The San Francisco Chronicle has noticed that some people ride bikes without any funny clothes. I’m happy about this, but at the same time, it’s a little strange that it’s news. Hopefully in another few years, it’ll seem so normal, nobody notices.
Category: linkstream
A running log of all the links/bookmarks I share.
State DOTs may be forced to return millions in bike/ped funding
The Alliance for Biking & Walking is sounding the alarm on another round of crippling rescissions heading for state and local transportation agencies. A rescission is when the Feds say “Hey, you know that money we gave you? We want it back now.” This happened in 2010 as well, and then 44% of the money returned to DC came from bike, pedestrian, and air quality funding streams, even though they together make up only 7% of federal transportation funds. Yet another example of why local transportation should be funded locally, and why as a cyclist or pedestrian, you should evade your federal taxes whenever possible.
NHTSA, AAA join together for National Bike Danger Month
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and AAA have joined together to promote National Bicycles Are Dangerous Month. I don’t understand why the US DoT would think that AAA and the NHTSA have any experience with bicycling. They’re both catastrophically automotive organizations. If anything, they have institutional imperatives to discourage cycling, which is exactly what their so-called safety recommendations do, by portraying bicycling as a dangerous activity, and placing the onus on cyclists to be safer, even though all the 100 daily deaths on US highways are perpetrated by cars.
Upending an Asian Baby Farm
An apparently illegal surrogacy ring has been busted in Thailand. The company, which called itself “Babe 101: Eugenic Surrogate” was using young Vietnamese women for both gestation and egg donation, and seems to have been aiming primarily at the Asian market, charging $32,000 for a baby with the gender and ethnic background of your choice. They were also explicitly targeting women who didn’t want to give birth for cosmetic or convenience reasons. The surrogates were not allowed to leave the (relatively comfortable) compound unaccompanied, and had their passports and money were confiscated and held by management. This is the kind of place where human germ-line engineering will start in a few years.
Bike Transport in Switzerland and Austria
A pleasantly surprised American cyclist commenting on bike infrastructure in Switzerland and Austria, in particular Basel and Innsbruck, two European cities that aren’t particularly big (166k and 120k respectively), and which do have some weather and topography, not so different from Boulder. Basel’s bike mode share is 17%, about double Boulder’s, and their bike infrastructure is fantastic. If we get another 9% of our trips by bike, can we have that too please? Or maybe the causality is the other way around.
Secret memos expose link between oil firms and invasion of Iraq
Secret memos expose link between oil firms and invasion of Iraq. I don’t know who could possibly be surprised by this, but it’s both nice and horrible to have unequivocal confirmation. Goes a long way toward normalizing Donald Trump’s plan to steal (at least) $1.5 trillion worth of Iraqi oil if he’s elected president. Trump-Palin 2012! Apocalypse please.
The Sperm Bike in Copenhagen
The Sperm Bike in Copenhagen has to be seen to be believed. It’s a cryogenic dewar, on a long-john style cargo bike, shaped like a giant spermatozoon, used for transporting semen samples from donors to fertility banks around town. No, really, it is! How long until we get one of these in Boulder?
Ten Boulder/Denver Transportation Issues for the Next 10 Years
Bite-sized summaries of ten regional transportation issues, including using Bcycle as a last-mile transit solution, the bazillion-dollar freeway boondoggles in progress, $5 gasoline, FasTracks finances, Boulder-Denver BRT and more. Would be nice if they had links to deeper information… but that’s what The Google is for.
Bike Helmets Not Warranted
A concise explanation from Urban Country on why bike helmets really aren’t warranted. First, cycling just isn’t that dangerous, and we do most safe things without a helmet. Second, strongly promoting or legally requiring them discourages cycling in general, and fewer bikes on the road is less safe for cyclists, less healthy for society, more expensive in terms of infrastructure, pollution, etc. Third, bike helmets aren’t really designed to deal with serious accidents — the ones that kill or maim you. And fourth, focusing the blame for what danger does exist for cyclists on the cyclists themselves, distracts from the real bicycle safety issue, which is cars.
Energy and Equity – Ivan Illich
Energy and Equity is an essay from the energy crisis of the 1970s. It’s got a socialist bent, but I don’t think that’s actually vital to the point being made. As the speeds at which we travel and the distances traversed have increased, the cost of that transportation as a fraction of personal income has also gone up. Going further faster isn’t really an improvement, if one has to work longer hours to pay for the privilege. Thoreau made a similar point with respect to trains. Bicycles are a notable exception to this trend. With them you can travel much further and faster, even including the time it takes to earn the bicycle and pay for the infrastructure it requires.