BikinginLA

Thankfully, we have a little lighter news day today after yesterday’s massive post. So put your feet up, relax a little, then get out on your bike.

Or better yet, get out again, if you already did.

………

Local

LA tries out a new sign on the Sunset Blvd/Cesar Chavez Ave bus lane reading Buses Bikes & Right Turns Only, after an LA Country sheriff’s deputy told a bike rider he couldn’t use a bus only lane on Wilshire Blvd despite being directly under a sign reading “Bikes Okay.”

A new movie refutes the myth that nobody walks, bikes or uses transit in LA.

CiclaValley asks you to come out for the Lankershim Blvd Community Pop Up and bike ride on December 3rd, part of the mayor’s Great Streets initiative. The street was supposed to have bike lanes by now, but they were blocked by former councilmember Tom LaBonge, who preferred to keep the street less than great.

Despite the misleading headline, Burbank expects to finish construction of a new bikeway along the Western Flood Channel by summer of 2018; work won’t even begin until the end of next year.

 

State

Hesperia residents tell the city what they want, which includes bike lanes.

More bad news from Central California, as the CHP is looking for a hit-and-run driver after a cyclist was found lying in the roadway.

Kern County plans to use a $25,000 grant to educate people on bike and pedestrian safety. The question is whether they will use that money to tell the people how to avoid getting hit by cars, or tell the operators of the big, dangerous machines how to not run over innocent people.

A new Menlo Park program encourages residents to bike to shop through the end of the year.

San Francisco may allow ghosts bikes to remain for up to one year; meanwhile, the city plans to install parking protected bike lanes in the SoMa district. Which will hopefully result in fewer of the former.

 

National

According to the LA Times, infrastructure isn’t infrastructure in Trump’s new stimulus plan. And good luck getting bike paths built.

An Ohio driver will spend the next four years behind bars after killing a bike rider while high on coke, Fentanyl and morphine.

The 15-year old Baltimore boy who fatally stabbed a bike rider eleven times during a botched bike-jacking and robbery will be tried as a juvenile, while his slightly older co-defendants who didn’t hold the knife will face more time after being tried as adults.

 

International

Cycling Tips catches up with former world mountain bike champ Roland Green; the Canadian rider mysteriously disappeared in 2005 after a six-month suspension.

Canadian police bust eight bike thieves in just three days using a bait bike.

Ottawa, Canada went against the consultant’s recommendation in choosing a less-safe option for bike lanes in order to avoid inconveniencing motorists; three riders have already been hit by cars in the three weeks since they opened.

Toronto considers new rules allowing drivers to stop in separated bike lanes to load or unload someone with a disability.

London’s Evening Standard recommends the best nighttime views of the city as seen from a bicycle. Most of which I’m happy to say I’ve seen, though on foot rather than two wheels.

Britain’s treasurer reportedly offered to pay London’s mayor to rip out one of the city’s popular cycle superhighways that runs past the Parliament building. Apparently it’s not as popular with lawmakers and government officials as it is with people on bikes.

A writer for the Guardian says that maintaining the status quo on British streets may work great for motorists, but can force people to give up on riding and walking.

A member of an Irish cycling club will spend nine months behind bars after sexually assaulting an unconscious woman at the hotel they were staying in. Which hardly seems sufficient, but is better than his original sentence of nothing.

New Dutch rules will reclassify ebikes that can go up to 28 mph as mopeds, and require users to wear a special cross between a bike helmet and a motorcycle helmet. And since the new helmets won’t be available until February, owners will have to park their bikes until they are.

Berlin becomes the latest city to ban private cars from a major street; when Paris banned cars from the Right Bank of the Seine, half of the traffic simply disappeared instead of moving onto other streets.

Egyptian girls start a bicycling equality campaign to protest widespread intolerance and harassment of female riders.

According to the Guardian, Australia’s New South Wales government is winning its war on bicyclists, as draconian fines for minor offenses have driven riders back to their cars.

A 71-year old American cruise ship passenger has been killed in a collision with a truck while riding a bike in New Zealand.

 

Finally…

Squirrels don’t get mad, they get even. Yes, sometimes even Campy and Shimano get it wrong.

And if a Wisconsin thief had just stayed on his bike, he might still be robbing banks today.