Before we start, allow me to offer a special thanks to Todd R, whose extremely generous donation to the unofficial BikinginLA Dead Laptop Replacement Fund will allow me to finally get a new laptop to replace this balky borrowed one I’ve been working on since January.
And thanks to everyone who donated to help get me back and working again. Once again, the generosity of the people who read this site has left me stunned and speechless.
So please accept my humble gratitude, and let’s get on with today’s news.
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Let’s catch up with some of the upcoming events we haven’t mentioned yet.
The East Side Riders bike club will hold their annual bike show in conjunction with the Watts Community Fun Day and Car Show tomorrow.
Santa Monica Spoke, Metro and the LACBC will hold a Community Garden Bike Tour on Saturday.
Santa Clarita residents are invited to hit the trail for the city’s community bike ride tomorrow.
CycloFemme LA will ride through Los Feliz on Sunday as part of the global women’s CycloFemme rides.
Bike Month peaks in Long Beach with the start of Amgen Tour of California on Sunday. A bike valet will be available for fans behind the Art Theater on 4th Street.
Long Beach will hold a Ride of Silence on Saturday the 19th, three days after the international ride.
Metro’s Pedals and Pit Stops ride will visit Artists & Fleas LA in Venice on May 26th.
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Good piece from the Bike Citizens website, as they speak with Chapman University law professor and bicyclist Ernesto Hernández-López about how LA’s Mobility Plan 2035 is designed to get people out of their cars instead of increasing road space.
Although in order for that to work, the city would actually have to build it, which seems pretty unlikely these days.
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Local
Streetsblog looks at Los Ryder’s six years of community building and reclaiming the streets in Watts.
Mar Vista’s traffic safety denying dermatologist accuses Mayor Garcetti and LADOT’s Nat Gale of stonewalling and politicizing the city Department of Transportation. It’s not politicizing LADOT if you simply choose not to believe any stats that refute your predetermined position.
London’s Independent says you don’t actually need a car to enjoy Los Angeles.
Top Chef-winning West Hollywood chef Michael Voltaggio says bicycling helped him break his addiction to cigarettes.
Pasadena Now reports on Wednesday’s Pasadena workshop to discuss plans for a lane reduction on Union Street. Although someone should explain that increased density reduces the need for street parking because more people are able to walk or bike to local businesses.
State
Santa Cruz celebrates NorCal’s Bike Week by unveiling a new dockless e-bikeshare system.
Thousands turn out to ride and chow down on bananas at San Francisco’s Bike to Work Day, as the city promotes its new protected bike lanes on a very political day. LA’s version takes place next Thursday, though sadly, without new protected bike lanes to promote. Although we can expect the city’s nominally bike-friendly leaders to spend the day patting themselves on the back.
Sacramento will get a dockless e-bikeshare system next week.
National
Bicycling says knowing your cycling personality can help you love riding even more. But evidently, none of those personalities includes people who just want to get from here to there in one piece.
The Wall Street Journal looks at cycling guides for major cities — even, they oddly claim, Los Angeles.
A US appeals court tells a Tucson woman it’s her own damn fault she got hurt when her tire got caught in a streetcar track, since it was designed to applicable design and engineering standards.
My hometown offers classes for drivers on how the operate their vehicles safely around bicyclists, in what People for Bikes calls the nations’ most bike-friendly town. Which is probably No. 1 on the list the things you’re not likely to ever see in auto-centric Los Angeles.
The two German tourists killed in a Kansas crash were experienced cyclists who flew to the US to ride the legendary Route 66; authorities say they were riding legally when they were run down from behind by a 23-year old woman.
A North Carolina woman was injured after rounding a corner and getting her front wheel snagged in communication cables that had fallen onto the roadway.
I want to be like her when I grow up. After a newspaper reported an 83-year old Alabama woman was riding salmon when she was hit by a driver, she responded “I’ve put 84,000 miles on this bike, I know which side of the road I’m supposed to be on.”
Good advice. A Florida paper says teach your kids how to ride safely by setting an example for them.
A Florida Op-Ed says we’d all be happier and better off if people would bike more.
International
City Metric asks what self-driving cars will mean for bike riders, concluding that traffic deaths could get worse before they get better.
The Guardian looks at guerrilla DIY bike activism around the world.
Mexico City is on the way to meeting its ambitious greenhouse gas goals thanks to an increase in walking and biking, for a minimal investment.
The Boston Globe falls in love at first sight with bikeable Buenos Aires.
Ottawa, Canada’s bike network is full of gaps. Not unlike a certain SoCal city we could name.
I want to be like her when I grow up, too. A 90-year old British woman still rides her bike two and a half miles to a neighboring town every week to review planning applications.
Just in time for the Giro, London’s Telegraph looks at Italy’s greatest bicycling vacations. Unless maybe you’d rather go riding in France.
A Malta writer say bike lanes aren’t for bicyclists, they’re for drivers who are afraid to give up their cars and ride a bike.
A Nepali newspaper says Kathmandu is no city for cyclists, after cars drove bikes off the roads in the ’70s, pointing out roads that lack bike lanes while failing to mention that they also lack pavement.
Competitive Cycling
Cycling Weekly asks how long Australia’s Rohan Dennis can hold onto the leader’s pink jersey in the Giro.
CiclaValley offers a preview of the Amgen Tour of California.
A Highland newspaper describes the Redlands Classic as the race that saved a city in decline, while pointing out that no one has ever been disqualified for doping at the race. Which is really just another way of saying no one has ever been caught.
Finally…
Now you, too, can be an Instagram famous artistic cyclist. At last, a helmet to match your foldie.
And it’s not paranoia if they really are out to get you.
Lsptop fund, bravo. You might find very affordable laptops from Dell Refurbisheds website. I recently got a very nice desktop from them, you can sign up for email alerts and they send discount codes, which I did. Don’t think I’ll buy a new computer again.
So i do not know of a better deal for a dollar a day anywhere in the world other then for food or shelter then a Jump electric bike for as many half hours as one manages between offering to waiting others. I oppose it being legal to drive a car but illegal to so bike however for 16,17 yo’s. Fortunately they can cheat!
Yes France does offer some really nice cycling, and, of course the food…. I have only ridden near Rimini on the east coast of Italy but just a bit because of illness. Currently in Munich where there is a good amount of scenic riding around the area. If interested let me know.