Archive for November 3, 2017

Morning Links: Dockless bikeshare isn’t here yet, more on NYC bike path attack, and goodbye LAist

November 3, 2017 / / 2 comments

For a moment, it looked like dockless bikeshare had arrived in LA.

Even if it’s not entirely legal yet.

Marc, aka @mcas_LA, tweeted a pair of photos showing a fleet of LimeBikes in the Jewelry District in DTLA, even though the proposed ordinance to legalize dockless bikeshare hadn’t made it through the city council yet.

Alas, it was not to be.

Not yet, anyway.

LimeBike was quick to respond that the bikes were being test-ridden by their employees at a private event, and that they would never launch Uber-style without waiting for the proper permits.

So you’ll just have to wait awhile longer.

………

New York is responding to Tuesday’s terrorist attack by installing K-rail barriers at 57 intersections, including the one that Sayfullo Saipov used to drive onto the bike path.

A bill in the US Senate would provide $50 million a year to install bollards, planters and other barriers along bikeways to protect cyclists. Get back to me when they get serious; $50 million works out to a token gesture of just $1 million per state.

A student injured when Saipov’s rented truck crashed into a school attended class on Wednesday to keep his record for perfect attendance.

A writer for Opposing Views considers what the attack says about bike safety.

In an Op-Ed in the Washington Post, Eben Weiss, aka Bike Snob, writes that a terrorist attack isn’t going to scare bicyclists off their bikes because we already have to deal with motorists.

And it hasn’t stopped them, as New Yorkers flocked to the pathway when it reopened yesterday.

………

You can kiss LAist goodbye. The billionaire publisher of the “ist” and DNAinfo sites pulled the plug on the entire network yesterday, taking down all the archives at the same time.

The site had regularly written about bike issues, and been a supporter of safer streets in Los Angeles, and other cities around the world.

I’m sure it’s just a coincidence that the closure came after employees had voted to unionize.

………

Local

Streeetsblog’s Joe Linton and Damien Newton correct the pernicious lie that Mike Bonin somehow stole money from the Measure M transportation tax to fund Vision Zero.

The LACBC’s Operation Firefly kicks off in Van Nuys next week, providing lights to bike riders who don’t have them.

The Pasadena Star-News asks if new trains, busways and bike lanes can end SoCal gridlock. Short answer, no. With more people bringing more cars here every year, our street will continue to be clogged. The only solution is to provide alternatives to driving, so the people who choose to leave their cars at home won’t be stuck in that mess.

Authorities are looking for funding to build a roundabout at the intersection of Highway 39 and the Old San Gabriel Canyon Road above Azusa to slow traffic and provide a safe extension to the San Gabriel River Trail, which currently dead ends at the roadway.

Helen’s Cycles is holding a trio of rides this weekend, while Santa Monica’s Breeze bikeshare celebrates its second anniversary on Saturday. And CicLAvia hosts their 2nd Annual pLAy Day in LA fundraiser on Sunday.

 

State

Nice piece in the LA Daily News about the recently completed, 450-mile Challenge Ride from San Francisco for wounded vets, including a former four-star Army Chief of Staff helping an injured ex-private up a hill.

The owner of a Coronado bike rental company opposes a proposal to allow LimeBike to operate on the island.

Bakersfield has received $200,000 in funding from Kern County for a number of bike-related projects, including bike parking in the downtown area, and the Build-A-Bike program that allows kids to earn a bicycle while learning about bike maintenance and repair.

San Luis Obispo is moving forward with plans for 50 new bicycling facilities, including buffered bike lanes and a bike boulevard, to fundamentally change the way people in the community get around.

Kindhearted Visalia residents pitched in to buy a new ebike for a legally blind teenager after the one he got for his 16th birthday was stolen.

A San Jose columnist says a planned bike and pedestrian bridge is a key link to improve safety, even if a letter writer considers it a waste of money.

A San Francisco man was critically injured when a bike rider opened fire on the victim following an argument; the suspect was arrested nearby.

San Francisco protesters create a people-protected bike lane on the Embarcadero to call attention to the need for greater safety.

 

National

People for Bikes offers four reasons why businesses should embrace ebikes.

A Seattle magazine says it’s good that dockless bikeshare bikes are being abandoned in trees, because it removes the moral superiority of bicycling, and makes it seem like it an everyday activity. Which it already is.

Over 8,000 people are expected to attend Denver’s one-day VeloSwap bike swap meet and expo this weekend.

A Dallas columnist says relax, and give dockless bikeshare time to work itself out.

Former cyclist Sinead Miller is now working with Nashville’s Vanderbilt University to put an end to sepsis, after ending her pro career when she suffered a traumatic brain injury in a collision.

