A little light bike reading to start your weekend

I didn’t have a chance to update the bike events list today.

Fortunately, the Bird Wheel has you covered with enticing bike-related riding, eating and drinking events starting this weekend and going through the 19th of the month.

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One non-bike item I might add for my fellow dog lovers:

Woofstock 90210 takes place this Sunday from 11 am to 4 pm at Roxbury Park, at the corner of Roxbury Drive and Olympic Blvd. You’ll find countless dogs available for adoption from L.A. Animal Services and a number of rescue groups, as well as food trucks, entertainment and more dog swag than you can shake your tail at.

As someone who adopted a rescue dog, it was easily one of the best decisions we’ve ever made; somehow, I suspect the Corgi might agree. I suspect she rescued us more than the other way around.

And it may be the only time I recommend visiting the Biking Black Hole of Beverly Hills for any reason.

………

Finally, someone gets serious about drunk driving, as a New Mexico bill would prohibit anyone convicted of drunk driving from buying alcohol in the state.

Granted, it wouldn’t keep those covered by the law from getting someone else to buy booze for them. And it would undoubtedly lead to drunken liquor runs across the state border.

But it’s the strongest step yet in stopping one of the leading, and most needless, causes of traffic deaths.

Now if we could just get a law prohibiting anyone ticketed for distracted driving from owning a cell phone.

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The Times says bikes and their riders are better for society than cars, and sees no benefit in taxing them. More on the memorial ride and ghost bike for fallen Cal Poly Pomona student Ivan Aguilar. Newport Beach will consider forming an oversight committee to develop a new bike master plan. The San Diego branch of the International Rescue Committee refurbishes bikes for refugees. A pair of road makeovers will result in wider streets with bike lanes in Yucaipa and Calimesa. How to maintain your dignity while riding in a miniskirt; if I had any dignity I wouldn’t ride in spandex. The SF Weekly says cyclists aren’t just stop-sign blowing pricks in skinny jeans. After a member of the San Raphael high school mountain bike team has his bike stolen, the local community pitches in to replace it. A Hanford cyclist is killed in a T-bone collision as he tried to cross a busy highway.

Helmets save lives, but the reduction in injuries resulting from helmet laws may be due to fewer people on bikes. Bicycling talks with Republican Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard; yes, Republican, proving once again that bikes are neither liberal nor conservative. Two dozen cyclists will ride from Newtown, Connecticut, and join with riders from Virginia Tech to call for common-sense gun laws. A New York cyclist is killed riding against traffic when he’s hit by one car and knocked into the path of another. Long Beach biking expats the Path Less Pedaled looks back on this past week’s National Bike Summit in Washington DC; Jonathan Maus of Bike Portland offers his final thoughts, while DC Streetsblog says bicycling means business. A safety-conscious homeless bike rider is killed in a Charlotte NC SWSS. After decades of fixing and donating bikes for kids in need, Raleigh NC’s Bicycle Man needs help with medical expenses. Florida authorities blame a driver for carelessly killing a cyclist, and the rider for being on the road in the first place. Even World War II bomber crews biked to work.

More on the pending bike-friendly makeover of London; seriously, if they can do it, what’s our excuse? A UK paperboy’s death serves as a tragic reminder to maintain your children’s bikes, and always make sure their brakes are in working order. You wouldn’t put Mark Cavendish on a Penny Farthing, or maybe you would. Italian supercar maker Lamborghini celebrates their 50th anniversary by partnering with BMC on a limited edition — and very expensive — bike. An Indian bus driver sets off a chain reaction collision by striking a cart pulled by a bull, causing the bull to run amok and hit a five-year old riding a bike, fatally knocking the boy under the cart. A passing motorist saves a South African cyclist from a pit bull attack.

Finally, 96-year old Ralph the Bike Guy is being honored as Grand Marshal of a Kansas City-area St. Patrick’s Day Parade, two months after he lost his wife of 72 years.

This is one of the nicest profiles I’ve read in months. If you can finish reading it without a tear in your eye, you’re a far stronger person than I am.

8 comments

  1. billdsd says:

    Instead of prohibiting them from buying booze, how about we prohibit them from driving for say a decade for the first offence?

    • bikinginla says:

      Why not both?

      • billdsd says:

        Because it’s silly and they’re going to drink anyway. Alcohol isn’t the problem. Driving under the influence is the problem. Prohibition doesn’t work. It just creates more problems.

        • bikinginla says:

          On the other hand, people often continue to drive after their licenses have been revoked. I agree that prohibition won’t solve the problem, but it may reduce it.

          And being prohibited from buying alcohol — though not from drinking it — would send a strong message that drunk driving won’t be tolerated.

  2. Opus the Poet says:

    The initial reports, including the NYPost article you linked to had the NYC cyclist going the other way and hit first by the 59th St Honda and ending up under the New Ultrecht Honda, but the later reports have everything reversed. The initial reports could not have gotten it that wrong as to not know which vehicle the cyclist was stuck under at the end of the wreck. Since NYPD has a notable bias against cyclists including making up laws to write tickets for (carrying bags, not wearing a “helment”) I suspect that this report has been falsified to remove any fault from the drivers.

  3. That safety conscious homeless guy in North Carolina seems like yet another single witness suicide swerve.

    The news article says Jordan Place near North Davidson Street; Google Streetview seems to show heavy truck traffic on a narrow lane.

    If the poor victim ended up underneath the truck, it’s not hard to imagine the truck driver tried to pass when there wasn’t room to pass, but it’s “just an accident” that was completely preventable.

  4. Scott Johansen says:

    Thank you for promoting the adoption of dogs who are dumped in shelters and rescues. That says a lot about both you and your wife and your compassion. I always say..humans bred dogs, it’s our responsibility to look after them, and considering the number of service dogs who work with the handicap and blind, the number of dogs helping detect cancer or work with cancer patients, and the number of dogs serving overseas with our brave men & women….giving them a second shot at life by promoting spay/nueter programs and rescuing from shelters/rescues is the least we could do. Thanks for grasping that kind message, and advocating it too. Bike on!

  5. Bike Pretty says:

    Thanks for including my link!
    You’re right,of course. Dignity is not a prerequisite for riding a bike.

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