It’s time for the weekly Bike News Roundup! As always, this is an open thread.
First up, here’s a look at one day of transit in Seattle (via Seattle Transit Blog):
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Pacific Northwest News:
- No Spandex Required – New blog about biking in Seattle! Bookmark/subscribe.
- Cameras to help monitor breath of DUI offenders | The Seattle Times – While this is cool and all, if things have gotten this far, these people should probably not have a driver’s license anymore.
- Family biking is safe « Family Ride – In which Madi ignores my calls to just delete a troll comment and instead writes a contemplative piece about it.
- State says widening I-5 at Seneca would cost $23 million | The Seattle Times – Oh, only $23 million? I bet WSDOT can find that in its couch cushions. But don’t ask for relative pennies for biking or walking projects. Also, wasn’t this part of the Transit/I-5 tunnel alternative (rest its soul).
- West Seattle Blog… » Lincoln Park Way open again after bicyclist injured
- Transportation Nag: Safe Routes to Health, Part 2: Riding a Wheelchair to Health – Should mobility scooters be part of the separated bike lane discussion?
- The Dutch have a cure for ‘Seattle Process’ | Crosscut.com
- Filmed by Bike » Call for Entries
- Get ready to pedal! Event registration opens Jan. 8 for Cascade members « Cascade Bike Blog – Cascade Bicycle Club – Seattle, Washington
- Peddler Brewing Company by Peddler Brewing Company — Kickstarter – Already funded! Now help them get to $15K
- Winter Bicycle Fears « Cascade Bike Blog
- The Bike Business Forum brings the business voice to bicycle planning « Cascade Bike Blog
- Truck involved in fatal North Bend hit-and-run found | Seattle Times
Halftime show! Bicycle Sounds:
Bicycle Sounds from Stephen Meierding on Vimeo.
National & Global News:
- Bicycle Advocates of the Day: The Miami Heat – The Atlantic Cities
- Wheelmate Laptop Steering Wheel Desk : Amazon.com : Automotive – The reviews and user photos on this steering wheel laptop tray are awesome (via Elly Blue)
- Redefining “protected”: A look at CDOT’s new bike lane terminology | Grid Chicago – Chicago’s buffered bike lanes have buffers on both sides (for traffic and parked car doors)
- Not So Fast: Avis’ Proposed $500M Zipcar Buy Being Investigated For Short-Changing Shareholders | TechCrunch
- Bikes Aren’t Just Good For You, They’re Good For The Economy, Too | Co.Exist: World changing ideas and innovation
- The Geography of Drunk Driving – The Atlantic Cities
- The True Costs of Automobility: External Costs of Cars | Road Danger Reduction Forum
- Instead of building more parking spots, Parking Panda lets people rent out the ones they already own | Grist – So cool. Imagine if this became more widespread. Not driving would pay you twice: Once because you wouldn’t have to pay for a car, gas, insurance, etc, and twice because someone would give you money to park in your unused space.
- Mayor “Deep V” Announces Bikeshare, Bike Giveaway – In LA
- Cardboard Helmet Passes Safety Tests – BikeRadar
- Virginia signs $1.4 billion highway deal – The Washington Post – Yikes.
- Fiscal cliff deal restores transit benefit – Greater Greater Washington – Bikes still get peanuts (but the transit benefit is good news).
Comments
7 responses to “Bike News Roundup: What one day of Seattle transit looks like”
According to the Atlantic Cities article, somewhere around 30-40% of all fatal car crashes (“accidents”) involve people who have been drinking and driving. It’s not a good thing that so many people are driving drunk – but drinking is not the only reckless thing people do while driving. According to these numbers, 60-70% of the people who kill people while driving are NON-drunk. Focusing on the dangers of drunk driving is one way we minimize the dangers of just plain driving, and underplay the responsibility we take on when we get into a car and drive. We’ve seen too many cases locally where people who kill others while driving are given very light penalties – because they weren’t “impaired” and therefore whatever happened, it was just an “accident.” On the other hand, people who are caught driving with alcohol (or pot…) in their system can be severely penalized even if they don’t cause any damage to anyone.
[…] Take a look at great on-going bike week wrap-ups at Seattle Bike Blog. […]
Cardboard helmets might be able to be produced cheap enough that you could sell them for “day use” with a bicycle share program.
“The Dutch have a cure…” what utter nonsense. Reading crosscut is like spitting into the wind, useless and you get mad that the spit comes back at you and no one else notices.
Of course the dutch band together to maintain the dikes. It will be useless to maintain the current ones as the seas rise another 4 ft but they’ll try for a few years anyway. As for us in Seattle, well with the SR99 tunnel started but unfunded, same for the 520 bridge, we may well be looking at some rather large uncompleted projects in the near future.
As for the future, it’s all about mathematics:
http://www.exploratorium.edu/cycling/humanpower1.html guarantees that bicycling has a place in our transportation future. Even if we switch to Thorium salt fusion reactors for electricity to run our society, bicycles still work so well for short to medium distances that they will be used.
…if things have gotten this far, these people should probably not have a driver’s license anymore.
The problem is, in most cases, taking someone’s license away doesn’t actually stop them from driving. They just drive without one. Some states have experimented with confiscating the cars of drunk driving offenders, but that’s unpopular because it ends up punishing their families, too.
Hey Tom- A while ago you mentioned that you were going to post something about restricting right turns on red in downtown. Are you planning on posting it?
Thanks for putting me on your Bike News Roundup!