Weekend Links: UCLA Transpo group honored; Bike the Vote next month and score a Wolfpack Hustle T-Shirt

Congratulations to UCLA Transportation for winning California’s top environmental award.

The university group was honored for developing a sustainable transportation program that led to a 23% drop in driving to the campus; nearly half of UCLA commuters use alternative transportation.

Just imagine how many more might bike to campus if they only had safer ways to get there.

………

Bike the Vote by riding to the February 5th Livable Streets Candidate Forum to replace Tom LaBonge in LA’s 4th Council District, and get a free Wolfpack Hustle T-Shirt.

Speaking of which, the Times published profiles of the candidates; of the 14 people in the race, only one — Tomas O’Grady — even mentioned bicycles, making him the early favorite in my book.

Meanwhile, 3rd District Councilmember Bob Blumenfield leads his constituents on an eight mile bike ride through the district, including the Orange Line and LA River bike paths.

And the Pasadena Complete Streets Coalition posts the first responses to their questionnaire for candidates for mayor of the Rose City.

………

Local

A study of transit users in LA, Atlanta and Minneapolis-St. Paul suggests that making the area around transit hubs more bike friendly could help get more cars off the road.

The executive director of the Hollywood Property Owners Alliance asks if it’s time for a road diet on Hollywood Blvd. The correct response would be yes. Or maybe, hell yes.

Guardians of the Galaxy star Chris Pratt goes for an LA bike ride with wife Anna Faris.

Sometimes, you don’t even have to ride a bike, as a man just walking his bike in West Covina is seriously injured by a hit-and-run driver.

 

State

Wait, are they pranking us? The director of California’s traditionally auto focused state transportation agency says they need to consider pedestrians, bicyclists and transit users in planning Complete Streets.

Eighteen teams sign up for this year’s Amgen Tour of California, including eight of the world’s top pro teams.

Bosch opens their American eBike headquarters in Irvine.

Maybe cluelessness is another cause of hit-and-runs. A Santa Barbara driver keeps going after hitting a cyclist; a friend of the victim had to chase her and tell her she’d been in a collision.

Santa Rosa goes to court to preserve the right for cyclists to ride on a bike path through private property.

Bike advocacy jobs open up in either side of the San Francisco Bay.

 

National

Biking while blind through echolocation.

Bicycling looks at the 10 best car-free bike paths in the US, not surprisingly, none of which are located in Southern California.

A Santa Fe sheriff’s deputy ends up using a Taser on cyclist he stopped because the guy looked “suspicious” walking his bike, despite — or maybe because — of its flat tire.

A Wyoming newspaper says educating drivers about the rights of cyclists could save more lives than a three-foot law. Then again, who says they can’t do both?

A Chicago Alderman suggests allowing seniors to bike on the sidewalks; evidently, making the streets safe enough for older people is just too darn hard.

 

International

A British mom uses the power of Facebook to get her autistic son’s stolen bike back.

Germany considers banning drunk bicycling. Or very drunk bicycling, anyway, since the proposed max is well over the limit for drunk driving in the US. Thanks to D D Syrdal for the heads-up.

Huh? A member of a British driver’s group says not only is bicycling dangerous, but without drivers, we’d all be dead. I’m sure that must make sense to someone.

An Aussie paper says cyclists should be required to carry liability insurance. Or maybe jerks who string ropes across routes popular with cyclists should, instead.

 

Finally…

If you’re carrying three kilos of heroin and coke under the hood of your car, make sure your bike rack doesn’t obscure the license plate. Here’s your chance to buy a British bike shop for less than $1.50; most I can scrape together right now is about a buck seventeen.

And when a driver asks if you want him to crash into your bike, the correct response is “no.” A Brit cyclist sarcastically said yes to a road raging driver, who promptly backed his car into him.

 

5 comments

  1. […] Congratulations to UCLA Transportation for winning California’s top environmental award. The university group was honored for developing a sustainable transportation program that led to a 23% drop in driving to the campus; nearly half of UCLA commuters use alternative transportation. Just imagine how many more …read more […]

  2. I have to comment here because like the spineless worm you are, you blocked comments and people from your other full of crap story. http://bikinginla.com/2013/09/26/justice-delayed-oc-driver-faces-charges-for-killing-cyclist-last-march-while-on-prescription-drugs/

    Nice try? So, like the story whose headlines you grab to support your predetermined opinion, you’ve decided, without as much as 10 seconds research, that I must be an alter ego for someone else. How DARE you diminish my hurt over the loss of Eric by claiming I don’t exist. I’ve dealt with so many bigots like you in my life, you just want to hate anyone that is different than you or disagrees with you. You make this determination because I didn’t capitalize the M in Mormon. Well, I had carpal tunnel and trigger finger release surgery not long ago and just got a new ergonomic keyboard on friday to help recover and I’m not use to typing on it yet, I’ll be happy to send you a picture of it, the box and myself to prove it, but here are some other links to prove I am who I say I am, and I’m also MORMON or LDS, whatever you want to use, the virulent anti-mormons think it is cute to do it like this MORmON.

    Here is my facebook page with all my check ins at various church things
    http://www.facebook.com/progrockrecords

    Here is a link to the 250+ articles and interviews I’ve written or done:
    http://www.thekompany.com/papers/

    Here is my youtube channel with me doing a bunch of stuff with the missionaries
    https://www.youtube.com/user/smga3000/
    or specifically me playing a song I wrote for my daughter at her baptism (don’t worry, it was after the closing prayer, so the guitar was allowed)
    http://youtu.be/VpucfeeIzjE

    I don’t expect you to acknowledge you are wrong or correct the record because that would be anathema to your ingrained bigotry, but maybe at least your readers will know you are full of crap when you write now. Especially when you are selectively deleting posts, like the one where I addressed your other steaming pile of crap and you’ve now blocked commenting on that thread to avoid anyone else messing with your crap.

