Kenneth C. Martin Blogs: The Monday Roundup: Houston has a problem, old maps, scooter laws, and more

Monday, September 10, 2018

The Monday Roundup: Houston has a problem, old maps, scooter laws, and more

Welcome to another Monday in paradise.

This week’s Roundup is sponsored by Efficient Velo Tools: 40,000 users agree – the Safe Zone Helmet Mirror can’t be beat for riding safety. Support a Portland business and try a Safe Zone!

Here are the most noteworthy items that came across our desk in the past seven days…

Scooter safety: A widely-shared Washington Post story chronicles a major increase in ER visits from people riding scooters.

Scooter law: A law under consideration in California would lift the helmet requirement for scooter riders and treat the vehicles more like bicycles, legally-speaking.

Re-thinking helmets: “Give kids bikes, not helmets,” is the sub-headline for Bike Snob’s latest piece in Outside. He says helmet giveaways are an, “act of surrender.”

Scooter future: Here’s what Los Angeles Councilmember Joe Buscaino tweeted after he voted to expand that cities e-scooter program: “The future is here. Los Angeles must create citywide multimodal infrastructure to reduce traffic, link people to public transit, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.”

Driving is a privilege: An Oregon man who has repeatedly broken speed limit laws in violation of terms of his probation after he killed someone with his car is finally going to prison for over a year. But guess what? He’ll still get his license back and could drive again.

Making up is easy to do: Peter Sagan, the world’s most popular road racer, exchanged gifts with the driver of a motorcycle who collided with him in a major 2015 race.

Safe routes for everyone: The Safe Routes to School National Partnership has published a new guide for how to work with students who have disabilities to make sure they can participate in walk and bike to school programs.

Minneapolis’ future: In their bid to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and slash driving trips by 37 percent, Minneapolis has discovered the value of 20-minute neighborhoods.

War on speed: Seems every week we share a story about lower speed limits as a safe street remedy. This time it’s a city in New Zealand putting forward a major speed limit reduction plan after a spike in road deaths.

Chronicle of dangerous driving: Houston has the most deadly streets in America and the Houston Chronicle has a great series of stories into the breadth of the problem and what’s being done about it.

Here’s what we mean: Citylab has a great explainer on induced demand that we’ll (unfortunately) be linking to a lot in the future.

Old maps: Our friend Richard Masoner (@cyclelicious) found this very cool USGS historical map site where you can easily view old maps of any city with just a few clicks.

Video of the Week: This fun new video from Portland-based Chrome Industries feature pro skater John Cardiel shredding through town on a Biketown bike: