Maybe it’s something in the water, as today’s news brings a rash of road rage and otherwise intentional assaults, mostly involving cyclists.
First up, a Leavenworth KS driver pulls a Dr. Thompson, slamming on his brakes before backing up and swerving his truck into a group of cyclists; thanks to David Huntsman for the heads-up.
A pregnant Michigan cyclist may have been intentionally targeted in a hit-and-run last month. A Florida driver is dead after attacking a cyclist with an ax handle in a road rage attack, then collapsing after taking a punch to the face. A UK driver is convicted of beating up a cyclist who clipped his mirror, even though the rider didn’t cause any damage.
Not surprisingly, when an off-duty cop gets killed riding his bike, they consider it homicide; when anyone else does, it’s just an accident.
An Oregon man arrested for repeatedly sabotaging a popular mountain bike trail. And a Tiburon man is arrested for trying to run over a pedestrian because he didn’t his plaid jacket.
No, really.
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There’s been quite a conversation about the Cycle Chic movement going on online over the past few days, sparked by a critique Copenhagenize’s Mickael Colville-Andersen offered by the incomparable Elly Blue.
The Reno Rambler calls it fascism, while Modal Mom defends the movement. And the over 50 comments to Blue’s original article are well worth reading, including this one by Lizbon.
As far as I’m concerned, it doesn’t matter what you ride, where you ride, how you ride, why you ride or what you where.
Wear whatever you want, and just ride.
Then again, there’s more than one way to express cycle chic.
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I thought I had reported on this story last week, but can’t find it anywhere.
According to KTLA-5, an arrest has been made in the case of Alex Patrick Silva, the 25-year old Fontana cyclist who was killed in a Rancho Cucamonga hit-and-run earlier this month.
Fifty-seven-year old Fontana resident Mark Sanders reportedly turned himself in to sheriff’s deputies at the Rancho Cucamonga station while detectives were searching his home after serving a warrant. He was booked on a charge of hit-and-run resulting in death, and is now free on $100,000 bail.
My apologies for not reporting this earlier.
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A San Francisco photographer asks your help to finance a project on Kickstarter to capture images of ghost bikes throughout the East Coast and Midwest.
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The Bicycle Film Festival returns to Los Angeles this October, with a kick-off party at historic El Cid in Silver Lake on the 11th, followed by the debut of The Contender, the first BFF-produced film at Cinefamily on the 12th.
Other screenings will take place at the Downtown Independent theater from 11 am to 10 pm on Saturday the 13th, with an all-ages DTLA block party the next day from 10 am to 6 pm. Convergence rides are planned for the various events. Email volunteerla@bicyclefilmfestival.com for more information or to volunteer.
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I had an interesting meeting this morning with Odysseus Bostick, who just announced his candidacy for L.A. City Council in District 11, currently held by Councilmember Bill Rosendahl.
It should be an interesting race; Bostick is a cyclist and a strong supporter of bicycling, while Rosendahl has been the L.A. cycling community’s best friend on the council.
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Streetsblog’s Damien Newton offers an exceptionally in-depth two-part interview with L.A.’s bike and transportation-oriented mayor. A Pasadena Gran Fondo rider says that cop didn’t need to ticket him for running a stop sign — just to be clear, there is no requirement in the California Vehicle Code to put your foot down to come to a full stop; thanks to Meghan Lynch for the tip. San Diego cyclists ride to call attention to the dangers on local streets, urging cyclists and divers to use the roads safely. A writer makes a wise call for greater safety in the cycling community.
Traffic fatalities are up over 13% for the first quarter of 2012. How to file a claim for bike damage following a collision. An Oregon rider asks if you have a mangina. The Alaska schmuck man who repeatedly punched a seven-year old girl to steal her bike has been convicted. A Boulder CO intersection claims a second cyclist in just three years. Red Kite Prayer reports on RAGBRAI. A Boston writer decries the 400 bikes soon to be added to the city’s bike share program. A DC study says the way to encourage employees to bike to work is to provide showers and bike parking.
A writer calls Australia’s mandatory helmet law a disaster. The tragic dooring of a New Zealand cyclist leads a coroner to ask if bike riders should be required to use bike lanes.
Finally, if you really want drivers to see you at night, skip the hi-viz clothing and get a glow-in-the-dark bike. And everyone knows only cyclists run stop signs or use the wrong side of the road, right?
I do not thinking that the bike sharing story had anything negative to say beyond it surveying and it’s opening line/headline being unfortunate.
I do think though that innovation is being stifled by these profit driven low quality rack systems that are being installed instead of bike racks anyone can use.
Obviously there is a problem with providing free ANYTHING parking to just anyone, but clearly if the city is giving it away then a $70 plus annual fee to meter it on top of advertising revenue etc. is not an efficient way to allocate the parking.
I do think that having unmanned bikes or if necessary ‘trikes’ roving the streets even if not just to return to base or meet there next rider is consistent with providing bait to catch reckless cars before they hit any occupied vehicle. I do not think sacrificing street parking tothose racks is very consequential compared to finding secure space for the bikes to sleep but believe host homes would probably be the best policy andmany would host a bike during the offpeak periods just to get perks in using it for less.
