bikes | The Seattle Public Library
- City Council Wants to Tweak Mayor’s Transportation Levy (Or, Nick Licata Has Zero Fucks Left to Give) – The Stranger
- Seattle to test 20 mph zones | King 5
- Make it safer and less onerous for homeless living in vehicles | The Seattle Times – Those “no parking 2-5 a.m.” signs are unconscionable
- Road work aims to make Broadway Avenue safer | HeraldNet.com – Local News
- Elections and Endorsements | The Urbanist – Ongoing interviews with City Council candidates
- Pedestrian-only streets in Pike/Pine planned for trial run this summer | CHS Capitol Hill Seattle
- City’s Newest Curb Ramps making Intersections Safer and More Accessible | SDOT Blog
- To the Dome: Seattle to Tacoma by Bike – Washington Bikes
- Geico Advertises Cheap Car Insurance in the Sky Above Shell’s Polar Pioneer Drill Rig – Slog – The Stranger
- Roxbury Safety Improvements Moving Forward | SDOT Blog
- Safe Routes to Schools Activists Demand More Money from Murray Plan | Seattle Politics | Seattle Met
- ‘Mercer Mess’ a Seattle problem since the 1970s | King 5 – Remember: The Mercer Mess is 100% man-made, cause when we turned Aurora into a freeway.
- Pickup crashes into bedroom of home in Edmonds | KOMO News
- Q&A: Rick Browning on the protected bike lanes in downtown Portland’s future – BikePortland.org
- Are protected bike lanes in Spokane’s future? | The Spokesman-Review
- Bill Davidson: Seattle’s Legendary Frame Builder | The Bicycle Story
- Advocacy Leadership Institute Recap | Diane Bikes
- Seattle Magazine | Will Public Parking in Seattle Go Extinct? – That’s like asking: Will fruit flies go extinct? I guess it could happen, but there are so many I don’t think that’s worth worrying about right now.
- Man hit by SUV while crossing International Blvd. in SeaTac | KOMO News
- Cascade endorses Burgess, Gonzalez and Braddock for Seattle City Council; five other leaders across the region | Cascade Bicycle Club
- New Rules Would Further Limit Density | The C Is for crank
- Bike Notes | SDOT looking into bike rack thefts, new E Pine ‘conflict’ markings | CHS Capitol Hill Seattle
- Bertha repair will take longer — there are lots of broken parts | The Seattle Times
- Centennial Trail Coalition of Snohomish County: A busy year on the Whitehorse Trail, past present and future
Halftime show! I’ve been saying, “Halftime show!” at this point in the Bike News Roundup for years, but this is the first time it actually features a football player:
National & Global News
- Can a Classic Counseling Technique Get People Out of Cars? – Next City
- Tracy Morgan: I watched crash ‘every day’ on YouTube – TODAY.com
- The Top 100 Neighborhoods for Bicycle Commuting Have a 21% Mode Share | Streetsblog USA – None are in Seattle
- Here’s why narrower streets are safer | Grist
- Ethan Villavicencio, 7, Killed by Motorist Inside Bronx Restaurant | Streetsblog New York City
- Cities adopting bike investment as a way to move Beyond Traffic | Department of Transportation
- Female cyclist bear brunt of bad driving and harassment from drivers, says study | The Guardian
- Birmingham will get North America’s first electric-assist bike share | PeopleForBikes
- 3 feet or else: Chattanooga police use ultrasound technology to enforce law for cyclist safety | Times Free Press – This is awesome. Seattle PD needs this.
- Family of slain STL cyclist Rick Beard offers reward; A call for Vision Zero on Missouri streets | Missouri Bicycle and Pedestrian Federation
- Anti-cycling Oz roads minister to rip out protected cycleway in Sydney | BikeBiz
- 7 Cities Get $375,000 to Work on Bike-Share Equity – Next City
- No cellphone for 2 years for driver in fatal bike crash | Detroit News – Not sure how I feel about this. Cell phones aren’t the dangerous part. Driving is.
