Breaking news: KNBC-4 reported that a bike rider was critically injured last night in a collision at Hollywood Blvd and McCadden Place. However, video from the scene appears to show the victim may have been seated on a Wheels scooter rather than a bicycle.
Unfortunately, nothing has been posted online yet.
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Outgoing CD14 Councilmember Jose Huizar responds to the question of whether other California cities will close streets to cars — or rather, open them up to people — in the wake of San Francisco’s closure of Market Street.
Huizar called yesterday for the possibility of a complete closure of historic Broadway in DTLA to motor vehicles between 1st and 12th Streets, with the exception of buses.
Since its inception in 2008 my Bringing Back Broadway initiative has successfully revitalized the historic corridor in DTLA. To further enhance the economic development of the area, I have introduced a motion asking for a study to look into the feasibility of a car-free Broadway. pic.twitter.com/RhMOcYEBFK
— Jose Huizar (@josehuizar) February 12, 2020
This comes after years of efforts to revitalize the corridor, including a road diet that cut the number of traffic lanes in half, and reopening or repurposing many of the street’s grand theaters.
Note to KCBS-2: Despite the headline in the above link, the proposed ban is on cars and trucks, not feet.
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The Arroyo Seco Bike Path is officially open, after being closed for a year to repair damage caused by last year’s rains.
Good news, L.A. cyclists:
Nearly 13 months after the Arroyo Seco bike path was closed due to damage from a major storm, the city completed repairs and the bikeway has been fully reopened. Here's what took so long: https://t.co/0g9cs1zCCd pic.twitter.com/tgUMNOc1kl— LAist (@LAist) February 12, 2020
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No surprise here.
A new Portland study shows bike riders are safer sharing a bus only lane with transit vehicles than sharing regular traffic lanes with everyone else.
And if you build it, they will come. A new British government reports shows that investing in bicycling pays, as building bike lanes encourages people to bike more and drive less.
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Former New York DOT Commissioner Janet Sadik-Khan teams with another writer to examine the real global health crisis —
Deaths caused by motor vehicles and the people who drive them.
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Some things are universal. And definitely worth 35 seconds out of your day.
“Get a car, loser!” (presumably so you can be stuck in the same traffic gridlock I’m adding to) Sketch from 2019 Icelandic Lampoon show HT @ruvsjonvarp. As @bjornteits points out, the only thing unrealistic “is the fact that there are 2 people in the car.” pic.twitter.com/HcJqntz5FF
— Brent Toderian (@BrentToderian) February 12, 2020
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The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.
It’s a well-deserved three and a half years behind bars for a road raging New Mexico driver who put his car in reverse, floored it and slammed into a group of senior Santa Fe bicyclists; he’ll have to serve at lest 85% of his sentence — and attend anger management sessions. Thanks to Brian Kreimendahl of Bike Santa Fe for the link.
A Kenyan driver takes a punishment pass to the extreme, sideswiping a pair of bike riders and speeding away without stopping.
https://twitter.com/Kenyans/status/1227486602039058432?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1227486602039058432&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.kenyans.co.ke%2Fnews%2F49650-unsettling-footage-motorist-ramming-cyclists-angers-kenyans-video
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Local
The Daily News provides a look at the race for LA city councilmember in CD4 as three candidates vie to unseat David Ryu.
More on Santa Monica’s plan to give Wilshire Blvd a safety makeover to protect bicyclists and pedestrians, including a ban on left turns onto the boulevard from cross streets.
The Savage Hearts Love Ride 2020 will roll from Marina del Rey tomorrow to provide care packages and love to those in need.
State
The community turned out to show their support for fallen bicyclist Kevin Wilson as the hit-and-run driver who killed the beloved postal worker near El Cajon was sentenced; the victim’s wife said his killer got less than four years behind bars, but she got a “life sentence without the love of my life.”
Indio is investing $1.25 million to build four miles of new art and music-enhanced bike lanes.
After a video circulated of a Turlock special needs boy getting assaulted and robbed by three other kids, a Good Samaritan stepped in to replace his shoes and bicycle.
San Jose puts its money where its mouth is, providing $7 million upfront to fund their new Vision Zero plan, as well as forming a task force to curb traffic deaths.
After three Marin County men were charged with building an illegal offroad trail, a Marin paper calls on everyone to work together to create legal multiuse ones.