A driver tried to run over a group of Miami police officers on a weekly community ride, and apparently got away.

 

International

An Op-Ed in Canadian Cyclist Magazine calls out the special status of drivers, and says laws that make a cyclist’s life cheap have to be changed.

Glasgow’s Philippa York says she would have gladly given up the fame that came with her cycling career as the former Robert Millar in order to transition to a woman when she was younger.

 

Finally…

Oprah is one of us, even if one of her favorite things looks suspiciously like a ghost bike. And evidently, the painkiller Tramadol will make you faster.

Even if it has the opposite effect on me.

 

Category: Morning Links / Tags: , , , , ,

Morning Links: 2nd edition of popular SoCal bicycling guide, and more details on NYC bike path terrorist attack

November 2, 2017 / / 3 comments

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

………

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.

………

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.

………

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.

 

Category: Morning Links / Tags: , , , , ,

61-year old bike rider killed in Rancho Cucamonga last week

November 1, 2017 / / 2 comments

Somehow we missed this one last week.

According to the Daily Bulletin, 61-year old Rancho Cucamonga resident Tyron Paul Dade was killed last Wednesday near the intersection of Foothill Boulevard and Hellman Avenue in Rancho Cucamonga.

Dade was attempting to cross Foothill near the Foothill Village Shopping Center when he was struck by a westbound driver around 6:25 pm.

He was taken to a hospital in Upland where he died half an hour later.

The driver, who was not publicly identified, remained at the scene.

A street view shows Foothill is a four lane divided roadway with center left turn lanes and bike lanes in both directions.

The question is whether Dade was crossing at the intersection or mid-block, and whether he was crossing with the light. Whether or not he had lights and reflectors on his bike could also have been a factor, since the crash occurred 20 minutes after sunset.

This is the 56th bicycling fatality in Southern California, and the 11th in San Bernardino County. It’s also at least the fifth in Rancho Cucamonga since 2011.

My deepest sympathy and prayers for Tyron Paul Dade and all his loved ones. 

 

Category: Bicycle Safety, Injuries and Fatalities / Tags: , , ,

Morning Links: Dennis Hindman found safe, terrorist attacks bike riders in New York, and Bruins joins Bonin’s staff

November 1, 2017 / / 5 comments

Let’s start with the good news.

According to his sister, longtime LA bike advocate Dennis Hindman has been found safe in a San Gabriel hospital after being missing for two months.

Apparently, the Toluca Lake resident has been in the hospital for the entire time he’s been missing.

No word on Hindman’s condition yet, or why his relatives were never notified.

However, a hospital stay of that duration is never a good sign; let’s keep him in our thoughts and prayers until we have more information.

………

This time, it was us.

At least eight people were killed when a terrorist claiming an allegiance with ISIS drove 20 blocks down a New York bike path, leaving crumpled bikes and bodies in his path.

At least eleven others were injured.

Five of those killed were Argentine tourists who were visiting the city to celebrate their 30th high school reunion. One of the dead, and three of the people injured, were from Belgium.

The killer was shot by police after crashing his rental truck and exiting waving pellet and paintball guns; at last report he was hospitalized in grave condition after undergoing surgery.

The 29-year old native of Uzbekistan has been a legal resident of the US since 2010; he would have been unaffected by the recent travel bans.

The Associated Press lists other attacks where vehicles have been used as weapons.

Thanks to John Dammann for the heads-up.

………

Congratulations to former LACBC Planning and Policy Director Eric Bruins, who is joining CD11 Councilmember Mike Bonin’s staff as Transportation Policy Director, replacing longtime aide Paul Backstrom.

Or maybe we should offer our congratulations to Bonin for landing him. And to the people of CD11 for the exceptional hard work and dedication they’re about to receive.

Let’s hope they have the good sense to appreciate it.

………

Nothing like rounding a corner in San Clemente, and nearly getting hit head-on by a driver on the wrong side of the road.

Although that little honk from the scofflaw motorist was a nice touch.

Credit Eric Fleetwood for the video, and thanks to David Drexler for forwarding it.

………

There may be a lot of cyclists looking for work soon, as UCI’s new president calls for reducing the size of pro cycling teams to just six riders, after next year’s reduction to eight.

And former LA pro Phil Gaimon offers the latest in his Worst Retirement Ever series, as he tackles Colorado’s legendary Mt. Evans Hillclimb, the highest paved road in North America.

………

Local

It’s been awhile since we’ve heard from Susanna Schick, who writes about Move LA’s efforts to keep the city moving, while noting that every time she’s tried to push back against traffic, the cars push back harder.

