26/12 Bike More, Worry Less - E bikes and AVs

Taylor talks with Brent Muth at Ojai's MOB bike shop and then at a farmer's market with Annette, a member of the international nonprofit Cycling Without Age, which takes the elderly out for free bike rides (1:33). The League of American Bicyclists' National Bike Summit https://bikeleague.org/events/summit/ (9:33). Charlie's News: Cambridge, Massachusetts has seen a 250% ridership increase over two decades, with a crash rate decrease https://momentummag.com/city-shows-the-huge-payoff-for-investing-in-safe-cycling-infrastructure-with-250-increase/. There will be a National Town Hall on April 15th for the Stop Underrides Act of 2026 https://annaleahmary.com/2026/02/stop-underrides-national-town-hall-save-the-date/. Bike lanes next to the National Mall are set to be removed despite lower crash rates and faster car travel times https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2026/03/20/15th-street-dc-bike-lane-removal/. The NYPD will stop giving cyclists criminal summonses for minor offenses https://nyc.streetsblog.org/2026/03/18/mamdani-ends-nypd-ebike-cyclist-criminal-summons (10:18). Listener Email: Terry Fitzgerald questions our “cyclists can do no wrong” approach, but gets Bike Talk stickers for a positive review on Apple (13:09). A meta study on how Autonomous Vehicles can be safer yet may increase Vehicle Miles Traveled and displace transit. With Farah Naz, University of Texas-Arlington, co-author of the study https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S2214367X26000372?via%3Dihub (16:05). Bob Mittelstaedt and Asha Weinstein Agrawal discuss the Mineta Transportation Institute report on ebikes and an e-moto “rogues gallery” of illegal ebikes https://www.ebikeaccess.org/rogue-gallery-e-motos-to-avoid https://transweb.sjsu.edu/research/2423-Electric-Bicycle-Safety-Data-Policy (31:28). The irrational fear of ebikes in Massachusetts and a Micromobility report by MassBike, with Galen Mook, a.k.a. “Mookmaster Bikes,” the Executive Director of MassBike, and friend-of-the-show bike shop owner/mechanic Jim Cadenhead https://www.mass.gov/doc/special-commission-on-micromobility-report-january-2026/download (49:34). A study shows biking may reduce dementia https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2835115 (54:59).