My thanks to everyone who sent me links over the weekend.
Because of today’s overstuffed post, and the need to sleep sometime tonight, I’ll try to catch up on the rest tomorrow.
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This is why people keep dying on our streets.
A Long Beach man got a gentle caress on the wrist — not even a slap — for killing a man in a wheelchair while driving drunk, escaping with just a one-year sentence for taking the life of another human being.
Then was let out of jail after just 23 days, thanks to overcrowding at the LA County Jail.
Yes, 23 days.
Less than one lousy month. Barely over three weeks, in fact.
Which sends a strong message to anyone else thinking of getting behind the wheel after drinking.
Just go ahead and do it, because no one will hold you accountable.
Even if you kill someone.
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Seriously, what the hell is wrong with some people?
A racist Oregon scumbag walked with just probation — and well-deserved anger management — for threatening to blow a 14-year old boy’s head off.
Why?
Because he rode his bike in front of the man’s house.
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Good news from Burbank, where officials plan to extend the popular Chandler Bikeway half a mile to connect the downtown Burbank Metrolink station with the Burbank Channel Bikeway, which is currently being built.
The bad news is, it could be over four years before anyone can ride the finished extension.
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Looks like Los Angeles may be inching closer to closing the Northvale Gap in the Expo Line Bike Path.
LA is buying ROW behind several homes; eminent domain if needed. 50% design complete. Community meeting Spring 2020. Out to bid early 2021.
With support from @mikebonin, @PaulKoretzCD5 got Expo “local return” funds & is pushing LADOT to find $$ to #CloseTheNorthvaleGap.
— JonLAWeiss (@JonLAWeiss) February 28, 2020
Which wouldn’t exist if Metro and the city hadn’t caved to a handful of NIMBY homeowners who were afraid thieves would ride bikes up to their homes to steal their flatscreen TVs.
No, really.
Because apparently, criminals don’t drive. And couldn’t accomplish the same thing by just driving up to their front doors.
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Why is it that bike safety goes out the window whenever someone wants to make a movie in Los Angeles?
https://twitter.com/iivansanz/status/1233448609158352897
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KNBC-4 says CicLAvia revealed the map for next month’s Mid City Meets Venice event.
Yet somehow, they failed to include said map in their story.
We won’t make the same mistake.
That will be followed by a return to Glendale in June, as we mentioned a few weeks ago.
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LA’s own Phil Gaimon is the topic of the latest video from GCN video, as he joins the team in an effort to win a Dixie Canyon KOM.
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This is who we share the bike lane with.
https://twitter.com/colinridesabike/status/1232516410099798019?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1232516410099798019&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Froad.cc%2Fcontent%2Fnews%2F271577-video-rentacop-armed-nyc-security-guard-wrestles-cyclist-ground-paris-brest
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At least he used the crosswalk.
Even though it took forever for anyone to actually stop for it.
she’s so patient omg cutie https://t.co/acuqMBCZtc
— check pinned (@grandesdevotion) February 28, 2020
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This one made my day, for obvious reasons.
https://twitter.com/humorandanimals/status/1233402238741209088
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Sometimes, it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.
A Texas man was busted for riding his bicycle through the halls of an Amarillo high school while making terroristic thefts.
A Tennessee man got 44 years without parole for murdering two teenagers by shooting them after a brief argument behind a Memphis business, then riding away on his bicycle.
Pittsburgh police are looking for a man who tried to rob a woman, then chased her on his bike as she tried to run away.
A British driver complains that a mountain biker plowed into his car as he was stopped at a red light, then brutally attacked him when he got out to see if the bike rider was okay, while a young boy begged the attacker to stop. Although something tells me there might be another side to the story in which the driver is not wholly innocent.
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Local
The Los Feliz Ledger looks at the Sunset4All campaign to add a two-way protected bike lane on Sunset Blvd; the Silver Lake Neighborhood Council voted unanimously to support the project, despite the possible loss of some parking.
A Highland Park man says switching to an ebike for his LA to Long Beach commute freed him from the tyranny of traffic, if not unpleasant odors.
Los Angeles-based Wheels is the latest dockless micromobility provider to lay off staff, as the industry struggles for profitability.
Food trucks are so last decade. A new eco-friendly chickpea bowl food bike will start making the rounds of the Westside, mounted on an ebike that recharges with pedaling.
If you build it, they will come. Nothing like a new 1,500 space parking garage on the Cal State Northridge campus to encourage students and faculty to drive to the school. But at least it includes bicycle and scooter storage.
Santa Clarita is looking for input on the city’s new Non-Motorized Transportation Plan.
