Let’s start with a reminder that in California, every corner is considered to have a crosswalk, whether or not it’s painted.
It’s also perfectly legal to cross a street mid-block if it’s not controlled by traffic signals on both ends.
So the prohibition on jaywalking doesn’t apply on any block without traffic signals, or with a signal at only one end.
And drivers — and people on bicycles — are required to yield to pedestrians at any intersection, whether or not they’re in a painted crosswalk.
Even though cops and lawyers love to blame victims for not being in one.
Photo by Mohan Reddy Atalu from Pexels.
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Big four accounting firm Deloitte looks into its crystal ball, suggesting that urban bike use will double around the world in the next two years.
And predicts the savor of tomorrow’s cities will be… the humble bicycle.
The company also projects that ebikes will outsell electric cars and trucks 3.5 to 1 in just five years.
Which is just as it should be.
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Once again, a bicyclist is a hero, after a Minnesota man interrupted his ride and used his bike to rescue a woman and her two dogs when they all fell into a frozen river.
Meanwhile, a Kenyan kid gets kudos for setting his bike aside to help an elderly stranger.
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Bike the Vote LA releases the questionnaire they sent to Glendale city council candidates.
#BikeTheVote sent the following questionnaire to Glendale City Council candidates in advance of the March 3, 2020 primary election. We look forward to reviewing their responses! pic.twitter.com/wFOdQmM2qQ
— Bike The Vote L.A. (@bikethevote) January 2, 2020
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Now that’s what I call a cargo bike.
Found the original caption of what has been wrongly called "World's first ever ambulance service"…;
29th July 1941: A one-man anti-gas ambulance and resuscitator, designed and made for use by the Home Guard. pic.twitter.com/YRkgb01XJU— Fake History Hunter (@fakehistoryhunt) January 3, 2020
Thanks to Megan Lynch for the link.
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You could soon unwrap your very own bike made by Alberto Contador and Ivan Basso.
Presumably, doping is optional, despite their shared histories.
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This is who we share the roads with.
A British man was stopped by police for driving his car with no tires on his front wheels, at six times the legal alcohol limit.
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They’re all one of us.
Former 007 Pierce Brosnan went for a post-Christmas knobby-tired bike ride with his wife in Zuma Beach.
Shakira and her soccer playing husband went for a Miami bike ride over the holidays.
We already knew Madonna was one of us, as she goes for a casual ride with her boyfriend in the Maldives.
And you can throw the new mayor of New Haven, Connecticut in there, too.
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Sometimes, it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.
WTF? A Menlo Park bike rider shot a dog in it’s own front yard for no apparent reason; thankfully, the victim is in stable condition. However, without any actual witnesses, it’s possible that he may have been acting in self-defense. Thanks to Robert Leone for the heads-up.
An Austin TX woman’s small dog has been missing it was run over by a jerk on a bicycle who just kept going without stopping. And no, there’s no legal obligation to stop after hitting a dog in the Lone Star State. Just basic human decency, which some people seem to lack.
An Australian mother is justifiably furious after a woman on a bike crashed into her two-year old daughter, then rode off as the mom tended to the bleeding toddler’s smashed mouth. See above, basic human decency or the lack thereof.
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Local
Funeral services will be held today for Whittier’s popular “Tricycle Man;” Danny Martin was killed two weeks ago while riding his American flag-flying adult tricycle.
Metro is reducing the price for a one-year Bike Hub membership to just $20 this month.
State
A new Costa Mesa advocacy group will push for safer streets in the OC city this year.
By far the nicest story of the day comes from Dana Point, where total strangers encouraged a four-year old girl who was struggling to learn how to ride the bike she got for Christmas, and cheered when she finally got the hang of it.
A San Diego writer says state and city climate change laws will force the city’s drivers to switch to other means of transportation, but says that will be impossible for most people.
Bad news from Bakersfield, where an ebike rider suffered a major leg injury when he was left-crossed by a pickup driver.
The future of San Luis Obispo County’s only bike park is in danger, thanks to vandals who keep causing damage and raising the park’s operating costs.
A Bay Area letter writer says he’s only counted 15 bike riders using the new protected bike/pedestrian lane on the Richmond–San Rafael Bridge, despite the $20 million that was spent building it. Evidently he missed the other 9,985 bicyclists who used it in the first two weeks alone, despite the unwelcoming weather.
