After endorsing Sarah Kate Levy over incumbent David Ryu in LA’s 4th Council District earlier this year, Bike the Vote LA has taken the surprising step of endorsing another candidate, as well.
Nithya Raman is an inspiring grassroots candidate with a long track record of advocacy and community organizing centered around equity. She’s trained as an urban planner, and it shows in her systematic approach to solving problems, and her deep understanding of the root causes behind L.A.’s transportation challenges. To Raman, transportation is not just a matter of getting around: it’s a critical aspect of environmental action, a public safety crisis that is injuring and killing too many residents, and an issue of equity that limits opportunity and access for people with disabilities and low income Angelenos.
In her detailed and inspirational response to Bike The Vote L.A., Raman articulates one of the most progressive transportation platforms ever put forward by a Southern California candidate for elected office. Raman rightly recognizes that what L.A. currently lacks is political will, and makes clear that she’s ready to turn the tide. We are impressed with her determination to improve access, efficiency, and the overall experience of bus service; a critical aspect of an equitable transportation system. In noting the ways in which the City has failed to build out a safe bike network, Raman rightly points to the need to reconsider on-street parking, too often considered a third rail by elected officials.
As the informal political organization makes clear, however, they are not rescinding their endorsement of Levy, but rather endorsing both candidates in hopes that one can defeat Ryu.
And in acknowledgement that either would be a serious upgrade in the position.
The risk is that Levy and Raman could split the urbanist, bike and pedestrian vote.
However, as Bike the Vote’s Michael MacDonald explained, the combined vote totals for both candidates could provide a better chance of keeping Ryu under the 50% threshold for an outright victory, forcing him into a runoff against one of them.
We can only hope.
Photo from Nithya Raman’s campaign site.
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Robert Leone forward word that San Diego’s Rose Canyon Bike Path will close for construction next week.
Beginning 11/19, crews will be paving the final section of the Rose Canyon Bike Path and the bike path FULL CLOSURE will begin at 6 a.m. on Tuesday, November 19, and will be in place for approximately four days. The bike path is anticipated to reopen by 6 p.m. on Friday, November 22.
- Mid-Coast Trolley crews will facilitate a “bus bridge,” which will include bicycle-carrying capable vans, to transport cyclists and pedestrians around the closure area. The bus bridge will be available from 5 a.m. to 8 p.m. each day, and signage will be in place to designate the pick-up locations.
- During the closure, crews will remove the temporary ramp currently in place between Gilman Drive and State Route 52 (SR 52).
- Please use caution when traveling near the area.
Construction schedules may change with very little notice.
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If you live in or ride through WeHo, you owe it to yourself to attend the meeting of the West Hollywood Bicycle Coalition tomorrow night.
If you live or bike in West Hollywood, get involved. Our next meeting is Wed Nov 13, 6-8p at the Plummer Park Community Center, Rm 2.
Also, stay tuned re: a bike light giveaway & to provide first-mile/last-mile input re: a proposed Metro extension. (Dates are TBD but soon.)
— WeHo Bike Coalition (@WeHoBike) October 14, 2019
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The Virginia woman who was elected to local office after gaining International fame for flipping off Trump’s motorcade while riding her bike will be a guest on Bike Talk this Friday.
https://twitter.com/biketalkpfk/status/1193997984393904128
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Learn the bike rules of the road this Sunday.
There's still room in our FREE #MetroBEST "Bike 2 – Rules of the Road" bike safety class this Sunday Nov. 17 in Reseda, but we do need folks to sign up asap. https://t.co/Ekc1llwMbV #bikeLA pic.twitter.com/gYLqMSwfAT
— BikeLA (@heybikela) November 12, 2019
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The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes is all too real.
A New Yorker riding across the US looking for a new home found it in Tulsa OK, when a road raging driver punched him in the mouth.
A video shows a speeding New York driver zoom by at twice the speed limit, moments before slamming into a man riding in a bike lane, although it doesn’t catch the impact itself.
Last week's video highlighted the dangerous design of NYC bike lanes. Today a cyclist in a bike lane (yes, that's a bike lane) sandwiched between two driving lanes was rear-ended by a van. #VisionZero appropriately describes the street lighting. @StreetsblogNYC @TransAlt @NYC_DOT pic.twitter.com/L1XvWf7YY6
— Jessica (@Thund3r_H4wk) November 12, 2019
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Local
LA’s next DA could be one of us.
