More on Sunday’s successful South LA CicLAvia.
Across LA offers photos from the day, calling it one of his favorite CicLAvia’s ever. Streetsblog says it was a great day for South LA.
And TJ Knight forwards KCBS-2’s report on the day, featuring his astute and too cute for words daughter around the 1-minute-plus mark.
I’m told turnout may have been a little lighter than previous events, due perhaps to the demands of the holiday season or distance from transit stations. The latter should be improved when the planned Leimert Park station opens on the upcoming Crenshaw Line in a few years.
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LocalThe Daily News looks at Sunday’s memorial ride for Milt Olin, just one of many fallen riders who should still be with us.
Clear your schedule for Sunday’s Santa Cross at Pierce College in Woodland Hills.
The Santa Monica Lookout looks at the local PD’s crackdown on bad roadway behavior that could endanger cyclists and pedestrians.
A 52-year old bike rider is shot to death in Santa Fe Springs.
State
Anaheim opens a new state-of-the-art, bike friendly transportation center. Now if they can just provide bike riders with safe, bike friendly routes to get there.
Santa Cruz County considers guidelines to protect cyclists, pedestrians and disabled travelers during road construction projects, something that seems to be universally ignored here in LA, both city and county.
National
The National Journal examines the bicycling gender gap, while City Lab says local bike shops could serve women a lot better.
Peloton says if you want to go faster, switch to an oval chain ring.
Santa Fe’s mayor proposes making the city a safer place to ride a bike.
Now here’s a unique argument. Bike cops at Colorado State University are accused of violating the Fourth Amendment’s ban on unreasonable search and seizure by stopping cyclists riding without lights or through dismount zones. Although it would seem both are readily apparent without conducting an illegal search.
My Colorado hometown hosts a Winter Bike to Work Day on Wednesday. Seriously, is there any reason we shouldn’t do that right here in sunny LA?
International
A British man suffers a serious injury falling from his bike. So naturally, local officials suggest banning bikes from the town center. I wonder that they’d do if someone tripped.
A Brit bike rider is convicted of dangerous cycling for walking his dog while he rode. The cop, who apparently doesn’t get out much, claims he’d never seen anything like it.
France prepares to crack down on rogue bike riders.
Copenhagenize offers daily updates on Viking Biking, proving that it really is possible to ride all winter, even in less tropic climes. Thanks to my bike riding and formerly Iditarod sled dog racing brother Eric for the heads-up.
Evidently, life is cheap Down Under, where fatally dooring an e-bike rider is only worth a lousy $1,200 fine — just under $1000 US.
Finally…
Apparently, Norwegian cyclists wear top hats instead of helmets. A Dubai website doesn’t get the joke that Bono was dressed in Hassidic attire when he had his Central Park bike accident, blaming the clothes he wasn’t actually wearing for actually causing the wreck.
And screw the drones, Amazon tries out Gotham bike messengers for one-hour delivery.
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Check back a little later today for a guest post featuring some amazing bike collision stats courtesy of longtime LA bike wonk and advocate Dennis Hindman.
I have always believed in oval chain rings and am perplexed how they never caught on. Perhaps less obviously intelligent control of hub motors means reducing there wattage when we can best compensate- copy left on that.
To put it another way a very very small super effecient power storing transmission can increase our average energy output by easally double digit percentages while only losing a few or perhaps in some clever flywheel designs under a percent.
Too much tradition clearly in drive train design. Internal combustion is going pure retrograde for range extension. The time for a human electric torque/traction design is now. A busload of contributing riders would be highway capable and emit only a cows worth of methane.
We have such rowboats in college. Cooperation beyond married stoker and captains can get us an entire lane on any highway. I am no fan of naked human power for lone commuters but we do not need two wheels or more for each joining a train or bus worth. For for however man is fine. Two or three times as fast, greater safety, no oil needed. Yet teen riders even act like the old failing ways are the only choice; bullshit, keep confusing wheels with sprockets until there is no space on the arc for you. We are far more square then round, respect the science despite the screeching sound.
P.S.
Does anyone really believe road bikes move weight more efficiently then cargo trains? We have all illiterately seen the commercials for Rail but even I never noted how inefficiently we in comparison convert water and sun etc. Into mass moved across miles. This is not a game. For most of our working years we can provide the mechanical power for all our mobility needs if we can surrender the steering. Highways are that defined. Soon intercity buses will only drop drivers in during entry and exit. To pay people or volunteer to steer all the the time is consumate EVIL. Efficiency comes from scale and we sit alone on our frames the greatest greenwashers humanity has ever known. Build 100 rider bikes and they will be ridden instead of SUVs driven. Nobody wants to hold still all the way to and from anywhere. Yet so far essentially all of us have been destroying everything doing that.
Flock people flock. Use your made wings in unison for once and you will never miss having to pretend to steer again.
Clarification about the Santa Cruz construction zone proposal — this is an update on an existing guideline and is published by bike / pedestrian advocates. It’s not an official document, but it has support from the county health office and our regional transportation district so it’s known by the county and city road departments, which does an okay job of thinking about accommodations for cyclists, pedestrians and the disabled for long-term projects.
Last I read there was nothing more energy-efficient than a human on a bicycle riding on a paved road on a calorie/pound basis for moving living things. Not sure how that translates into moving cargo.
The claim iz exhibit one in greenwashin indictment. Peloton is another word for flock no? Bikes fail to go fast enough on human power only beause we press too hard on tires at times and pedal our way through air alone generally. Many pedaling smooths downward thrusts, allows for efficient suspension and nearly zero turbulence per moved peRolling resiRolling
Dam keyboard… per person on board.
Steerings burde.should be shared smartly. Most would only want to be there to exercise, chill,and be moved. 100 athletes could exceed triple digit mph but 35 is plenty. We must not forever conflate recreation with commuting interests. Such a train could self assemble from smaller grouped human contraptions on on ramps.
Be honest. Hundreds of tikmes a year commuting alone sucks, gas or otherwise. We already mindlessly peddle into parked trucks lethally as things stand. Each day volunteers To steer would be easally found all.eager and fresh.
Computers makeorganising such evolution easy. Cars still fail to pellotise bit that is discussed for years. They are beating us in electrificatjon already. Next they will be bumper to bumper in rich planet busting packs servkng al,,ost no one metastasizing freely with almost no resistance from those tbey already slay as most vile virus despite a century of devastation worldwide. As quantly classic a path to extinction as any, perhaps the dumbest possible. Yet assumed to be certain. Over me only though.
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