Weekly aggregator

News of interest

Portland bike counts.  Portland alternative weekly Willamette week   breaks a story about an unexpected decline in Portland bike counts for 2009, with further detail from Bike Portland .  These results are followed by considerable consternation and speculation about the cause.  Are the practical limits of cycling being reached?   Will more bike infrastructure fix it?  Is Portland over biking?

There is an observation in the Bike Portland article that probably explains the entire apparent downturn: “If we take out the anomalously high numbers in 2008 and compare 2009 to 2007’s numbers, we see an increase that maintains the previous upward trends…”   As we see from observing climate trends, long-term changes are not alway monotonic.

And just wait until gas prices go up again.

Commuter dissatisfaction.  The Economist  reports on a survey of international commuting times, along with the percent of respondents who have considered leaving their jobs because of the commute and suggesting that these two are connected.   However, if you rearrange this data so you can actually see the relationship between the two elements, the connection looks pretty weak.  The three countries with high commute dissatisfaction (China, India, South Africa) look more like outliers, implying that there may be something other than commute time per se causing the dissatisfaction.  We need more information for this survey this to provide any insights.

Weekly aggregator

News of interest

Cities promote scooter commuting  From the story: says Dan Williamson, spokesman for Mayor Michael Coleman (Columbus, OH): “It is greener than using a car. Is it better to use a bicycle? Absolutely.”

USA Today says that Bikes are in high gear for holiday gift giving  and they are actually promoting practical bikes!

McCain and Coburn miss the point that bike infrastructure is transportation infrastructure.  The bike blog infrastructure goes into a tizzy, starting at the top, down to LAB, and The Wash Cycle. 

A blog oriented to small business recognizes a trend: Boston Learns How to Bike.

Weekly aggregator

News items of interest.

U.S. highway travel rises as economy recovers

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New Report: Road Funding From Non-Road Users Doubled in 25 Years   Subsidies have increased to about 51% of the cost of operating the interstate system. 

The report does not look at local roads, but they operate almost entirely on taxes that are not linked to road use, like sales and property taxes – little gas tax money filters down to the roads that are used most.

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Sec. LaHood: Gas tax likely to see debate in Congress soon

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I think inter-city passenger rail is the best solution to many problems of long-distance transportation.  There is some hope that we will shift in that direction:

Will Federal Stimulus Money Spark a High-Speed Rail Renaissance in the U.S.? 

Entering the Superproject Void

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This is an interesting article on big-picture issues in transportation.  The basic conclusions are that 1) no matter how rich or poor, people on the average spend the same amount of time traveling (0.75 to 1.6 hours); and 2) as people get richer, they travel farther, using faster (and more energy- and carbon-intensive) modes. 

The article does not even mention bicycles, but it supports what we already know:  biking will never be a significant part of the transportation mix without land use that is dense and mixed so that distances are small.  Even then, affluent people will probably blow their carbon budgets on vacation travel.

My weekly aggregator #2

News items of interest.

Graceful Interchanges, Now Doubling as Civic Sculpture

Okay, this may be art:

… but so is this:

The South sucks if you want to walk:

City Streets a Mortal Threat to Pedestrians

Republicans continue to just say no:

Climate Bill Approved by Senate Committee Over Republican Boycott

Secretary of transportation gives bike commuters strokes:

DOT bike commuters leading by example

My weekly aggregator

Links to stories of interest:

Texting while driving: the new drunk driving

DOT, FCC launch partnership to reduce distracted driving

 Should home prices come with warnings about transportation costs, too?

 Sharrows in Austin

Bikestation opens in DC

The opening of the new Bikestation has made a lot of news in the engineering and transportation worlds, but not much mention in bike media.

Knoxville is getting a new transit station, but I don’t think many of the bike-friendly suggestions for it survived.

Cyclists safer in SD, NE

Interesting story in Rapid City Journal