BikinginLA

Just seven days left in the 5th Annual BikinginLA Holiday Fund Drive! Donate today via PayPal, or with Zelle to ted @ bikinginla.com.

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You’ll have to excuse me if today’s post lacks a little something. 

I’m still shaken by the needless death of Danny Martin, Whittier’s beloved Tricycle Man.

While I never knew him or saw him, or even been to Whittier, I’ve often heard and read about Martin. And even wrote about him on here a few times.

Every life lost to traffic violence hurts. But this one hurts just a little more.

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Advocacy group Bike Walk Glendale wants you to take a look at the draft plan to revitalize the Upper Los Angeles River and its tributaries, and get your comments in.

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Saw this at my neighborhood Ralph’s — Kroger for those of you in the rest of the country.

And wondered just how an older or disabled person was supposed to get through there, even though the bike rider used this rack exactly as intended.

Never mind that it’s almost as secure as tying your bike to a tree; it would take a thief with bolt cutters just a few seconds to snap that rack and make off with the bike.

Thanks to Meghan Lynch and my time on a cane earlier this year for the ADA consciousness raising, aka the Americans with Disabilities Act.

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Sometimes it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.

A bike-riding Modesto thief pedaled off with an entire Salvation Army kettle filled with hundreds of dollars in donations.

If you’re going to burglarize a Long Island restaurant, make sure you pump up the tires on your getaway bike.

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‘Tis the Season.

Hats off to the Pasadena Rotary Club for donating 200 bicycles to kids as part of their “Bikes for Christmas” program.

A Lansing, Michigan bike co-op refurbished 49 bikes to donate to kids for the holidays. But they’ll have one less protected bike lane to ride them on.

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It’s not just the last full week of the BikinginLA Holiday Fund Drive, it’s also the last seven days of the late Corgi’s tenure as spokesdog.

Let me offer my sincere thanks to Todd R, Joel F, and Fred D Design for their generous donations to support this site. And help keep all the best bike news and advocacy coming your way every day. 

Seriously, what are are you waiting for, already?

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Local

Three candidates running to replace CD14 Councilmember José Huizar debated in DTLA last week. But only one appeared to mention bike lanes.

Friends, family and supporters of fallen bicyclist Frederick “Woon” Frazier marched to demand justice and an end to hit-and-runs — including the young son Woon never knew, and who will never know him.

It’s getting easier to leave your car at home in Long Beach.

CiclaValley rides the new Nichols Canyon Ride. Which is like the old Nichols Canyon Ride, but different.

 

State

A new study from the University of Duh says Orange County mountain bikers who use the KOM feature on Strava say it makes them ride faster. The study also shows that water is wet, and bears really do poop in the woods.

The San Diego City Council voted to ban dockless e-scooters from the city’s beachfront boardwalks. Is there even such a thing as docked e-scooters? I didn’t think so.

A Santa Cruz cancer patient got his stolen bike back after police tracked him down when a local resident found it abandoned behind a building. Just one more reminder to register your bike for free right now.

 

National

The Bike League wants to to contact your Congressperson, and ask him or her to co-sponsor a bill that would increase federal spending for biking and walking networks.

Fox Business asks if kids bikes will now drop in price, thanks to promised tariff relief in the Trump administration’s apparent deal in the trade war with China.

Curbed’s Alissa Walker says US bikeshare is the decade’s biggest transportation success story. Which is good news and bad news, since so little progress has been made on other fronts.

Ride a bike indoors in February to fight Parkinson’s disease. Preferably without the special seat mentioned down there at the bottom of the page.

A speeding Montana driver capped off a night of drinking at his office Christmas by killing a woman on her bike, then blamed the victim for just appearing in front of his car. Yet another reminder of the dangers of sharing the road with drinking drivers this the holiday season, as if anyone really needed it.

A Michigan nonprofit bought a new bike for a 12-year old boy after his was stolen as he was buying flowers for his mother, who had just gotten out of the hospital.

There’s a special place in hell for whoever stole a Michigan woman’s electric wheelchair and adaptive bike from her garage.

Another young girl has been attacked by a pit bull while riding her bike, this time in Charlotte, NC; a neighbor used a trashed can and a bicycle to beat it off her.

A New York councilmember says the city can legalize ebikes even if the governor allows a bill that would do it to die without his signature. Meanwhile, another councilmember from the Big Apple calls out politicians who ride in bigass SUVs instead of on bicycle seats. And deservedly so.

A Gotham website wants to know what’s behind New York’s mounting death toll for bicyclists. Start with massive SUVs and distracted drivers, and go from there.

A Florida woman plans to bike the route her grandfather marched across Europe in World War II, covering 1,000 miles in 70 days from Normandy, France to Oldenburg, Germany — ending on the 75th anniversary of VE Day.

 

International

The Verge says ebikes will be the top-selling form of electric vehicle sold in the US over the next decade.

Good question. A writer for Road.cc asks if you’re riding to enjoy it, or to prove yourself. Well?

Red Bull tells you what you need for your first cyclocross. And they’re right, you will need a bike. And tires. And yes, pedals would come in handy, too.

Montreal bicyclists protest plans to close a key bike path, calling for it be kept open all year.

Oops. After an English city councillor complained that a bicyclist riding at 30 mph was more alarming than a driver doing 50 mph, he was caught speeding by the traffic monitoring group he set up.

More proof life is cheap in the UK, where a driver walked with a suspended sentence for killing a bike rider despite reducing his speed to 30 mph, after playing the Universal Get Out of Jail Free card and claiming the sun was in his eyes. Even though another driver dropped his speed to 5 mph under the same circumstances, and somehow managed not to kill anyone.

A Dutch bike canal cruise is sort like any other river cruise. But instead to riding the boat to the next port, you’ll ride your bike.

Brussels, Belgium will be placing 3,000 bike racks next to pedestrian crossings over the next few years.

 

Competitive Cycling

Tragic news from Columbia, where national and Pan-Am cycling champ Miguel Londono died when he fell into rocks on a training ride in Medellín.

German cyclist Robert Forstemann made the news for his freakishly large nearly 30″ thighs.

 

Don’t even try to drive your Tesla truck in the EU. Yes, a vibrating seat is one way to relieve the boredom of indoor cycling — and maybe why the Peloton Wife enjoys it so much.

And watch Belgian kids re-enact a recent bizarre road standoff, with words their mamas probably didn’t teach them.

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