Show #356 – July 15, 2017

Guests: Jonathan Maus, NARP’s James Zumwalt + Caitlin & Victoria, Sara Dykman

First guest this evening is Jonathan Maus. He is the publisher/editor of bikeportland.org and I’ve invited him to be my guest to talk about a new law that just passed Oregon State legislature that will TAX new bikes a flat $15 fee.

We’ll find out what precipitated the tax, what the State is saying the money will be used to do, and get the cycling-side of the move. One of the issues at hand for me is that it will be contingent upon bike shops to collect the money and then… what?

We’ll speak with a trio of folks who are involved with the U.S. railroad system. James Zumwalt is the director of policy research for the National Association of Railroad Passengers and has some chilling data about what the Feds are thinking about in terms of our national passenger rail system. He will be joined by two young women, fresh out of college, who are taking the summer and the train, along with their bikes, to highlight the rail system and what it is like to take your bike on board.

Our third guest is Sara Dykman. Sara is a Kansas City native who graduated from college in 2008. Since then, she has bicycle-toured 49 states (her first summer out of school!), has traveled the length of South America, and has canoed from Montana to the Gulf of Mexico.

As if that isn’t impressive enough, she is the creator of Beyond a Book, an organization that hooks kids up with wildlife projects; the current one, Butter Bike, being a 10,000 mile solo bike trip following the migration of the Monarch Butterflies. We’ll talk with Sara in Vermont as she makes the return toward Mexico.

You can follow Sara’s trip at ButterBike!