Delayed due to travel, here’s the late but still great weekly Bike News Roundup!
First up, a recent CDC survey found that Americans are far, far more likely to use a cell phone while driving compared to most of Europe:
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Pacific Northwest News:
- Kirkland removing rail line to create walking trail | KING5.com Seattle – I don’t get the rail worries. If we some day put in rail transit, we can easily redesign the trail as part of that project. But for now, let’s build a trail so people can use it.
- Boy, 9, critical after allegedly drunk uncle flips car | The Today File | Seattle Times – So sad. Condolences to the boy’s family. UPDATE: The boy has died from his injuries.
- Peter Steinbruck and “Density Done Right” – Seattle Transit Blog – If neighbors of transit-oriented upzone areas don’t like the idea of having towers at the center of their commercial zones, would a larger number of somewhat smaller (but much taller than today) buildings be a good compromise? Basically, just saying “No!” to all changes is not helpful.
- Bicyclist hit by patrol car in Northeast Portland | OregonLive.com
- Density Opponents Pushing Back Against Pro-Transit Strategy | Seattle Met
- SeattleScape » The sidewalk observed: a disappointing West Seattle street corner – For real. How did this get approved?
- Plan to drop speed limit to 40 km/h on city streets met with ‘hate’ – Local – Times Colonist – In Victoria, BC
- Transportation Committee Approves Car2Go Expansion – Seattle Transit Blog
- Yes, Sound Transit and Seattle are Studying Subway to Ballard – Seattle Transit Blog – Imagine this for Ballard’s future: Subway, bike share, a neighborhood greenway network and a complete Burke-Gilman Trail.
- Vancouver bike share program delayed until 2014 | Vancity Buzz | Vancouver Blog
- Look Twice for Bikes « Cascade Bike Blog
- BikePortland.org » Blog Archive » Finally, a bike funding bill worthy of a conversation
- Which Thing Kills More People in Washington State: The Car or the Gun? | Slog – It’s a close fight, but Washington is one of the few states where the gun is more deadly than traffic collisions (and, hmm, we’re also the most bike-friendly. Coincidence?) Of course, this does not include deaths caused by car pollution and obesity from a lack of active transportation choices…
- “Biking keeps you young because it’s fun. Bicycling is just like playing. Everyone should play more, it’s very healthy.” « Cascade Bike Blog
- 30 Days of Biking Washington | Bicycle Alliance of Washington – Are you signed up yet? Starts April 1.
Halftime show! This is essentially what it’s like to bike down the 2nd Ave bike lane during rush hour:
National & Global News
- ‘Collision’ Replacing ‘Accident’ for N.Y.C. Police Traffic Crash Squad – NYTimes.com – To give credit where it’s due, Seattle Police are pretty good about this already
- Bike Czar: Will Chicago’s Bike-Friendly Policies Steal Jobs from Seattle? | Urban Milwaukee
- Mixed-Use Neighborhoods May Be Safer, Too – Emily Badger – The Atlantic Cities – An argument I rarely hear in Seattle density debates: More eyes on the streets mean less crime. Increasing density is like adding police officers, except without the badge and annual salary.
- Midwestern Cities Race to Adopt, and Grow, Bike-Share | Streetsblog Capitol Hill
- Should Pregnant Women Be Warned About the Health Risks of Driving? – Sarah Goodyear – The Atlantic Cities
- A Public Transit Pope: Francis Rode Buses Instead of Limos Through Buenos Aires – Amanda Erickson – The Atlantic Cities – My favorite part about this post is that it was out within an hour of the papal announcement.
- Cyclelicious » South Dakota legislature to cyclists and pedestrians: “Wear bright colors!”
- Copenhagenize.com – Bicycle Culture by Design: Closing Streets to Cars – for Good – Closing a street to cars can actually reduce traffic on nearby streets. At first, traffic volumes go up, but then car trips simply evaporate over time as people find a different way to get around. In the end, all streets have fewer cars and more people.
- Introducing the $32,000 Lamborghini … Bicycle – Henry Grabar – The Atlantic Cities
- A tax on bikes? Hit the road, some cyclists say – latimes.com
- Video: Geico (Partially) Blames This Cyclist for Getting Doored | Streetsblog San Francisco – Because injuring somebody on a bike after you pass them, pull in front of them, stop in the bike lane, and then swing open your door as they try to squeeze past your car is only 80 percent your fault…
- Bike Share Is Coming To Pittsburgh In 2014 | Urban Velo
- Bicycling Means Business: How Cycling Enriches People and Cities | Streetsblog Capitol Hill
- BikePortland.org » Blog Archive » Behind the scenes of Capital Bikeshare
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Vintage bikes mean business ad: ” #Cleveland Bicycles: Greatest Output of Any Cycle Manufactory in the World” twitter.com/BikeWalk/statu…
— Alliance4Bike&Walk (@BikeWalk) March 15, 2013
This is an open thread.
Comments
4 responses to “Bike News Roundup: America is #1! (at distracted driving)”
I don’t understand why Kirkland is pulling those tracks. If there is room for both a trail and tracks, and as Tom says here “we can easily redesign the trail as part of that project,” than why not do that from the beginning? Tearing up the tracks now makes it that much harder to make a rail line (whether for commuters, freight, or tourism) possible in the future. I just don’t get it.
Someone correct me if I’m wrong, but I believe that even if they were to put in a modern commuter rail line of some kind, they would still tear up the tracks and put down modern ones. If that’s true it’s really a moot point.
But the bigger issue is that there is no movement whatsoever on getting a rail line built there. We’ve all seen how long it takes to get projects like that moving, funded, designed and built. Are we going to leave it unusable until 2030 (or beyond) just to maybe save a couple bucks (but probably not)? Google is expanding their campus there right now, and I am willing to bet that an attractive commuter trail was a big part of that decision.
Trails are extremely valuable infrastructure. We can build one now. Let’s do it. When rail goes in, the whole corridor will be redesigned. But we don’t need to wait until then to build a trail that people can use right now.
Oh, as as for there being enough room: The corridor has enough width, but it’s not all smoothly graded like the rail bed. So tearing up the tracks would leave a connected and finished rail bed for the trail (which makes the project a whole lot cheaper).
What Tom said. Any in-place “repair” of the tracks would essentially be a replacement, and any serious rail line would require double-tracking, meaning serious dirt-moving in the area, since there are sections where the current grading is only wide enough for a single track.
If they end up with double-tracked rail and a trail down there ultimately we’ll end up spending the same amount of money to regrade the corridor whether we tear the tracks up now or not. By tearing them up now we save money (and time!) up-front on the trail we know we’re going to build and then spend it later if we ever decide we want trains there. The only thing removing the tracks precludes is low-volume, short-distance freight movements on those tracks in the short term.