Bike News: Portland bike counter goes live; remembering Mike Wang; running red lights; and more
* Bicycle counter to go live this week on Portland’s Hawthorne Bridge. Installation of Seattle's bike counter had been planned for July, but has met with delays. We can report that the counter is in Seattle. Expect news on it shortly.
* A London cyclist was killed after being struck by an Olympic bus last week. Following the news of the cyclist’s death, UK gold medalist Bradley Wiggins started some debate regarding bicycle helmets. Wiggins believes riding without an helmet should be made illegal, "because ultimately, if you get knocked off and you ain't got a helmet on, then how can you kind of argue".
* Doug Palm and Jamie Cheney remember Mike Wang by rethinking how we behave on roads. A year ago, Mike Wang was killed as he bicycled home from work in Seattle. Palm and Cheney state more is needed to make the roads safer.
* West Thomas Street Pedestrian and Bicycle Overpass Project has been delayed yet again. Slated for a May 2012 opening, the project has been delayed due to trouble acquiring materials. The new anticipated opening is in late August or early September.
* Bob Mionske pens about bike-on-bike collisions in Bicycling Magazine. In his recent post, Mionske explores how an increasing number of bikes on the road affect other cyclists, and who’s at fault in a bike-on-bike collision.
* Seattle’s Craig Etheridge has again been crowned the top bike messenger in the world. Etheridge competed in the Cycle Messenger World Championship in Chicago this past weekend and claimed his second title.
* Milton, Washington, located 28 miles south of Seattle, recently repealed its bicycle helmet law. Portland never had a bike helmet law to begin with, nor did Paris, Amsterdam, and Rome. Anne Larking at Seattle Met magazine looks at the No Helmet Law and whether it would work in Seattle.
* Jonathan Maus of Bike Portland reports that the City of Portland is taken a big stride forward by looking beyond auto-centric 'level of service' standards.
* Thigh-Popping success on a bike lies in the quads, says New York Times.
* Following attacks on women, Brooklyn Bike Patrol volunteers provide safe escorts home from subway stations.
* Randy Cohen penned an interesting New York Times Op-Ed titled “If Kant Were a New York Cyclist”, in which he makes an ethical defense of running red lights on his bicycle.
* Felix Salmon at Reuters responded to Cohen’s Op-Ed with a post on his own about why it’s not OK for cyclists to run red lights.
* Neil Bezdek of Bicycling Magazine describes the five stages of grief following a bicycle crash.
* New study the market for electric bikes in the US will triple in the next six years.
* Barb Chamberlain, new Executive Director at the Bicycle Alliance of Washington, moved to Seattle last week and wrote about her first impressions of biking in Seattle.
* Biker's Ed Class debuts in NYC for cycling scofflaws. As a penalty for certain offenses, a new sentencing option sends New York City's cycling scofflaws to a remedial class to learn about bicycles and traffic, reports J. David Goodman. Of the 30 students initially entered in the class, the most common infractions were riding on the sidewalk and not using the bicycle lane.
* “Be Predictable” campaign encourages bikes and buses to safely share the road. You may have seen the green and white banners on the sides of Metro buses encouraging commuetrs to “be predictable” in order to safely share the road. The ads, which have been running on the sides of 30 buses running throughout the central business district since May, are part of a larger Share the Road campaign created by a new Bicycle/Bus Education & Safety Team and sponsored by King County Metro, Cascade Bicycle Club, and the Bicycle Alliance of Washington.
* Cyclist robbed at gunpoint on Beacon Hill in Seattle.
* Sign a petition to ask Governor Gregoire for Fair Share for Walk, Bike, Transit.
* Gear: Hiplok, a wearable bike lock.
* Something funny:
Share this post
