The Monday Roundup: SUVs for crowd control, oppressive interstates, Paris election, and more

Here are the most noteworthy stories we came across in the past seven days…

SUV as crowd control weapon: This time it was in Detroit where a police SUV was surrounded by protestors and then the officer at the wheel decided to floor it and ram through them. Several people were seriously injured.

Nothing to see here: The NYPD looked into a case of officers driving into protestors last week and found that they did not violate use of force policies.

Traffic is back: Our wonderful flirtation with quieter, calmer streets is all but over as driving volumes are pretty much back to pre-Covid levels.

Sporting TDM: Mr. Donald “High Cost of Free Parking” Shoup argues that all major sporting events should come with free transit passes in order to cut down on driving trips.

Oppressive interstates: Portland knows this story very well, but it’s L.A.’s freeways that got major attention this past week for being “insidious monuments to racism and segregation.” (And PBOT and ODOT want to double-down on this racist history in the Rose Quarter.)

Bike touring amid Covid: The LA Times says bike touring could be the hot ticket this summer for people who fear the virus but still want to hit the open road.

Case closed: A year after Robyn Hightman was killed while bicycling in New York City, Bicycling’s Peter Flax takes a deep dive into the troubling police investigation that blames them for their death.

This is how you do it: A suburban city just beyond the Oakland/SF area is getting rave reviews for its Dutch-style protected intersection.

Transportation is a racism issue: Solid overview from Politico opinion writer about how transportation in America is so closely tied to the fight for racial justice and how the current infrastructure bill being debated on Capitol Hill could help set us on a new path.

Cycling and socialism are popular: Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo has unabashedly ran on a platform of transforming streets into cycleways and fighting climate change and she just won re-election.

— Jonathan Maus: (503) 706-8804, @jonathan_maus on Twitter and This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
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