The Eugene Register-Guard really goes off the charts with this one:
Representatives gear up to protect cycling interests
Shouldn't that more appropriately read: Representatives gear up to push cycling agenda? Because that is, in fact, what it amounts to. Peter DeFazio, after all, has a bike and pedestrian bridge named after him, and it's a safe assumption that following his appointment as chairman of the Surface Subcommittee of the House Transportation Committee, he'll be pushing bicycles hard.
Although the work should reasonably focus on transportation infrastructure involving roads and bridges designed to maximize the efficiency of delivery of goods and services, DeFazio's likely focus will be on "mass transit" and, of course, bicycles. Yeah, Petey - let's load this here Ikea couch onto the handlebars and just peddle it on down to our SoWhat condo, shall we? What's that? Impractical, you say? Well then hey - light rail has a stop right outside the store, so just help me wrestle this thing onto the choo-choo, okay? No problem; it's all good. When we get to downtown Portland, we can lug it off the train and onto the streetcar! What's that? Impractical, you say? Well try this for a novel approach: build and maintain roads and bridges, so I can load the couch into the bed of my pickup and just drive it on home.