Selena Gomez is one of us, as she stops to talk with fans while riding her bike in Studio City.

Santa Monica’s Breeze bikeshare celebrates its second birthday with a day of free rides this Saturday.

Cycling in the South Bay’s Seth Davidson writes movingly about his friend Rob Dollar, who was killed by an allegedly drunk and stoned teenage driver while riding outside of Phoenix on Sunday.

Long Beach’s Beach Streets wants to know what you thought about this past weekend’s open streets event in the city.

 

State

California’s new twelve cent gas tax increase will kick in today.

San Juan Capistrano will widen Del Obispo Street to remove a bottleneck, adding a lane in each direction, along with bike lanes on either side.

Orange County will begin restricting access to the Santa Ana River Trail in order to control the homeless camps that have sprung up along the trail; starting today the path will be closed from 6 pm to 7 am through the end of February, then 9 pm to 7 am until next October 31st.

San Diego’s city council makes the tough choice to remove parking to make room for bike lanes on University Avenue as part of the city’s Vision Zero program, reducing a gap in the city’s bike network. Meanwhile, the city approved a new connector road that will split existing neighborhoods, which would help complete a regional bike network, even though they’ve failed to track whether they’re meeting ambitious bicycling and transit goals to reduce greenhouse gasses.

An Arroyo Grande man says bike riders aren’t paying the “overinflated vehicle registration fees” car owners do, and suggests an annual $75 fee to ride a bike on the road. Never mind that bikes cause virtually no wear and tear on the road. Or that most bike riders already pay those same vehicle registration fees for one or more motor vehicles.

A middle-aged man was shot in the face while riding his bike near a San Jose light rail station. Thanks to Lynn Ingram for the link.

San Francisco police are looking for a pair of brutal bike-riding San Francisco hat thieves.

 

National

A TV website lists ten things you probably didn’t know about American Flyers.

NACTO says a future of autonomous cars calls for a transportation blueprint that puts people first.

Forbes asks if private dockless bikeshare will become a fixture on college campuses.

Lil Kim is sort of one of us, too, as she teaches her three-year old daughter how to ride a bike.

The FBI is offering a $10,000 reward for Colorado’s bike-riding bank robber, the Sneaky Cyclist Bandit. No word on what makes him so sneaky, though.

No bias here. A Denver TV station says the city’s efforts to become more bike-friendly may have hit a snag, because drivers don’t like a new sidewalk, calling it twice as wide as it needs to be.

A Dallas writer says the city can’t handle dockless bikeshare, where abandoned bikes are littering the sidewalks.

Chicago cab drivers are no longer required to drop passengers off at the curb, reducing their liability if someone doors a bicyclist.

Minneapolis has a bicycle-riding, unicorn-costumed candidate for mayor. Maybe Garcetti should consider that approach if he runs for president in 2020.

A Detroit bike co-op gave a new bike to a man with undisclosed medical problems, after the bike he used as his only form of transportation was stolen when he stopped to rest for a few minutes.

A Louisville KY bicyclist declares victory after authorities dropped charges of running a red light and obstructing traffic for not riding in a bike lane; he had claimed there was debris in the bike lane that could have given him a flat.

A New York bus driver was charged with a misdemeanor for the death of a bike rider last year, the first bikeshare rider killed in the city. But at least the driver honked before running him over.

 

International

You can now own your very own $815,000 cycling watch, which comes complete with a limited edition Colnago bike. For that price, it should also come with your own private bikeway to ride it on.

A bike-raging Toronto bike rider gets 18 months probation for an incident caught on video last August, in which a taxi driver intentionally turned into him after he had repeatedly slapped the cab and reached inside for the keys.

A road-raging London driver gets two years for intentionally running over a bike rider, breaking his back — then getting out of his car and telling the injured rider he’d run over him again if he had to.

Apparently they take repeated DUIs seriously in the UK, at least if you kill someone. A woman with three previous drunk driving arrests got eight years for the death of 17-year BMX rider after downing three pints of beer.

Caught on video: A British bicyclist confronts a motorist for driving on the sidewalk to get around a traffic diversion, who was none too happy about it.

 

Finally…

Seriously, don’t shoot your gun in the air while riding stoned, especially with a previous felony conviction. Your next ebike could run on hydrogen.

And you can now ride your bike through Graceland.

No, not that Graceland.

……..

Thank you to Alice Strong for her very generous donation to help support this site; you can make a donation anytime to help keep SoCal’s best bike news coming your way every day using the PayPal link.

 

Category: Health, Morning Links, Violence & Crime / Tags: , , , , , , ,
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