BikinginLA

Imagine my surprise. Here I’ve pictured myself a lonely voice crying in the bicycle wilderness, and it turns out I may not be so lonely after all.

As part of the continuing coverage of the July 4^th Mandeville Canyon incident, KABC-7 did a follow-up report on yesterday’s evening news (thanks to laist.com for posting the link — if KABC has it online, they’re doing a damn good job of hiding it). As part of that report, they mentioned that L.A. city council member Bill Rosendahl has endorsed the Cyclist’s Bill of Rights.

Say what?

That sent my little fingers running to the Google, as our fearless leader calls it, which told me I could read all about it here. Not only did I discover an effort by my fellow cyclists to help keep us all safe and alive, I found out there is actually a community of writers focused on bicycling.

Obviously, I’ve got some reading to do. For instance, here’s a good post on California bike laws and road safety.

Meanwhile, this Cyclist’s Bill of Rights seems to make a lot of sense, and it beats the heck out of my best idea, which was to wear a jersey reading “Thank you for not killing me today.”

Personally, I’m fond of N^os. 3 & 4, based on my own personal experience (see my post from July 8, Road rage against the machine).  But the whole thing makes a great platform for future city planning, as well as giving cyclists a voice in the community, and — finally — the equal protection under the law even, yes, bicyclists are promised under the Constitution.

Frankly, I thought my rabble-rousing days were long over, but it looks like we’ve all got some politicking to do. You can contact the Mayor of Los Angeles here — just don’t expect anyone to actually get back to you (again, based on my own personal experience) — and you can find contact information for city council members here.

And if you ride Mandeville Canyon, don’t forget to attend Rosendahl’s Town Hall meeting on Monday, July 14 starting at 6:30p to discuss how bicyclists and residents can co-exist in the canyon. (Thanks to la.streetsblog.org for posting the notice, since even Rosendahl’s own website doesn’t make any mention of it yet.)