Mea culpa.
Once again, I accidentally hit the wrong damn button and posted this piece before it’s ready.
My sincere apologies for premature publication.
I know they say it happens to everyone.
But still.
Image by Christelle Olivier from Pixabay.
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Let’s start with a couple items coming up before the Los Angeles City Council this week.
Because, after a long hiatus on the subject, the council is once again talking bikes.
Twice, no less.
Although one of those times, bicycles are rolled up with bus lanes, clean transit and reducing the amount of cars on our streets.
First up, the full council will address a motion allowing the LAPD to establish a free voluntary bicycle registration program at today’s meeting.
Key word, voluntary.
And free.
Except I can almost guarantee someone — Koretz, perhaps, maybe Cedillo — will argue that it should be mandatory, taking us back to the bad old days when police used missing registration stickers as a pretext to stop bike riders, particularly when their skin tone was something other than white.
The police are proposing a partnership with a still-unnamed nonprofit bike registration program, allowing easy online bicycle registration and reporting of stolen bikes.
If that sounds familiar, it’s because that’s exactly what you’ll find with the links to Bike Index at the top of this page — with the exception that reporting with them doesn’t currently link to an online theft report with the LAPD, though that would be easy enough to fix.
However, it’s also what you can find with their only major US competitor, Project 529, formerly known as the National Bike Registry.
At this point, it’s not clear whether they will announce their choice at today’s meeting, or if they’re only looking for authorization to set up a program with a company to be named later.
Then Wednesday afternoon, the council’s Transportation Committee will take up a motion directing LADOT to develop a plan for a network of bus lanes and active transportation corridors as part of the mayor’s Green New Deal.
Except the city council already adopted those plans with the 2010 Bike Plan and the Mobility Plan 2035 it was subsumed into.
So it’s questionable just what they’re asking the LADOT to spend the next four months doing.
Unless, of course, the city is already tossing out everything they’ve already done, and starting over all over again.
That’s a good question to ask, if anyone is planning to be there.
Or we could just wait until LADOT reports back in July to figure out just what the hell is going on.
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The next CicLAvia will revisit the popular route from Mid-City to the Sea.
https://twitter.com/_KennyUong_/status/1232160027059712001
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No selective enforcement here.
A New York bike rider complains about getting a ticket for not having a bell on her bike when she stopped to take pictures of three cops ticketing a bicyclist for not using the bike lane.
And ignoring scofflaw drivers in the process.
Meanwhile, there are double parked cars everywhere and cars stopped in the crosswalk as pedestrians are trying to cross. I asked the officer why they’re not ticketing them also and he said, “I’m using my discretion” pic.twitter.com/PrSiLsvcCD
— Julianne Cuba (@Julcuba) February 24, 2020
Thanks to Tim Rutt for the heads-up.
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No surprise here.
Not only did an ebike rider soundly defeat a driver in a race through LA traffic, he even beat the camera crew — despite giving them a half hour head start.
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Best argument for universal single-payer healthcare, as former pro Phil Gaimon gets shafted stuck with a quarter million dollar hospital bill following a crash, despite being insured.
I'm insured, I was brought to an ER unconscious, and I owe $250,000. https://t.co/yhkF2KtAwo
— Phil Gaimon (@philgaimon) February 25, 2020
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The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes goes on.
An English bike rider barely escapes a close call when a driver pulls out directly in front of him. Note to bike riders: Edit down your bike cam videos. No one needs to see a full minute or more of peaceful riding before some idiot in a car does something stupid.
But sometimes, it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.
A man on a bicycle was interrupted by a neighbor while attempting to throw a Molotov cocktail at an occupied San Jose home, and set the fence on fire instead of his apparent intended target.
Not all police chases are on four wheels. Sometimes it’s someone on a bicycle trying, and failing, to get away.
A London man paid out the equivalent of nearly $38,000 after hitting a woman who was crossing the road while looking at her phone.
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Local
Streetsblog offers an open thread on Sunday’s South LA CicLAvia. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to make this one, because I being interviewed, along with a couple other people, for a story about the foster corgi; hopefully that one will appear in print and online in the next week or two.
