New York City - Cyclists in New York City (and everywhere really) are using their cameras to film what goes on on the streets. Although, almost no one is actually using film (I guess I should say record) and it isn't just cyclists. And it isn't just on the road. Also, CNN gets in on the bikelash story, albeit a bit a late.
Minnesota - A guy bought a Huffy bike at a Target, attached a motor to it and then when his friend was riding it, the front fender caught on the wheel causing him to crash. It does sound like the fender was the problem, not the motor, but the courts still have to decide. Also, Huffy is bankrupt, which I did not know.
Oregon - An Oregon doctor is making house calls via bicycle. "Callahan said the impression he makes when he shows up on a bike helps establish rapport with the chronically ill and disabled people he cares for" Perhaps he should change his practice to deal with all the cyclists being attacked by birds."Riders in Pendleton, Ore., told the East Oregonian that a male hawk is dive-bombing them because they're too close to a nest he's guarding in an old cottonwood tree."
Joint Base Lewis-McChord, WA - The Army is promoting bike commuting, not a bad idea for an employer who requires regular physical fitness tests.
United States - "The thing is that it's not really that hard to ride a bike in heels" And according to the poll at the time of this writing - it's chic. What about riding in beat-up cargo shorts I bought 5 years ago at Old Navy and a sweaty gimme T-shirt (or as Mrs. Washcycle calls it my "uniform")? Is that chic yet?. Also, noseless saddles for your perineum. “When you sit on a regular bike saddle, you’re sitting on your penis.”
Europe - The NY Times' Dr. Elisabeth Rosenthal is a bit out of her element (medicine and China) on this article about Europe's pro-clean transportation policies, which she equates with a war on driving.
The methods vary, but the mission is clear — to make car use expensive and just plain miserable enough to tilt drivers toward more environmentally friendly modes of transportation.
She goes on to accuse traffic engineers of 'tormenting" drivers and being hostile to cars. But she never actually finds anyone saying that this is the goal (making people miserable when driving so they will instead switch to something else). Instead what officials say in her article is that they'd like people to drive less and own fewer cars and to do that they are primarily trying to make walking, biking and transit better. That it makes driving worse is usually a byproduct. She even notes that people refer to Munich as a "walker's paradise", but not a "driver's Hell".
As examples she cites places where some streets are closed to car traffic, "car lanes" losing space for bike sharing, removing pedestrian tunnels, giving trams light priority and limiting driving speeds. That each of these things is primarily designed to promote walking, biking and transit is secondary to the secondary in her mind to the impact of slowing down drivers. And the safety benefits of slowing down drivers is secondary to the real, unstated goal of making drivers miserable.
One rule she mentions is a rule limiting clean cars only in certain parts of towns. So allowing drivers to behave as normal as long as they have a clean car is inducing misery?
The only things that come close are congestion zones and parking limits, but even these items aren't about misery but rather pricing congestion.
She almost backs up her point is this
As he stood watching a few cars inch through a mass of bicycles and pedestrians, the city’s chief traffic planner, Andy Fellmann, smiled. “Driving is a stop-and-go experience,” he said. “That’s what we like! Our goal is to reconquer public space for pedestrians, not to make it easy for drivers.”
that is, until the last line when he states what their actual goal is, and it isn't to make driving miserable.
It often takes extreme measures to get people out of their cars, and providing good public transportation is a crucial first step.
Yes, that does sound like the first step is all about making driving miserable. Oh wait, no it isn't.
Kitakyushu City, Japan - the city has electric-bike sharing.
The birds attacking helmets in Oregon sounds like the Magpies in Australia that were attacking helmets. I saw a video of some university project where they rode past the same spot with helmet and without. The helmetless rider was not attacked.
The birds may not fear the rider, they fear the helmet.
Posted by: tom | July 03, 2011 at 08:18 AM
NYT on the Europe transit again makes it seem obvious that editors think they can rack up controversy and eyeballs by distorting the headlines and the ledes. So instead of straight forward explanatory reporting, they have to try to stir up conflict artificially. It's worse than old fashioned sensationalism, in the sense that its goal isn't to artificially outrage, but rather to create artificial conflict, and, at worse, hatred. Journalism at its (not) best.
Posted by: Greenbelt | July 03, 2011 at 11:26 AM