It doesn’t look like I’m going to make Sunday’s South LA CicLAvia, even though it’s shaping up as possibly the best CicLAvia ever.
So go in my place. Have fun.
And say hello to LA’s historic undiscovered country south of the Santa Monica Freeway.
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CicLAvia leads KNBC’s list of things to do this weekend. The South LA community looks forward to their big day on LA’s center stage, while Streetsblog looks at what’s on tap all along the route.
The Militant Angeleno offers his must read guide to the South LA CicLAvia route; seriously, no one knows LA’s history and significant cultural sites better. No, really, click on the damn link, already.
And the new Silverlake Shinola hosts a neighborhood block party to celebrate its Grand Opening just as CicLAvia comes to a close; Angel City Brewery will be there to aid your post ride recovery.
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If CicLAvia isn’t in your plans, you can show your respect for a fallen rider killed by an LA sheriff’s deputy — who escaped without even the usual slap on the wrist — with Sunday’s Ceremonial Spin with the family of Milt Olin.
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The LAPD introduces a new traffic safety campaign.
Do I really need to mention that the first ad blames bike riders for getting themselves killed — even though none of the 11 cyclists killed in the city this year died as a result of running a stop sign?
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LocalThe response from drivers to the LA Times’ recent story about bike-involved hit-and-runs is to blame the damn cyclists for getting hit. So evidently, they think running away after running down a cyclist is justified? Now that’s scary.
LA’s new bike lanes are just a step in the right direction towards improving traffic congestion and air quality.
Two LA city councilmembers introduce motions to fix those bad roadway patches that can make a bike ride miserable or take a rider down.
State
Calbike comes up with an aggressive agenda for next year, including requiring insurance companies to pay for collisions drivers cause, even if they aren’t directly involved.
The OC Weekly misinterprets the Newport Beach safety crackdown as targeting bad bicyclists, pedestrians and motorcyclists, even though the plan is to target all violations that endanger vulnerable users, whoever commits them.
National
GoPro is trying to, uh, go pro.
The Women’s Road World Cup will come back to the US next year.
People for Bikes reaches one million riders; you’ll find my name somewhere around the first thousand or so.
Tucson cyclists now enjoy over 1,000 miles of bicycling infrastructure. Although I’m not sure bike routes should count.
St. Paul hopes to catch up with its bike friendly twin city with a comprehensive new bike plan.
Tension still exists between cyclists and drivers in bike friendly Chattanooga. Just like everywhere else.
Orlando cyclists illegally stick to the sidewalk because they’re afraid to ride in the street.
International
The BBC says Bolivia’s Death Road has become the hot new route for risk-taking mountain bikers; the photos alone are worth the click.
We’re winning, at least overseas. Bikes are creating more jobs in Europe than carmakers in the US.
Even getting filmed kicking another London rider off his bike into rush hour traffic isn’t good enough for more than a warning.
Sometimes expensive mechanical problems aren’t.
At least we only have to worry about LA drivers. Rome’s bike-riding mayor may have to start taking a limo to the office after his life is threatened by mobsters.
A Helsinki study shows what I’ve always suspected — slower speed limits move traffic more efficiently.
An auto-centric Aussie coroner responds to the death of a cyclist by saying bikes should be banned from the motorway he was riding on, rather than suggesting motorists could conceivably drive more safely.
Finally…
At 1,500 an hour, the best way to burn off those holiday calories could be fat biking. Bring your Christmas tree home by bike. Ride inside this winter with your own DIY rollers for just $32.
And in case you were wondering, the AP says Kris Kringle should be spelled with a double S, and Chanukah without the C; meanwhile MAMIL makes the Oxford English Dictionary, along with carne asada and Secret Santa.
I had no idea any tire could be useful with only a few pounds per inch of pressure in but MH says some snow is best pedaled with half and two above atmospheric… i wonder what works well in sand and what beaches and drive trains tolerate us churning off our lard peddling lowest gear fast not just hard? .Seems like any bigger and those tires can add Sea to there terrain making triathlons much more interesting…perhaps call them quathlons and go snow, sand, road then river riding for the wet not just icy finish.
Reading those letters to the Times, I substituted “selling loosies” for “running stop signs” and couldn’t help noting the same sort of mindsets lacking both empathy and proportionality. While the Eric Garner case is far more serious as it was meted out under the color of authority, street justice, whether institutional or individual, is corrosive to our society.
Is that video a joke? Every rider I know obeys the rules of the road. None of us run stop signs or lights — unlike the many drivers we see every day running red lights and stop signs, especially when making right turns or trying to “beat the light” making a left turn.
Anyone who rides in Venice, CA sees most every bicyclist run stops signs, especially at the Venice Roundabout at SB Windward Av. and Main St. LAPD motor officers could easily write hundreds of tickets in an eight hour weekend day.
to be fair to the LAPD, are “obey the rules of the road” videos urging drivers to use hands-free cell phones and not to text while driving. And I stopped going through stop signs due to one close call with the car and the realization that there are enough other bicyclists now that the chances of two bicyclists running stop signs at right angles is increased.