It’s time for the Bike News Roundup! Here’s a collection of some stuff floating around the web recently. You may find some good stuff here that fell through the cracks during the holidays.
First up, The Pedal-Powered Talk Show visited Seattle, and hosts Boaz Frankel and Phillip Ross claim to be the first people to ever ride a cargo bike at the top of the Space Needle (in three parts):
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Pacific Northwest News
- What’s Better Than A Lid? Remove I-5 Entirely From Central Seattle » The Urbanist
- Let’s make every day Bicycle Sunday in the heart of Seattle | The Seattle Times
- Pearl Jam donates $25K to the Ferry County Rail-Trail | KREM.com
- But I’m probably wrong…: Trail-Oriented Development on the ERC?
- Put down that phone! Washington lawmakers seek crackdown on distracted driving | The Seattle Times
- UW light rail station fuels bike theft | News | dailyuw.com
- Ban McMansions, Legalize Rowhouses » The Urbanist
- Welcome Pedal Washington | Cascade Bicycle Club – The longstanding monthly Cascade Courier newsletter is becoming a quarterly magazine with a statewide view.
- Bicycle Tree at Snohomish (1890-1927) — A Slideshow – HistoryLink.org – Before the famous California redwood you can drive through (RIP), there was the cedar near Snohomish that you could bike through.
- Cyclist killed in collision with driver on U.S. 2 | The Spokesman-Review
- County, cities given nearly $15M for roads projects | HeraldNet.com – How many of these projects could include safety upgrades?
- Projects aim to boost Columbia County, region’s economy | Business | union-bulletin.com
- Farewell (for now)! 10 Years of Carfreedays (Video Recap) | Car Free Days – The Car Free Days archive remains a great resource for young biking families. Thanks, Anne, Tim and family!
- Beyond the Curb: SDOT and UW Work to Streamline Freight Delivery Downtown
- Biking and walking advocates testify at inclusionary housing hearing – BikePortland.org
- The Status Quo Needs an Environmental Review | Seattle Transit Blog
- As King County becomes more diverse, Seattle defies trend | The Seattle Times
- Our Suburban City | Seattle Transit Blog
- UPS Follows Freewheel – Freewheel Cargo
- Vancouver Bike Share Picks Up Speed with Sponsorship | Momentum Mag
- Navigating an ever-changing Seattle while blind: ‘Every week is a new beginning’ | The Seattle Times – Why “all ages and abilities” is such a vital design guideline. Seattle fails its visually-impaired residents and visitors constantly.
Halftime Show! Sorry to break it to you, but electric cars are not as green as you think. Your neighbors’ lungs may appreciate the reduction in localized emissions, but don’t fool yourself into thinking an electric car is good for the environment.
National & Global News
- Study shows that driving drowsy is as dangerous as driving drunk : TreeHugger
- Reflections from The Untokening – California Bicycle Coalition
- Buffalo Becomes First Major U.S. City to Eliminate Parking Minimums – Streetsblog USA
- Side-street bikeways are great – if you have protected bike lanes too | PeopleForBikes
- Living near heavy traffic increases risk of dementia, say scientists | Society | The Guardian
- What Planning Jargon Do You Want to See Disappear? – Next City
- More States Are Looting Federal Funds for Walking and Biking – Streetsblog USA
- Study: D.C. Bike-Share Cut Neighborhood Congestion 4 Percent – Streetsblog USA
- Driving Isn’t Rising (Quite) as Fast as We Thought | Frontier Group
- Microcosm’s Spring: Fix Your Clothes, Guts, and Community by Microcosm Publishing — Kickstarter
- Mayor Camerna Confirms Madrid’s Plans For a Car-Free Gran Via – CityLab
- Colorado Springs terminating disputed bike lane project | Colorado Springs Gazette, News
- Saferails: A great idea to help cyclists and streetcars share the road more safely : TreeHugger
- Britain’s Transport Secretary Doors Cyclist, As Seen In Video : The Two-Way : NPR
- Baltimore just got bikeshare, and lots of its bikes are electric – Greater Greater Washington – Same bike share company Seattle picked. Who wants to take a field trip to Baltimore? You pay for our flights and hotel rooms, but the coffee’s on me :-)
- New transportation boss says car is no longer king | Toronto Star – Barbara Gray was a pickup from SDOT.
- Missouri’s Katy Trail becomes nation’s longest; Washington’s John Wayne Pioneer Trail falls to No. 2 » Biking Bis – And as backwards as the Missouri state government can be, they aren’t trying to give big sections of the Katy Trail to nearby landowners like some legislators tried in Washington.
This is an open thread.
Comments
3 responses to “Bike News Roundup: The first cargo bike ride at the top of the Space Needle?”
Anecdotally, I have yet to notice any impact on arterial speeds since the lowering of the default arterial speed limit to 25. One of the talking points about this effort was that we shouldn’t really expect speeds to drop, but that road design could change to reflect the lower limits, or that new traffic calming measures could be put in place if 85th percentile speeds didn’t change (or something along those lines).
What’s the next step here? Is SDOT planning to conduct a pre- and post-change analysis for specific arterials?
Every day, I cross Green Lake Way N. We all know this street sucks. It’s not differently signed, so the speed limit should now be 25 mph. My guess is that the 85th percentile speed is close to 37 or 38 mph. In the past, I’ve been in touch with SDOT about some kind of traffic calming here, or installing a treatment to allow people to walk or bicycle across the street safely somewhere between the Aurora interchange and Stone Way. The response I’ve received is that the data don’t support that the street design is unsafe, so no action will be taken. How do we convince SDOT to start collecting new data?
Technically, nothing, not even bikes are “green”. What electric cars trade off are centralized sources of pollution (factories, rare earth mines and power plants) for zero pollution from use of the car.
ICE cars have less of a pollution hit during production, but are far worse for usage, due to oil extraction, oil transportation, oil->gas refining, gas distribution and finally combustion.
So electric cars are not as “green” as one might think, but I think they are way more green than ICEs and our planet will be better off with the inevitable shift towards electric cars. Cleaning up the manufacturing process will happen as more electric cars are adopted.
Matthew: I understand that only arterials in the downtown core have had their speed limits changed. Here’s a link to a map of those streets:
http://www.seattlebikeblog.com/2016/11/07/today-seattle-speed-limits-dropped-to-25-downtown-20-on-every-minor-street/arterial-speed-limit-change-map/
But even there, I’ve noticed no real change. For example, few (if any) cars reduce their speed going under I5 on westbound Dearborn, although a 25 mph sign is up. Likewise on Alaskan Way north of the viaduct: the only thing slowing drivers down is heavy afternoon traffic. Similarly, on non-arterial streets, drivers continue to drive as fast as they can get away with, generally ignoring the new 20 mph limits (if they’re even aware of them). Can’t say I expected anything else.