A Santa Clarita bike rider was injured in a collision with a motorist near the College of the Canyons Monday afternoon; no word on the condition of the victim.
State
If you’re riding in Santa Maria today, look out for a crackdown on traffic violations that endanger bicyclists and pedestrians. The standard protocol applies. Ride to the letter of the law until you cross the city limit line so you’re not the one who gets ticketed.
Over one hundred bike riders turned out to honor a Bakersfield bike mechanic who helped keep them on their bikes, after he passed away earlier this month.
Rancho Cordova approves plans for a $3.6 million bike and pedestrian bridge over US 50, connecting two sides of the city divided by the highway.
San Francisco Streetsblog says it’s time to ban cars on Market Street for real.
National
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration released $562 million in highway safety grants, including a relatively paltry $14.3 million for bike and pedestrian safety programs throughout the US.
Bicycling calls the new $2,200 Batch E-Commuter ped-assist ebike an affordable and efficient solution for bike commuting and other daily outings. Evidently they have a different definition of affordable than the one I use.
There’s a special place in hell for whoever stole a bicycle from an autistic Seattle teenager while he was looking for his lost phone.
A Minnesota letter writer opposed to a proposed bike lane somehow feels the need to point out that most bike commuters are men, and most bicycling injuries are suffered by…wait for it…men.
Someone stabbed a Chicago man after knocking him off his bicycle as he rode on a bike path, for no apparent reason, in an apparently random attack before running off and leaving him there. Special thanks to Block Club Chicago for that lovely photo of the victim’s blood pooled on the ground inside the crime scene tape. Really nice.
VeloNews talks with a Vermont gravel race promoter about riding a bike throughout her pregnancy. Never mind that’s she’s married to popular former pro Ted King.
No bias here. A Long Island NY town is preparing to crack down on “objectively moronic” teenagers who pop wheelies while impeding motor vehicle traffic, by impounding their bicycles. If they think that’s bad, just wait until they hear what drivers do.
A Streetsblog NYC op-ed suggests Uber could use its data to keep their drivers out of bike lanes.
Nice guy. A New York truck driver blames the victim for a crash last year that took the life of a three-year old boy, and threatens to sue Streetsblog for reporting the facts in the case.
A Florida city is seriously considering armed bicycle guards. Except they’re talking about armed security guards on bicycles, not armed people guarding bicycles, which is a much better idea.
This is who we share the road with. A Florida man spent the day drinking at a bar, accidentally ran over his girlfriend after leaving the bar, then went back to the bar to keep drinking; remarkably, investigators waited several hours to administer a blood test, by which time he had sobered up. He had also gotten arrested a year ago for attacking a bike rider after nearly crashing into him.
International
Treehugger says cargo bikes and ebikes will “eat” delivery vans and cargo haulers. If any of us survive the onslaught of massive SUVs and pickups over the next few years, that is.
Cool graphic as a London man slowly sketches out the city’s street grid, one bike ride at a time.
Scottish bicyclist Josh Quigley is looking forward to resuming his journey around the world on a new bespoke bike given to him after he barely survived a 70 mph crash on a Texas highway.
Hell must be getting pretty crowded, because here’s a special place right next to the other jerk for whoever stole a wallet and phone from a Kiwi woman as she was in surgery after getting hit by a driver.
An Aussie woman can thank an off-duty nurse for saving her life after she was critically injured when she was struck by a bike rider
A group of Australian bicyclists will ride sans skid lids to protest the country’s mandatory helmet laws while promoting the benefits of bike riding. Just keep on depressing bicycling rates by fining people hundreds of dollars for riding without a helmet. It’s not like the country is literally burning or anything.
Competitive Cycling
Bicycling asks the burning question of whether road bikes are already as good as they can get, or if there are still better ideas being stifled by bike racing’s governing body. I’d put my money on the latter, but what the hell do I know.
VeloNews talks with Dirty Kanzaa winner Colin Strickland, who’s trying to push American cycling in a whole new direction.
Finally…
Who needs a velodrome when you’ve got an empty parking garage? And if you’re going to do a story about a man who enjoys taking his bird for a bike ride around the neighborhood, you might want to show a picture of the bird, you know, on the bike.
Or at least mention it in the story.
