Just five 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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A three-wheeled adult bike is needed to install a ghost bike for fallen bike rider Danny Martin, aka Whittier’s beloved Tricycle Man, who was killed in Whittier on Monday.
And speaking of Danny, there will be a ride in his honor this Sunday.
Thanks to everyone who sent me this one.
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Ventura County officials want to block your right to know about bicycling and other fatalities, calling for a new law banning the disclosure of death records to both the general public and the media.
Thanks to Steven Hansen for the heads-up.
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Here’s your chance to help improve bike connections in the San Gabriel Valley.
https://twitter.com/ActiveSGV/status/1207390576263360512
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The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes is all too real.
A homeless German man who wanted to go to jail for free meals and a warm place to sleep got his wish when he was sentenced to life in prison for intentionally ramming a bike rider with the car he’d been sleeping in, seriously injuring the victim as well as inflicting long-lasting psychological trauma.
In a road rage incident seen ’round the world, a Singapore truck driver was convicted of deliberately swerving into a bicyclist and failing to report the crash.
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‘Tis the Season.
The San Luis Obispo sheriff’s department donated 250 bikes refurbished by honor farm inmates to kids in need.
The widow of North Carolina’s Bicycle Man is continuing his legacy, donating a whopping 1,500 bicycles and helmets to local children.
A Louisiana sheriff’s department gave away 100 bicycles to local kids in their 26th annual bike giveaway.
A Jacksonville FL foundation gave nearly 100 bikes to children from the local Police Athletic League and Big Brothers Big Sisters.
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Don’t make her suffer this indignity for nothing. Give to the BikinginLA Holiday Fund Drive today.
You can now count the last days of the BikinginLA Holiday Fund Drive on one hand.
That’s right. Just five days left to show your support for SoCal’s best source for bike news and advocacy. Along with the late Corgi’s last days as spokesdog for this site.
So let me offer my sincere thanks to Andrew G, Joel S, Janice H and Thuan V for their generous donations to help keep this fund drive going strong in its final days.
So what are are you waiting for?
Stop take just a minute to give something right now. Because time’s running out.
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Local
Brooks McKinney interviews LADOT transportation planner Severin Martinez about his work creating a “safe, comprehensive and well-connected bicycle network.”
Streetsblog’s Joe Linton looks at the three bike, pedestrian and equestrian bridges nearing completion over the LA River. Although it’s probably just a matter of time before the horse people try to get us kicked off those, too.
Long Beach’s “whimsical” bike racks are celebrating their 10th anniversary on the streets of the bayfront city; designs include a yoga stick figure, skeletal fish and a cupcake, among others.
State
A member of San Diego’s Mobility Board questions if the city is doing more harm than good by removing 430 parking spaces to make room for protected bike lanes in the North Park neighborhood. Short answer, no.
Santa Barbara is preparing to roll out a traditional 250-bike docked bikeshare system aimed at local workers, rather than tourists.
Nice story. When someone stole a bike belonging to a high school student in Half Moon Bay, he soon spotted someone riding it and confronted the thief, but decided to let him keep it because the other kid probably needed it more that he did. When the local sheriff’s department heard about it, they found an abandoned bike, refurbished it and gave it to him as a reward for his selfless act.
National
Unbelievable. Omaha, Nebraska ripped out a bike corral after the bike shop it fronted closed down, preferring to regain one lousy car parking space instead of parking for a dozen bicycles; bike riders tried to halt the removal by rushing to lock their bikes to the racks, but the city took them out anyway.
Missouri works out a land transfer to build a 144-mile bike trail through the state — assuming supporters raise nearly $10 million to pay for it.
Kindhearted Wisconsin cops work with a local bike foundation to replace an autistic man’s three-wheeled bike after noticing the frame was broken.
Kinda sucks when your own aunt turns you in for stealing a bike, like this Minnesota man.
