Let’s catch up with some of the recent news.
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A Burbank writer reminds us that dangers can hide in a seemingly innocuous pile of wet leaves. Meanwhile, Patrick Pascal send photographic proof of the damage and debris lurking on area bike trails following last weekend’s storm.
Post-storm debris on the LA River bike path; photo by Patrick Pascal.
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So, neither Santa Monica Spoke’s Cynthia Rose or BikeSD’s Sam Ollinger won the award for Bike Advocate of the Year, which went to Nelle Pierson of the Washington Area Bicyclist Association.
On the other hand, the organization Ollinger founded won for Advocacy Organization of the Year.
Maybe next year they’ll have an award for bike news/advocacy website of the year. It could happen.
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Bad news, as the annual — and extremely popular — Marathon Crash Race has been cancelled at the demand of city officials, despite repeated efforts to work with the city. Shockingly, after a year of planning, Bureau of Street Services officials threatened organizers with arrest if the ride went on as planned.
Oddly, I didn’t know BSS had the authority to arrest anyone. Or that they were running the city now.
Who knew the city was going to become leo much ess fun and bike-friendly under the Garcetti administration?
It should also be noted that the Marathon Crash Race only came into existence after 2009 when the new owner of the LA Marathon, Frank McCourt, cancelled the popular Los Angeles Bike Tour that had proceeded the marathon since 1995.
Maybe the real bad guy here is the very rich, influential and extremely unpopular former Dodgers owner.
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Flying Pigeon hosts the monthly Spoke(n) Art ride this Saturday; the same day, the Ballona Land Trust is hosting a bird-watching bike ride on the Ballona Creek bike path and Ballona Wetlands.
A memorial service was held last week for fallen cyclist and Cal Poly Pomona student Ivan Aguilar. Nice to see he hasn’t been forgotten, and that real changes are being made to improve bike and pedestrian safety on campus.
Here’s your chance to offer your input on the draft Newport Beach Bicycle Master Plan.
It’s been a bad few days in San Diego, as a bike rider gets stabbed following an argument on a trolley platform, and another rider suffers life-threatening injuries in an apparent solo fall.
Temecula’s Sarah Hammer wins her second consecutive world omnium title at the UCI Track World Championships.
Red Kite Prayer asks if it’s too soon to forgive Levi Leipheimer and other members of Generation EPO. I have an unopened poster autographed by Leipheimer that I can’t decide what to do with since it’s sure as hell not going on my wall.
Advice on how to ride comfortably in the rain. I used to regularly ride in the worst weather until one day it occurred to me I didn’t have to; hats off to those who do.
People for Bikes says every cyclist riding on a sidewalk is a vote for a protected bike lane, which says a lot about Northeast LA.
Topeka could raise its draconian 5 mph speed limit for bikes on the sidewalks; I have a hard time riding mine that slowly without falling over.
Why Virginia cyclists are screwed by a system that treats scofflaw riders equally to dangerous drivers.
The Guardian goes on a search for the most bike-friendly metropolis, and finds the US still coping with the aftermath of the not-so-swinging vehicular cycling ‘70s.
A long-time London bike shop has stopped allowing customers into the store without first passing through a reception area to stop people from shopping in the store and then buying online. Yes, you may be able to save money online, but it will cost you in service for the life of your bike.
A 94-year old UK rider is killed in a collision with a car — just 100 yards from where his brother was killed in 1945.
Road raging South African cyclists are caught on video attacking a van driver. Seriously, don’t do that.
Not surprisingly, Aussie women prefer safer riding routes; on the other hand, a Kiwi cyclist says ban cyclists from a popular trail.
Finally, thanks to former pro cyclist Phil Gaimon, your next riding jersey could implore drivers not to run you over.
I could have used that one myself awhile back.
It still bothers me that cyclists asking drivers to please not kill them is not even being done ironically, but at full face value. “Hey there, fellow road user, would you be so kind as to NOT KILL ME? Yes, thank you.” What bothers me worse is that when we do get hit or killed there is little to no cost to the driver. I hardly ever hear of a sober driver that kills a cyclist ever getting prison time unless he had a history of running down cyclists. And even then there are at least one or two dead or seriously injured cyclists in his wake before criminal sanctions begin, like in the C. Thompson case, or that truck driver that killed 3 cyclists in 3 separate wrecks before someone connected the dots after the Alpine Rd. death.
Well, sure. We’ve normalized dangerous driving. So when a dangerous driver kills someone, why should they be punished? They were just doing something normal, and happened to get unlucky because there was a cyclist in the way.
The way to fix this is not to come down hard on dangerous drivers who happen to kill someone. The way to fix it is to punish ALL dangerous drivers, even if they don’t kill anybody.
This worked for drunk driving. Now you can be punished for driving drunk even if you don’t hurt anybody. We need to do the same thing for aggressive driving that we did for drunk driving.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DWaX9DwM4nE
BSS LA has an enforcement div. (cop cars, guns handcuffs)
Did not know that before.
I thought the Marathon Crash was welcomed as a sweep of the course that didn’t have to be paid for by the organizing committee. What happened last year to change that?
[…] BikingInLA had a mostly infrastructure post this morning. Morning links: Lurking storm debris, a victory for our southern neighbors, and LA kills the Marathon… […]