Healdsburg is installing wayfinding signs to help bike riders navigate the Sonoma County city.
Ten years after a Nevada City bike rider was killed by a distracted driver, the memorial ride and run held in his honor is still going strong, with up to 300 riders participating.
National
A must-read from Curbed, which argues that public meetings are broken and offers advice for how to fix them. Anyone who’s been shouted down by traffic safety deniers and NIMBYs in recent years knows just how broken the current system is.
A supercar designer introduces a new autonomous electric car so cute, that will probably be your last thought as it runs you over. Thanks to Mike Cane for the heads-up.
Bike Snob’s Eben Weiss says recent Los Angeles transplant LeBron James is the new hero of bikeshare and bike lanes, saying children need access to bikes and safe places to ride them. Rumor has it he also plays basketball here in LA. LeBron, that is, not Weiss.
They get it. Boulder CO bike commuters say every day is Winter Bike to Work Day; the official international Winter Bike to Work Day is this Friday. Except in Los Angeles, where the weather would be perfect for it.
A new Pueblo CO bike bank is fixing up bicycles and giving them to homeless people.
A Colorado CEO plans to ride a bike barefoot across the US, from Disneyland in Anaheim to Disney World in Orlando, to call attention to human trafficking; it’s the first known attempt by anyone to pedal barefoot across the country.
A Texas writer explores Fort Worth by bikeshare, and discovers it’s a lot easier and more fun than he could imagine.
An Iowa bill that would require bike riders to wear high-viz and have both front and rear lights is moving forward in the state legislature, even though no groups support it.
New York learns the hard way what happens when a protected bike lane isn’t protected enough.
New York preschoolers are learning to recycle cans to buy a new bicycle for their school gym.
A DC adjacent Maryland county is considering a proposal to make bike registration voluntary, instead of the current mandatory, but usually ignored, requirement.
A DC site says the city can learn from Oslo and Helsinki when it comes to Vision Zero, both of which didn’t have a single bike or pedestrian death last year. Then again, so can every other city.
A Virginia transit system has spent five years and $3.8 million to build two secure bike corrals, and they’re still not done. Give me a million dollars and a few tools, and I’ll build the damn things myself. Seriously.
Florida may be the nation’s deadliest state for people on bicycles, but one Central Florida county hasn’t had a bicycling death in two years.
International
Four intrepid travelers recount lessons learned from riding fat bikes around St. James Bay in Antarctica. Here’s one more tip: Go in the summer next time.
This is who we share the roads with. A Calgary prosecutor says a driver high on meth chuckled when he learned he’d killed a 15-year old boy riding a bike and injured his companion.
Forget a bike bridge. Local officials are considering opening a bike ferry across the Saint Lawrence River to connect an upstate New York city with another in Ontario, Canada.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson says forget that 350 million pounds he promised for active transportation projects in England; he really meant £1 billion for biking and walking.
Once again, a bike rider is a hero, as a man in the UK discovers three barely living lobsters on the side of the road that had apparently fallen off a truck, and carries them back to the sea on his bike to set them free.
An Irish writer says she still gets flashbacks from getting hit by a driver while riding her bike. And that just going for a bike ride shouldn’t feel like going to war.
The Netherlands has fined over 21,000 bike riders for using a handheld phone while riding in the first six months the ban has been in effect. That compares to 98,000 California drivers in all of 2017, with over twice the population.
A new Ai Wei Wei sculpture in Abu Dhabi continues his celebration of pedal power, made from 720 carefully stacked bicycles.
Your next bike could be handmade from bamboo in Kathmandu with seating for three. Or a lot more, judging by the last photo.
Pink Bike looks at the potential impact of the novel coronavirus, aka Covid-19, on the bicycle industry, at a time when most bikes and parts come from the Middle Kingdom.
Competitive Cycling
Actor and bicyclist Patrick Dempsey will serve as the honorary captain of the US Olympic Cycling Team at the Tokyo Summer Olympics.
The nation’s largest fat bike beach bike race will be held in Wrightsville Beach, North Carolina next month.
Who needs a mountain for downhill mountain bike racing when you’ve got a perfectly good city?
Finally…
Your next bike could have skis instead of wheels, but it only goes downhill. Your next saddle could have a rat on it; no, not you.
And sometimes you just have to bust out of preschool and ride your bike.
