Just 182 days left until Los Angeles fails to meet its Vision Zero pledge to eliminate traffic deaths by 2025.
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Streetsblog’s Joe Linton offers updates on three LA-area bike lane projects.
- The new separated bike lanes on the east end of Hollywood are partially in place on the eastbound side, and already rideable.
- Bike lanes have been installed on the newly resurfaced Foothill Blvd in Lake View Terrace, demonstrating what’s possible with Measure HLA, which mandates building out the city’s mobility plan whenever streets are resurfaced — if city leaders would stop actively blocking it.
- Redondo Beach extended and upgraded the bike lanes on a resurfaced section of Torrance Blvd, adding green paint in the conflict zones. Because as we all know, a dab of colored paint stops distracted, aggressive and/or intoxicated drivers every time.
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This is how the sausage is unmade.
Despite our best efforts, SB 1216 (@SenBlakespear), our bill to prohibit class 3 bike lanes and sharrows on high-speed roads, has been substantially weakened due to committee amendments.
We won’t give up this fight but unfortunately, we must pull our support for this bill. pic.twitter.com/sMlj4DVDOp
— Streets For All (@streetsforall) July 2, 2024
It was amended to not exclude Class 3 bike routes (signage on the side of the road) on streets above 30mph, which was the whole point of the bill.
It still prohibits sharrows on streets above 30mph, but they’d still be labeled “bike routes” and be included on maps as such.
— Streets For All (@streetsforall) July 2, 2024
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All you have to do is ask nice, right?
This is the only route from Hollywood to Burbank.
Thank you @cd4losangeles for the SLOW DOWN paper sign 🙄
This is 100 feet from a Metro Bus Stop.
Why is anybody outside of a car an afterthought? pic.twitter.com/iEgwBQxOBZ
— BikeLanesLA (@BikeLanesLA) June 30, 2024
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Riding a bicycle in the right lane of a multilane highway is legal.
Using a handheld cellphone to record them isn’t.
Hi @SealBeachPolice perhaps you need to remind folks like @chefgruel that it’s legal for riders to take the lane on PCH…and that filming on a phone while driving violates two state laws including CVC 23123. pic.twitter.com/FUjGn3vB5g
— Peter Flax (@Pflax1) June 30, 2024
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It’s now 194 days since the California ebike incentive program’s latest failure to launch, which was promised no later than fall 2023. And 37 full months since it was approved by the legislature and signed into law — and counting.
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The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.
No bias here. The New York Times reports on a “bizarre culture war” against bike lanes in Queens, where nearly every home in the neighborhood sports a “No Bike Lanes” lawn sign, as residents prefer the convenience of parking directly in front of their homes to the safety of kids riding their bikes. Although as others have pointed out, nearly every news story about a similar conflict somehow identifies bike lane supporters as “cyclists,” while opponents are always “residents. Because evidently, people who use bike lanes never, ever live there.
But sometimes, it’s the people on two wheels who are behaving badly.
An Iowa man was shot and killed by police offers after he shot two cops who had responded to reports of a bicyclist with a gun, in an incident in which the shooter’s form of transportation seems incidental, despite being treated by news outlets like the most important detail.
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Local
Here’s your chance to tell Caltrans to improve safety on the deadly 22 miles of PCH that runs through Malibu, as the agency calls for comments on the PCH Master Plan Feasibility Study; a virtual workshop will take place from 1 to 4 pm on Thursday, July 18th. Unfortunately though, the link to register for the workshop is broken.
State
A bill banning tuning kits that can allow an ebike to exceed factory speed limitations sits on the governor’s desk after passing both houses of the legislature.
The CEO of a San Diego micro ebike company calls for giving ebike buyers the tax credits they deserve, while fixing the outdated regulations that hold them back.
Five years after a 12-year old girl was nearly killed by 17-year old driver while riding her bike in a Sacramento crosswalk at an intersection on the city’s High Injury Network, her parents complain the city hasn’t done anything to fix it. Before you click on the link, though, be forewarned this one is really hard to read.
National
Time Magazine selects the best “cheap” ebikes for different types of riders, with most retailing for under a grand.
Cycling Weekly examines how a former Portland high school principal became one of the most in-demand custom bicycle painters, with a client list ranging from Andy Schleck to Ayesha McGowan.
A 31-year old photographer is recreating her great-great-grandfather’s cross-country bicycle trip from 128 years earlier, following his route from Seattle to Boston while taking pictures with the same model of early portable camera he used.
A Houston public radio station considers whether the city will get a new bikeshare, now that the current one has shuttered due to financial problems after a dozen years.
Hundreds of a naked and nearly naked bike riders turned out for Chicago’s nocturnal edition of the World Naked Bike Ride, as bystanders cheered them on.
Vermont now has a four-foot passing law, with a $200 fine for breaking it. But as we’ve seen, a passing law is only as good as the local cops commitment to enforcing it.
A DC train line was stopped for several hours after a man repeatedly stabbed another man on the platform, before throwing a bicycle onto the tracks.
The leader of a North Carolina search and rescue unit was killed when a squirrel caused him to crash after darting out in front of his bicycle, resulting in cardiac arrest and irreversible spinal damage.
A 23-year old Florida woman faces charges for killing a 67-year old Florida journalist and pastor in a drunken, high speed hit-and-run; she was traveling around 90 mph at the time of the crash, with a blood alcohol level more than two-and-a-half times the legal limit, while dragging the victim’s bicycle under her car nearly all the way back to her home.
International
Your next bike helmet could inflate before you wear it.
This is the cost of traffic violence. Residents of the 800-year old town of Huntingdon, England held a vigil to honor a “much loved” bike shop owner and bike safety advocate, killed by a careless driver while riding his bike.
Once again raising the question of how old is too old to drive, an 83-year old British man walked without a single day behind bars for killing a 54-year old man riding a bicycle; he was still driving despite suffering from degenerate eyesight and failing a roadside vision test.
Momentum highlights the year’s top 15 European bicycling routes.
Cycling Weekly highlights their favorite bespoke bikes from the recent MADE Australia handmade bike show.
Competitive Cycling
About damn time. Eritrean cyclist Biniam Girmay became the first black African cyclist to win a stage in the Tour de France, capturing stage three in a mad sprint to the finish; meanwhile, former Giro champ Richard Carapaz slid into the yellow jersey, while matching the time of Tadej Pogačar.
USA Today highlights the three remaining Americans in this year’s Tour de France after Sepp Kuss withdrew due to Covid, including Tour rookie, US road champ and LA native Sean Quinn.
NBC explains the rules for Olympic road cycling, mountain biking, and BMX competitions.
Finally…
That feeling when your new bike shoes honor a tennis legend. You can find a lot of things riding a bike, including your new kitty.
And riding the Tour while unleashing your inner Batman.
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Be safe, and stay healthy. And get vaccinated, already.
Oh, and fuck Putin
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