Morning Links: Maybe you do need bike self-defense, two new bike jobs and a jewel-encrusted mountain bike

There seems to be a common theme today, as at least five bike riders are attacked or robbed in news stories from around the world.

Fortunately, there’s also a story on how to use your bike for self defense. Let’s hope it works.

……..

Just because paint goes on the street doesn’t it will stay there.

Boise prepares to remove bike lanes even though they don’t slow traffic and haven’t caused any wrecks, while San Antonio riders protest a vote to remove lanes there.

Meanwhile, bicycling explodes on streets with two-way cycle tracks, even though they may not be a good idea. And People for Bikes says intersections on protected bikeways are jaw-droppingly safe.

……..

Local

No surprise here, as Los Angeles commuters face the nation’s worst traffic. Or at least, the ones who don’t ride bikes or take transit do.

The BAC gives Councilmember Gil Cedillo’s rep a well-deserved earful on North Figueroa.

If you need a new job, CicLAvia needs a new Director of Community Engagement. And CalBike is looking for a Development and Communications Director, which would seem to require two distinct and unrelated job skills.

You’re invited to Ride Around Pomona this Saturday.

 

State

As if we didn’t have enough to worry about from motorists, a Fontana bike rider is robbed at gunpoint by occupants of a passing car.

This year’s San Francisco to LA AIDS LifeCycle ride raises $15 million for HIV/AIDS-related services.

The CHP is searching for a truck driver who fled the scene after hitting a Sonoma cyclist.

 

National

Yahoo Finance says if you want to save money, buy a bike or transit pass.

A new gyroscope-equipped bike takes the falls out of learning to ride, but will kids who learn that way be able to balance a regular bike on their own later?

Seriously, if Anchorage can be one of the nation’s top cities for bike commuting, what the hell is our problem? I mean, besides elected officials who single-handedly block much needed bike lanes?

A Tucson cyclist is used for target practice by a thankfully aim-challenged gunman.

Denver’s mayor calls attention to the hit-and-run epidemic, which clearly knows no boundaries.

Dallas police use the city’s misguided helmet law to target poor and minority riders, rather than enforce safety.

An Ohio man is riding cross-country on an ebike. At age 80, I think we can cut him some slack.

Stylish New Yorkers pose with their bikes; clearly, they have a different definition of stylish than I do.

An Atlanta runner attacks a bike rider after shouting anti-gay slurs.

 

International

I now qualify for Team Novo Nordisk, which is competing in Canada this week. Or I would if I was a lot faster these days.

An English writer does his best to suck all the joy out of riding with his 17 rules to not be a “fish and chips” cyclist, whatever the hell that means.

A UK driver gets away with killing a cyclist while speeding because authorities used the wrong kind of speed limit sign.

An Oxford, England rider is dragged off his bike by a scissor-wielding attacker.

Caught on video: A South African cyclist is bike jacked at gunpoint, and catches the theft — and thief — on his GoPro. Note to would-be thieves: always take the camera.

A different kind of bicycling injury, as a Singapore woman is in a coma after being hit by a bike wheel thrown from an apartment.

 

Finally…

How to use your bike for self-defense; yes, a similar piece ran last year, but this one has cool animated GIFs. A news columnist admits to parking — and driving a race car — in Toronto bike lanes, but insists the riders who complain about it are the real problem.

But would he still try to block you if you were riding a solid gold, jewel encrusted mountain bike?

Probably.

 

7 comments

  1. bike2hike says:

    Yahoo Finance says if you want to save money, buy a bike or transit pass. YEAH THINK! It’s been 4yrs since I personally gave up my car and the benefits of saving money has been tenfold.

  2. Car-free since 1995, unemployed because of brain damage since 2002 and still living in suburbia. Even getting rid of a paid-for car saves you money.

  3. PatrickGSR94 says:

    That People for Bikes article is ridiculous. The 1-week observation is a stupidly small window to try to gain any kind of useful data.

    As someone else commented: “You could observe cyclists riding in door zones for a week without observing any doorings or any “minor conflicts”. Does that mean riding
    in door zones is “jaw-droppingly safe”?

    You could observe motorists tailgating each other for a week without observing any crashes and only a few “minor conflicts”. If you did, would you conclude that
    tailgating is “jaw-droppingly safe”?

    You could observe motorists driving at .10 BAC for a week without incident… so drunk driving is “jaw-droppingly safe”?

    You could observe motorists texting while driving for a week without incident too… so texting while driving is “jaw-droppingly safe”?

    Yet one week of observation with only a few “minor conflicts” is the entire basis that the geniuses at peopleforbikes (they’re not, by the way, people for bicyclists) has for concluding that so-called “protected
    bike lanes” are “jaw-droppingly safe”.”

    • bikinginla says:

      Bull. I guarantee you if I ride for over 140 hours, I’ll have far more than one close call. And that’s a skilled cyclist with over 30 years of riding experience.

      • PatrickGSR94 says:

        And yest I sometimes ride for a number of weeks with zero close calls, using the full lane almost all of the time.

        The point is that one week of observation is not nearly long enough to make the broad claim that 2-way bike lanes are “jaw-droppingly safe”.

        There is a 2-way path that runs alongside Scenic US 98 in Destin and Miramar Beach that I rode along a number of times last year when I was down there. I had so many close calls with cars pulling out, especially when I was going against the traffic nearest to me, that I took to using the road exclusively right there.

        • bikinginla says:

          I get what you’re saying. But look at it this way.

          My average ride is 3 – 4 hours. Even using the most conservative measure, that works out to 36 rides for 144 hours. Do you mean to tell me you could ride four hours a day, every day for a month, and never have a close call with a driver? If that’s the case, I want to ride where you do.

          That’s not to say every protected bike lane is equal. There are crappy ones out there, just as there are good ones. And there’s a reason 2-way cycle tracks have largely gone out of favor, even though some were included in the study.

  4. Ralph says:

    A couple of concerns with the 2 way lanes. The first being the width of the curb side lane if used. It looks like the examples show a good portion of the lane being the gutter pan. This makes that lane more dangerous. When I ride in a bike lane with a gutter pan I ride much further to the left. Our codes in Santa Clara County say the gutter pan isn’t supposed to count as lane width. Realistically it is counted.

    Also I would have to see how intersections are handled. I think they can be good for long open stretches but I’m not sold on in city multi-crossing areas.

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