Tag Archive for an attitude of gratitude

26.5 years for killer stoned driver in AZ master’s race, a damp last CicLAvia of 2022, and Orange Line bike path closure

December 5, 2022 / / Comments Off on 26.5 years for killer stoned driver in AZ master’s race, a damp last CicLAvia of 2022, and Orange Line bike path closure

It’s the second full week of the 8th Annual BikinginLA Holiday Fund Drive! 

I’m often humbled by the support this site receives. And never more than I was on Sunday.

Saturday I was feeling low after we didn’t receive a single donation, leaving the fund drive hundreds of dollars behind last year’s record-setting pace.

Then on Sunday the floodgates opened. Not only did the sudden outpouring of support make up the deficit, it actually left us a little ahead of last year this morning. 

I recognized a lot of the donors, whether from giving in years past, sharing links or comments on here, or from their work on bike advocacy issues. 

Each and every one touched my heart, leaving me overwhelmed with gratitude. But none more than a donation from a loved one of a fallen bicyclist, who remembered the support I gave them in their time of need. 

All of which has me feeling incredibly humbled today.

I hope you’ll join me in offering a sincere thank you to André V, Greg M, Scott G, Penny S, Samuel M, David Matsu, John H, Anthony D, Mark M and Andre C for their very generous support. 

Because they’re the ones who gave from the heart to bring all the best bike news your way today, and every day. 

So don’t wait. Just take a moment right now to join them by donating via PayPal or Zelle.

We’ll wait.

………

There’s justice in Show Low, Arizona, a year and a half after a stoned driver plowed into a master’s bike race, killing one man and seriously injuring eight other people, six critically.

Shawn Michael Chock was sentenced to 26½ years behind bars for the bizarre crime. The 36-year old man received a 16-year sentence for killing 58-year old Jeremy Barrett, and 10-1/2 years for assaulting a police officer, to be served consecutively, with no time off for good behavior for the first 16 years.

A defense attorney claimed Chock was once an accomplished bike racer himself, but suffered from mental health problems. He reportedly relapsed when he received bad family news after three years of sobriety, and blacked out after failing to take his meds and inhaling aerosol fumes, crossing over several lanes of traffic to plow into the racers.

Although that doesn’t fit with earlier reports that Chock was laughing as he steered into the victims, and made a U-turn to come back at them.

Which is kind of hard to do when you’re unconscious.

It’s also worth noting that a history of mental illness and substance abuse somehow wasn’t enough for authorities to keep Chock from getting behind the wheel until it was too late.

He was only arrested after officers shot his truck engine to disable it following a standoff with police behind a hardware store.

………

Sunday marked the last CicLAvia of the year, as the streets of South LA opened to welcome bike riders, walkers, skaters, rollers, cowboys, and yes, even Dodgers, of every description, despite the cool, cloudy and sometimes wet weather.

Of course, it’s always after the event that those warm feelings give way to the typical LA challenge of just getting home in one piece.

………

One of LA’s busiest bikeways shut down without warning, as Streetsblog discovered an unexpected closure on the Orange Line.

And as usual, the detour leaves something to be desired, dumping riders onto surface streets to negotiate their route with impatient drivers.

How long the repairs will take, and how long the closure will last, is anyone’s guess.

………

The next time you complain about the crappy bikeways you have to use, or the lack thereof, remember this.

It could be worse.

………

A distracted driver calls out the risk posed to safe, law-abiding bike riders from distracted drivers just like him.

Click on the tweet if the photo of the rider is obscured.

………

This is who we share the road with.

………

Who needs handlebars?

Or a head tube, fork or front wheel, for that matter?

………

The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going. 

No bias here. A Marin paper calls for “compromises” by limiting the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge bike path to weekend use by recreational riders — even though traffic congestion is no worse than before it was installed, and removing it on weekdays would just make traffic worse in other areas. In other words, they want bike commuters and local communities to compromise by surrendering to drivers.

No bias here, either. A Portland hotel manager complains about a parking protected bike lane in front of the hotel, as careless guests nearly collide with bike riders, and a guest’s car door “got hit by a bicyclist.” No, the guest doored the person on the bike, which is against the law.

