Let’s start with an updated version of a popular SoCal bicycling guidebook.
This is how the publisher describes it.
Good news for SoCal cyclists who prefer riding on bike trails and low-traffic bike routes: Richard Fox has published a thoroughly updated 2nd Edition of his popular colorful 400-page guidebook, “enCYCLEpedia Southern California – The Best Easy Scenic Bike Rides.” It showcases over 200 fun ride options from Cambria to San Diego to Palm Springs. Ride descriptions have detailed turn by turn instructions accompanied by stylized scaled maps depicting paved vs dirt bike trails and on-road bike routes. A typical ride is 10-20 miles long with beautiful scenery, few hills, little or no auto traffic, and lots of interesting things to see or places to eat en route. Options to extend or combine rides are described. Now available from available from Amazon or direct from the author for $21.95.
A sample page from the book
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More on Tuesday’s terrorist attack on a New York City bike path.
An Argentine school honored five of the victims, who graduated in the same class of 1987; another of their schoolmates, now working as a scientist in Boston, was injured in the attack. Video shows them happy and smiling as they rode through New York before the attack.
Several of the victims appeared to be riding rental bikes from the New York branch of a San Francisco company.
The New York Times looks at the people caught in the driver’s path, while the Washington Post profiles one of the two Americans and a Belgian mother of two who were killed.
A New York cop is called a hero for stopping the attack by shooting the suspect, who now faces terrorism charges.
Not all the victims were on the bike path; one of the two kids in the school bus the driver crashed into remains in critical condition.
The New York Times says the attack exposed the vulnerable street crossings on the bike path; bike advocates have called for better protection for the bike path for more than a decade.
Fast Company says safe streets that shield bicyclists and pedestrians from motor vehicles are the best protection against future attacks. The attack prompted calls for improved safety for bike paths in Chattanooga, Boston and Santa Maria.
But it didn’t stop New Yorkers from returning to the path the next day. And the head of a New York bike advocacy group says we’ll never stop biking.
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Peter Flax complains about the recent Shanghai Skoda Criterium, saying fake bike races don’t belong in professional cycling.
The Bicycling Hall of Fame announces four new members.
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Local
LA’s Vision Zero plan is expected to bring protected bike lanes and safer street crossings to the area around USC, where 21 people were killed in crashes between 2014 and 2016. Unless any drivers object to it, of course.
Starchitect Frank Gehry says the long-promised transformation of the LA River will never happen. Which is odd, since he’s the one the mayor put in charge of designing it.
More Selena Gomez bike photos, as she goes riding in LA with the Bieb.
CiclaValley revisits the site of the La Tuna fire.
Cost estimates have nearly doubled for a 2.8-mile extension of the Whittier Greenway Trail due to required improvements at railway crossings; the project is still moving forward despite the $15.7 million price tag.
State
The California legislature will consider a bill that could legalize part of the Idaho Stop law next year; AB1103 would allow bike riders to treat stop signs as yields, but maintain the requirement to wait for red lights.
A transient man in San Diego stabbed another man who tried to steal his bicycle.
San Diego plans a Day of Service to honor fallen bike rider Maruta Gardner, who was killed by a drunk driver as she was painting over graffiti in Mission Beach last year.
A Marin cyclist was locked up and had his bike confiscated for skitching behind a big rig on the 101 Highway.
National
NACTO has developed guidelines for when a protected bike lane should be installed. Which pretty much mandates one for most of Los Angeles.
A Portland musician and bike messenger was found dead in a park after apparently falling off his bike and hitting his head.
The man who recovered JujJu Smith-Schuster’s stolen bike wants the Pittsburgh Steelers tickets that were promised as a reward.
Residents of a Massachusetts town demand the city respond to complaints about “bicycle bullies.”
A day after the New York terrorist attack, a New York woman was shot in the stomach as she was docking her bikeshare bike; her attacker apparently shot himself afterwards.
A DC advocacy site suggests five street signs that point to a failed street design.
A Georgia woman has been convicted of two vehicular homicide counts, as well as seven counts of inflicting serious injury with a vehicle, DUI and endangering a child after swerving onto the wrong side of the road and hitting a group of bike riders head-on; she had meth and several other drugs in her system and was reaching for her cellphone at the time of the crash.
International
Someone hung a banner over a Montreal overpass accusing the city of too much talk and not enough action, while urging viewers to Bike the Vote en français.
Writing in The BMJ — formerly the British Medical Journal — a Scottish physician says restricting bicycling in response to the death of a single pedestrian would cause needless harm to public health. Case in point, a new Danish study shows bicycling to work is as good for losing weight as working out at a gym five days a week.
Caught on video: A Scottish bike rider and a driver engage in an expletive-filled spat after the former complains about the latter talking on his phone while he drives.
There’s a special place in hell for the British men who crashed their van into a pair of boys who were sharing a bicycle, then jumped out and stole it.
Amsterdam has banned beer bikes after complaints about rowdy drunken tourists.
Dutch bicyclists complain that they can’t find a place to park their bikes at busy train stations.
Tel Aviv, Israel begins enforcement of a partial sidewalk bike ban.
A road raging Russian bike rider faces 15 years behind bars for the murder of a careless driver who nearly ran him down. Another example of what can happen if you let your anger get the better of you. Just shake it off and ride away.
Finally…
The best way to win a bake off is to train by winning a few track cycling championships. Your next bike could be a 13 pound Aston Martin.
And who doesn’t need a bike built to survive a fall of a cliff.
Even if you don’t.
I have seen multiuse paths built around parks that provide rapid access to emergency reponders or access to terrorists. I think more frequent obstructions to large wide vehicles is more important, let the cops etc. Use motorcycles at worst.
Great story on Bieber Gomez bike ride. People have a good eye to spot them.
We have problems with not enough bike parking at train and subway stations here in Munich also. Some of that will drop with the cold weather coming. There is more open space in the bike rack in front of my apartment now that we have 6 degree (C) highs and rain.