Another week of Bikenomics news! I’ll try to do this every Wednesday—with the greater goals of getting back into the habit of blogging, and continuing to talk about stuff that has come up since I finished writing the book in July.
(Side note: The book doesn’t come out til December 1st… but it’s been printed! Backers of the Kickstarter project will get their copies in just a couple weeks.) Oh yeah, and the project has a new reward level — back at $99 and you’ll get a book and an phone or skype consultation about how to change your community for the better for bicycling. I hope people nab these, ’cause I can’t wait to talk with you about this.
On to the news:
– The Globe and Mail says your car is “a money pit on wheels” and has some smart talk about appreciating and depreciating assets. Sound financial literacy stuff here.
– Maybe you thought nobody could outdo Dorothy Rabinowitz’s wild-eyed, facts-aside anti-bike share screed? I present to you Delia Ephron, who objects to NYC’s CitiBike system for many reasons, including their color. (Fun fact: The Bikenomics book is also blue, and will hopefully soon blanket the living rooms and coffeeshops of cities like New York. Sorry, Delia.)
– Todd Litman reports that transit is, despite its wild reputation, actually quite safe. You’re less likely to be in a crash on transit than you are in a car; and even better, cities with quality transit systems have considerably less violent crime than cities built around cars.
– One simple way to help more people be able to bike: Give away bicycles. Want to help people who have children bike more? Give away bike trailers. A group in Portland is doing just that, and everyone’s winning.
– One of the most heartbreaking sections of the book to write is about the devastating isolation and immobility that a car-oriented community subjects its elderly residents to. Charles Marohn does the topic even more justice on his blog. Read, weep, get mad, and act.
– It’s not a big topic in the book, but fear is something that comes up a lot in conversations about bicycling. Fear of getting hit by a car is a real barrier to cycling. Here are some thoughts on the subject by a cycling mom who did get hit by a car, which shattered her leg. She found as she recovered, surprisingly, that her bicycle had become the only way she felt safe or comfortable getting around.
I’ll have more to share next week. Feel free to send me links or add ones in the comments In the meantime — please consider backing the book! Thank you all. Note: The Kickstarter project has been fully funded. You can now order the book directly.