Vancouver’s parks board is preparing to cave to angry, entitled drivers for whom one lane isn’t enough by ripping out a popular bike lane through the park, and restoring a second traffic lane so drivers can use it as a cut-through route.

A 24-year old Scottish man suffered multiple injuries after he was pushed off his bicycle by a couple men on a moped, for no apparent reason.

Sometimes, it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.

More proof ebikes are replacing car trips, as a British ebike rider conducted a carless driveby shooting, firing repeatedly into a car after riding up next to it, although he missed all the occupants.

……..

 

………

Local 

Metro is scheduled to start construction on the La Brea Ave bus lanes today, though the rain may have something to say about that.

Long Beach is considering lowering speed limits on 100 sections of city streets, including 23 that could drop to 15 to 20 mph.

Anyone interested in serving on your local Neighborhood Council should make plans to attend an information session hosted by Streets For All this Thursday. We need a lot more support for bikes on local councils to overcome the outsized NIMBY voices. 

Speaking of Streets For All, the transportation PAC is hosting a virtual happy hour with newly elected CD13 Councilmember Hugo Soto-Martinez on Wednesday, December 14th. Which would be a good opportunity to ask about his plans to improve bike safety and infrastructure in the Hollywood district.

 

State 

San Diego Magazine lists ten bike rides to meet the needs of every kind of rider.

‘Tis the season. Over 300 children in the Coachella Valley have new bikes this week, thanks to the Variety Children’s Charity of the Desert.

A Camarillo letter writer says he agrees with a driver that bike riders belong in the bike lane, if only the city had some.

They get it. The San Francisco Chronicle says instead of getting rid of Slow Streets, the city make them even better, arguing that it’s hard to view the Slow Streets experiment as anything but a wild success.

 

National

Bike counters recorded nearly 42,000 bike trips to Colorado’s Maroon Bells, fueled largely by the increasing popularity of ebikes.

‘Tis the season, too. A Boise, Idaho bike drive plans to give away 567 bicycles to kids in need over the holidays.

Sixty-seven-year old Joseph Kennedy reportedly confessed to the deaths of four men who disappeared after setting out on an Oklahoma bike ride, telling a friend he “killed the men and cut them up” because they stole from him.

Brooklyn firefighters rescued a semi-conscious man and two puppies after yet another fire allegedly started by an ebike battery.

A bill in the New Jersey legislature would make it the first state in the nation to mandate bike helmets for adults. Although similar laws have repeatedly been shown to be counterproductive, reducing bicycling rates and the safety in numbers effect, while disproportionately affecting low income riders and people of color. Thanks to Victor Bale for the link. 

Another seemingly sentient SUV, as a Philadelphia TV station reports a bike cop was hit by a Ford Explorer, whose driver apparently had nothing to do with it.

A 31-year old woman with Down’s Syndrome is able to ride a bike for the first time since she was a child, after a kindhearted stranger saw her competing for the title of Virginia’s Miss Amazing Senior Miss Queen, and gave her a new three-wheeled bike through a nonprofit organization.

 

International

A website for a drunk driving interlock ignition system reminds us that other countries have solved the problem of drunk driving, even if the US can’t seem to do it. Sort of like we can’t seem to solve traffic deaths, hit-and-runs, shooting deaths, poverty, universal healthcare…

A Spanish man touring the world by bicycle stops in Mexico’s Yucatán on his way to Argentina, accompanied by a dog he adopted in Spain, and another who adopted him in Mexico.

Mexico City’s Los Chilangos lowrider bike club is combating gang life by promoting a positive bicycle culture as an alternative to the world of drugs and gangs, although facial tatts are still welcome.

A Halifax, Nova Scotia bike shop says business is booming and employees are sticking around longer after they committed to paying a living wage, a full ten dollars above the area’s current minimum.

Over one thousand Londoners turned out for a 14-mile Black Unity Bike Ride across the city.

English police link stolen ebikes to the drug trade, robbery and other crimes, saying they’re being used to pursue criminal activity. Shocking that criminals would use stolen goods to do other crimes, I know.

A pair of British politicians call on their peers to practice what they preach by installing more “secure, accessible and sufficient” bike parking on the Parliament grounds.

