Fifty years after the Watts Riots, KCET looks at people and organizations working to re-imagine a part of the city that usually gets ignored unless something bad makes the news.
Among the groups they profile are the Eastside Riders Bike Club, using bikes to make a difference in South LA.
“We will educate our community and hope to bring a sense of pride. We hope to increase ridership and educate all safety components when it comes to walking, cycling and driving. We must all live together, work together and play together, ” says Jones.
The group is planning to open the Eastside Riders Bike & Skate Shop on September 5, 2015, at Central Avenue and 114th Street.
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The National Bicycle Dealers Association listed the best bike shops in America for 2015, and Southern California was well represented.
The list includes four in the Los Angeles area, three in Orange County, four in San Diego County and one in Redlands. Interestingly, none of the LA area shops are on the LA Weekly’s nominees for the city’s best bike shops.
- Bike Attack, Santa Monica
- Pasadena Cyclery, Pasadena
- Bicycle John’s, Santa Clarita
- Topanga Creek Bicycles, Topanga
- Rock N’ Road Cyclery, Mission Viejo
- A Road Bike 4U, Irvine
- Jax Bicycle Center, Irvine
- Nytro Multisport, Encinitas
- Revolution Bike Shop, Solano Beach
- Bicycle Warehouse, San Diego
- Black Mountain Bicycles, San Diego
- Cyclery USA, Redlands
Congratulations to all. And next time you’re in one of these shops, remind them they need an ad on here.
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You still have time to learn how to ride a bike safely this weekend.
Bike SGV’s Dorothy Wong is teaching classes in Pasadena and East LA today, with additional classes available through Metro and the LACBC throughout the county through the end of September.
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Rohan Dennis added to his lead in the USA Pro Challenge by winning the time trial. Two-time Olympic gold medalist Kristin Armstrong won the women’s race; the 42-year old Armstrong has retired twice before coming back to beat riders half her age.
Today’s sand-covered beach time trial won’t count for individual standings in the Vuelta, following complaints from riders, while a record number of Americans will hit the starting line in Spain.
And Cycling Weekly looks at the top father and son combinations in bike racing. Or mother and daughter, as the case may be.
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Local
New bike rider Ryan Seacrest talks with his bro Eric Garcetti about riding a bike in the City of Angels and LA’s new Mobility Plan; Bike Style LA posted the five-and-a-half minute segment online. Someone should tell Seacrest if he’s going to ride in LA, he needs to read BikinginLA. Right?
A Los Feliz neighborhood councilmember explains why LA’s nearly 100 NCs should support the Mobility Plan.
The LA Times posts responses to the recent OpEd from a Santa Monica businessman complaining about the Mobility Plan.
Streetsblog’s Damien Newton interviews Assemblymember Richard Bloom about transportation issues coming up in the legislature.
West Hollywood will be getting a 20-station bikeshare system next spring, part of the same system that just opened in Santa Monica, and which will extend to UCLA, Long Beach and inexplicably, bike-unfriendly Beverly Hills. Meanwhile, the local paper says Santa Monica’s bikeshare makes traveling around town a Breeze, pun apparently intended.
CicLAvia explains their outreach process for the upcoming return to the Heart of LA on October 18th.
State
Smart. San Clemente plans two-way bike path separated from El Camino Real by a median of decorative rock and landscaping, along with painted bike lanes on the roadway for faster riders.
Now that’s more like it. Santa Rosa police ticket 30 drivers for violating the right-of-way of cyclists and pedestrians. Nice to see a department focusing on operators of the more dangerous vehicle for a change.
Menlo Park debates adding bike lanes or more travel lanes to a major transit corridor through the city; the local fire chief says bike lanes will slow response times.
Auburn brags about besting bike-friendly Davis in bike miles per capita.
SF Gate profiles the Oakland cyclist who set a so-far unofficial record for most vertical feet climbed in 48 hours.
A Bay Area TV station catches Redwood City bicyclists behaving badly by running stop signs and riding on the sidewalk. Of course, we all know what would have happened if they’d turned the camera onto motorists, instead.
