Keep Rowena Safe urges you to show up at Wednesday’s meeting of the excessively named Transportation and Neighborhood Safety Committee of the Silver Lake Neighborhood Council.
And ask why they would even consider undoing the road diet on Rowena Ave, which has proven itself successful in slowing traffic and improving safety.
Once again putting the imagined convenience of a few motorists over the safety of everyone else, and the livability of the entire community.
Then again, you might want to put the same questions to Councilmember David Ryu, since it was his office that shelled out $80,000 to study making Rowena more dangerous again.
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London bicyclists are stunned when an aggressive motorist deliberately drives at a long line of riders in a marked bike path, then threatens them with his car when they catch up to him.
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Local
Santa Clarita sheriff’s deputies wrote 67 tickets during yesterday’s four-hour bike and pedestrian safety operation, mostly for distracted driving. Which shouldn’t surprise anyone.
Santa Monica-based Bird announces plans to donate $1 per day for every scooter in operation to help build more bike lanes. While that could quickly add up to a lot of money, the real problem is developing the political backing to build bike lanes, rather than finding the funding, as we’ve repeatedly seen in Los Angeles.
State
VeloNews talks with San Diego’s SportRX about what to look for in prescription bicycling glasses, and reviews several models. Full disclosure: SportRX provided me with a pair of prescription Oakleys several years ago, which are still by far the best glasses I’ve ever owned, for bicycling or anything else. And getting them was one of the easiest processes I’ve gone through, without ever setting foot in the store.
Orange County is considering options for a bike path along Avenida La Plata between San Clemente and San Juan Capistrano.
A Highland bicyclist takes issue, at great length, with the new law clarifying that bicyclists who ride off after crashing into someone on a bike path can be charged with hit-and-run.
Santa Barbara police will be out in force to take the fun out of enforce traffic laws during the annual Fiesta Cruiser Ride this Sunday.
Talk about not getting it. A Santa Maria newspaper complains that removing a whopping 24 parking spaces next to a Solvang park to make room for bike lanes would ruin “Solvang’s tourism quaint, wow factor.” And that encouraging more bicycling — without removing a single traffic lane — would somehow force drivers off the street and into the surrounding neighborhood. As if anyone visits the faux Dutch community to see its quaint parking spaces.
National
USA Today offers a long list of guided bike tours to get you back on your bike, after first reciting a brief history of the bicycle, in case you’ve forgotten.
Bicycling offers advice on how to ride in gravel and other uneven surfaces.
Streetsblog questions why “bull bar” grill attachments are the hot fashion accessory for US police vehicles, when they’re outlawed abroad, and deadly for any pedestrians who get in their way. I’m less concerned about police using them than I am the jerks in massive pickups and SUVs who insist on putting them on their trucks for no apparent reason.
Your next bike helmet could be printed, not manufactured. Then again, so could the bike you use it on.
Dockless bikeshare companies are bailing on the Big D after Dallas developed regulations requiring the companies to pay for the number of bikes or scooters they have on the streets; just 3,500 bikes remain compared to a peak of 20,000.
A couple of Chicago kids achieve their goal of riding their bikes a total of 100 miles over summer vacation, turning it into a chance for three generations to ride together. While that’s something to be proud of, someone should tell the reporter that a 13.5 mile ride is no big deal for a lot of people. Even kids.
Evidently, athleticism runs in the family, as the great-grandfather of NFL All Pro tight end Rob Gronkowski was a star of the Buffalo NY bike racing circuit in the 1920s.
Good for him. A Philadelphia bike rider sues a hotel and its valet parking manager for blocking a bike lane.
A Delaware city is using stenciled messages on the sidewalk to tell riders over 12 to walk their bikes. That’s actually a good idea. In too many cities, it’s difficult, if not impossible, to tell whether and where you’re allowed to ride your bike on the sidewalk; putting a notice there removes any confusion.
DC bicyclists pair up with blind riders for weekly tandem rides.
Dockless bikeshare providers Mobike and Ofo have pulled out of DC, as well.
A former North Carolina sheriff’s lieutenant is riding his bike to recover from PTSD, after he was nearly beaten to death on the job more than 17 years ago.
International
London’s deputy mayor for transportation calls a local government council disgraceful for opposing plans for one of the city’s cycle superhighways, at the same time a bike rider was fighting for her life following a crash a few miles away.
You’ve got to be kidding. English social media users blew up when a driver complained about two bicyclists riding abreast on a quiet country road — which is perfectly legal in the UK — saying, “It doesn’t take a lot of my time to pass them – it’s the principle.”
The daughters of a fallen bike tourist says she would never have attempted riding the steep downhill on the Irish road where she was killed if there had been warning signs to tell her how dangerous it really was.
Australian bus drivers are put on bicycles to learn what it’s like to be passed by a bus, and how to drive around bike riders. Can we do that here, Metro? Pretty please?
Life is short in Singapore, where a bus driver got a whopping six weeks behind bars for a negligent crash that left a 36-year bike rider in a nursing home with permanent brain damage.
Competitive Cycling
Team Sky road captain Luke Rowe helped guide fellow Welshman Geraint Thomas to the yellow jersey in the Tour de France, one year after breaking his leg in 25 places while white water rafting.
Now that Thomas has won a Tour, he may chuck it all to take up triathlons.
Admit it. You always wanted to know more about the woman who rides a motorcycle with a chalkboard at the head of the peloton.
A day after we got a Roman Catholic look at the Tour de France, we get the Anglican view, as an English minister considers the parallels between the Christian faith and professional cycling.
CiclaValley uses the Tour to illustrate how cyclists are tougher than other athletes.
A local paper previews the prologue of the Tour of Utah, which kicks off on Saturday.
The initial rosters have been released for this month’s Colorado Classic.
Finally…
Yes, a bicycle and clothing are basic requirements for women who want to ride bikes. If you have to wave a flag just to cross a street, it should be a white one, instead.
And how to tell you’re a really crappy driver who probably shouldn’t be one.
Deputies working Bike/Pedestrian safety operation today said there was motorist pulled over for making illegal turn. She told deputies that she had just been cited for using her cell phone down the street. Then she told deputies she was on way to DMV for license renewal.
— SCV Sheriff (@SCVSHERIFF) August 1, 2018
