Mikael Colville-Andersen of Copenhagenize created a list of the top 20 bike cities world wide, and the only US city on the list is Minneapolis at number 18.
American cities—often content with baby steps—are in desperate need of leadership, and Minneapolis has emerged as a contender.
Colville-Anderson does call out Minneapolis, though, to stop bragging about how tough its riders are and start laying down some real infrastructure:
What will help the city is to stop talking about the winter and to focus on getting a massive rise in ridership during the rest of the year. Minneapolis would do well to increase its commitment to protected infrastructure and to focus on making the continent’s best on-street network, and the first city NOT to feature sharrows.
Hometown pride aside, I’m not sure I’d rank Minneapolis above Portland. They have different positive attributes, and a little friendly competition never hurt anyone. Just look at this sea of green in Portland!
But the Minneapolis Bicycle Master Plan is looking very nice. The bike infrastructure that has come online in the 3 years since I’ve been gone has been pretty awesome. Keep it coming, Minneapolis.
Silence is now offered as a luxury good. In the business-class lounge at Charles de Gaulle airport, what you hear is the occasional tinkling of a spoon against china. There are no advertisements on the walls, and no TVs. This silence, more than any other feature of the space, is what makes it feel genuinely luxurious. When you step inside and the automatic airtight doors whoosh shut behind you, the difference is nearly tactile, like slipping out of haircloth into satin. Your brow unfurrows itself, your neck muscles relax; after twenty minutes you no longer feel exhausted. The hassle lifts.
Outside the lounge is the usual airport cacophony. Because we have allowed our attention to be monetized, if you want yours back you’re going to have to pay for it.
As the commons gets appropriated, one solution, for those who have the means, is to leave the commons for private clubs such as the business-class lounge. Consider that it is those in the business lounge who make the decisions that determine the character of the peon lounge and we may start to see these things in a political light. To engage in playful, inventive thinking, and possibly create wealth for oneself during those idle hours spent at an airport, requires silence. But other people’s minds, over in the peon lounge (or at the bus stop) can be treated as a resource—a standing reserve of purchasing power to be steered according to innovative marketing ideas hatched by the “creatives” in the business lounge. When some people treat the minds of other people as a resource, this is not “creating wealth,” it is a transfer.
— Matthew B. Crawford, The World Beyond Your Head