- Calgary’s 12 Avenue cycle track opens with rainy but busy first day | Metro
- Four U.S. cities are racing to open the country’s first protected intersection | PeopleForBikes
- Compelling Evidence That Wider Lanes Make City Streets More Dangerous | Streetsblog USA
- Volvo says horrible ‘self-parking car accident’ happened because driver didn’t have ‘pedestrian detection’ | Fusion
- The feds jump on board: Protected bike lanes are now official federal policy | PeopleForBikes
- Boston Says So Long to the Casey Overpass, a 1950s Highway Relic | Streetsblog USA
- The 20 Most Bike-Friendly Cities on the Planet | WIRED
Comments
10 responses to “Bike News Roundup: The nation’s bikiest city with over 1M people”
The Seattle times article about car dwellers was interesting. But the comments where appalling. So many where accusing homeless of drug dealing and prostitution. I’ve hung around many homeless and never seen that. I see a lot more drugs with buddies at college. Other comments went along the lines of keep the trash out of my neighborhood. On one hand, I’m happy to see the anti bike sentiment in ST comments isn’t singling us out. It’s just more of the general mean spirit. But on the other hand, why are there so many nasty commenters?
That’s a pretty complicated question. I think a big part of it just has to do with the moderation and culture of the online space. The Times is such a general purpose source and they only have limited resources to dedicate to moderation that they just have to follow a set of rules (don’t be overtly racist, don’t say certain curse words, don’t suggest violence; etc) and the comment stays. This means the most dedicated and extreme commenters steal the mic, and most people with reasonable view points are pushed away and don’t bother contributing.
Here, I try (though I’m definitely not perfect) to foster a more inviting atmosphere so more people feel comfortable commenting. That means not only banning the racists, but also trying to encourage people to be respectful even if they disagree. That’s my goal, anyway. I’ve noticed that SBB commenter are heavily male, which is a sign that I’m not doing everything right to make everyone feel invited. If you all have any ideas for how I can do better, I’d love your advice.
Tom,
I think there are a lot of reasons women don’t comment on webpages as much as men do, and many of them are outside what you can control here: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/men/thinking-man/11544484/Why-are-most-online-commenters-male.html. Don’t let it make you frustrated!
Thanks, Meg. I’ve never seen that report before.
People are mad because a lot things that have changed and it hasn’t made life better for them. I blame Faux news for some of this and the corporate takeover of politics that has in general scr*wed everybody everywhere in the name of more profits. So they vent where they feel safe. The anonymity of the ST comments.
The key to changing this is to get them outside and exercising on “safe routes to school” because who is for running down kids? And oh isn’t this a nice place to ride to the park. And since I’m out for a ride, wouldn’t it be nice to stop and get a treat, and since we are here, lets pick up dinner as I don’t want to come back…. and you see where it all leads… communism… :) or Democratic Socialism ….
KOMO reported on the progress of the person bicycling who fell and was run over by a Metro bus on May 4. Glad to see he is making progress and has lots of support from his family.
Seattle cyclist hit by Metro bus on tough road to recovery
As far as biking to Tacoma goes… there are disconnected stretches of the Interurban Route between Pacific and Tacoma, but the gaps are pretty tough to navigate. The preferred route up the ridge to the short bit in Edgewood (56th Pl S/58th Pl S) appears to be closed for maintenance, and I don’t recommend Jovita Blvd (when I rode it pavement was rough and traffic was impatient). The wiggle between there and the stretch in Milton, on Enchanted Pkwy, is reasonably nice, in wide shoulders and crosswalks. But on the other side of that, once you’re dropped out on the road in Fife I don’t know of a great option. I rode 20th St E and that was pretty miserable. None of the other routes look clearly better, and they’re all longer. The 509 frontage road’s shoulder is actually marked as a bike lane… but that’s only between Alexander and Milwaukee. Maybe 70th-Radiance-54th-Levee-Frank Albert-Industrial? Then you have to get across the Puyallup, and none of those options look great. If only there was a nice route to the renovated bridge on E 11th…
Hey Al!,
You gotta think outside the bike paths… To bike to Tacoma, go first to West Seattle, then ride the ferry to Vashon, ride the island, then ride the ferry to Tacoma!… It’s not flat as that hill up from the North ferry dock is a killer and the rush of cars getting off the ferry is always bad, but it beats inland route.
That’s actually how I got there. I went over land on the way home. Ferries are alright, though you do have to wait for ’em…
To walk through your bike in Tacoma I think you should practice on the stony road or like that road. It will help you!