BikinginLA

Let’s start with a long list of upcoming bike events.

DTLA’s pedal-powered Peddler’s Creamery celebrates its 2nd Anniversary on Saturday, from 4 to 8 pm.

Pico Rivera will host a bike festival from 9 am to 1 pm this Saturday, including bike tune-ups, obstacle coarse and a group ride.

The LACBC is hosting a ride this Sunday as part of the Car Free SFV Earth Day Event as Valley residents are urged to go without a car from just one day. The ride assembles at 9:30 am along the LA River at Fulton and Valleyheart in Sherman Oaks.

Also on Sunday, the Volkswagen City of Angels Fun Ride rolls out from the UCLA campus to benefit the UCLA Hospital’s Blood & Platelet Donor Center; nice to see a kid’s ride honoring the late Alex Baum as part of the event. Thanks to Peter for the heads-up in a comment below.

Culver City will celebrate active transportation on Sunday, May 3rd with the Walk and Roll Festival at El Marino Language School.

BikeSGV will hold their monthly meeting on May 5th at Mulhall Elementary School.

The LA edition of the worldwide CycloFemme Global Women’s Cycling Day movement rolls on Sunday, May 10th, starting at the Spoke Bicycle Café on the LA River bike path. And yes, men are welcome as well.

The annual Bike Week LA runs May 10th through the 16th, with events every day from Sunday through Friday; Bike to Work Day — aka the adult equivalent of Trick or Treat for commuter cyclists — is on Thursday the 15th, with pit stops throughout the city.

One of the highlights of Bike Week every year is the non-denominational Blessing of the Bicycles at Good Samaritan Hospital on Tuesday, May 12th. A little divine intervention can’t hurt on the mean streets of LA.

Once again, Metro is hosting Bike Night at Union Station after work on Friday, May 15th to celebrate the end of LA Bike Week.

The Eastside Mural Ride will roll through Boyle Heights on May 16th to explore the area’s iconic public art.

………

In honor of Earth Day, LA filmmaker Erica M. Hart unveils her new web series Mindful American.

The pilot episode focuses on Angelenos who are working to build community and reduce dependence on cars, from teenage cargo bike builders in Boyle Heights, to CicLAvia and a talk with Bicycle Kitchen founder Jimmy Lizama.

Hart used the insurance payment from when her car was totaled to fund the episode, and says she can’t imagine ever owning a car again after experiencing LA without one.

You can see the trailer here, or watch the full 20-minute episode online.

Lets hope she gets the funding to keep the series going. Without having to wreck another car.

………

Local

CiclaValley explains why Thursday’s meeting of the Griffith Park Advisory Board matters; the answer is more than just the ill-advised opening of Mt. Hollywood Drive to cars. A mass ride to attend the meeting will set out from Sunset Triangle Plaza at 5:30 pm Thursday.

Santa Monica police will conduct another bike and pedestrian safety enforcement crackdown this coming Friday and Monday. Try to observe the letter of the law when riding in the city, so it’s only the dangerous drivers who get ticketed, not you.

Here’s your chance to work for a more bikeable LA, as the LACBC is hiring a new fulltime membership manager and a part-time volunteer and education coordinator.

 

State

In case you missed it, Sommer Nicole Gonzales was sentenced to 11 years in state prison after pleading guilty in the meth-fueled hit-and-run death of cyclist Joey Robinson in Orange last year.

Cyclelicious calls on members of underserved cycling communities to represent at Calbike’s street-level advocacy days in Sacramento on April 28th and 29th.

A Sacramento bike rider was killed when he was rear-ended while riding in a bike lane or on the shoulder of the roadway; the investigation is ongoing, but how the driver could not be at fault in that situation is beyond me.

A Belmont bike rider is injured when he’s left hooked by an elderly motorist, yet for some reason, the story focuses on his lack of a helmet and that he was talking on a cell phone while he rode. Both of which are legal, if not always smart, in California.

 

National

Strava and Competitive Cyclist team up to pay people a dollar an hour to ride their bikes. Or maybe not.

A close call with a red light-running truck that totaled a Portland bike rider’s bicycle sparked the movement to downgrade the city’s platinum bike-friendly status.

A Bozeman MT paper calls on motorists to just put down the phone and drive. Amen, brother.

Already bike-friendly Minneapolis will build 30-miles of protected bike lanes in the next five years.

Pedestrian injuries drop 61% following a New York road diet, but making it permanent will make it more difficult to add bike lanes later.

 

International

The Windsor, Ontario city council votes to put in bike lanes called for in the bike master plan over the objection of local residents, who will lose street parking.

Caught on video: A British bike rider records a driver reading a book — yes, reading — while driving.

Mazda is the latest car mark to get into the vapor ware concept bike business, unveiling a track bike in Milan featuring a frame forged from a single piece of metal.

A new Korean study says bike lanes should be at least 2 meters — or 6.5 feet — wide in each direction.

 

Finally…

A new wind-powered bike bell makes constant noise when you ride, for when you want to annoy the crap out of yourself and everyone around you. Now that’s a collapsible bike helmet, folding flat enough to stuff into a laptop bag.

And this is why you don’t want to retaliate against drivers. A Bridgeport CT driver is accused of chasing down a bike rider who threw a rock at her car during a roadway dispute, running over his bike and beating him with a baseball bat.

Maybe she was a Ramones fan.