BikinginLA

Let’s catch up on a few things that fell through the cracks recently.

Like the Tennessee study that found the public has a misunderstanding of how pedestrian deaths occur.

According to researchers, part of the problem stems from the fact that many deaths never get reported by the news media. And those that do are often misrepresented by the police and press.

That’s a problem we’ve seen too many times with bicycling crashes, when the police are quick to blame the victim, only to reverse themselves later.

Or too often not, leaving it up to the victims’ families and their lawyers to correct their mistakes.

And the public usually never hears about it.

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Then there’s this video forwarded by Eric Lewis of a near sideswipe collision captured on his new bike cam.

Which is a perfect candidate for the new #NearMissLA hashtag.

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There may be action taken to stop cab drivers from parking in the new bike lanes on Figueroa, and elsewhere, after all.

As a result of a recent flurry of tweets and videos showing the blocked bike lane, the LA Taxi Commission has proposed a new order prohibiting taxis from blocking bike lanes.

https://twitter.com/taxicomisionado/status/1018922399125782529

So keep up the pressure. Sometimes it does get results.

Now if they could just do something about cops and Uber drivers in the bike lanes.

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Speaking of Uber, their primary competitor Lyft has endorsed Vision Zero, as well as serving underserved communities with bikeshare and e-scooters.

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Local

The Los Angeles Sentinel profiles the East Side Bike Club and its mission to improve vulnerable communities through riding and maintaining bicycles.

Bicycling gives a thumbs up to the slim fit bike jeans made by LA’s own Swrve.

 

State

The wife of a fallen cyclist calls for a bike bridge over Santa Cruz harbor to keep it from happening to someone else; the long-time rider was killed crossing the only existing bridge.

Oakland plans to extend the road diet and bike lanes on iconic Telegraph Avenue, though current plans call for buffered lanes, rather than extending the current parking protected lanes.

 

National

Men’s Health explains how you can get in shape to ride the Tour de France. You can start by getting your weight under 140, which for most of us would require removing a limb or two.

A bike industry writer questions whether we’ve reached peak bicycle. Short answer, unless we get more safe places to ride, probably yes.

The good news is, there was nothing wrong with the cougar that attacked two bike riders in Washington this past May. The bad news is, it attacked them anyway.

A Denver writer says our transportation system is unbalanced. Which could be why even Denver bike cops are afraid to ride on the street.

Riding a handcycle, Michigan’s Laura Stark finished the cross-country ride she started two years ago, before she was paralyzed from the waist down by a distracted driver in Idaho; her riding companion wasn’t so lucky.

Curbed describes eight beginner’s bike rides for your next trip to the Big Apple.

This is how Vision Zero is supposed to work. DC responded to the death of a bike rider by removing four parking spaces from an intersection to improve visibility.

Maybe Dracula is one of us, too. Transylvania has a ten-year plan to become more bike-friendly. But it’s the one in North Carolina, not Romania.

Once again, a bike rider is a hero, after a Georgia man threw an injured stray dog onto his back and rode into town to get help; he met a woman who took the dog to the vet, and later adopted it.

So much for golf. A Florida retirement community is the first to be named a gold level Bicycle Friendly Community.

 

International

A new study says skip the hi-viz, because a small percentage of drivers will pass you unsafely no matter what you wear.

Forbes talks with the founder of TDA Global Cycling, formerly Tour d’Afrique, the company behind epic global bike tours.

Eight riders tag-teamed to ride 3,600 miles non-stop across Canada in just eight days.

A Winnipeg woman held a yard sale to benefit the families of three young boys who were killed by an alleged drunk driver earlier this year, as they walked and biked on the side of a road.

Bicycling is up in seven Toronto neighborhoods, where housing density near employment and education centers make bike commuting more practical.

A writer for the Guardian says children miss out on too much when they don’t learn to ride a bike, including fitness and confidence.

A German club is teaching Muslim refugee women to ride bicycles.

Road.cc reports on six cool things from this year’s Eurobike show in Germany. But I can’t get the damn page to load, so you’ll have to see for yourself what they are.

 

Competitive Cycling

Cycling News looks at the team effort that’s keeping Lawson Craddock in the Tour de France, despite a broken shoulder bone; he’s now raised over $97,000 for a Houston velodrome.

USA Today discovers the role of domestiques in pro cycling.

The troubled BMC Racing team has finally got a new sponsor and will compete next year.

Bicycling offers a recap of everything you might have missed in the women’s Giro Rosa. Like the entire race, for instance.

Trek is forming a new women’s team headed by former world champion — and expecting mother — Lizzie Deignan. Another women’s team is great, as long as they pay them what the men make, which is highly unlikely. And get them some TV coverage so people might actually be able to watch for a change.

 

Finally…

What happens when your therapist’s couch is a mountain bike. When you need a $52,000 car to carry your bike.

And this is who we share the roads with.

But it was the gym’s fault for not wearing hi-viz.