It’s time for the weekly Bike News Roundup! As always, this is an open thread.
First up, the story behind East Harlem’s new protected bike lane:
How Complete Streets Came to East Harlem from Streetfilms on Vimeo.
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Pacific Northwest News:
- At Large in Ballard: The Walking School Bus | Ballard News-Tribune
- Pedestrian struck, killed near 1st Avenue Bridge in Seattle | Seattle Times
- Op-ed: On its 50th birthday, Seattle Center’s potential has not been fulfilled | The Seattle Times – An opinion piece so bad, it ended a mayoral campaign before it even began.
- Fewer parking spaces in Seattle apartments likely to drive up prices | KPLU News for Seattle and the Northwest – This story misses the entire economic point of “free” parking. The “prices” it talks about are for parking spots, not for rent, food, entertainment (and on and on…) that would be cheaper if we didn’t spend so much money building parking spaces.
- Should texting fine go up to $372? – seattlepi.com – Yes.
- BikePortland.org » Man rear-ended while biking with child in trailer speaks out – Terrifying story.
- Sale | Velo Bike Shop – Shop is moving to Via6.
- Bikes and crafts and Momentum Mag | Bicitoro: bikes and crafts – Yay!
- Shop owner: With Mercer Mess, outlook ‘very dire and scary’ | KOMO News – This rarely happens when constructing bike facilities
- Sound Transit Board Wants To Accelerate ST3 Planning – Seattle Transit Blog
- New school-zone cameras catch 6,000 speeders | The Seattle Times – Should be standard at all schools. Money raised could fund Safe Routes to School!
- Seattle opening door to ‘floating’ car-share service including one-way trips, anywhere parking | CHS Capitol Hill Seattle – This service will mesh well with bike share. Drive that heavy/awkward cargo one way, bike or transit back.
- Seattle soul-searching | Crosscut.com – I don’t see how cars in Pike Place Market make it better. Seriously, how is that street not deliveries-only by now?
- Boltbus is Not All That Nice – Sorry, Davey thinks your bus is poopy.
- Riding In Psych Lanes | Slog – Dan Savage is a masterful troll. A few keystrokes about biking on the sidewalk and BAM: Hundreds of people are all angry at each other (sigh…)
- Ed Murray’s Running for Mayor | Seattle Met – He seems to dance around talking about bikes. But he touts his ability to pass transportation funding packages, which McGinn has had trouble doing.
Halftime show! Forget neighborhood greenways, let’s build a network of these:
National & Global News:
- Why Traffic-Related Fatalities Are Rising After Years of Decline– New York Magazine – Ignoring some of the ridiculous paragraphs about how bike lanes make traffic deaths worse (right after saying they helped), and you’ve got an interesting piece. But the photo composite at the beginning is worth the click (too cool).
- Sun News : Cycling safest way to get around for young men: Study
- 6 Ideas Every City Should Steal From Barcelona – Design – The Atlantic Cities
- Russian drivers stranded in traffic jam for 3 days | The Seattle Times
- Obama Takes Another Swing at $50 Billion in Infrastructure Spending | Streetsblog Capitol Hill
- Elderly pedestrian killed in Seattle – seattlepi.com
- Capital Bikeshare expansion stalls due to lack of materials – The Washington Post – Yikes. More problems with Alta.
- Bicycle traffic signals get a green light
- Oh Dearborn! The 2-way protected bike lane is almost completely striped | Grid Chicago
- Vehicle Miles Traveled Statistics – Seattle Transit Blog – Spoiler: They are going down (even as population goes up!)
- Copenhagenize.com – Bicycle Culture by Design: Harbour Tunnel or a Better City? – Mikael doesn’t think very highly of CPH’s planned tunnel (join the party!)
- Alleged bicycle thief arrested – Admits he targeted bikes with cable locks. Seriously, buy your friends u-locks for the holidays.
- Surgeon General Announces Call to Action on Walking | Streetsblog Capitol Hill – The first step to cigarette-style warnings on cars?
Comments
7 responses to “Bike News Roundup: A cycle track in East Harlem”
Thanks for the shoutout, and as usual for the excellent round-up of good reads.
I’m sorry, explain to me how he is trolling? He’s advocating for the exact same thing we talk about all the time on here – dedicated space for bikes. It’s not his fault that his comment thread, like literally every single other comment thread that mentions how cyclists ride their bikes, degenerated into a screaming match. If we all had a dollar for every time that happened, we’d have some sweet ass bikes, that’s for sure.
As an occasional, amateur troll, I think I can speak to this: Dan Savage is a constant, professional troll. He says things that get people talking and incite controversy and debate, much of which is uncivil; he knows this will happen and that’s why he does it.
Sometimes trolls troll for evil. Sometimes trolls troll For Great Justice.
Well put, Al.
There are some conversations that the internet seems incapable of having, as kommish points out. Savage knows that more than anyone. I’m not exactly criticizing him, that’s sort of how he rolls whether he’s talking about bikes or gay marriage or republicans. He gets people riled up, which isn’t always a bad thing (but also isn’t always useful or positive).
I guess I am just tired of people yelling at each other over how they walk/bike/drive wrong. That’s why I advocate for designing our city so it is comfortable and intuitive for everyone, no matter how they choose to get around.
Sorry; by “he” I’m referring to the Dan Savage link.
On the Dad with the kid in trailer accident, after first reading this article I wanted to know just how bright his rear blinky light on the trailer was, and whether he had just a rain coat or a reflective vest on top of a coat. But then I saw that he was waiting behind two cars, which means the car that hit him should have been preparing to stop for those cars as well. Which implies that the driver was impaired or seriously distracted.
Sad to say had the bicyclist not been there, it would have been just another collision on the road between cars. We are so immune to these collisions that unless they seriously block traffic or kill someone they aren’t reported in the news.
Yeah gentrification!