BikinginLA

CSUN skateboard users may soon find themselves on double-secret probation.

Like the Deltas in Animal House, skateboards are being targeted by a college dean who apparently wants them booted off campus.

And bicycles and scooters, too.

Dr. Jerry Stinner, the dean of the College of Science and Mathematics at California State University Northridge, writes in an email to faculty members that he was recently knocked down by someone on a skateboard.

Which is a bad thing.

And for which the person responsible should be held accountable. Not everyone who tries to get around the CSUN campus by any means other than walking or driving.

Just wait until someone tells him about cars, and the dangers they pose to students and faculty on campus.

Although the image of a college dean pointing a speed gun at unsuspecting students making their way across the massive campus, undoubtedly from his hidden vantage point, is pretty laughable.

But for someone who heads up the mathematics department, he doesn’t seem to have a solid grasp on statistics and polling. His survey questions are clearly slanted to elicit an anti-skateboard/bike/scooter response, rather than any clear gauge of actual attitudes.

Maybe he could have one of those statistics professors draft an actual, unbiased poll that could go out to everyone, including students.

Let’s hope CSUN has some Deltas of their own who are willing to throw a toga party or two to fight injustice.

And show Dean Stinner, and the rest of the CSUN administration, just how ridiculous this is.

Or the next time a pedestrian bumps into him, he may try to ban walking.

………

Streetsblog rounds up the transportation-related issues on California ballots in Tuesday’s election, saying Democratic super-majorities in the state Senate and Assembly bode well for climate change issues and a balanced transportation system.

Meanwhile, Bicycle Retailer catches up with bike-related elections around the US, including the failure of California’s Prop 6. The article notes that Madeleine Dean, wife of the CEO of Performance Bicycle parent company Advanced Sports Enterprises, was elected to represent Pennsylvania in Congress, which should give a good voice for people on bikes.

………

Local

Sandra Marie Wicksted was due in court today to enter a plea in the murder of fallen bicyclist Leslie Pray, and the attempted murder of four other riders, in Claremont last Saturday. However, the hearing was delayed until Friday.

Metro Bike is bringing ebike bikeshare to Union Station in DTLA as part of a pilot program before rolling them out throughout the county.

Three public meetings will be held to discuss closing the eight-mile long gap in the LA River bike path from Elysian Valley to Vernon; the first meeting will take place at 6 pm tonight at Metro Headquarters in DTLA. If you’ve ever tried to make it through that gap section on surface streets, you know how badly the closure is needed.

The Santa Monica Daily Press looks at SaMo’s efforts to establish scooter and bikeshare parking on the streets; doing that throughout the LA area could eliminate complaints about haphazardly parked and abandoned scooters. Although the first thing that jumped out at me was not the parking space in front, but the stripped bike locked to a rack in the background.

 

State

The CEO of ebike maker Pedego is now officially one of Orange County’s most influential people.

A San Diego exhibition, titled I Love to Ride My Bicycle, explores the relationship between artists and their bicycles.

Ventura’s Channel Islands Bike Club will host a presentation on international bicycle tourism tonight, following an ebike demo last month.

More protected bike lanes are sprouting up on the streets of Los Altos.

Interesting study from San Francisco on bicycling’s gender gap, and what prevents women from taking environmental action.

 

National

Bike Index talks with the Russian developer of a free Android app for the bike registration service.

Bike Snob says stop dooring people, already. Bad enough that the illustration shows motorists hitting a bike rider and pedestrian with their doors; dooring a corgi is just going too damn far.

Ford went shopping, and scooped up e-scooter provider Spin for a mere $40 million.; the carmaker also runs San Francisco’s bikeshare program.

Portland’s newly elected city commissioner envisions a carfree future centered on the ability to have bicycles, and free and fast public transit.

Utah will once again consider an Idaho stop law, allowing bike riders to treat stop signs as yields. Which is only fair, since most drivers don’t come to a full stop, either.

A Montana couple rides a singletrack trail in the Bitterroot Mountains that they fear could disappear in the next few years.

A Dallas website says the city may only have 10.4 miles of bike lanes, but it does have some lovely paths and trails.

A New York letter writer says bicycling “idiots” are a menace to “the 99% of New Yorkers” who don’t ride bikes, and police should shred lawbreaking riders on the spot (second item). I’m oaky with that, as long as the same policy applies to people in cars, as well.

This is also the cost of traffic violence. A driver charged with killing the four-year old daughter of a Tony Award-winning actress and another one-year old boy in a crosswalk while they were in a crosswalk has killed herself. Knowing you took an innocent life would be a damn hard thing to live with for the rest of your life.

DC’s mayor tells the postal service, FedEx and UPS to stop parking in bike lanes. Good luck with that.

A Baltimore woman has made a career out of teaching kids how to ride a bicycle.

Florida is building a 2.4-mile, $2.6 million dollar bike path to close the final gap in a 100-mile trail connecting two counties, part of what will eventually be a 250-mile trail across the state.

 

International

London’s Sun newspaper asks what’s the point of lowering more speed limits to 20 mph when most drivers ignore it anyway — up to 94% during early morning hours. In that case, we might as well get rid of stop signs, legalize drunk and distracted driving and remove turn signals from cars, since many drivers ignore those laws, too.

Cellphone data from a British delivery service proves that bicycles really do move through an urban environment faster than motor vehicles.

A UK bicycling magazine says the Netherlands is ahead of the game once again by proposing to ban cellphone use while riding a bicycle.

Here’s a couple more for your bike bucket list. Cycling Weekly suggests that Madeira, Portugal may be the ultimate adventure cycling destination. Unless you’d prefer a bike tour through Hemingway’s Spain.

No bias here. An Israeli writer says forget the drunk driver, let’s blame the ebike-riding victim because some people don’t ride them safely.

 

Finally…

Your next bike light could be powered by magnets. This is what happens when you put a new bike path between two shooting ranges.

And Homer Simpson is definitely not one of us. Especially when he knocks a bike rider down as a result of donut-distracted driving .

https://gfycat.com/tinyjollygalago

Thanks to Steve for the heads-up.