London’s success, Pee Wee’s bike, and more – BikePortland

Happy Monday everyone. I’ve removed the special notice from the site about my knee surgery recovery. I’m 24 days or so post-operation and feeling better every day. Still can’t bike around or cover events yet, but I hope that’s coming soon. For now I’m still only able to work from home, but I can work almost normal hours — except for getting to PT appointments and getting my leg up very once in a while. Thanks for your patience and support!

Here are the most notable stories that came across my desk in the past week…

Concerts and carbon: A study found that 80% of concertgoers arrived by private vehicle, but that only 60% wanted to. Learn about the latest thinking from major artists and promoters about how to make concert transportation greener. (Rolling Stone)

Boston bike troubles: Looks like the honeymoon is over for Boston’s cycling-friendly mayor as advocates feel progress has slowed — and even reversed — as the east coast city has similar challenges to Portland. (NBC Boston)

London did it: People on bikes now make up 56% of all traffic in downtown London during peak commute hours and the city has seen a 50% increase in ridership since 2022. (BBC)

Trucker bribery scheme: An investigative journalist uncovered wads of cash tied to peoples’ names and learned that trucking companies in Oregon and Washington were paying CDL training services to pass their drivers. This has created a huge safety risk. (The Oregonian)

$125,000 for Pee Wee’s bike: Given how iconic the movie is and the huge role his bike played in it, I honestly thought it would be worth way more than $125K. (TMZ)

Good distracted driving news: European regulators are helping push a very good trend — the return of analog buttons and dials to car dashboards. Overly digital displays are extremely unsafe and apps like Apple Carplay pose huge distracted driving hazards. (Wired)

Vehicular cyclists won’t go away: It’s truly exhausting how some veteran U.S. cyclists are preventing our country from leaving the dark ages of cycling infrastructure because their egos and self-oriented perspective cannot fathom that by advocating soley for their own interests they are needlessly hurting others. A protected bike lane debate in the southern California coastal town of Encinitas lays out this debate. (The Coast News Group)

Harsh crackdown: I can’t help but think this new policy of writing criminal citations for bicycle riders (instead of traffic citations) isn’t tied to Mayor Eric Adams’ embattled reputation among progressives. Or maybe it’s just typical NYPD being out of touch bike haters. (Streetsblog NYC)

America, welcome to the War on Cars: Rising prices in every aspect of car ownership have led to an over 13% decrease in the number of Americans who expect to buy a car in the next six months. (Newsweek)

Video of the Week: The delightful duo of Rimski and Handkerchief on their bassicle and bicycle piano playing music as they pedal to a gig. (Thanks to reader John B for sharing this!)

Thanks to everyone who sent in links this week. The Monday Roundup is a community effort, so please feel free to send us any great stories you come across.