It’s time for the Bike News Roundup! I’m still healing up from the flu, which tragically put me out of commission for the Youth Bike Summit over the weekend. I’ll try to piece together coverage in the next couple days, so stay tuned. It sounded like an inspiring experience.
First up in the roundup, here’s one way to advertise your bus agency (not as good as the first one, though):
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Pacific Northwest
- Fighting Traffic, Dreaming Of Light Rail Outside Seattle | KUOW
- Pedestrian safety coming soon to busy Edmonds street | HeraldNet.com
- WSDOT Says if This Bertha Contractor Walks Out, We’ll Get Another One | Slog
- Man arrested in Hawaii crash that killed Issaquah bicyclist | Seattle Times
- Yet Another East Link Lawsuit | Seattle Transit Blog
- Police car rolls down hill, crashes into Federal Way home | KOMO News
- How to Bring More Light Rail to Seattle, in Four Not-So-Easy Steps | Seattle Met
- Sound Transit Parking Debate | Seattle Met
- University Link Construction Approaches Total Completion | The Urbanist
- Seattle’s red light cameras reduce collisions by 23% | The Urbanist
- O’Brien will face challenger in Seattle City Council district race | Seattle Times
- Job Opportunities – Bike Works – Three totally awesome part-time jobs listed right now.
- Tom Rasmussen » Update on the Cheasty Mountain Bike/Pedestrian Trail Pilot Project
- O’Brien Says No to Vulcan $500,000 Vulcan Waiver | Seattle Met
- Cell phone use behind wheel would go on driver’s record, under legislative proposal | The News Tribune
- Separated Trail project in full swing on NE 195th | Shoreline Area News
- Pronto Cycle Share • Introducing: New Pricing Options! – You can now get a senior discount. Awesome!
- Bike share program throws chain – Vancouver Courier – Helmet law cited as one barrier.
- Walla Walla University Student Struck While Riding Bicycle Dies | KVEW
- With Kitzhaber resignation, bike advocates upbeat about incoming Gov. Kate Brown – BikePortland.org
- Seattle’s street parking vanishes as bus and bike lanes boom | The Seattle Times – “Vanishes” is a strange word choice. There are still a half million on-street parking spots in Seattle! Also, candidate for worst infographic of the year (and not just because they don’t know where South Lake Union or First Hill are)
- Seattle Bike Activists Launch Major Infrastructure Campaign | The Northwest Urbanist
- Green River Trail reopens to bicycling in Kent » Biking Bis
- Youth Bike Summit 2015 (with images, tweets) · Storify
- Seattle’s ‘smart city’ thinking should include dogs | Crosscut
- Don’t Say ‘Cyclists,’ Say ‘People on Bikes’ – CityLab
- The Case for a NE 130th Street Station | The Urbanist
- Another bike trail attraction on Cedar River Trail » Biking Bis
- Funding our future: Issaquah secures funding for bike/ped projects | Cascade Bicycle Club
- What the 16-story Broadway Whole Foods development will look like | CHS Capitol Hill Seattle – Too much parking! Good lord, this is First Hill/Capitol Hill we’re talking about.
- Measuring Success on the Urban Villages Strategy, Part 1: What It’s All About | The Urbanist
- Summer Camps registration now open! | Cascade Bicycle Club
- It’s back to the future for Seattle property developer with a golden touch – Puget Sound Business Journal – Again, way too much parking. This is Fremont!
- Driver in Renton crash that paralyzed teen charged 8 months later | www.kirotv.com
Halftime show!
With all the talk of Vision Zero, it’s worth revisiting this WSDOT video asking a bunch of Washingtonians how many traffic deaths we should accept in our state:
National & Global News
- Pedestrian killed in Wellston faced familiar hazards | STL Today – Terrible. I read the original story about her dangerous walk to work when it came out because it is near my parents’ house in St. Louis. She deserved better from her city and her streets.
- Lack of exercise accounts for twice the deaths as obesity, study finds | OregonLive.com
- Seattle’s Second Avenue should inspire Commonwealth Avenue plans – The Boston Globe
- Are Divvy Riders Safer Than Other Cyclists? Data Says Yes – DNAinfo.com Chicago
- Cycling advocate Lisa Nutter is right on track – USA Cycling
- Bob Simon of ’60 Minutes’ killed in car crash in New York – LA Times
- 3D Printed Bike Snaps in Half During Carleton University Press Conference to Show it Off – 3DPrint.com
- St. Louis Stunner Runs Away With the Vote for America’s Sorriest Bus Stop | Streetsblog USA – My hometown, again. Someone needs to save St. Louis County transportation. This is embarrassing.
