It’s time for the completely overdue Bike News Roundup! As always, this is an open thread.
In honor of Portland, my host city for the weekend, we’ll kick things off with a video about how they installed their bike counter before Seattle did (seriously, it’s coming soon, I’m told).
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Portland Adds Nation’s First Bike Counter to Hawthorne Bridge from Streetfilms on Vimeo.
Pacific Northwest News:
- BikePortland.org » Portland makes bikes count on the Hawthorne Bridge – I was super excited about getting counted by this Thursday, but I was headed the wrong way and didn’t get to see my number!
- Of Dynamos and Bike Lights, or How I Learned To Stop Worrying and Love The LED | Sweetbike (.org)
- Bicycle Alliance of Washington: Bike Rides to Carry You Into the Fall
- Video shows Lynnwood hit-and-run collision | www.kirotv.com
- Beyond Oil: Speakers – Hmm, so these car guys are going to tell us about the oil-free future?
- Beacon Hill Blog » Beacon B.I.K.E.S. appeals for greenway support
- Petition | City of Seattle: Save Our Sandbox | Change.org
- BikePortland.org » A tiny house with big aspirations: Introducing the ‘BikeRV’
- Some obstacles in the path of a Seattle bike share system » Biking Bis
- Bicycle crash survivor credits helmet for saving life | KOMO News – This kid is a bad ass. He was hit by someone driving a car while he was in a crosswalk. The focus on his helmet in this story seems to assume this crash was inevitable: It wasn’t. At least the driver was cited (and I hope the driver is on the hook for his medical bills). Shouldn’t the vulnerable user law kick in here?
- Playing a crosswalk piano at Carkeek Park | Picture This | The Seattle Times
- What Apodments Can Do For You – Seattle Transit Blog
- Tour de Peaks cyclists tour de valleys » Biking Bis
- Bike Parking App – Seattle – It’s coming…
- BikePortland.org » 29 bikes stolen from non-profit Bike Clark County in Vancouver
- Man who biked from Baltimore has wheels stolen in Parkland | Parkland – The News Tribune
- Portland Tribune and Community Newspapers – Bike blogger’s route takes a write turn – Profile of Bike Portland’s Jonathan Maus.
- The moral superiority of Seattle jaywalkers | Crosscut.com – I am still trying to figure out how I feel about this column.
Halftime show! A $60 cardboard bike?
Izhar cardboard bike project from Giora Kariv on Vimeo.
National & Global News:
- Dodging Bulls and Gunshots on New Jersey’s 19th-Century ‘Bicycle Railroad’ – The Atlantic Cities
- The Problem of Under-Insured Drivers « Systemic Failure
- Bike Commute News: UPS Testing New Cargo Cruiser Electric Delivery Bicycle – Seattle can haz?
- A Reporter Learns to Ride a Bicycle as an Adult – NYTimes.com
- Dooring fears prompt bike lane rethink
- How to Dismount by H.G. Wells – Bike Hugger
- Segregated bike lanes reduce accident rate – Ottawa – CBC News
- Duly Quoted: The Toronto Police Service’s Official Facebook Page | news | Torontoist
- Wall Photos – Map of Latin American ciclovias
- No Accident | Transportation Alternatives
- WaPo Blames “Distracted Walking” for Unexplained Rise in Deaths | Streetsblog.net
- Helmet laws discourage safe cyclists – says new study | road.cc – Interesting. The users most commonly deterred from cycling by helmet laws are the types of cyclists we need more of.
- Making City Biking Less Scary – Commute – The Atlantic Cities
- bike sharing usage patterns in Washington DC’s Capital Bikeshare | articulate discontent
- Toronto cyclist dies after wheel gets trapped in unused streetcar track – The Globe and Mail – The story cites Seattle lawyer Bob Anderton’s SLUT crash lawsuit.
- New York Bike-Share Program Delayed Until Spring – NYTimes.com
Comments
6 responses to “Bike News Roundup: Man dies after crashing on Toronto streetcar tracks”
You are aware that it may well be safer to jaywalk than to cross legally? Of course crossing without looking is an entirely different matter.
That crosscut article on pedestrians and jaywalking has to be one of the most confused and confusing articles I’ve read. Maybe the author should quit psychoanalyzing and start communicating effectively.
Actually I thought he managed to articulate a lot of the amusement and confusion I’ve felt when negotiating intersections here in Seattle, in all modes spanning from biped to wheel-gripping couch potato.
Moving back to Seattle from Atlanta required a massive recalibration on my part; in particular I’ve always thought of myself as a scrupulous and conscientious driver but Atlanta’s lackadaisical modes had nonetheless begun to take root in my behavior. As with our so-called traffic congestion, things may look bad to us on paper but the reality on the ground in such places as Atlanta when it comes to transportation-related social comportment is something else entirely.
Re unfortunate cyclist who was killed after becoming entangled in streetcar tracks:
“…carrying a bag of food on his handlebars.”
Call me a cold-hearted bastard but: help make your own good luck by not crippling your agility with pendulous bags? Still, that’s speculation on my part because the only witness who can tell us exactly what happened is dead.
Not a bad article overall. Some will object to the obligatory helmet checkbox but after all, that’s another part of making one’s own luck. Streetcars are part of life in Toronto, tracks are common, tracks used versus unused is not necessarily germane to the topic.
Sounds like a prime case for an intensive and permanent public awareness campaign for Toronto cyclists, possibly including necessarily repetitious signage.
Come to think of it, ultimately the best solution to this would be flange-free rail wheels. Removing the requirement to enjoy or make good luck in order to have a future is always good. Can it be done??
Surely you’ve heard that thing everyone says about the Netherlands, that they design their bike facilities to be something that a grandmother carrying two bags of groceries could use? They have streetcars there, too.
I went to college at the University of Illinois; while I was there there wasn’t a proper grocery store on campus (despite the proliferation of high-end high-margin retail… these days Green Street feels like B-Square, it’s ridiculous) so if I needed produce to ward off scurvy I had to either bike out along the highway or take the slow, infrequent bus out to a Meijer on the outskirts of town. I could get two little bags into my basket and sling two more over the handlebars. You have to ride slow so the bags don’t swing into the wheels.
And I was a pretty privileged kid. So… maybe some thought needs to be put into bike facilities around streetcars. Like we’re doing by the FHSC.