Kenneth C. Martin Blogs: The Monday Roundup: Bright lights, a dream IKEA, chop shops, and more

Monday, April 2, 2018

The Monday Roundup: Bright lights, a dream IKEA, chop shops, and more

This week’s Monday Roundup is sponsored by the Safe Zone Helmet Mirror ~ Scan for hazards of all types with the Safe Zone Helmet Mirror, made by Portland’s Efficient Velo Tools.

Welcome to April.

Here are the best stories we came across last week…

Too bright: If drivers are being blinded by the super-bright headlights in some new cars, imagine what they do to bicycle riders.

It’s the parking, stupid: Writing for The Market Urbanism Report, Portland’s very own Tony Jordan gives a clear explanation on how our city’s auto parking policies have impacted the creation of new affordable housing.

Future of parking garages: Since private cars in cities are destined for the rubbish heap, we’d be smart to come up with better ways of using all those garages.

Timing is everything: A study from Penn State found that a major reason people don’t bike is because they incorrectly estimate how long it will take to reach their destination.

Scooter regulations: With dockless e-scooters fast approaching, the City of San Francisco says they’ll introduce new regulations to keep them in check.

Tolls 101: Consider this feature article in Governing to be your weekly homework on why congestion pricing is so hot right now as a policy tool.

A lack of will: Hate to say we told you so… But new research shows the biggest barrier to changing the road safety status quo is lack of political courage. How do we change that? Create public urgency through activism that focuses on how unsafe roads are a public health hazard and an economic liability.

Now he sees the light: The governor of Arizona embraced unproven AV technology at first. Now that someone died because it backfired (like many smart people said it would), he suddenly gets tough and rescinds Uber’s right to test in his state. Gee what courage.

An IKEA with no parking? Are you mad?! A new IKEA in Vienna is like a dream: Not only will it eschew auto parking (!!), it will carry only products that are easily portable by foot or cargo bike. Have a feeling this will become a destination for urbanists and planners worldwide once it’s built.

Bikes go first in NYC: Bike riders in the Big Apple will be able to legally go ahead with the green “walk” signal (aka leading pedestrian interval or LPIs) at 50 intersections as part of a pilot to improve safety and bike traffic flow.

Best Twitter bot ever: A new Twitter-based tool called @HowsMyDrivingNY lets people in New York query the license plate of drivers to view their citation history. Can someone start @HowsMyDrivingOr please?

Open-air chop shops: A new law proposed in Toronto aims to deter people who live on the street from “chopping” stolen bikes in public — a problem that plagues Portland as well.

Transportation matters: The next time you see/hear a politician who conveniently ignores the transportation sector in their lofty speeches about climate change — please show them this chart (wherein we learn GHG emissions from transportation have outpaced energy-based emissions for two years running).

DAPL bike tour: Martin Eberlen biked the 1,100 miles of the Dakota Access Pipeline and was able to meet many interesting people along the way.

Vehicle parking shock-and-awe: With all the hue and cry about the “shocking” piles of discarded bike share bikes in China, we couldn’t help but notice that VW is storing 300,000 diesel-engine cars at 37 lots across the country.

Thanks, Trump!: A rollback of EPA rules means that automakers are likely to produce even more toxic, less efficient cars. Which company will step up and adhere to the existing rules? Or better yet, follow even more stringent ones? (**crickets**)

“The community” vs “the cyclists”: Props to Doug at Brooklyn Spoke for writing out this phenomenon we’ve noted in many past project debates here in Portland: The biased perception that “residents” and “those cyclists” are different groups of people.

Video of the Week: Streetfilms looks at how the city of Hoboken improved visibility of intersections by removing parking (this is something Portland activists are pushing for too):