National
A great new animated video clearly illustrates how road diets work.
Bicycling explains how a quick-release works, and why you may be doing it wrong.
Last June, a Denver man handed his bikeshare bike over to a cop chasing a suspect down a bike path; yesterday, the police returned the favor by giving him a new bike.
A dangerous Minnesota street that took down a reporter will get a complete streets makeover. In 15 or 30 years.
An Ohio man is sentenced to four years for killing a cyclist while under the influence; he was somehow driving with a life-threatening alcohol level four-and-a-half times the legal limit. And had to go home to change clothes before coming back to get arrested.
The Hartford CT paper calls for more road diets, after plans are announced for the state’s first one on a deadly stretch of roadway.
A Brooklyn writer says the arrival of bikeshare isn’t synonymous with gentrification.
No bias here. A salmon cyclist was killed when he allegedly struck the side mirror of a U-Haul truck that was stopped at a stop sign in Queens, NY. He must have been hauling ass to suffer “severe trauma about the body” by hitting a stationary object like that.
International
The CBC talks with the director of Bikes vs Cars, a documentary examining the conflict on streets around the world, including right here in LA.
Wired offers a fascinating look at how the McLaren Technology Group applies the technology behind Formula 1 racing to various industries, including their partnership with Specialized.
A 76-year old Brit cyclist has been racing bikes since 1976.
The Guardian looks at five innovative ways to get people on their bikes in the UK. I vote for the cake ride, myself.
A British driver fled the scene after knocking a bike-riding reverend out cold. But at least he stopped long enough to move the victim’s bike out of the road before driving off, right?
There have been a lot of stories about people riding bikes, accidently or otherwise, on major freeways lately; a South African rider paid for it with his life when he was hit by a motorcycle.
Finally…
Caught on video: Take a stomach-churning two-minute ride down an abandoned Sarajevo bobsled track. That’s one way to get into the classic bike business; just keep buying bikes for parts until your wife insists you sell them.
And the LA Weekly says if New York’s mayor doesn’t want topless, body painted women besmirching Times Square’s pedestrian plazas, just send ‘em here.
Thanks for posting the #DamienTalks Episode 14: Assemblymember Richard Bloom. Interesting interview.
I like Bloom a lot.
Growing up in NYC, it’s amazing how it has advanced so much further than LA in it’s infrastructure. Never would I think that could happen. Through the mid-1990’s the streets in NYC had almost no bike lanes and you needed a jeep to navigate the potholes–I busted axles 2x on my cars. I would ride my bike all over the city praying someone would invent something like a Mountain Bike and an SUV–one of the reasons people like those heavy gas hogging vehicles.
LA streets were neglected for so long, they cost 10x more to fix according to the pot hole fix people so they concentrate on slurry the good streets over and over while the bad gets worse. I am starting to see some slow improvement though.
Bloom wants to raise taxes to give LA 85 million for roads. Republicans oppose diesel tax increase he said.
Readers here should keep in mind that in NYC (not the rest of the state)–Motorists are heavily taxed to pay for roads and mass transit and bike lanes. They do not like cars in NYC and if you have to have one–you will pay. For many years–You pay a surcharge on your auto registration if you register a car in NYC (not the state). Tolls are on most tunnels and bridges and they generate the lions share of revenue for the city roads and transit. Just to give you an idea–if I drove my car 4 miles to visit my friend in the Bronx, the toll was 5 dollars roundtrip (9 dollars today). We talked on the phone a lot, or took the train into Manhattan and hung out, road bikes. To visit my sister I needed 2 bridges–and a toll road–that was 12 Dollars to see my sister, (22 Dollars RT today).
In LA perspective–If you drove from Santa Monica to the Valley–toll of 9 dollars RT. Santa Monica to Downtown–toll of 9 Dollars RT. Santa Monica to Orange COunty–Toll of 22 Dollars RT.
That will get a lot of people out of their cars and looking for the train or how to ride a bike.
That would sure bring in a ton of revenue for roads.
What do you think of that system?
You want that?
Tolls never stop or go away–they just increase annually.