- Are bicycle freeways the way cycling should be headed? | The Urbanist
- Defend Federal Funding for Trails! – Rails-to-Trails Conservancy
- How San Luis Obispo Established the Most Powerful Bike Funding Policy in the Nation – Alliance for Biking & Walking
- Orange looks to safeguard day cares after Lily Quintus crash – Orlando Sentinel – Wow. Nationally, people driving (or forgetting to properly park) crash cars into buildings “60 [times] a day, causing almost 4,000 injuries and 500 deaths a year.”
- Police: Lance Armstrong hit parked cars, blamed girlfriend | KOMO News – This guy is a real piece of shit.
- In Johannesburg, a New Bridge Must Also Address Apartheid’s Legacy – CityLab
- Obama’s New Transportation Budget: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly | Streetsblog USA
- Koch-Funded Groups: Cut All Federal Funding for Walking, Biking, Transit | Streetsblog USA
- Boris Johnson Commits to a Protected “Cycle Superhighway” Crossing London | Streetsblog USA
- What’s the best way to protect a bikeway? How about a bikeshare station? – Greater Greater Washington
- DOT head challenges mayors on bicycle, walking safety
This is an open thread.
Comments
8 responses to “Bike News Roundup: One way to advertise your bus agency”
The article from Boston about our 2nd Ave project was entertaining: especially the comment section. Lots of responses of the flavor, “Sure it works in Seattle, but Seattle is _______. It would never work here!” – It’s the exact same brand of local exceptionalism that comes out in Seattle any time changes are proposed. Oh the irony…
Busted out laughing at the subheader for Lance Armstrong: “This guy is a real piece of shit.” It’s concise and true, but it just can’t ever be said like that in a traditional news outlet. I love it.
Enough on the bicycle helmet issue being the reason people won’t ride a shared bicycle.
Check this service out: “Scoot!” http://www.scootnetworks.com/ It’s a scooter for rent like a car2go. No one in their right mind would propose a scooter network without a helmet.
Yeah, pretty sure the “helmet” excuse is a lot like the “weather” excuse and “hills” excuse and the “I need my car for x” excuse. It’s an easy target for directing attention away from what is harder to admit, the “I’m lazy” excuse. Which of course doesn’t apply to scooters, the fat person’s motorcycle.
Plus regular exercise has other benefits…
http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2015/02/02/381937503/fight-back-against-parkinsons-exercise-may-be-the-best-therapy
That’s pretty interesting… it appears to cover a more widely useful range than Pronto does, which has as much to do with the differences between San Francisco and Seattle than anything. On the other hand, the way cost of living is in SF it still covers a pretty exclusive area.
But we shouldn’t shy away from the question of whether King County’s all-ages helmet law actually furthers the goals of public safety and health, in light of many successful and surprisingly safe bike-sharing systems with fairly low rates of helmet use. Blaming people’s laziness to dismiss a policy question is itself a lazy thing to do! Policy has to live in the world of how people actually behave, not how we might want them to!
Helmets are incredibly cheap if you want:
http://www.kingcounty.gov/healthservices/health/injury/traffic/%7e/media/health/publichealth/documents/injury/BikeHelmetResources.ashx
So it’s not about cost.
What’s funny is that people who are anti helmet law always seem to say “I always wear one.” “I make my kids wear one.” “It’s dumb not to wear one.” Yet follow with “I don’t want the government telling me what do do.” and “More people would ride a bicycle if they didn’t have to wear a helmet.”
That’s so ridiculous. It makes me think that those new riders, who are as likely as anyone else to crash are somehow expendable. Nevermind if you survive and are permanently disabled you’ll be a ward of the government. Which gives the government a say in why they should care.
There is positively zero point having the same stupid helmet law debates again. These arguments didn’t turn the debate last time, they won’t turn them this time, either.
If Scoot has something to say (it might!) about helmet requirements and adoption, finding what it is will take some deeper analysis, not a glib pronouncement of others’ laziness.