    • bikinginla says:

      Yes Shawn, you certainly sound like a devout Mormon.

      If I am mistaken that you are Heggi or working with her, then I apologize. However, your comments sound exactly like hers, some of which are written in the same style, and appeared the very next day after I blocked her from commenting — and on a story that for some reason, you failed to find any fault with for over a year and a half, despite acknowledging that you had seen it previously. And you claim to have information about the case that has not been publicly announced, suggesting that you are an insider in the case, which contradicts your initial comment. You also claim to be a close friend of the victim, yet are fighting tooth and nail in support of the woman who killed him.

      And somehow, you leap to the conclusion that I am a bigot because I locked comments, including yours, on the story. Based on what? Do me a favor. Read the entire contents of this website, and see if you can find a single prejudicial comment about any religion or minority. Go ahead, I’ll wait.

      I will not acknowledge that I’m wrong about anything I wrote in that story because nothing in it has been shown to be incorrect. Everything in that piece is based on information published in news stories, most of which has been provided by the DA’s office. When the DA announces that the information is incorrect, I will update the story, just like I have any other story I have written on this site.

      And despite your comment — which seems to be based on the same 10 minutes of research you accuse me on — I have always corrected my stories when they have been shown to be wrong. But so far, I only have your comments, along with Heggi’s, claiming that what I have written is wrong, but with absolutely nothing to back them up. If you have evidence contrary to what I have written, where is the link to it? Show me the news story or press release from the DA’s office showing the previously released information is incorrect, and I will be happy to update it.

      And you, my friend, are the one hurling insults, despite the good, forgiving Christian you claim to be.

      Tell you what. I will restore your comment that I deleted, though I will continue to block any further comment to that story. But I expect to receive an apology for your comments above.

      Don’t worry, I won’t hold my breath.

      • Look to yourself for consistency. I’m actually forgiving the woman that killed my friend, yet you question that, however when I jump on your for your bigoted positions, then I’m not being Christian enough for you. You like to point me to read all the info in your post because I’m saying something incorrect, but then you say “despite the good, forgiving Christian you claim to be.”. Where did I state that?

        Here is a simple thing you are wrong on. They didn’t accuse her of being on suboxone. They said it was in the car, you are either stating or insinuating that she was.

        You also keep trying to intimate that she was speeding and that led to the death, which is also not part of the charges, just something else you are trying to gin up against her.

        The definition of a bigot is “a person who is intolerant toward those holding different opinions.” which is you. You obviously dislike mormons, and you dislike anyone who does anything to a cyclist. You control conversation that is contrary to your preconceived notion and you are unaccustomed to being called out on it. You are attempting to rally a mob against this woman yet you want me to apologize.

        I find myself in a very odd position, because I’m not happy because my friend is dead, but you torch carrying villagers have me mad because of your blind mob violence attitude. It’s like with all the cop violence. I don’t like cops, I think they are out of control, but the morons that are chaining themselves in to commuter trains and inconveniencing regular people to somehow “protest” it, has me on the side of the cops, which is totally distasteful.

        You should just pull your story, you’re just trying to inflame hatred. You’ve already made your decision on this woman and no matter how this comes out, unless she is thrown in jail, you won’t be happy.

        • bikinginla says:

          Shawn, I have lived and worked with Mormons all my life, yet you accuse me of prejudice because I blocked the comments of exactly one — you.

          Please, by all means, show me where I have demonstrated any bias against Mormons, or anyone else other than drivers who kill innocent people. Yes, I admit to being on the side of bike riders, and will fight until the day I die to protect the lives of those who choose to ride a bike.

          If that is prejudice, then I freely admit to it.

          And yet, while you accuse me of not allowing anyone to disagree with me, I am allowing your comments to stand, even though they violate my policy of not allowing personal insults or flaming — which is exactly what you are doing to me, yet which I have not done to you.

          As for being a good, forgiving Christian, you say above that you forgive the woman who killed your friend. And as a devout Mormon, you are a Christian, are you not? Or did you not know that Mormons are Christians?

          I have previously pointed out my reasons for suggesting that the collision occurred with some force, which implies speed; I will not repeat them here. I have never said that she was speeding, just that she was going fast enough immediately after a U-turn to mangle your friend’s bike and kill him instantly; as you yourself have pointed out, the speed limit on that street is 50 mph, which is dangerously high.

          As for what drugs she was allegedly on, as I have repeated pointed out, but which you choose to ignore, I am merely citing information from the DA’s office, which was reported by the Daily News. If the Daily News got it wrong, then get them to issue a retraction. If the DA has retracted that information, then show me.

          Although I do find it interesting that you say she was on suboxone, which is a word I have never used, nor have I heard in any context other than your comments. Until I looked it up just now, I had no idea it was a brand name for buprenorphine.

          You accuse me of trying to inflame hatred, yet in the nearly a year and a half since that piece went online, only two people have objected to anything I wrote in it. Oddly, both objections appeared exactly one day apart, just after I had blocked the first one for trying to start a flame war — which is what you seem to be doing. A strange coincidence, indeed.

          So where, exactly, is this mob I am attempting to incite? I don’t see any pitchforks and torches outside the courthouse, and I have barely mentioned the case since. After fifteen months, the only one who seems to still give a damn about this piece is the driver’s close friend. And you.

          And as I have repeatedly stated — and have since changed my story to reflect — I am not prejudging this case, merely reporting and reacting to what she has been charged with. Yet oddly, you seem to be doing exactly what you accuse me of by proclaiming her innocence.

          As I said, I have restored the comment which I deleted last night. I’m still waiting for that apology.

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