BikinginLA

Local

Longtime LA livability advocate Ezra Horne calls for a last-ditch effort to save the Riverside-Figueroa bridge as an urban park.

Streetsblog offers two more perspectives on LA’s draft Mobility Plan, including LACBC board member Herbie Huff.

Teaching bike safety to LA school kids.

If you want to get to work faster in West Hollywood, leave earlier or take a bike; turns out WeHo bike riders are among the city’s most affluent commuters.

Eighty-eight-year old Dick Van Dyke and wife buy a pair of apparent recumbents from an unnamed LA-area bike shop.

 

State

Streetsblog updates the status of transportation-related bills in the state legislature, including the renamed bike tax; a rose by any other name still has its thorns.

A well-deserved four years in prison for an OC hit-and-run driver who killed a 75-year old pedestrian.

San Diego’s Ocean Beach is the latest SoCal site to get a bike share program before LA.

Major metaphorical train wreck by the Bay as gay-bashing 49ers cornerback Chris Culliver is arrested for fleeing the scene after running down a cyclist while driving with a suspended license. Then he threatens a witness with brass knuckles, before crashing into the witness’ car while trying to flee again.

Sacramento homeowners literally say not-in-my-backyard to a proposed bike path.

 

National

Gizmodo offers a self-described bullshit-free guide to the gear you need to commute by bike. Yes, there’s some good advice there, but the only thing you really need to commute by bike is one. And the will to use it.

When a Waterford CT boy complains to police about speeding traffic, they respond by pulling over scofflaw drivers the next day.

Bike lanes on New York’s Roosevelt Island bridge may be too dangerous to use.

Despite its proven success, the New York Post calls the Citi Bike program a “dubious venture,” but concedes there may be a place for them “if they don’t kill too many folks…” Current number of people killed by Citi Bike riders: zero.

 

International

A British rider offers a personal message to the truck driver who Jerry Browned him because he wants the driver to know how it feels to be passed too close.

Meanwhile, a British driver admits to left-hooking a cyclist she didn’t see and nearly knocking off another. But bikes are the problem, not her crappy driving.

Two UK women ride halfway around the world on bamboo bicycles.

A Polish rider barely escapes injury — or worse — when he passes a street car, then makes an ill-advised cutback across the tracks.

Growing numbers of bike riders cause Victoria Australia to reconsider the need for more bike parking.

A bike riding Kiwi driver complains about those damn group riders in their “click-on shoes and their lycra pants,” while a New Zealand cyclist is told to “f**k off” and “learn how to ride a f**king bike” after complaining to company about one of their aggressive drivers.

 

Finally…

Finally, your next bike could be made from laminated wood and recycled soda cans. Or maybe you’d rather know what it’s like to ride in zero gravity.

And in light of recent events, let’s not forget your bike is going to be your most reliable form of transportation when the big one hits.