Good piece from Streetsblog’s Joe Linton on last week’s Vision Zero motion at the LA City Council Transportation Committee.
Despite the fears created by traffic safety deniers Keep LA Moving, the anticipated ambush didn’t occur.
In fact, I was told by someone from committee Chair Mike Bonin’s office that the motion is a benign attempt to make people feel more comfortable with the data used for LA’s Vision Zero.
And no one seems to know why Keep LA Moving felt such urgency to support it.
Bonin wisely held the motion over to the next meeting on February 28th to give its authors a chance to review the language, and make sure there’s nothing in it that would reduce the effectiveness of Vision Zero.
My fear is that it may give Vision Zero opponents an excuse to challenge the data used for the program, possibly in court.
However, I’ve been told that it’s been reviewed by the City Attorney’s office, who didn’t find any problems with it.
Although it wouldn’t hurt to do it again.
………
It’s been awhile since we’ve heard from Wes High, who recently had the pleasure of a punishment pass, followed by getting deliberately doored while riding on Fountain Ave in Los Angeles.
While riding on the sharrows.
Hopefully, he’s reported this to the LAPD, since this is clear evidence of assault with a deadly weapon — in this case, a motor vehicle.
And it’s perfect evidence for a case under LA’s cyclist anti-harassment ordinance.
………
A Facebook post is circulating asking for any witnesses to last week’s death of cyclist Mark Kristofferson in the Tour of Palm Springs to contact the Riverside County District Attorney’s office.
They’re particularly looking for anyone who saw the suspect vehicle before the crash, witnessed the actual crash or had contact with the suspect afterwards.
Especially if you have video footage of the any of the above.
The link includes instructions on how to handle the footage and who to send it to.
Thanks to Victor Bale for the heads-up.
………
Local
Sounds like fun. Buried among the restaurant news is word of a Long Beach Ride & Dine to a local restaurant — and possible stops for ice cream and beer — tomorrow night.
State
The San Diego Union-Tribune says the city’s goal of getting 22% of residents who live within half a mile of transit to walk, bike or take public transportation to work by 2020 is a fantasy.
San Diego opens another mile of the Bayshore Bikeway; 16 miles of the planned 24-mile route around San Diego Bay are now open.
No windshield bias here. Montclair decides to blame the victims by making it illegal to cross the street while texting, talking on your phone or listening to ear buds. And yes, that’s just as idiotic as it sounds.
National
The Adventure Cycling Association offers a not-so-brief history of fat bikes.
HuffPo examines the efforts to bring bike equity to bikeshare.
Streetsblog examines how Baltimore bike lane opponents used a 20-foot minimum standard street width for fire engines to block a planned protected bike lane network. Even though it’s never been a problem before, in a city where many streets don’t meet that standard.
Heartbreaking news from Austin TX, where writer Andrew Tillin was killed in a collateral damage bike crash, when two cars collided and slid into his as he was fixing a flat on the side of the road. He was a frequent contributor to Outside, and the author of The Doper Next Door.
International
Riding to Che’s hideout in the hills of Cuba.
An Ottawa, Canada columnist can’t imagine why anyone would object to a decision to ban bikes from the city’s new light rail line during rush hour. Apparently, he’s never heard that bikes offer a solution to the first mile/last mile problem, which helps get more people out of their cars.
Bicycling is the leading form of rush hour transportation in London, where all other forms of transportation have decreased 30%. Which goes to show what is possible when you build a safe bicycling network, as London did with their cycle superhighways. Especially in Los Angeles, where the weather is much better.
A trio of very cool looking cylindrical glass bike storage towers has made the short list in a competition to remake a London roundabout.
Caught on video: An elderly man in the UK was pushed off his bike by jerks in a passing car, who apparently thought it was funny.
Even in bike-unfriendly Mumbai, a bike barely loses a race across town.
Note to world: Not every group of people on bikes riding together is a race. Sometimes they just ride to raise funds, or call attention to a cause, or just for the hell of it. Even in Afghanistan.
Sydney, Australia is cutting parking spots and increasing bicycle facilities in an effort to reduce traffic congestion.
This is why you need a camera on your bike. An Aussie motorcyclist has lost his license for 18 months and will have to attend anger management classes after a close pass and road rage assault on a pair of cyclists.
Seriously? Bike tourists in New Zealand are told not to ride at night to avoid the summer heat because it puts those poor, vulnerable truck drivers at risk.
Dockless bikeshare has saved China $2.6 billion in reduced traffic costs in just two years.
A Swiss father and stepmom rode their bikes 10,000 miles to watch their son compete in the PyeongChang Olympics. But Angelenos think people people won’t bike five miles to go to work.
Finally…
Bike shop by day, bands at night. A two-wheeled Malaysian quokka encounter.
And now you can own bike the Queen was too ashamed to let Princess Diana.
The video of Fountain st. looks very familiar. Now that I can no longer use the Santa Ana River bike lath to get home from the Metrolink station (Anahiem, on the the river) I have to use a series of residential streets – turned high speed arterials in Santa Ana where I am forced to take the lane for miles, avoiding regular potential doorings, constantly passed by cars with inches to spare, daily harassment etc.
Here in Munich bikes are banned from the U-Bahn for the morning commute. Okay all other times. However. There is a serious system for transit and lots of bike parking, not enough though, around all the stations. The U-Bahn will normally get you to within a half kilometer of any destination in the city. Outside the core it is further but people use their bikes to get to the stations. Also there are built up bus and tram networks. You see more bikes on the S-bahn, distances tend to be greater between stops and the web looser as you leave town. They also have dedicated areas for bikes where as the U-bahn you just roll on any where onto the train.