Proving that some people have no shame, Cycling in the South Bay’s Seth Davidson writes that some Palos Verdes Estates residents are attacking a 12-year old girl online.
Because she had the audacity to speak up in front of the city council to support bicycle safety.
Not unlike the truly offensive bikelash that rose up in the Silver Lake area when 11-year old Matlock Grossman dared to say he didn’t want to get run over when he rides his bike.
As Davidson puts it,
We teach our kids that sometimes the right thing is the hard thing, but maybe we’ve lied to them a little bit: The right thing is always the hard thing. The right thing is the Gandhi thing, the MLK thing, the Lincoln thing. It’s the path everyone wants to take until they note it’s overgrown with weeds, and each blade of grass is the serrated edge of a knife.
It shouldn’t be that way.
Whether or not you agree with them, kids should earn our respect just because they have the courage to get up there and say something.
They deserve to be listened to simply because they have something to say.
And if the haters of the world would just pause long enough to hear them, they might actually learn something.
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Bicycling says the US women’s pursuit team is poised to win gold in Rio.
ESPN profiles Kristin Armstrong, who goes for her third straight Olympic gold in the time trial today, just one day shy of her 43rd birthday.
The Economist calls last weekend’s Rio road races the most dangerous in recent history, while the New York Post calls these games “the Olympics of terrifying, body-maiming bike crashes.”
This whole fourth place in Olympic road cycling events is getting old for Team USA.
Mark Cavendish says he doesn’t believe Britain’s Lizzie Armistead doped, but she’s responsible for creating suspicion by missing three drug tests prior to the Olympic Games.
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Local
Now that Robertson Blvd is no longer trendy, LA Magazine suggests four streets that could take its place, and considers the bike and transit options for each.
West Hollywood officially unveils the first four stations for its new WeHo Pedals bikeshare. Which, if it follows the pattern of other bikeshare systems, will cost taxpayers little or nothing.
CiclaValley considers the difference in attitudes towards bicycling between LA and Orange County. Or maybe just the difference between those who ride and those who don’t.
The second Asian American bike tour rolls this Saturday through El Monte and the San Gabriel Valley.
Just Ride LA is hosting a post-CicLAvia Happy Hour Shindig at the DTLA Plan Check this Sunday from 2 to 6 pm.
State
If you’re missing a bike on the Central Coast, check with the Santa Rosa police, who recovered 16 hot bikes when they busted a bike thief; at least 34 other bikes had been stripped beyond recognition.
A Hanford man was arrested on meth charges when police searched his backpack after stopping him for an undisclosed bicycle violation.
National
City Lab says a collapsible paper bike helmet could revolutionize safety for bikeshare users. On the other hand, only one person has ever been killed while using bikeshare in the US, and she was already wearing a helmet. So just what problem are they trying to solve?
A writer for Bicycling makes the case for ebikes after her mother falls in love with riding one.
An ABC reporter rides his bike 500 miles between the Republican and Democratic conventions, talking to voters along the way.
Not surprisingly, people are questioning the wisdom of having motor vehicles travel side-by-side with bicycling competitors in the Boulder CO Ironman, where a woman was killed in a collision with a truck when she reportedly veered into the traffic lane.
El Paso TX approves a new bike plan that could eventually create a comprehensive network of bikeways resulting in up to 1,100 miles of bicycling infrastructure.
It’s not always the driver who’s drunk; an Ohio cyclist is the victim of a solo crash after allegedly imbibing. And there’s the difference: Drunk bike riders pose the greatest danger to themselves, while drunk drivers pose a danger to everyone around them.
Hoboken NJ police bust a 12-man bike theft ring.
Caught on video: A New York bike rider captures the harrowing conditions of riding across the overly crowded Brooklyn Bridge on her bike cam — including a head-on crash with another cyclist. Evidently, pedestrians don’t like it much, either.
International
We’re winning, comrades. Ebikes are outselling electric cars by seventy to one worldwide.
A Calgary columnist says mounting evidence shows just how pointless extending bike helmet laws to adults really is. Meanwhile, a caller to a radio show calls the city’s separated bike lanes a moral outrage. No, seriously; protected bike lanes are as bad as, say, racism, or attacking a 12-year old girl online, or any other morally reprehensible thing you might come up with.
Only 19 drivers have been charged under Ontario, Canada’s equivalent to the three-foot passing law. Which is 19 more than most places.
Montreal will reopen a bridge after two years of reconstruction, with a shiny new bike path that disappears halfway across.
The rich get richer. The Dutch city of Utrecht expands its traffic information network to direct cyclists to open bike parking spaces throughout the city.
Finally…
If you’re going to flee after trying to steal a bike, try not to leave your shoes behind. Don’t lead police on a six-mile bicycle chase across state lines on an Interstate highway — and fall down when they tase you, dammit.
And, no, really. We should all feel sorry for those poor drivers who are forced to kill scofflaw cyclists through no fault of their own.
Not surprising that ebike sales are up over ecar sales. The price point is much less. The great thing about ebikes is that it takes away many arguments on why people can’t ride a bike to work. No sweat, don’t need to be überfit, my work is on a hilly route….
No we can push for better infrastructure to accommodate the soon to be growing need.
Here in Munich there are a large number of ebikes on the road ridden by all ages. Here many older people use them to get around, shop and go to work, restaurants. My neighbour calls hers her car.