It’s a veritable link and video-palooza today on BikinginLA.
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Caught on video: This is what anti-bike harassment looks like, in all it’s brutal ugliness.
Here in LA, this video would be all the evidence needed to file — and win — a suit against the driver under the city’s cyclist anti-harassment ordinance.
Instead, the Kentucky cyclist, Cherokee Schill, was charged and convicted for the crime of riding a bike in the traffic lane. And the police look the other way when she’s threatened and harassed by angry motorists.
Which is a polite way of saying they don’t give a damn because they don’t think she belongs there to begin with.
Fortunately, she’s less than $200 away from the $10,000 needed to appeal her illegal conviction.
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Caught on video: Before Governor Brown signed the current three-foot passing law, he vetoed a much better version that would have allowed drivers to briefly cross the center line to pass cyclists when it was safe to do so, fearing endless carnage and lawsuits.
Even though the state is largely immune from being sued. But still.
Evidently, it’s not that big a deal, as this video from the Austin TX police department shows.
Any chance we could get Brown to watch this?
No, I didn’t think so.
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Caught on video: An irate woman berates a Chicago cyclist for riding on the sidewalk, nearly getting herself arrested in the process. And being unclear on the concept, tells him to ride in the street before wishing he gets hit by a car, which is probably why he was on the sidewalk to begin with.
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Caught on video: I missed this one earlier this year, as three cyclists experience a viscous goathead attack on the San Gabriel River trail. Thanks to David Wolfberg for the link.
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And one more while we’re at it.
Caught on video: Wolfpack Hustle offers video of the recent Huntington Park Gran Prix.
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Good advice, as a writer suggests three things all cyclists should do.
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Great idea. UCLA is hosting Bike (Re)cycling Day on Sunday the 19th; the university’s police and transportation departments will give out free abandoned bikes and parts to UCLA students, staff and faculty members.
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If you hurry, you may still be able to make one last training ride today before next Saturday’s first ever El Gran Fondo de Angeles Crest. And my apologies for not getting this notice up sooner.
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LocalOkay, so it’s not bike related. But in an apparent case of induced demand, travel times on the 405 freeway have increased a full minute following the $1 billion —that’s billion with a b — project to add an HOV lane through the Sepulveda pass.
Good news for Valley cyclists, as the second phase of the San Fernando Road bike path opens.
Turns out there will be three workshops to discuss the Las Virgenes Malibu Regional Bike Master Plan, in Malibu on the 21st, Westlake Village on the 22nd and Calabasas on the 23rd of this month.
The Pasadena Star-News calls out one of the San Gabriel Valley’s most bike unfriendly cities while endorsing Eric Sunada for Alhambra city council. Thanks to Wesley Reutimann for the tip.
Haven’t checked in with Cycling in the South Bay’s Seth Davidson for awhile; here he puts the great helmet debate in perspective.
State
Evidently, the DMV has reworked their website and made everything harder to find, including bike laws.
Around 4,000 people took part in last Sunday’s first ever Santa Ana ciclovia.
A San Diego writer says the new three-foot law will increase tensions with drivers, but gets it right in calling for more protected bike lanes. Another writer on the same site calls cyclists “scourges of the road,” while decrying that bikes aren’t required to stay three feet from drivers; seriously, I could spend all day just pointing out the fallacies in this piece of bikelash drivel.
Palm Springs gets its first bike corral.
Caltrans did the right thing for a change, building a pedestrian bridge and off-road bike path connecting Ventura and Santa Barbara Counties as part of a six-mile carpool lane project; I’m told it has dramatically improved safety for riders along the coast highway. Thanks to Alan for the heads-up.
Too typical. Santa Cruz creates up a sandwich sign to warn drivers to give cyclists three feet. Then puts it in the bike lane.
Yet another teenage driver faces charges in the hit-and-run death of a bike rider, this time in Milpitas.
A Monterrey couple ride 2,300 miles to attend their 50th reunion in Kansas.
San Francisco cyclists are the victims of violent assaults to steal the bikes they’re riding.
National
A blogger offers a great list of some truly badass biking women, including Elly Blue and our own Nona Varnado.
In the latest attempt to thin the herd by enabling more distracted drivers, a new app promises to let drivers use all their apps behind the wheel.
Despite that, it looks like the Feds are finally taking bike safety seriously, as the Department of Transportation releases new guidelines to make the streets safer for you and me. Maybe they could ban the use of onboard computer systems by drivers next.
A bike-friendly Portland convenience store finds sales exceed expectations, as 34% of customers arrive some way other than driving.
Unclear on the concept. An Ohio driver complains about cyclists riding in the traffic lane, then insists bike riders need to act like motorists.
Yet another caught on video, but one that can’t be embedded: A cyclist accuses a Penn university cop of using excessive force in a confrontation partially caught on camera.
After a New York driver runs down a cyclist from behind — and is found at fault by her own insurance company — she sues the victim for damaging her car. No, really.
Bike Snob introduces you to suddenly bike-friendly New York.
International
Here’s what’s wrong with London’s pie-in-the-sky proposals that would remove bike riders from the street.
“Old men in limos” are working behind the scenes to derail London’s plan for separated bike lanes.
The Daily Mail freaks out when Kerri Russell rides a bike sans helmet and talking on a cell phone.
A former British soldier recalls liberating a Dutch town in World War II by bicycle 70 years ago.
Sad to see Andy Schleck retire from pro racing at 29, after a career that started with such promise.
Okay, so maybe bicycling isn’t really the fastest form of transportation in Perth. Then again, the results might be a little different coming from a less biased source, no?
Finally…
Probably not a good idea to ask your Twitter followers to shoot another bike journalist, even if you’re not serious. Or especially if you are. If you profess to be a psychic, don’t channel a recently fallen rider, all the details of which could probably be found by picking up the local paper.
And one more benefit of bicycling — you probably won’t have a secret police file from scanning your license plates.
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Thanks to John Hall for his generous donation to help support this site.