A writer in the UK says a 3,427-mile ride around the coast of Britain saved his mental health during the pandemic.

France is marking the 80th anniversary of a successful suicide mission by British marines, who slipped behind German lines to destroy five ships; only two of the men survived the mission and escaped to safety, fleeing 100 miles by foot, bicycle and trains to Gibraltar.

An Islamabad, Pakistan paper makes the case for bringing the concept of carfree cities to the country.

Japan’s bicycle industry was reportedly built on the ironworking skills developed to build burial mounds dating back 1,600 years.

An Aussie designer says he doesn’t care about negative feedback, as he spends his days designing the world’s most outlandish concept bikes.

 

Competitive Cycling

Police have identified a 62-year-old German truck driver as a suspect in the hit-and-run death of Italian ex-pro Davide Rebellin, who died shortly after retiring from a 30-year racing career; police are still searching for the suspect.

 

Finally…

If you’re riding a bike with outstanding warrants — you, that is, not the bike — put a damn light on it already. Playing cumbias from the back a wagon pulled by a bike.

And we might have to deal with bored LA drivers, but at least we don’t have to worry about being attacked by a wild boar while riding a bike.

………

Be safe, and stay healthy. And get vaccinated, already.

Oh, and fuck Putin, too.

 

Category: Morning Links / Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,

Happy holidays to all — and thank you for your support!

December 24, 2018 / / One comment

Thanks to Eric L, Michael D, Hamid V, Don E’s Store, Penny S, Gregory S and Brian N for their generous donations to support this site. And to everyone who gave to the BikinginLA Holiday Fund Drive this year.

As usual, we’ll be taking off between the holidays to spend time with family and do a little work behind the scenes. But as always, we’ll be available to bring you any breaking news in the meantime.

Please accept my best wishes for joyful Christmas, and a very happy, healthy and prosperous new year.

And ride safely. I want to see you back here bright and early on January 2nd.

Category: General / Tags: , , , ,

Happy Thanksgiving

November 22, 2018 / / 2 comments

I have a lot to be thankful for.

Especially for riding a bicycle. And for readers like you, who allow me to do what I do. Because without someone to read it, this site is nothing more than letters on a screen.

So please accept my best wishes for a warm and happy Thanksgiving for you and all your loved ones.

Now get out and ride your bike.

 

Category: General / Tags: ,

Merry Christmas. And thank you.

December 25, 2015 / / Comments Off on Merry Christmas. And thank you.

Let me take just a moment to thank everyone who contributed to the BikinginLA Holiday Fund Drive over the last month.

Thanks to your support, what had started as joke became a real thing. And what had looked like a bleak holiday season became much brighter.

And for that, I couldn’t be more grateful.

So please accept my most humble thanks, and my best wishes for a very merry Christmas. Or the happiest of holidays, whatever you may observe.

BikinginLA will be taking the next week off, as I plan to do a little work under the hood and make some long-delayed changes.

So unless there’s breaking news, we’ll see you bright and early next year.

We have a big January planned for you, with more people ready to describe their rides. And a first-ever contest to give away a new bicycle, courtesy of Hermosa Beach’s Beachbikes.net.

So enjoy the holidays.

Ride safe and ride happy.

And don’t forget Sunday’s Valley Finish the Ride.

………

Special thanks to David Aretsky for contributing to the BikinginLA Holiday Fund Drive.

FTR_HH_email11-22-2015

Category: General / Tags: , , ,

A brief expression of gratitude, on a day for giving thanks

November 26, 2015 / / 5 comments

Fund-Drive-With-Type-2Let me take a moment, on this day set aside for giving thanks, to express my deep gratitude for those who make this site possible.

Especially our sponsors, bike attorneys Jim Pocrass of Pocrass & De Los Reyes, and Los Angeles Bicycle Attorney Josh Cohen.

And to everyone who has contributed out of their own pockets, far too many to thank here individually; your generosity means more to me than I can ever express.

I am grateful, too, for everyone who has contributed a guest post, forwarded a link or commented on here, for helping to keep the conversation going.

But most of all, I am thankful for the readers of this site. Without you, these would just be meaningless words lost in the ether of cyberspace.

It’s your readership that keeps this site going.

