Bike the Vote LA has posted their voting guide for LA’s 10th Council District.
Outgoing LA County Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas, considered a shoo-in by most pundits, rates a surprisingly low C+ on the survey compiled by a number of the Southside’s leading bike advocacy groups.
Meanwhile, a pair lesser known candidates, Channing Martinez and Aura Vasquez, lead the way with their support for non-automotive transportation and Complete Streets policies.
Hopefully, the other candidates will garner enough votes to deny Ridley-Thomas an outright victory in arch, and force a runoff that with get both candidates on the record, for better or worse.
Whomever that other one might end up being.
Meanwhile, the Bike the Vote LA newsletter includes opportunities to help get out the vote for Loraine Lundquist in CD12, and Sarah Kate Levy and Nithya Raman in CD4, along with Dan Brotman in Glendale.
Full Disclosure — My personal interactions with Ridley-Thomas have all been good, which is why I’m surprised to see him score low here.
On the other hand, I’m tired of career politicians using the LA City Council as a soft place to land after getting termed out of other jobs.
Let’s hope whoever gets elected will be committed to safer streets in the long-ignored district.
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Here’s the ultimate proof you can carry anything on a bike — your very own two-pony semi-covered tricycle for the equivalent of just $5,900, sans ponies.
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Peloton continues to populate YouTube parodies. Like this one, for instance.
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The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes is all too real.
Someone has been booby trapping Dallas, Texas bike trails with nearly invisible twine or rope in an apparent attempt to knock riders off their bikes. Let’s get this straight. This isn’t a prank, it’s a deliberate attempt to injure innocent people and frighten them off the trails. Which makes it an act of anti-bike terrorism.
Sometimes it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.
Still more proof you can carry anything on a bicycle. Including other people’s stolen car batteries in Chattanooga, Tennessee.
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Local
No news is good news, right?
State
Evidently, we were right. San Diego is reporting five bicycling fatalities last year, along with 24 pedestrians killed. Which is about 29 people too many.
Some San Mateo residents are looking forward to a road diet on North San Mateo Drive, but several automotive businesses see it as an attempt to drive them out of business.
The San Francisco Chronicle examines women-only night at a Bay Area bike co-op. Which should be a required feature everywhere for women tired of mansplaining mechanics.
Streetsblog says San Francisco needs a bicycle mayor. LA just needs to listen to its own already appointed, and usually ignored, Bicycle Advisory Committee.
Finishing out our San Francisco trifecta, the city’s iconic Market Street will officially be carfree starting next week. Which is kind like banning drivers from LA’s Wilshire Blvd. Which isn’t a half bad idea.
Okay, make it a quadfecta. San Francisco’s transit authority is testing out 50 special adaptive scooters from Jump, Lime, Scoot and Spin for people with disabilities. Hopefully that will prove successful and spread down here.
Alameda is asking for public input to help keep bike riders and pedestrians from getting hit by motorists.
Oakland is considering a bike and pedestrian bridge leading to a proposed A’s baseball stadium in the city’s Jack London Square.
Business owners are supporting a proposed 19-mile bike trail along the Russian River despite the $145 million price tag, saying it could bring in more business from people on two-wheels.
National
A writer for Best Reviews recommends the best mountain bike, which probably isn’t. If you can put up with the Chicago Tribune’s multiple popup ads.
Gear Junkie offers tips for fat bike winter fun, for anyone with access to a little snow.
Bike thieves hit a Boulder CO bike shop for the second time in weeks, making off with “tens of thousands of dollars worth of new bikes.”
Curbed makes the case for why you should ride your bike all year in frigid Chicago, even in the winter. Which LA bike riders know is unreasonable, since we get cold when the temp drops below 70°.
It was a bad year on Ohio roadways, where 23 people were killed riding their bikes in 2019.
Kindhearted Philly cops buy a new bicycle for a boy whose bike was stolen by a group of older kids just before Christmas.
Credit a West Virginia police chief with a good grasp of the obvious, as he steps out on a rock-solid limb by linking drug use and bike thefts.
Seriously? Daytona Beach police are trying to drive down bike and pedestrian deaths by focusing on the potential victims rather than the people in the big, dangerous machines, explaining that there’s no point in focusing on drivers, because they usually don’t see the victims until it’s too late. Which couldn’t possibly be a reason to slow down and pay attention to the road in front of you, could it? Or why it remains the fourth most dangerous city in the state.
Orlando, Florida’s mayor has a plan — or rather, multiple plans — to shed its reputation as the nation’s deadliest city for pedestrians. But as the story says, “…pledging something and doing something are very different, especially when it comes to the multifaceted challenge of making our streets safer.” As we in Los Angeles know all too well.
Congratulations to Tampa International Airport, which has been named the nation’s first bicycle-friendly airport by the League of American Bicyclists.
When you’re already a twice convicted Florida felon, probably not the best idea to ride your bike with a fully loaded 9mm, crack, weed and oxycodone, along with a full face mask and $644 in cash. Just saying.
International
Mexican authorities are feeling well-deserved international pressure to solve the murder of a young women’s rights advocate after she was shot in the back of the head while riding her bike home in downtown Juarez; the deadly border city saw 180 women murdered last year alone.
A Spanish bike rider learns the hard way that bicycles and massive storm-driven waves don’t mix.
Tragic story from India, where the wife of a major bicycle manufacturer was found hanging in an apparent suicide, though police are treating it as a suspicious death. Seriously, if you’re thinking about it, get help now by calling the National Suicide Hotline at 1-800-273-8255.
Canberra, Australia is finally showing Sikhs a little respect, dropping the ridiculous requirement to wear a helmet atop their turbans when they ride a bike. Now they just have to drop that ineffective mandatory helmet law for everyone else.
Competitive Cycling
Chris Froome will start what promises to be a long and difficult comeback from the massive injuries he suffered preparing for last year’s Criterium du Dauphine at the UAE Tour in the United Arab Emirates next month.
With a start like this, frenzy is the right word for this Kiwi mountain bike race. But do they really have to destroy fragile terrain by wildcatting off the trail?
Finally…
Your next bike could be wood. You could soon stop riding on air.
And congratulations, Critical Massers. You’re now considered a radical left-wing group that bears watching.