The income for parking meters is small. You can make a lot more renting bikes out of them then the meters collect from cars in general.
The investment in ‘smart’ parking meters in Los Angeles is apparently based upon there ability to pay off that investment rather then any ratioinal cost benefit analysis but it’s my hope and assumption individual post systems are no longer being bought.
I want to hear about cooperatively owned bike sharing systems please. We can’t trust the government to treat us fairly by dealing with it as individuals in lettting it select behind closed doors a for profit company that is unlikely to best equip for our interests with ‘our’ in my use of the term meaning FUTURE adopters not the present motley collection of people who tend to ride for the wrong reasons in far toohigh a pecentage because we are so small a pecentage presently ofhte general population.
IT IS VERY CLEAR that instead of spending public funds to efficiently use roadside space for bike parking they instead jump on this cynical shenanigan of low quality billboard absolutey marginalising growth retarding poop.
And almost all of us gullible gobble up the propiganda.
UPgrade parking meters to charge less for people who only need a portion of a car space- and the multispace kiosks could direct bikes to the space not yet filled or intelligently avoid more then one space being only partially filled for long.
Can you imagine how nice it would beif we could share parkingspaces for the fraction of them we use and little more then that fractional cost? Or even get the 90 minutes free in a garage inSanta monica etc? With a video camera watching over every space and archiving the video if not doing face scans of everyone entering htebuilding soon if not too soon or already?
To not have to bring the lock with us specifically is the leastwe can expect.
But instead we are finding ourselves in cities with huge bike sharing programs but no place to lock our bikes unless we lug the lock around with us! First shared locks- then and only then obviously should extravagances like shared ‘bum’ wheels be even an issue.
Bikes too lousy to steal are not what we need- we need racks that lock in ways that prevent completely theft. WE need shared bikes that are better not worse then what we can afford to own if not park.
P.S.
I’ve never seen a meter on a bike locker in my life in person. Walmart etc. has them and prgress has been installing windows but windows cost less then a timer displaying how long it’s been since the door has been open which is basically what the security guards in parking lots do for cars. It doens’thave to collect money or automaticlaly lock or unlock. It should perhaps tell you what combination will unlock it next and have a master key security can remove bikes violating the time limit for. These shared bike racks are more compact then lockers so bike haters should be rejoicing instead of bitching. We deserve far more space and should be paying as much as necessary for it to not sell out. The best way to get cars out of cities is to price parkiong outoo of there reach. WE dont’ need tobe subsidised we just have to pay our fair share because then most car owners will be forced to quit with no indians helping them out unlike ‘tax’ schemes to help people quit smoking.
I mean it. LET US PAY DAMMIT.
I’m sorry but this is an epiphany. My hometown used to have ‘transit’ bike lockers for a apparently significant fee but it was so small that they’ve evicted them from downtown now despite them being well ussed by commuters not just homeless. THE fee should be high enough to ensure a very short if not completlely absent waiting list. Like with car meters ‘feeding’ the meter should be criminal. If your not paying per minute to park a bike your violating the law.
IN DTLA I did get a taste of what it’s like to not have any paid bike parking. You have only seconds to lock your bike before a security guard tells you you an’t park itthere- that thereis a rack wherever. Racks with no space though at libraries.
WE don’t need handouts- we need our money to be as good as the addicts. IN other coutnries of course automated bike parking garages more fully potentially efficiently exploit theotherwise mocked low weight of our vehicles. Here we suffer essentially having to let people wipe us in the form of valets on college campus’s that falsify the cost of accomidation by requiring someone be paid todo wha we prefer to do for ourselves- unlike car owners who really don’t prefer to drive regrardless of the ever fresh propiganda that might of been true before pong- but not since.
It’s not about bike lanes! It’sabout parking. Ample, unsubsidized but efficinetly provided parking. IF we get that, we can be the majority and quickly herein SOCAL.
SOCAL is special because of the number of days a year that cars are not needed- ALL OF THEM!
Yes this means we don’t need to buy cars to plug up parking garages etc- we just need to be able to enjoy what cars have long enjoyed as “rights”- the right to use most of the space in a town,as much as they can pay for.
Let the bidding war begin! There is no way car owners can afford to win it. It’s just not possible. We have about the same funds to fight with- only we need a tiny fraction of the space they need, and they enjoy only a slight advantage in being better able toshare there vehicles then us. It’s ok if most of garages are still filled with cars inteads of bikes I guess- as long as the cost to park them has been bid up by us so man ytims more then it is now that only shared cars can afford to park there (and briefly)
If I wear plaid, will Mikael come after me with a rubber axe handle? 🙂
You mean he hasn’t?
Thanks for the link to the Elly Blue post. She put into words the thoughts and feelings that I’ve had about a lot of cycle chic stuff.
Reblogged this on euzicasa and commented:
If you bike: get a rear view mirror: Basic to monitor the traffic behind you. It’s more than peace of mind, it can save your life!