BikinginLA

It’s a light news day, so let’s get right to it.

Then get out on your bike and enjoy this beautiful LA weather.

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Forbes says the Israel start for next year’s Giro poses a difficult dilemma for pro cycling’s two Arab-owned teams, who must decide whether to participate in the Arab boycott of the country.

Call it Lance’s revenge. The French lab that uncovered proof of his doping has been provisionally suspended by the world anti-doping agency.

Italian cycling great Mario Cipollini complains that the dominance of Chris Froome and Peter Sagan has made bike racing boring. Maybe he didn’t see Sagan’s three-inch come-from-behind victory in Sunday’s world championships.

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Local

Streetsblog offers an interview with new LACBC Executive Director Erik Jansen.

Bicycling talks with former UCLA triathlete Nako Nakatsuka, who was unfairly sued by the driver who hit her, about her new bike advocacy website Bike Woke.

Wallet Hub ranks the most fun cities in the US, based on criteria that includes bike rentals and hiking trails, but not bikeways. Which may be why Los Angeles just barely missed the top ten, checking in at number twelve. That’s better than Oxnard, though, which ranks as the least fun city in the US.

San Francisco’s Beyond Chron website looks at former USC bike repairman Lil Bill Flournoy, who was unceremoniously booted off campus last year, and now fixes bikes on a city-owned space across from the university.

CiclaValley collides with a deer while riding on Mulholland. And of course, does it when his bike cam isn’t working.

 

State

A German dentist paused briefly in San Diego on his 19,000-mile bike ride from Argentina to Alaska.

A San Francisco supervisor is shocked to learn Uber and Lyft drivers illegally use bike and transit lanes; people who bike and ride buses, not so much.

Bay Area bike shops are being plagued by a serial test-ride thief.

 

National

Former DC and Chicago transportation director Gabe Klein says smart cities are the wave of the future.

Bighearted Idaho paramedics bought a new bike for a 13-year old boy after his was damaged when he was hit by a driver, along with bike helmets for his brothers and sisters.

A kindhearted stranger bought a new bike for an Illinois boy battling cancer after his bike was stolen.

An Indiana suburb is proving that it is possible to remake the streets to accommodate everyone.

It’s not just LA. Cambridge MA is experiencing their own bikelash as residents rise up to complain about the overly rapid implementation of a whole 1.25 miles of bike lanes in one year, leading to an apology from the mayor. Yes, just over a single mile.

New York bicyclists complain they’re being left out of a redesign of New York’s famed Fifth Avenue.

A New York man faces up to 15 years behind bars after being convicted in the hit-and-run death of a Queens bike advocate.

An Op-Ed in the Washington Post says it was reckless for lawmakers to drop a requirement that all bikes must have a bell, insisting that a polite little ding is more effective than yelling a warning.

 

International

A cyclist from my hometown rides the route traveled by Spanish conqueror Cortes from Veracruz to Mexico City.

A Toronto Op-Ed says new separated bike lanes are encouraging more “normal” people to come out and ride, while noting that removing these lanes could make those people go away.

Caught on video: Sometimes it’s the cops who violate safe passing laws, coming within inches of a UK bicyclist on a blind corner.

Britain’s Labour Party pledges to invest £10 per person for bike and pedestrian projects each year. Which would work out to roughly $4.3 billion here in the US. Note: I originally wrote $4.3 trillion; thanks to Andy S. for the correction. 

A writer in the Guardian says Google Maps must be improved if it’s going to be useful for bike riders, including information on bike parking once you get where you’re going.

It takes a truly massive schmuck to steal the custom racing handcycle specifically made for an Aussie Paralympic cyclist, which even can’t be used by anyone else.

Motorists in five Australian states will now face a $159 fine for violating their equivalent of a three foot law, prohibiting passing closer than one meter on roads with speed limits over 37 mph, and one and a half meters over that.

China’s bikeshare boom is cutting into the demand for gas.

 

Finally…

Give up your ironic hipster beard or your Belgian cycling career. And yes, your new Google Levi jacket can make and receive texts and calls, but you may have to put up with the smell.