The Monday Roundup: Portland’s ‘transit God’, fighting against coal, boondoggle field guide, and more

Welcome to Monday! We’ve got lots of fun and important stories to share this week. But lets not forget where we came from.

Here are the best bits of news and bike-related reporting we came across last week…

Elevating women and people of color: Meet Gritchelle Fallesgon, one of the founders of Friends on Bikes, in this short but sweet Q & A she did with the adventure riding enthusiasts at Our Mother the Mountain.

Highway boondoggle detection guide: This “anatomy of a highway boondoggle” should be required reading for every elected official and policymaker in America. Please stop wasting our money. Thanks.

Earth Day of remembrance: Portland economist Joe Cortright reminds us that we came from proud legacy of smart transportation decisions — and now is not the time to kneel down to the all-mighty freeway lobby.

Meanwhile in New York State: NY’s Governor has announced he’ll spend $112 million in federal funding on 81 projects that will make biking and walking better.

Another manifestion of car cultural bias: Ben Fried from Streetsblog NYC is doing great work reporting on a common issue with police officials nationwide: The tendency to misrepresent traffic crashes in a way that unfairly absolves the person operation the motorized vehicle.

A transit “God”: Hagiography aside, it’s nice to see planning consultant and Portland resident Jarrett Walker get credit for “the American Bus Renaissance”. A win for Jarrett, is a win for us all.

Latest on Trumpfrastructure: The Trump administration has made some staffing changes aimed at development of a transportation infrastructure plan.

Carless in Seattle: Of the 7,000 employees in Seattle’s Central Business District, just a scant 15.9 percent drive a car alone to work during the morning rush.

Say no to coal: The effort to stop people from the abhorrent practice of “rolling coal” continues as a Colorado lawmaker tries to pass a $100 fine on offenders.

Girls’ attitudes toward biking: The latest findings from Portland State researcher Jennifer Dill might help explain why women end up riding less than men later in life.

Cheap and easy enforcement: Get on the bus. That’s what police in Quebec are doing to catch people who use phones while driving.

Rubbing it in our face: As this Streetfilms video shows, there are now enough miles of protected bike lanes in New York City that you can ride in a relatively low-stress environment through commercial streets (not backstreets like our neighborhood greenways!) for up to 25 miles at a time.

Bike more, live longer: BREAKING: A major study has found a miracle drug to battle cancer and heart disease. It’s calling bicycling and walking it’s available without prescription.

There goes the neighborhood: The Guardian takes up the topic of whether or not bicycle infrastructure is the cause of — or the result of — gentrification.

What could possibly go wrong?: The Portland Tribune reports that a huge influx of funding for ODOT highway projects won’t be coupled with more staff and that could mean project quality and oversight will fall through the cracks.

Thank you to all our readers and friends on social media who shared suggestions.

— Jonathan Maus: (503) 706-8804, @jonathan_maus on Twitter and jonathan@bikeportland.org

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The post The Monday Roundup: Portland’s ‘transit God’, fighting against coal, boondoggle field guide, and more appeared first on BikePortland.org.

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