Morning Links: Fat tire biking the Iditarod trail, Aussie ped safety video and best wishes for a happy New Year

And you thought it was cold in LA this week.

Now that my formerly Iditarod-racing brother has traded his dog sled for a bike, he shares a few images of fat tire riding the same famed trail he used to mush.

photo by Eric Rogers

Photo by Eric Rogers

Photo by Eric Rogers

Photo by Eric Rogers

And no, I’m only a little jealous.

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A surprisingly hard-hitting safety video from Australia personalizes pedestrian safety from both sides of the issue. Too bad no one has the guts to do something like that in this country.

Let alone do one for bikes.

Video courtesy of Wolfpack Hustle.

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‘Tis the season.

An Orange County woman helps ensure that 40 kids’ bicycle dreams came true this Christmas. Cincinnati’s Bike Lady gives bikes to 116 local foster kids. And a British bike Santa passes out bike-related gifts at the end of a three-mile family ride.

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Local

Cast your vote for the year’s final Streetsie Award, for Excellence in Advocacy; right now, it’s a very tight race between Finish the Ride, Tafarai Bayne and Cynthia Rose. And don’t forget to vote for Journalist/Writer of the Year.

Two teenage mountain bike riders are rescued after spending the night in the forest above Altadena.

The Boston Cyclists Union says forget the cold and get out and ride, already; good advice for LA this week. Let alone Alaska.

Don’t forget the free bike valet at LA’s biggest New Years Eve celebration tonight.

 

State

A Laguna Beach high school and middle school launches a mountain bike team.

BikeSD is looking for a part-time Business Coordinator.

A Riverside cyclist is recovering after suffering major injuries in a collision.

The CHP writes 36 tickets in an effort to improve bike and pedestrian safety in Sacramento County. At least one went to a cyclist for riding too far too the left, also known as taking the lane, which is usually legal.

A San Francisco man claims police dragged him from his house and beat him unconscious for riding on the sidewalk; imagine what they would have done if he’d run a stop sign.

 

National

Bicycling offers their favorite Kickstarters of the year.

A North Dakota man gets his banana-seat bike back after 39 years.

San Antonio offers an award in the death of a father who was shot while teaching his son to ride a bike on Christmas Day.

A writer calls for making auto-centric Houston safe for cyclists and pedestrians through neighborhood greenways.

A Chicago bike rider sues over an allegedly faulty bike path design that left her partially paralyzed after riding off a nine-foot drop.

A New York woman who was knocked down by a bike-riding former American Gladiator calls for a 15 mph speed limit for bikes in Central Park. Then again, it wouldn’t be much of a story if she’d been hit by almost anyone else.

A Manhattan CEO walks away from his job to start a new bike brand for casual riders.

No hypocrisy here. The hit-and-run Baltimore bishop who ran after killing a cyclist on Saturday had just delivered a sermon on accountability. Which she clearly meant for everyone else.

Evidently, hit-and-run has no age limit, as an 88-year old Florida man is arrested for fleeing the scene after killing a former NFL player riding his bike.

 

International

An 80-year British Columbia cyclist wins a $100,000 court verdict against the road raging driver who knocked him off his bike.

Unbelievable. A Canadian man is convicted of killing a cyclist while driving drunk — at three times the legal limit, no less — with multiple priors, and they still let him out during the day. But at least he got a lifetime ban from driving.

Madrid bike riders face fines of up to the equivalent of nearly $1,500 for the heinous crime of… wait for it… riding on the sidewalk.

Malta drivers are warned to watch out for hedgehogs, but not bike riders.

An Aussie barber on a bike rides his fixie to clip his customers.

A motorist from Down Under asks if he can drive in bike lanes now that bike riders aren’t required to stay in them, and demands that cyclists ride single file with a two-bike length space between them.

 

Finally…

Turns out Portland’s Bureau of Transportation has a sense of humor when it comes to bike lane symbols; we could use something like that here. Evidently, we need a bicycle dashboard inspired by Audi, complete with turn signals; after all, it’s just so hard to stick your arm out to let drivers know you’re turning.

And a Kiwi junior cycling champ trades a bike saddle for a bareback bronc; who knew they had cowboys, let alone rodeos?

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Thanks to Mark Jones for his generous donation to support this site.

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Please accept my best wishes for a very healthy, happy and prosperous new year.

And be careful out there; I want to see you all back here in 2015.

 

One comment

  1. […] Opening up with Our Daily Ted. Morning Links: Fat tire biking the Iditarod trail, Aussie ped safety video and best wishes for a hap… […]

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