I might just have to re-evaluate my opinion of my local neighborhood council.
Last night, the Hollywood Hills West Neighborhood Council cast a nearly unanimous vote to reject a proposal to weaken the Yucca Street bicycle friendly street, aka bike boulevard.
Literally the only bike boulevard in Los Angeles. And the only safe east-west route through Hollywood.
In fact, the only vote in favor of the proposal to remove a key traffic diverter came from the person who proposed it.
14-to-1 vote defeated a motion to remove these medians from Yucca / Las Palmas. @bikinginla @BicycleLACity @LADOTSafeRoutes @lacbc @bicyclekitchen pic.twitter.com/aFhQM1UBnR
— M YARBER (@6Chair) November 21, 2019
Here’s the comment that I submitted by email. Thanks to Mary Yarber for sharing it.
Artwork from the British Library’s Mechanical Curator Collection.
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In other bikeway news, the new two-way Main Street parking protected bike lanes are nearly finished, even if the traffic signals aren’t.
The 2-way protected bike lane on Main St is looking better every day. Keep in mind the signal heads are not functioning if you're riding southbound (the lane is not officially open yet). SB riders keep an eye on those ped signals and be wary of left turning drivers. #bikeLA pic.twitter.com/1cTHOvelwh
— BikeLA (@heybikela) November 21, 2019
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Today’s common theme is famous people on bikes.
Yes, Justin Bieber is one of us. But that’s not much of a wheelie, although it looks better in the still photo.
San Francisco’s new DOT director is one of us. And that appears to make Bay Area advocates pretty happy.
The great-grandfather of NFL star Rob Gronkowski is one of us in more ways than one, setting an indoor track cycling record in 1920 that stood for over 30 years. And he was fined $25 for punching a driver who ran him off the road. Which can be pretty damn tempting at times.
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Sometimes it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.
London police are looking for the man who attacked a bus driver with a bicycle, trying to use it to break through the driver’s protective barrier. Although if he’d just ridden it instead, there wouldn’t have been a problem to begin with.
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Local
Government Technology says Los Angeles is seriously looking into congestion pricing to reduce traffic congestion, and possibly fund free transit use. Then again, riding a bicycle is always free.
What does it mean when Elon Musk’s divorce lawyer moves to a WeHo scooter startup?
North Long Beach is finally getting bikeshare three years after the rest of the city.
State
The next time a Riverside County man steals a custom-built bicycle, maybe he’ll leave the meth at home.
This is what a Santa Barbara bike thief looks like. Meanwhile, UC Santa Cruz cops bust a bike thief and recover a pair of stolen bikes.
A San Francisco TV station intercedes after a man on a low-income bikeshare plan is fined $430 for losing a bikeshare bike after it was stolen shortly after he rented it, even though the company had already recovered it.
San Francisco approves plans to divert drivers looking for a shortcut off the city’s Page Street.
There’s a special place in hell for whoever drove off after backing out of a parking space without looking, and knocking a 12-year old Weaverville boy off his bike.
National
In a new study that should concern any parent or coach, researchers found that prompt treatment is the key recovering from a concussion. Yet girls wait longer than boys to seek treatment, delaying their recovery.
Outside recommends the year’s “most exciting” gear for gravel grinding.
Someone stole the gelato bike from a Tulsa OK pizza maker, who was part of a seventh-place American team in the World Pizza Championships; police didn’t waste any time busting the thief after spotting him riding the partially dismantled bike with his dog upfront.
Residents of a small Oklahoma town say trading downtown parking for bike lanes would mean the end of Halloween and visits from the grandkids. No, really.
Bike Snob visits the Arkansas hometown of Walmart, calling it the Disneyland of mountain biking. Which makes suggests you’ll have to stand in line for an hour for a five to ten minute ride.
Chicago bike advocates say the city needs safer streets and protected bike lanes now, arguing that most residents don’t have access to safe bikeways. If they think Chicago is bad, just wait until they see Los Angeles.
A Louisville KY bike shop owner wants to replace a rotting house with a four-story, 24-unit, bicycle-centric, parking-free housing development.
A New York bike rider got a quarter-million dollar settlement after a transit cop knocked him off his bike for the crime of riding it across a bridge instead of walking, suffering multiple foot fractures along with cuts and bruises.
The Philadelphia Marathon is offering a team of bike-riding psychologists to help participants get that extra boost to get across the finish line.
International
A carfree British Columbia woman is angry after she’s refused service at a donut shop drive-through because she was on an e-cargo bike with her kids instead of ensconced within an SUV.
Life is cheap in Nottingham, England, where a speeding driver walked with community service and a suspended sentence for killing a man riding a bike.
I want to be like him when I grow up. An 82-year old man became the first person in Britain to bike one million miles.
Sweden’s ambassador to The Netherlands says she doesn’t care what the locals do, she’s going to keep wearing her bike helmet like they do back home.
Antwerp, Belgium does its best to imitate Los Angeles, as a drunk, speeding, red light-running, hit-and-run driver crashed into two cars while fleeing the scene after running down a bike-riding woman, before slamming into two more drivers waiting at a red light. His plates were expired, too.
Competitive Cycling
America’s last remaining Tour de France winner advises Egan Bernal, this year’s champ, not to work for four-time winner Chris Froome when he returns to the race next year.
Cyclist considers the best pro cyclists who are retiring this year, including American cycling scion Taylor Phinney.
Finally…
If you want to rob a pharmacy, maybe a bike seat isn’t the best weapon. Once again, if you’re carrying illegal drugs on your bike, put a damn light on it — and don’t consent to a search, for crying out loud.
And now thieves can steal your bike just by borrowing your face.
It’s not just the drive-through. Almost every parking lot I encounter has signs posted declaring “NO BICYCLING.” In just about every development built after 1950 in this country you have to go through a parking lot to reach your destination. The ubiquitous NO BICYCLING signs seems to imply that you should lock your bike on the public sidewalk outside of the parking lot and then walk an often significant distance. The problem is you won’t find any thing to lock your bike to aside from a utility pole cable. I have never seen sidewalk bike racks on the perimeter of post-1960 commercial developments or large stripmall parking lots.
These signs are, of course, ignored, but it really bugs me that I see them everywhere I go. Do I need to be reminded of my third class status every time I attempt to give someone my money? It’s not like I could find a parking space if I wanted to.
You often will find a bike rack in these same developments that are supposed to be bicycle free – although 99% of the time it is a spoke bender and pretty fucking useless. About half of the spoke benders I encounter I right up against the wall and completely unusable. I wind up having to get creative and have to lug around a massive overbuilt U lock and a thicker braided cable. In theory a property manager or security guard could come along and take a hacksaw the frame. The old solution of smaller U lock and staple rack that served me for years before I returned to socal doesn’t work here.
I have a picture of a “No Bicycles” sign on a wall immediately above a spoke bender bike rack.