BikinginLA

No major bike news stories today, so let’s get right to it.

You can find updates to yesterday’s lead stories about missing bike advocate Dennis Hindman and fallen Big Orange cyclist Rob Dollar in yesterday’s post.

Update: Dennis Hindman has been found safe in a local hospital. More details when they’re available.

………

Local

Road diet foes and failed city council candidates fail to file their petition to recall City Councilmember Mike Bonin when they come up one signature short of the required five.

Curbed looks at plans for the 12-mile extension of the LA River bike path connecting Parks Canoga and Griffith.

CiclaValley examines the planned increases in speed limits in Los Angeles due to the deadly 85th percentile law, most of which will be in the San Fernando Valley. Which makes sense, since the Valley has more straight, wide streets that encourage speeding.

Streetsblog offers photos from Saturday’s Beach Streets open streets event in Long Beach.

 

State

Riders on the Coyote Creek bike trail can now find a fix-it station located in Coyote Creek Park in Los Alamitos.

A Palm Springs TV station send its crack investigative reporting team out to look at completely non-controversial bike trails similar to the inexplicably controversial CV Link trail proposed for the Coachella Valley.

San Luis Obispo police are using bait bikes to combat bike theft. Los Angeles police aren’t, but should be.

A seriously cranky San Luis Obispo writer accuses the all-powerful bike lobby of conspiring to destroy the city’s neighborhoods. But first, he has to explain what a neighborhood is.

A 17-year old Los Osos girl will be tried as an adult and could face prison time for the August hit-and-run death of a bike-riding Cal Poly student.

A five-year old Porterville girl set up a lemonade stand to raise money to buy a bicycle, only to be told by the city that she needs a business license. Did I mention that she’s only five years old?

Watsonville police bend over backwards to blame the victim, saying a woman killed while riding her bike “came out of nowhere” into the path of a moving vehicle, even though witnesses reported the driver may have been street racing. No one, anywhere, has ever defied the laws of physics to come out of nowhere, let alone to get hit by a car.

 

National

Pedal Love looks at the birth of the modern bike movement.

People for Bikes goes ebike myth busting.

A new app being tested in eight US cities that aren’t Los Angeles promises to the be Waze of bicycling by helping riders find the safest routes to get around.

An experienced Spokane rider patiently explains how not to be an asshole on a bike path. My word, not his. But he’s right; the only change I would make would be to say “Passing on your left,” rather than just “On your left,” which can confuse people. Or maybe just “Excuse me,” which almost always seems to work.

Chicago police are looking for a bike-riding groper who has been assaulting women in parks and on sidewalks and bike paths.

An Ohio college student has filed a lawsuit after he was right-hooked by a fire truck.

A Pittsburgh man paralyzed from the waist down will attempt to set a new 24-hour handcycle record this Friday.

A bighearted Illinois boy won a new bicycle after he got one for his birthday, so he gave it to a classmate who didn’t have one.

A New Hampshire letter writer says his town’s appointment of a bicycle mayor is just a Trojan Horse to slap a tax on bicyclists. But at least he recognizes that bike riders already pay for the roads.

The New Yorker says the original master of the modern ghost story was one of us.

Miscreant rental bike hustlers are intercepting customers from the sole licensed bike vendor in Central Park, sometimes violently or obscenely.

A Rhode Island ballet dancer returns to the stage after recovering from a hit-and-run while riding his bicycle; doctors had told him he’d never walk again.

A Florida scumbag gets a well-deserved 20 year behind bars for running down a bicyclist, dragging his body to a ditch and covering him with palm fronds, then setting his car on fire, reporting it stolen, and blaming a relative.

 

International

Six professional cyclists were injured in Costa Rica when a driver plowed into them during a race; reports conflicted on whether the driver ignored police warnings or if the riders drifted onto the wrong side of the road.

The new Pashleys replacing London’s original Boris Bikes win rave reviews; Londonist offers a video preview of the bikes. Thanks to Erik Griswold for the last link.

Police in the UK are looking for a teenage hit-and-run bicyclist who did a wheelie bad job of passing another rider.

Russel Crowe goes for a bike ride with his assistant, and takes her to the pool with him. Which is more than enough for the British press to conclude they’re dating.

Apparently, life is good for Isis soldiers in Syria, where all you have to do is carry a gun, play video games and ride your bicycle. Or maybe not.

A persistent magpie with a vendetta attacks an Aussie bike rider ten times in twenty seconds.

An Australian writer argues against what he calls the “myth of equal reciprocity” on the roads, suggesting bike riders who believe they have to earn the respect of drivers are suffering from the Lycra equivalent of Stockholm syndrome.

New Zealand cyclist Karl Murray faces a significant ban from competition after failing a second doping test. But the doping era is over, right?

Ed Sheeran rescheduled most of his Asian tour, after breaking both his arms in a bike crash.

 

Finally…

If you’re carrying coke — small c — on your bike, probably not the best idea to ride drunk, even if it is legal where you are. Evidently, memorizing poetry while riding isn’t a much fun as you’d think.

And nine videos that demonstrate why you should leave the ebike building to the experts. And shouldn’t talk back to cops.