Thank you.

 

Category: General / Tags: , ,

Pre-Thanksgiving Morning Links: SaMo begins enhanced enforcement; stop bike thieves with a handlebar bomb

November 26, 2014 / / 6 comments
Local

LADOT Bike Blog shares a combination bike/transit route from NoHo to UCLA. And invites you to share your favorite route.

After throwing North Figueroa cyclists under the bus — potentially literally — Councilmember Gil Cedillo is hosting safety meetings for Marmion Way and Avenue 26. Meanwhile, Fig4All is holding a potluck to discuss it.

Culver City is installing over 100 bike racks throughout the town.

Pay extra attention to the letter of the law in SaMo this weekend, as the Santa Monica police will begin enhanced enforcement to improve bike and pedestrian safety on Saturday. This one will focus equally on violations by drivers, pedestrians or cyclists, as it should.

 

State

The Times reports that Huntington Beach cyclist busted with a large weapons cache was initially stopped for riding the wrong way without a light; he said he was heavily armed because it was just good to be prepared. For what, he didn’t say.

Great cause. Friday’s Tour de Tryptophan in Fullerton will raise funds for a cyclist who suffered a spinal cord injury, but is determined to walk and ride again.

Flashing headlights increase visibility but can annoy others on the road — and aren’t addressed in state law one way or the other.

A San Francisco lawyer faces up to four years in prison after pleading guilty to the hit-and-run death of a Chinese bike rider.

 

National

The Bike League looks at what bike equity means in light of the decision not to charge the cop who killed Mike Brown in Ferguson MO. Meanwhile, a Ferguson bike rider is arrested while attempting to video police, which is perfectly legal under the 1st Amendment.

Streetsblog says banning speed cameras puts lives at risk.

A post-ride rubdown helps your heart as well as your muscles.

A Kickstarter for a new folding cargo bike has raised nearly twice their goal with 24 days to go.

A Maryland man gets his burgled bike back after spotting the thief riding it.

 

International

Montreal’s threatened bike share system gets a reprieve for the next five years.

British Olympian Dani King thought she was going to die when she crashed after hitting a pothole.

Talk about a jerk. A UK driver faces charges for running three separate cyclists off the road.

 

Finally…

A new company wants to stop thieves by turning your bike into a rolling bomb; no, really, what could possibly go wrong? Heads-up courtesy of Bike Portland. Maybe this is how Santa Claus finances all those toys, as a man in a Santa cap robs a Solano Beach bank before making his escape by bike.

And Florida cyclist says that following a collision that left him seriously injured, the driver got out of the car, cussed him out, spit on him and left him lying in the middle of the road.

Nice.

………

I’ve got a lot to be thankful for this Thanksgiving, starting with the amazing support I’ve received from visitors to this site over the past few days.

As bad as things have been this year, they could be a lot worse. And there are a lot of people out there facing far bigger problems than mine.

So I hope you’ll join me, and take just a moment amid all the football and feasting and early Black Friday specials to find something to be truly thankful for.

And if the opportunity presents, lend a hand to someone in need, because there’s always someone a little worse off, and it doesn’t take much to make a difference.

So please, have a great Thanksgiving, however you celebrate it.

I’ll see you back here after the holiday.

Category: Morning Links / Tags: , , , ,

Happy Thanksgiving. And wish me luck.

November 27, 2013 / / 3 comments

First of all, please forgive my absence the past couple days.

While I try to write something every day — or every weekday anyway —  sometimes other obligations get in the way. Especially when the calendar calls for riding my bike to meetings downtown.

And as much as I enjoy the ride, time spent on my bike or in meetings is time I can’t spend writing.

Then again, there are other things that have been eating into my time lately.

As I’ve hinted at before, there are changes afoot at BikinginLA, as I make the transition bike blog to an advertising-supported bike news site. The first step will — hopefully — take place this weekend when my site is scheduled to move to a private web server.

It’s not going to be the whole new website I’d planned; not yet, at least. But it will allow me to do things I can’t do now, like accept advertising and put up a link for donations while I work on getting a whole new design online.

If everything goes as planned, you won’t notice the difference. Otherwise… well, let’s just hope for the best, shall we?