That didn’t take long. Just two days into the new year, a Stockton bike rider was killed in a collision with a driver who stayed at the scene, then was hit again by another driver who didn’t; police handed the second driver an alibi, saying he might not know he hit anyone.
A Redding teenager was walking home from school last month because his bike was stolen, when a pickup driver crashed into him on the sidewalk, then fled the scene, leaving him critically injured; yesterday a kindhearted stranger met him at a bike shop and bought him a new bicycle. And yes, the heartless coward who left him there was busted two weeks after the crash.
National
Bicycling’s Joe Lindsey says stop pirating bike races online, and start paying for legitimate coverage. I’ve got no problem with the stop stealing part. But I’m damned if I’ll pay extra for the same NBC bike coverage that formerly came free with their cable TV package.
Speaking of Bicycling, apparently hitch racks and carbon wheels don’t go together.
Streetsblog USA presented its Streetsie award for transportation plan of the year to Kansas City’s plan to eliminate bus fares; LA Metro was a surprising finalist for its plans for busways, Metro improvements and bus shelters. Although someone should tell them that planned improvements have a nasty habit of falling through the cracks in the City of Angels.
After two years in effect, Honolulu’s distracted walking law has done nothing to reduce pedestrian deaths. So maybe the people on two feet weren’t the problem, after all.
Lime is pulling the plug on its Seattle bikeshare program until the weather gets a little better in the spring.
A semi-sophisticated theft ring is targeting Boulder CO bike shops, as a group of thieves handed 17 high-end bikes worth a whopping $87,000 out through a broken window in assembly line fashion.
New York bicyclists say the city is finally starting to get it, as bicycling deaths climbed to 29 last year — almost three times the number of bike riders killed in the city the year before.
After his face was bloodied in a fall caused by truck debris left in a bike lane, a New York State senator says he’ll keep riding, but it’s got to get safer.
It takes a real schmuck to just drive off in his massive dually pickup after hitting a 10-year old Louisiana boy out for a ride on his new Christmas bike.
International
He gets it. A British Columbia bike rider and driver says when everyone obeys the law, things go just fine.
That might actually work. Winnipeg, Canada considers fighting bicycle chop shops by requiring anyone who deals in bike parts to get a business license, and keep a photo and ID records for anyone who sells to them.
Winnipeg police bust a man for riding a stolen bike while carrying a stolen shotgun and an imitation ballistic vest. And riding on the sidewalk, too. Although someone should tell him that fake bulletproof vests only stop fake bullets.
An English woman was the victim of a strong-arm robbery when three men punched her in the face as she was riding her bike, and made off with it while she was still dazed.
Kindhearted firefighters buy new bikes for a pair of British kids after their father was killed just before Christmas.
Once again, the Netherlands shows the world how to get people on bicycles with interest-free ebike loans, a program to lease bikes through their workplace, and reimbursing people for riding to work; Scotland is providing interest-free loans to buy ebikes, too.
No shit. Streetsblog says American cities could learn from Oslo, Norway’s success in eliminating traffic deaths last year.
Indian police busted a 19-year old temple priest for stealing 31 bicycles worth nearly $50,000, alleging he was addicted to a video game.
Aussie bike riders and motorists can agree on one thing. They both hate it when police set up a mobile speed camera on a bike path next to a busy highway. And on Boxing Day, no less.
Beijing-based dockless bikeshare provider Meituan Bike, aka the former Mobike, lost a whopping 205,600 bikes to theft and vandalism around the world last year.
An Indonesian driver faces up to ten years behind bars for testing positive for amphetamines after crashing into not one, not two, but seven bike riders; fortunately, no one was killed or seriously injured.
Competitive Cycling
Cycling News offers a look at this year’s WorldTour couture. Meanwhile, Cycling Tips questions if the kits are hot or not. But am I the only only who always thinks the CCC team kit is missing a P?
South African cyclist Nic Dlamini says he’s overwhelmed by the public support, and mulling his legal options as he recovers from surgery, after he was roughed up by national park personnel who broke his arm, apparently for failing to pay a $6 entry fee; he’s unsure when he’ll be able to ride again.
Finally…
Your next bike lock could be a big zip tie; no, really. Nothing like riding 105 miles on a $222 Amazon bike.
And now you, too, can build your very own Tron bike.
No, with pedals.
