Morning Links: Bike the Vote rejects Measure S, self-driving cars can’t see you, and bike-following robots

Like it or not, housing issues affect more than just where you live and how much you pay.

That’s why Bike the Vote LA has come out against Measure S, which would impose a two-year moratorium on most major new housing construction, saying it would only increase sprawl, social inequity and traffic.

The group says it would “have far-reaching negative repercussions for our collective vision of a diverse, livable, affordable, walkable, bikeable city.”

Streetsblog reports that a large coalition of diverse groups opposes the measure, also known as the Neighborhood Integrity Initiative, in next month’s election, calling it a “scorched earth” housing ban.

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Bad news for all those, like myself, who have been hoping that self-driving cars would mean safer streets for bike riders by taking the wheel away from today’s careless, aggressive, wasted and/or distracted drivers.

It turns out that detecting people on bikes is possibly the biggest problem hurdle developers have to overcome before autonomous cars take over the road.

In other words, they can’t see you. And too often don’t know what to do even if they do.

Which pretty much sounds like the way things are now, anyway.

Thanks to Patrick Pascal and Frank Lehnerz for the heads-up.

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Famed cycling photographer Graham Watson calls it a career; VeloNews talked with him late last year, before yesterday’s announcement.

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The LA Times says Trump’s travel ban isn’t expected to keep international athletes from competing in the US, an important consideration with the world paracycling championships scheduled for the VELO Sports Center in Carson later this month.

Cycling Tips talks with the Master’s racer who held on for dear life after crashing and going over a retaining wall.

A Pasadena site looks at the city’s role as the finish line of this year’s Amgen Tour of California.

Bicycling takes a motor-doped bike out for a spin. Hopefully we won’t see any of those at the paracycling worlds or the ATOC.

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Local

Nice piece on Eric Bryan of the UCLA cycling team, as he continues his racing dreams as a third year student at the university.

Santa Monica’s Cynergy Cycles is hosting a maintenance workshop tonight.

Most college students only have to worry about bad drivers as they bike to campus; bike-riding Pepperdine students have to watch out for mountain lions once they get there.

Santa Clarita is asking for input to gauge support for a bikeshare system.

The Pomona Valley Bicycle Coalition will hold its next meeting on Tuesday.

 

State

A San Diego advocacy group calls on the city to fix 15 deadly intersections.

Residents of La Jolla are uniting to keep San Diego’s DecoBike bikeshare systems from besmirching their exclusive city.

A Menlo Park police chase leads to the arrest of a trio of bike thieves; police found numerous bicycles in one woman’s residence, along with other stolen items, but only three of the bikes had been reported stolen. Another reminder to register your bike, and report it the police if it gets stolen; too often they recover bikes that they can’t return to the owners because they have no idea who they belong to. And they can’t press charges if they can’t prove a bike is stolen.

A San Francisco Chronicle reader concludes that if it serves 100 riders a day, a $25 million bike lane on the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge works out to $171 per ride over the four-year trial period. Except that bridges last a lot longer than four years, it could end up serving a lot more than 100 riders a day, and most bike commuters ride both ways, doubling the number of trips. But other than that…

A Castro Valley lawyer collects bicycles in reverse, buying and rebuilding bikes only to give them away to people in need.

 

National

PeopleForBikes discusses the prospects for bicycling under the Trump administration.

Bicycling Magazine wants to know how safe you feel when you ride.

Outside Magazine celebrates its 40th anniversary with their list of the 40 most iconic places on the planet, including mountain bike mecca Slickrock in Moab, Utah, the Tour de France’s Alpe d’Huez, and the Festina car which lead to discovery of pro cycling’s doping problems. Although the latter is more a thing than a place.

The National Bike Registry has merged with the Project 529 bicycle registration service, creating a 400,000 combined database; anyone already registered with NBR will automatically be upgraded to a free lifetime membership with Project 529. Thanks to Mike Wilkinson for the link.

City Lab conducts an autopsy on Seattle’s failed bikeshare system.

I want to be like him when I grow up. A 78-year old New Mexico bicyclist has travelled around 90,000 miles since he took up bicycling in 2004, despite losing a year of riding due to aortic surgery. I mean about the riding at his age, not the aorta problems. Just to be clear.

Bighearted Oklahoma police buy a new bike for an 11-year old boy whose bike was destroyed when he was unexpectedly hit by a car. As opposed to all those people who leave home expecting to crash.

 

International

The UK’s Cyclist magazine calls on Londoners to avoid the inevitable traffic nightmare caused by next week’s tube strike by joining the city’s 170,000 bike commuters.

The road-raging driver who was filmed threatening BBC personality Jeremy Vine has been convicted of threatening behavior and driving “without reasonable consideration.”

A British bicyclist navigates what he calls the nonsensical cycling scene in Cambridge, saying even if everyone behaved perfectly, there’s just not enough space for cars, pedestrians and bicyclists in the medieval city.

Caught on video: An English driver just backs up, turns his lights off and drives away after hitting a bike rider; fortunately, the victim wasn’t seriously injured.

Oslo, Norway is fighting pollution and traffic congestion by giving residents a $1,200 credit towards the purchase of an ebike. If California ever gets serious about fighting climate change and doing something about our crowded streets, a program like that could be cost-effective if it actually succeeds in getting people out of their cars.

A German explorer has spent the last ten years traveling the world by bicycle in an attempt to visit every country on Earth.

An Indian cyclist uses his own wedding invitation to promote the importance of bicycling.

A store owner in the Galapagos Islands converts a cargo bike into an animal ambulance to transport his poisoned dog to an animal hospital.

 

Finally…

Just what every bike rider needs: A $10,000 ebike inspired by Tesla. If you’re a convicted felon illegally carrying a loaded handgun on your bike, put a damn light on it. The bike, not the gun.

And who needs a cargo bike when you can get your own bike-following robot?

 

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