Although if you have this site bookmarked, you may want to change it from bikinginla.wordpress.com to just bikinginla.com. Both work now, but the latter will be the address going forward.

Finally, I know I’ve said it before.

But in this season of gratitude, let me take a moment to thank you for coming here. Because without you, and all those who take the time to visit here, nothing I have to say would mean anything.

And if you need a little help counting your blessings this year, or remembering what really matters, read this.

Hopefully, I’ll see you back here next week.

Until then, please accept my best wishes for a warm and wonderful Thanksgiving and a very happy Chanukah.

And stay safe out there.

Category: General / Tags: , ,

I’m back! Well, sort of…

May 15, 2013 / / 4 comments

Good news.

After 11 days without internet access, I’m finally back online. And the proud owner of a new MacBook Pro, thanks to your generosity and my wife’s overworked credit card.

It’s a long, complicated story, and not one I think anyone terribly wants to read.

Suffice it to say it involved the sudden death of my previous MacBook in mid-Tweet. On my wedding anniversary, no less. Followed by a convoluted comedy of errors involving Apple’s usually much better repair department, two non-functioning borrowed computers, and countless hours on the phone trying to figure out why I didn’t have functioning internet service on the rare occasions I had a functioning computer.

The day Apple called to tell me they couldn’t — or  more precisely, wouldn’t — repair my laptop was one of the lowest days of my life.

And yet, it lead, just hours later, to one of the most inspiring moments of my life, when the one email address I could access using my phone unexpectedly reported that someone had made a donation to my nearly forgotten PayPal account.

Followed by another. And another.

To say I was stunned is to put it mildly. It never would have occurred to me to ask my closest friends for help buying the replacement laptop I couldn’t afford — let alone people I only know through this blog. Or that anyone would want to dip into their own hard-earned funds to help me get back to writing it.

This is, in many ways, the hardest job I’ve ever had. And by far the most rewarding, even if it doesn’t pay a dime.

Which is something I obviously have to work on.

But thanks to you, I get to keep doing it. And I couldn’t be more grateful.

The donations eventually added up to a little over half the cost of the least expensive MacBook, along with a couple of badly outdated programs that had to be replaced after several years of non-updates before I could access the files I need on a daily basis.

And those are just the ones I had to have to get back to work; there are several others that will eventually need to be replaced before I’m back to full working strength.

So if anyone would still like to contribute, you can send a donation through PayPal to bikinginla at hotmail dot com.

But please, don’t feel obligated. I know as well as anyone how tight money can be these days; your continued readership is more than support enough.

Because it doesn’t matter what I have to say if no one wants to read it.

Finally, allow me to thank my friend thesqueak for filling in for me with Bike Week updates this week while I was still trapped in the seventh level of Unable to Connect to the Internet Hell.

And most of all, to the people listed below who dipped into their own wallets to help rescue me from it.

  • Danilla O.
  • Jessica D.
  • Mark J.
  • Vanessa G.
  • Todd M.
  • Michael E.
  • Brian N.
  • Nicholas A.
  • Joe R.
  • Steven H.
  • Todd R.
  • John L.
  • Harris M.
  • Chet K.
  • Michael B.
  • David H.
  • Michele C.
  • Dave M.
  • Philip L.

Update: We can add a few more extremely generous names to that list:

  • Vahe G.
  • Allen A.
  • Robert P.
  • Lisa L.
  • Richard R.
  • Kevin H.
  • Natalie C.
  • Philip W.
  • Gil S.
  • Glen S.
  • John H.

You guys truly amaze me. I can’t begin to tell you just how touched and humbled you’ve made me feel. And if there’s someone I’ve missed on that list, I sincerely apologize, and thank you as sincerely as I possibly can.

It’s going to take me a few days to get back up to speed. I’ve already spent over four hours today just sorting through the nearly 400 emails that piled up over the last near-dozen days.

Not to mention slogging through my blog to delete the many spam comments that managed to slip through the cracks while I was otherwise occupied.

So bear with me.

I hope to get back to bike news before the weekend, as well as filing in for Damien Newton on Streetsblog on Friday.

And to keep writing this blog as long as you’re willing to read it.

Category: General / Tags: , , ,
 
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