Life is cheap in Michigan, where a reckless hit-and-run driver got a whole year behind bars for killing a man riding a bike. With good behavior, he’ll probably get out in half that time.
A somewhat strange New Hampshire letter writer says only give your wife a Peloton bike if you’re a man’s man; otherwise, be a girly man and go to a jewelry store.
An upstate New York letter writer complains about a bike and walkway on a bridge over the Hudson River, somehow blaming it for the potholes caused by cars.
New York is looking for robbers who have stolen 22 ebikes after pepper spraying the victims.
The death toll just keeps going up in NYC, after the city notched its 29th bicycling fatality this year when a man on a bike fell on some ice, and was hit by the driver of a loaded school bus. That’s still better than Los Angeles, which has suffered 17 bicycling deaths this year, in a city half the size.
A Florida bike rider was lucky to escape with minor injuries when a 12-foot sinkhole caused by a broken stormwater pipe opened up under the roadway, which collapsed underneath him. Or maybe not; his boss says he’ll need facial reconstruction surgery.
International
Road.cc tells you how to avoid the pitfalls of bike commuting. Like skip the Strava KOMS and don’t wear your heavy jeans for more than a few miles.
The Guardian asks the burning question of what will British Prime Minister Boris Johnson do for bicyclists. Assuming the country survives Brexit, or course.
A three-year old girl from the UK born with a severe birth defect is now walking and riding a bike, after doctors had given her zero chance of ever walking.
Maybe they’ll take requests. London’s electric buses will now play music to warn bike riders and pedestrians they’re coming.
Life is cheap — and grossly unfair — in Australia, where a 20-year old Iranian refugee got just 10 months in a youth facility for falling asleep at the wheel and killing a 49-year old father riding his bike to work; his short sentence means he won’t be deported. His victim’s family won’t be so lucky; after losing their husband and father, they face deportation because they were in the country on his employment visa.
An Aussie website says the country’s road rules should be rewritten to put pedestrians first, with bike riders second.
Taipei, Taiwan will allow foreign expats to use its bikeshare system after all.
Finally…
No, throwing one at a passing cab whose driver won’t stop to pick you up is not the proper use of a bikeshare bike. Probably not the best idea to steal a bike from the local police.
And if you’re using a distinctive pink and purple kid’s bike as your getaway vehicle following an armed robbery, you probably don’t want to ride it back past the scene of the crime a few minutes later.
Seriously.
There are a lot of unmarked crosswalks at T-intersections around Jordan Road/whittier where the tricyclist may have been attempting to cross the street. I imagine that in the course of this investigation this will be ignored. It is also possible for someone on a tricycle to make vehicular turns at any one of these intersections. Someone riding and performing either of these maneuvers would probably be blamed for their own injury or death if hit. Whatever strategy you use for getting across the street you will be blamed for not using a different one.
The statement by the police that he wasn’t in “an intersection or marked crosswalk” seems the be an attempt to assign blame and reflects a limited understanding of cycling. When the police and local news talk about intersection they usually mean one with marked crosswalks and signals. An intersection and crosswalk can exist without either. Cyclists don’t need either of those to cross a street. If he was a disabled person on a tricycle he probably attempted to cross using a sidewalk ramp and would have been in an unmarked crosswalk. I assume he normally used the sidewalk. I can’t remember the last time I saw someone on a a tricycle in traffic.
If the tricycle rider had been riding in a marked crosswalk would he be blamed for failing to get off and walk it across the street? His tricycle was essentially a mobility aid but the law may not reflect this. Does the law allow someone who can ride but not walk the ability to ride in a crosswalk without loosing the right of way?
The police seem to shift their expectations for cyclist behavior to blame the victim. If you were riding in traffic you were “not in a crosswalk.” If you were, it is your fault for riding and not walking your bike. If you were to the left of a right hand turn lane, a right turning car or in a left hand turn lane you are at fault for not “hugging the curb.” No matter what bicycle riding technique I use I will be blamed for my own death.