Come back later today when we’ll have a guest post from Mr. CiclaValley himself as he talks with Toluca Lake resident and pro cyclist Phil Gaimon about next weekend’s inaugural Malibu Gran Cookie Fondo.
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This is who we share the roads with.
San Diego’s 10News reports a road raging driver intentionally knocked a local radio host off his bicycle as he was escorting a disabled cyclist on the Coast Highway in Carlsbad, just a few miles from the end of the Challenged Athletes Foundation’s 620-mile Million Dollar Challenge.
As the rider worked to make it up a small hill, an impatient driver began honking his horn, despite a support van warning cyclists were ahead. So KOGO host Bob “Sully” Sullivan rode back to explain that his riding partner was a paraplegic using a handcycle to get up the hill.
“‘We’ve gone 590 miles, give me 90 seconds, I’ll have him up and over this grade, you can be on your way,'” Sullivan said he told the man. “Completely agitated, he says to me, ‘I don’t care if it’s f-ing God up there. Get out of the f-ing road.'”
Sullivan said that’s when he stopped talking to the man and got back on his bike. The truck’s driver accelerated and hit Sullivan’s bike, causing him to fall to the roadway.
Yet despite the presence of an off-duty Carlsbad cop riding in the opposite direction, no charges have been filed.
“I think he needs to be arrested,” Sullivan said. “Somebody who purposely hits somebody on a bicycle using his car is either assault with a deadly weapon, attempted murder, at the very least shouldn’t be driving a car right now.”
Seriously.
Thanks to Todd Munson for the heads-up.
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The LAPD is asking for the public’s help in finding the person who shot and killed a bike rider in Echo Park last week; 37-year old William Perea was hit with gunfire as he rode at Mohawk and Montana the night of October 17th.
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LADOT says safety remains the top priority on the LA River bike path, as they remind both walkers and bike riders about the statutes governing the pathway and the need to share it safely, in the wake of a collision with a bicyclist that sent an elderly woman to the hospital.
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Equity is the common theme of the day.
Momentum Magazine looks at the nationwide movement to build greater equity in bicycling.
People for Bikes says the massive racial wealth gap is a major barrier to bicycle use, noting that a bike can’t save you money if you don’t have enough to buy one.
And Curbed looks at the speech given by the LACBC’s Tamika Butler that brought down the house at last month’s NACTO conference.
The LACBC deserves a lot of credit for starting this conversation, even before Butler came on board, with its outreach to lower income immigrant communities in the last decade. Along with notable presentations at the National Bike Summit that marked the bike coalition as a national leader on the subject.
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Don’t forget to vote for LA Bike Trains and SAFE (Streets Are For Everyone) for this year’s LA2050 challenge grants; voting ends tomorrow.
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Local
KCET discovers the delicious marriage of bicycling and desserts that is Sweet Ride USA, with new episodes appearing online every Wednesday through November 16th.
KPCC discusses solutions to the first mile/last mile problem for transit users.
The Westwood Village Improvement Association discusses how to improve business and better serve the surrounding community. Oddly, making it safer to walk and bike there doesn’t seem to be an option, even though both would benefit the Village’s long suffering businesses.
Pasadena’s bikeshare system is expected to open next July as the Metro Bike system expands northward; the system is expected to have 400 bikes at 34 docking stations around the city.
The new and improved Agoura Road, complete with shiny new bike lanes, opens in Agoura Hills after a year of construction.
Cycling in the South Bay’s Seth Davidson recounts Tuesday’s civil obedience protest ride and lengthy council session in Palos Verdes Estates in his own inimitable style.
State
Hats off to OC’s Special Spokes and the San Clemente Rotary for providing special-needs kids with adaptive bicycles. With all the negativity this election year, it’s nice to see people working to make a real difference in kids lives.
A Clovis driver faces up to a year in jail for fatally rear-ending a bike rider last April.
An unidentified man was shot and killed as he rode his bike in Fresno Tuesday night; police are unsure if the shooting was gang-related.
National
There’s a special place in hell for someone who would steal a bicycle on loan to a vet from Ride 2 Recovery so he could ride across the US with his dog, who’s suffering from terminal cancer. And in my hometown, no less.
Bike lawyer Bob Mionske writes about a new Close Call Database allowing bike riders to report punishment passes from angry motorists to establish a paper trail in case the driver does it again. Or worse.
A Texas rider says learn to ride safely and obey the law, or don’t ride at all.
A Maine newspaper says the technology for today’s carbon fiber bicycles got its start in the state with Aegis Bicycle, but the company couldn’t hold out against increasing competition and the demand for ever lighter frames.
