Bike News Roundup: Seattle’s multimodal neighbor

It's time for the Bike News Roundup! Here's a taste of some of the sweet (and not-so-sweet) bike-related and bike-adjacent news floating around recently.

First up: StreetFilms visits Vancouver, BC, giving an overview of how Seattle's neighbor to the north made itself into a truly multimodal city.

Pacific Northwest News

• After investing millions to improve traffic flow, Seattle's 'Mercer Mess' improves by 2 seconds - Puget Sound Business Journal - Of course, increasing job demand (in addition to lots of new parking garages and poor bike/transit access) since the start of the project also contributed. But the larger point is valid: Investing primarily in car movement does not scale well. And once the feeble increase in capacity is full, it's full.
• The Portland Plan: Down with McMansions, Up with Abundant Housing Options | Sightline Institute
• Biking in Downtown Seattle with Kids | Family Ride
• Making Vision Zero Real The Urbanist
• Electric bicycles raise concerns over trail access | KING5.com - I'm not a mountain biking expert, but the best solution here is somewhere in the gray area. We need to protect non-motorized trails from high-power motor bikes (which could make the trails unsafe for other users and erode support for new trails), but some e-assist bike access could safely open these recreational opportunities to more people. Where do you draw the line?
• A Waterfront Stroad is Regrettable, but Losing Transit Priority Would Be Worse | Seattle Transit Blog
• West Seattle Blog" | WEST SEATTLE CRIME WATCH: Bike theft on video
• Car that crashed through Kent apartment had to be lifted off victim | The Seattle Times - Terrible and terrifying. Our condolences to the man killed inside his own home.
• My Ballard Chamber to transition into "Ballard Improvement Area" next year - This change is a good opportunity for the new BIA to take a new stance on the Missing Link and direct some of its new resources towards welcoming trail users to shop at local businesses.
• What to Do When Discounted Transit Is Still Too Expensive - Next City
• Seattle builds lots of new apartments, but not so many parking spots | The Seattle Times - Woohoo! But we can still do better. Most of the city still requires far too much parking.
• Denmark's Largest City Is Winning the War on Cars - Slog - The Stranger
• Move Seattle Wins in ST3 | SDOT Blog
• A new campaign aims to make helmets available for Biketown users - BikePortland.org
• Bus riders step in as driver has fatal heart attack on viaduct | The Seattle Times
• Cycling Is Getting a Lot Safer in American Cities Adding a Lot of Bike Lanes | Streetsblog USA
• Portland Debuts BIKETOWN for All - Community Cycling Center
• Flare Pro - Next Gen Light for Cycling, Hiking, and Running by Orfos - Kickstarter - Seattle-based company's second line of bike lights. Kickstarter includes lots of gratuitous Seattle-area scenes (including inside the Snoqualmie Tunnel).
• Guest Editorial: Now More than Ever, Seattle Must Welcome Upzones - Slog - The Stranger
• Remembering Those Lost To Traffic Violence The Urbanist
• Best New Restaurants of 2016: Peloton | Restaurant Reviews | Seattle Met - Confirmed: This bike shop has great food. They also have coffee and beer. Basically, you should probably just go live there.
• Sunday Video: Diverging Diamond Interchange Comes To Washington - The Urbanist - The "diverging diamond" works great so long as everybody is inside a car. People walking (and biking on the sidewalk/path)? Well, you're technically accommodated, but you'll have to cross double the number of intersections. This is all so people turning don't have to wait for you. See also this video (includes a solid Star Wars reference). The status quo for nearly all highway interchanges is terrible for people walking and biking. But this is not the solution.
• Architects Are Designing Parking Garages That Can Convert Into Housing | WIRED
• Using Uber, Lyft in Seattle? You'll wait longer if you're black, study finds | The Seattle Times
• Amtrak rolls out train-side check-in for bicycles on its L.A.-Seattle route - LA Times
• Pierce County, Wash., Transit Deploys System to Help Buses Avoid Collisions with Pedestrians, Bicyclists | GovTech
• West Seattle Blog" | UPDATE: Bicycle rider taken to hospital after 47th/Genesee incident
• What's Next for Seattle Subway | Seattle Transit Blog

Halftime show! SDOT Director went on an AARP-sponsored daytime talk show to discuss Vision Zero.

National & Global News

• America Is Building More Three-Car Garages Than One-Bedroom Apartments - Bloomberg
• Episode 12 - Tamika Butler | The Bicycle Story
• Trailnet pitches plan for connected paths along St. Louis streets | Along for the Ride | stltoday.com
• Thousands of 'Fancy Women on Bikes' defy intimidation to claim the streets of Turkey - Women in the World in Association with The New York Times - WITW
• Nobody injured on Black Friday after car crashes into store | North Jersey - The store literally had high-vis vests for sale in the front window. The irony.
• Truck smashes into Iowa Wal-Mart store killing 3 people | AP - Three people.
• Sadiq Khan to spend 770m on London cycling initiatives | Environment | The Guardian
• Potential pollution exposure reductions from small-distance bicycle lane separations | Science Direct - A often-forgotten benefit of giving bike lanes more space from general traffic.
• Bike Index's November 2016 bike recoveries
• At long last! Join Gov Nixon & MO State Parks Dec 10 for grand opening of 47-mile Rock Island Trail/Katy to KC Connector | Missouri Bicycle and Pedestrian Federation
• Five things about the cycle track pilot project ahead of council decision on its fate | Calgary Herald
• Flexible Roadway Design Key to Safer Streets | Department of Transportation
• An Unlikely Success Story: The Failure of the North Minneapolis Greenway - Strong Towns
• Minneapolis leads bike-friendly cities in cutting bike crash, injury rates | Star Tribune
• Africa's First Bike-Share Just Launched in Morocco - CityLab
• No, Trump Won't Be "Good For Cities"` | The C Is for crank
• Chicago entices cyclists with plan for floating, solar-powered bike path | Guardian Sustainable Business | The Guardian
• Trump Picks Road Industry Lobbyist to Lead Transportation Transition | Streetsblog USA
• It's Time to Steal the Indy Cultural Trail - nextSTL
• Has the ideal low-cost bike lane separator finally been found? | PeopleForBikes
• Angry driver knocks local radio host off his bicycle during charity ride - 10News.com KGTV ABC10 San Diego
• Biggest Spike in Traffic Deaths in 50 Years? Blame Apps - NYTimes.com - That might be oversimplifying things a bit.

This is an open thread.