The Monday Roundup: Wi-fi bike share, safe driving, making parking pay, and more

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Happy New Year everyone! After a good and long break I am back and ready for action. There’s a lot of catching up to do, but let’s start with a few good links you might have missed over the holidays…

Here’s how to not kill people: This would have been a good safety primer to share with auto-centric family members over the holidays. Better late than never!

Wi-fi bike share: Vancouver’s Mobi bike share system has a new injection of cash — and free wi-fi — thanks to a sponsorship deal with telecommunications company Shaw.

Widening freeways doesn’t help: The freeway widening debate will be strong in the Portland region this year so let’s bookmark this cautionary tale from Los Angeles where they just threw $1.6 billion down the toilet.

“Impairment starts with the first drink”: The state of Utah is considering dropping the legal limit for drunk driving to .05, which would make just a few drinks of alcohol grounds for a violation.

Speed over safety: Michigan is the latest state where lawmakers think it’s no big deal to raise highway speed limits — despite the fact that higher speeds will lead to more fatal crashes.

How to build raised bikeways: As Portland’s road agency continues to experiment with raised bike lanes (like on NE Couch), we can learn something from this thorough analysis of the treatment in San Francisco.

Perspective training: Over 1,500 truck drivers from a London company took a full-day cycling class to learn how it feels to bike near large vehicles.

Makin’ bikeways in Macon: A city in Georgia installed a large temporary “pop-up bike network” made up of several different types of bikeways. It should be no surprise that people felt safest on protected cycle tracks.

Fame for tactical urbanism: Pop-up bikeways and other guerrilla tactics for safer streets are becoming more common. Case in point: A mainstream article about them on Wired.com.

DIY traffic calming hero: A woman in San Antonio was so fed up with speeding on her street she used her own body as a traffic calming device — and got a ticket for doing so.

Uber’s real-life R&D lab: Uber is so eager to use self-driving cars in San Francisco that they are putting human lives at risk during their beta testing phase.

Make parking pay: Portland has been on a roll with parking policy recently so here’s some inspiration from the UK: Their new parking tax is used to fund public transit.

Musk’s revolution: He’s a car guy so we’re skeptical of his motives, but Elon Musk says some important things about what it will take to overthrow the fossil fuel industry (hint: nothing short of a revolution).

Thanks to everyone for sending in links. Knowledge is power.

— Jonathan Maus, (503) 706-8804 – jonathan@bikeportland.org

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