New York tells cyclists and pedestrians to make themselves more visible, and drivers to pay more attention, in advance of the end of daylight savings time next month. Meanwhile, a new proposal would allow bike riders to get a head start at traffic signals by going with the walk signal for the leading pedestrian interval.
Who was that masked man? A Bronx bike rider is a hero after retrieving a woman’s stolen purse, then riding off before she could thank him. No word on whether he left a silver bike chainlink behind.
Philadelphia police arrested a 17-year old boy in the shooting of a Good Samaritan who got off his bicycle to try to stop an armed robbery; he faces charges including attempted murder and aggravated assault.
Bikes and dogs are now officially banned from Arlington National Cemetery.
A Charleston writer says the city deserves the distinction of being called America’s worst city for bicycling.
International
You know Calgary has a lot of bike riders when the city’s bike counter gets maxed out with 68 days still left in the year.
Ella Cycling Tips offers advice on how to recover mentally from a bicycling crash.
Life is cheap in Belize, where champion cyclist Marlon Castillo is fined just $13,000 for the careless driving collision that killed his friend.
Ottawa police release a new PSA campaign explaining how to use and drive around the city’s new bike box and bi-directional bike lanes.
Caught on video: A British cabbie clips a cyclist with his mirror, then launches into a foul-mouthed temper tantrum claiming the rider somehow hit him. And yet some actually question who was in the right.
Tom Cruise is one of us, as he reportedly rides through the English countryside with his new girlfriend.
A Brit cyclist born with just one arm is raising funds to buy a prosthetic arm so he can compete in the Paralympic Games; a Go Fund Me account has raised a little more than half of the £7,500 goal, the equivalent of $9157.
A nine-year old cyclist may be a better climber than most of us, topping Italy’s famed Mt. Ventoux and Stelvio climbs in under 48 hours.
An Aussie writer says Sydney needs to focus less on fining bike riders and more on building some decent infrastructure for them.
A German cyclist survives a night in the snake and crocodile-infested Australian wilds after taking a header over his handlebars and dislocating is shoulder.
Finally…
If you’re going to use a bicycle to make your getaway after stealing a bag-full of booze, try not to ride into a lamppost. Why settle for a mere sag wagon when you can have your very own bike butler?
And in LA we have police chases; in London, it’s investment bankers biking away from bobbies.
The http://closecalldatabase.com/ has actually been active for about five years. However, the number of reports increased a lot starting about 2-1/2 years ago.
Ernest Ezis developed and maintains the website in his “free time”. Bicyclists owe him a big thank you.
“Cycling in the South Bay’s Seth Davidson recounts Tuesday’s civil disobedience protest ride and lengthy council session in Palos Verdes Estates in his own inimitable style.”
I guess “inimitable” would be one way of describing Davidson’s brand of writing and advocacy related to the signs in PV. “Dick City” is the name Davidson has given Palos Verdes. His inimitable style is one of crude name-calling, junior high style mocking and plain old bullying. His affection for democracy lasts only as long as the city council is acting and voting his way. When the council has the sheer nerve to consider other community issues and even other positions on the signs issue, Davidson summons every ounce of dripping disdain he can muster to denigrate, personally and collectively, anyone who doesn’t see things exactly as he does and what he arrogantly sees as a waste of his time. He is immediately and nastily contemptuous of any value, any approach to life, any belief system different than his own. As he so memorably and contemptuously wrote as the city council first took up the issue, “I don’t do pledges to you, your flag, your country, your Make Believe Friend, or anyone else.”
Like a lot of people, I completely support the drive to have signs posted in PV. And I believe the overwhelming majority of cyclists approach their advocacy on the issue as adults: passionate about the need for bike safety measures, determined to bring about change that will be good for both residents and visitors using local roads, and respectfully aware that others might have differing viewpoints. Davidson is consistently mean, bullying and narrow-minded. He wraps himself in an absurd mantle of victimhood and perceives every word of disagreement as evidence of some kind of rich versus poor class conflict. It’s possible to fight for change with dignity and and a modicum of respect for others, or at least their rights; I can’t recall MLK ever referring to his enemies as “dickheads.”
I can’t imagine how anyone would feel well-represented with this guy as a principal mouthpiece for bike safety measures.
The 35 pound scooter…… Why does everything need to be motorized? Plus now how do you get it in and out of places. 35 LBs is quite a load to lug around. Seems like overkill when you can get a push scooter for much less and doesn’t weigh as much.