Morning links: Undead bike lanes in Beverly Hills, 11 routes to the Valley, and a harrowing Brit Jerry Brown

Maybe those Santa Monica Boulevard bike lanes through Beverly Hills aren’t dead yet, as residents in the Biking Black Hole call on council members to reconsider their extremely misguided vote.

And maybe LA leaders shouldn’t be allowed to drive, period.

Another Perfect Day ranks 11 routes from the Westside to the Valley. And says avoid Laurel Canyon at all costs.

Metro continues their monthly Why You Ride series by interviewing bike commuter and multi-cultural advocate “Rio” Jill Contreras.

Long Beachize maps out where bike share should work best in LA County.

The family of fallen Whittier rider Arturo Ornelas publicly disagrees with how his death was depicted in the local paper; can’t say I disagree after getting comments from eye witnesses. Thanks to Danny Gamboa for the heads-up. 

Nearly one in four household trips in California are now taken by some means other than motor vehicles; bike trips have nearly doubled from .08 in 2000 to 1.5% in 2010 – 2012.

A Santa Barbara paper offers good advice on bike path etiquette.

A Chico man is arrested for accidently shooting at a cyclist in an argument, after his friend calls police to falsely claim the unarmed rider had shot at them several times. I’m sure it made sense at the time.

State Assembly Member Mike Gatto’s bill mandating a six month license suspension for any hit-and-run passed the Public Safety Committee on a unanimous vote Tuesday. The bill would also provide up to six months in jail and a $1000 fine.

Fascinating long read on how we came to accept — or perhaps ignore — a culture of roadway deaths.

Speaking of which, five ideas from New York’s Vison Zero plan worth stealing.

Cyclist Collyn Ahart decries the “cult of the beginner” in women’s cycling. Wait, why can’t we appeal to experienced riders and beginners, hard core roadies and Cycle Chic cruisers? There’s no one right way to ride; we should have an all-of-the-above approach to promoting bicycling.

A close-passing British driver updates Monty Python’s dead — or maybe not quite — parrot skit.

Just in time for St. Patrick’s Day, the first Irish-made bicycle in 40-years goes to that legendary Irishman Barack O’Bama.

Finally, a British driver loses his job over one of the most frightening intentionally close passes I’ve seen. Can we still call it Jerry Browned if it’s across the pond? Thanks to Carlton Reid for the link.

5 comments

  1. Christian says:

    That pass was too close for comfort especially when the guy is towing a couple of trailers. Don’t like to see people lose their jobs but at the same time I’d rather that happen than the cyclist lose his life or limb. Good thing the rider had a video of it cause explaining how close that was would never do justice to how the video showed it.

  2. RyanG says:

    Hope the Hit & Run bill passes.

    I once got hit (while driving) by a super stoned guy who had oozed through a stop sign. We got out and chatted for a second before deciding to pull our cars over. He feigned pulling over and then drove off so slowly that I was able to write down his license plate number. My car was totaled, and I’m sure his insurance company wasn’t happy with him. However, my case with the police went nowhere (as far as I know – I kept up with it for about 1.5 months, but they always said “no one’s looked at it yet”).

    Would the bill include additional resources (funding/staff) for following up on the “trivial” hit & runs? (I recognize that since I wasn’t injured in my case, it wouldn’t be covered by the bill)

  3. kb says:

    After reading the article by the nephew and friend of two car victim’s I commented lastnight on that site’s moderated page. My comment can be seen there as it was approved.

    Because of the delay in part I also more concisely thereafter commented here. No trace nor notice to me of my comment being erased is found.

    I’m now remembering it finally. I noted that carmakers have been the enemy since MBA’s got involved and created what I refered to as ‘motorcity’ which is basically saying back then our elders created great wealth they passed down. SInce then it’s directed into carmakers pockets and millions of children or like gas chamber victims released from suffering on this planet without inheritance by being slain by the machines there inheritance instead purchased.

    The chronology shows the birth of the MAD organsitation is potentially suspicious. I’ve always said blame driving- not distracted or drunk etc. Driving. Period.

  4. […] mostly-infrastructure post from BikingInLA. Morning links: Undead bike lanes in Beverly Hills, 11 routes to the Valley, and a harrowing Brit Jer… And that video at the end was a terrifyingly close pass. It looked like the passenger side mirror […]

  5. Mark Elliot says:

    Just to clarify, Beverly Hills City Council didn’t vote on the bike lanes; a majority of three of our council simply said either lanes aren’t appropriate for the corridor (Krasne), too many questions about lanes remain (Gold) or “I said five years ago I wouldn’t support expanding the boulevard [to accommodate lanes] and I won’t” (Brien).

    There actually wasn’t a vote because 1) the projected cost of the project doubled, throwing into doubt exactly what kind of corridor we’ll see tomorrow; and 2) some members of council felt that staff has mishandled communications to council about the project.

    In short: a mess for the city and a slap to riders. You can read more about the project on our Better Bike Santa Monica Boulevard project page.

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