MyWHaT

It’s BLOG action day for water. I want to take part, but with little time my original idea for a post will have to wait. Instead, let me just quote a good friend who says this every chance she has: stop pooping in your water!

That includes the shit water pollution that flows into storm drains. In fact, street runoff is the biggest source of water pollution in our cities.

Traverse City’s Watershed Center deserves a shout out & support for all their good work on that issue~give them money.

Reminder, it’s Bioneers Weekend. See you at NMC and/or follow the inspiration from all Bioneers conferences, including Traverse City, at #bioneers. MyWHaT workshop on Sunday.

Now, The Weekly Chatter:

• Holy skatepark! Jiangwan City, near Shanghai devotes 45,000 sq feet to baggy pant skaters.

• Nov. 2 Election is near…not sure how to take candidate Snyder’s swipe at a bike/ped bridge. LMB is on it.

• Urban Psychology: where our personalities lead us. Or, shape us. 
  

  Boo!

• It’s been said before, and now said again, safety in numbers. It’s exactly why bicycle infrastructure makes for excellent traffic calming (PDF).

• And related: although the hard-hat is a good idea, Helmet laws reduce bicycle use. (No big fear of that in MI, I think).

• 8 good reasons not to hate Google’s robot car.

• Detroit News explores campus car-share concept, even better, campus peer to peer sharing.

• Exploring Michigan’s dirt roads in Washtenaw, CO

• We all know that we don’t walk much in the U.S.A. But numbers this low!!!

• Nice use of the term Induced Demand Theory to counter anger motorist perplexed by bike lane funding. Induced Demand? Basically, you can never build enough capacity for cars. Elsewhere, another spot on letter to editor: people on bikes have a right to the road.

• Wired How-to-Wiki explains why and how bikes belong to people in cars.

Twitterville

• Ironic story pairing of the day: Google working on “driverless” cars. Daimler recalls 85K cars over power steering. (@lutzfernandez)
• Think bicycles are dangerous? 1 in 55 Americans will die in a car crash(@chrisbaskind)
• NIMBYs rallying next Thursday to call on the city to remove the PPW #bikenyc lane via @effedparkslope.  (@Naparstek) (The spirit of the site really fit my current mood).

To wrap:

Improv Everywhere’s latest gets over 3,000 participants. There use of public space to inspire curiosity in people’s everyday routines is some of the best civic action out there. What a service! Watch it through to the surprise party.

Have a Bioneers Weekend!