News from the States

It's not just in Portland., Oregon, that Americans ride bikes, it seems.

Some statistics:

Chigago: cycle commuting up 200% since 2005.
New York: commuting rate doubled between 2007 and 2011.
San Francisco: bikes make up 66% of inbound traffic on Market Street, a major transit artery.

And in this well-argued piece  in "The Atlantic Cities",  Henry Grabar questions why cyclists get ticketed as if they were motorists.

On balance, cyclists' illegal behavior—like that of pedestrians—adds much, much more convenience to life than danger. Aggressive enforcement of traffic laws could upend the fragile system of incentives that leads thousands of people to undertake a long and sweaty commute each day...Why should people riding 20-pound bicycles obey laws designed to regulate the conduct of 4,000-pound cars, to say nothing of accepting the same penalties? In terms of the damage we can cause and sustain in an accident, cyclists have more in common with pedestrians than cars and should be treated accordingly.