We already knew he’s one of us, as the Biebs go for doubled couples bike ride in Beverly Hills. Vogue critiques their matching outfits, while Footwear News is only concerned with their…well, footwear.
State
No bias here. An Ocean Beach, San Diego paper describes “cycling radicals” with a “sense of moral superiority” attacking the city’s driving-oriented planning boards, as part of a task force charged with reforming them. Because it’s totally implausible that people who ride bikes might be civic minded too, right?
Congratulations to UC Santa Barbara on being named a Platinum-level Bike Friendly University.
National
Men’s Health says presidential candidate Cory Booker is one of us, while Amy Klobuchar used to be; Kamala Harris prefers to do her cycling indoors.
A 14-year old Arizona boy was stabbed to death in a dispute over a bicycle, after the adult suspects had sicced a pit bull on the boy. Thanks to JoJo Valdez for the heads-up.
A Dallas op-ed tells the story of President George W. Bush’s annual Warrior 100K mountain bike ride for wounded vets, which started eight years ago when Bush invited a vet who’d lost a leg in Bagdad out for a ride at his ranch.
The Chicago Tribune questions whether the city’s Vision Zero is the reason traffic deaths are down in the Windy City.
A Minneapolis writer tells the story of his fruitless search for his purloined bicycle, questioning whether it was snatched by organized crime.
After a man with autism had his bike stolen while he worked, bighearted Cleveland residents raised funds to buy him a new one, raising nearly three times the $1,000 crowdfunding goal.
A New York woman was violently yanked off a bikeshare bike and repeatedly punched by a thief who stole her cellphone and briefcase.
Owen Wilson is one of us, too, as he takes a Brompton ebike for a spin in New York.
DC streets may finally be getting safer after bike riders turned traffic deaths into a rallying cry. Maybe if that happened every time someone is killed in Los Angeles, we might finally see some long-promised improvements here.
Washington lawmakers from both parties are finally starting to take action to cut the rising rate of bicycling and pedestrian deaths.
Uh, no. A Baltimore TV station says the NTSB is calling for new laws to bring down the climbing rate of bicycle crashes, starting with mandating bike helmets. Except bike helmets do absolutely nothing to prevent crashes; safer cars and better bike infrastructure will. Bike helmets should always be seen as the last line of defense when all else fails, not the first.
Charlotte NC’s Uptown neighborhood is getting a two-mile protected bike lane; bike riders say it can’t come soon enough.
International
A writer for Bike Radar commits heresy, insisting there is more to life than bicycling.
A Dia de los Muertos bike ride in Mexico City drew an amazing 147,000 people. The last time something like that happened in Los Angeles was the 2013 CicLAvia to the Sea from DTLA to Venice, which drew far more than 100,000 people. And probably over twice that.
A Canadian man was rescued by a bike rider after his plane went down in occupied France during WWII; he ditched his uniform and hid in plain site until he could be smuggled out of the county.
Irish drivers will now have to give bike riders a three-foot passing distance, and nearly five feet over 31 mph; passing too close can result in the equivalent of a $132 fine and three points against their license.
No surprise here. The Glasgow, Scotland bikeshare system discovers its ebikes get used twice as often as its regular bicycles.
This is who we share the roads with. An Irish bicyclist’s bike cam captures a speeding, red light-running bus driver passing too damn close; it also captures the border collie sharing his bike.
A Singapore man faces charges for killing a woman on a bicycle while riding an illegal e-scooter on a bike path. Meanwhile, authorities are attempting to reign in micromobility devices.
Competitive Cycling
Bicycling recounts how team manager and Type 1 diabetic Phil Sunderland started the first-ever all diabetic pro cycling team; as Team Type 1, they won RAAM three times, before joining the pro tour and morphing into the current Team Novo Nordisk.
Finally…
How not to ride a bike.
And how many times do we have to say it? If you’re riding a bike with the stuff you just stole from Walmart, put a damn light on it, already.
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Thanks to theMuirs for the second donating to this year’s BikinginLA Holiday Fund Drive, over two weeks before it even starts.
The fund drive will officially kickoff Thanksgiving weekend, but feel free to jump the gun if you want to join them in getting head start on it.
Especially if you’re partial to mixed metaphors. Like the last paragraph.
You can hear the impact in the Twitter video, it sounds like a bomb going off after the van passes the camera vehicle. The actual view of the impact was blocked by the weapon vehicle.