The Monday Roundup: Distracting dashboards, no more signals, straight talk from L.A., and more

This week’s Monday Roundup is brought to you by Chris King Precision Components who would like to invite you to their upcoming Open House and Builder’s Showcase this Saturday, October 14th.

Welcome to the week. I had a wonderful time exploring Paris, the French countryside, and Amsterdam over the past few weeks (photos and thoughts coming soon!). It looks like the site was in great hands while I was away. Let’s hear it for guest editor Michael Andersen, comment moderator Ted Timmons, and contributors Steph Routh, Kate Johnson, Leah Benson (on Instagram), Kiel Johnson, and James Buckroyd.

Here are the a few stories from the past week that are worth your attention:

Truck used as a weapon: Authorities are looking for a man who appeared to purposely hit a group of bicycle riders with his truck during an organized bike ride in Marin, California over the weekend.

Cargo bike sizes: Cargobike Magazine did an overview (literally) of the box dimensions of many popular models.

Screen time: Surprise, surprise! Those big “infotainment” screens that dominate many new car dashboards distract vehicle operators, so says a new study by the AAA.

Road death uptick continues: NHTSA released their 2016 fatal crash data and the numbers are not good.

Bike share free with transit pass: The city of Pittsburgh now offers free use of their bike share system to anyone with a transit pass.

Silly planners, signals are for car users: In Amsterdam, traffic lights at intersections often do more harm than good, so city officials are starting to remove them in order to improve the flow of all vehicles (especially bikes).

Outdoor bike “chop shops” banned: San Francisco has passed a city ordinance prohibiting “chop shops” operated on city streets. The new law will be enforced by the public works department, not by the police, because some people feared criminalization of homeless people.

BikeWoke.com: A woman who was sued by the driver who hit her from behind has launched a new website that’s an exhaustive resource on what to do if/when you suffer a similar fate.

The inconvient truth: The LA Times Editorial Board tells it like it is with this piece on what it takes to have a meaningful impact on climate change. In short, cities must make driving more expensive and less convenient. Everything else is window dressing.

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

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The post The Monday Roundup: Distracting dashboards, no more signals, straight talk from L.A., and more appeared first on BikePortland.org.

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