The replacement for the Desmond Thomas Bridge will open later next year, along with the first bike lane across the harbor; now the bridge just needs a name. How about naming it for Mark Bixby, the Long Beach community leader and bike advocate who fought for that bike lane on the bridge before he was killed in a 2011 plane crash?
State
Finally, a sentence even I think might be a tad excessive. A San Clemente woman got the maximum sentence, as a judge gave her 51 years to life for a collision that killed three teenagers in another car while she was driving at three times the legal limit.
San Diego will install leading pedestrian intervals at 300 intersections to improve safety. Now they just need to allow bikes to go the same time as pedestrians to improve safety for everyone.
Cute photo of a Santa Cruz ebike rider taking his two collies for a ride along the beach.
A San Jose driver copped a plea in the death of a 62-year old bike rider last July in exchange for a four-year sentence.
More proof that permanent street closures often don’t affect traffic flows, as a new study shows that banning cars from San Francisco’s Market Street resulted in virtually no spillover traffic on nearby streets, while improving travel times for bikes and buses, which are still allowed.
City Lab questions why a San Francisco bike shop owner would protest plans for a protected bike lane in front of his shop; just wait until he learns about a proposal to shut the street down entirely.
National
Curbed explains how to fix America’s broken intersections.
About time. Ford has developed a warning system to alert drivers to approaching bike riders to prevent doorings. Now let’s make it mandatory for every new car and truck.
A writer for Wired explains why, after years of loving cars, he decided he just didn’t want to drive anymore, and now rides a bike everywhere.
Jeep’s new fat tire, all-terrain ebike is now on sale, if you happen to have nearly six grand lying around.
A Vancouver WA paper says bike lanes and safety are great, but they’d rather have the 400 parking spaces that would have to be removed for them; needless to say, they’re not the only ones who prefer car storage over the safety of their fellow human beings.
An off-duty Border Patrol agent is credited with saving the life of an Arizona bike rider who was hit by a driver, using his training as a certified paramedic.
They get it. A Denver magazine says focusing on whether a bike rider was wearing a helmet following a crash is a form of victim blaming, and has to stop.
Some people just don’t get it. A St. Paul letter writer says no one can commute or carry groceries on a bike, and people will stop riding when they get older. All of which is refuted by people who do it every day.
Rochester, Minnesota is giving away 100 bicycles left over from a failed bikeshare service to people in need.
It only took New York drivers 24 hours to obliterate the newly installed bollards intended to keep them out of a protected bike lane.
No surprise here. Bicycling examined crash data from New York, and discovered when drivers make mistakes, people on bicycles too often pay the price.
DC considers a proposal that would require transportation equity by forcing employers who subsidize parking to offer an equal benefit or cash payout to people who don’t drive.
A Georgia grand jury will hear evidence in a fatal hit-and-run that took the life of a man riding his bike, after the driver called a state legislator and the local police chief instead of calling 911, and no one reported the crash or looked for the victim until it was too late.
International
A new study confirms what most of us already know. The more expensive a car is, the less likely the driver is to stop for pedestrians. Or anyone else. Or put another way, the more likely they are to drive like self-entitled jerks.
A new report from the International Transport Forum concludes that 80% of bicycling and e-scooters fatalities involve motor vehicles and the people who drive them. And traffic safety will improve if car, truck and motorcycle trips are replaced by scooters and bikes.
Fallen mountain biker Jordie Lunn will have a Vancouver Island bike park named in his honor. Meanwhile, a new report says the city must build safer bike lanes to get more people riding. Even though it’s already head-and-shoulders beyond cities like Los Angeles.
In a story that could have come from virtually anywhere in North America, a Winnipeg student newspaper says the city is all talk and no action when it comes to preventing bike thefts.
London is dropping speed limits to 20 mph in areas of the city used most by pedestrians, bicyclists and motorcyclists. Which compares to speeds of 45 mph or more on some LA streets.
When British Olympic hopeful Ashton Lambie came up short, he took a bikepacking trip across the UK in search of the soul of bicycling. Which might be better, anyway.
No surprise here. A new report says two out of three bicycling crashes involving Belgian teenagers occur on roadways with no bicycling infrastructure.
Always double check your mailing addresses. A Catalan doping ring was busted when someone shipped a package to the wrong address; police seized 1.65 million doses of performance enhancing drugs worth the equivalent of nearly $1.3 million.
After police in a village outside of Hyderabad, India sent a serial rapist to prison with a death sentence, they gave new bicycles to 15 school girls for their safety.
Life is cheap in Zimbabwe, where an unlicensed driver walked with a lousy $900 fine for killing a bike rider after losing control of his vehicle — and two-thirds of that was for the license violation, not killing another human being.
Talk about a special place in hell. Heartless Aussie scam artists set up a fake crowdfunding page claiming to raise funds for a woman who died after being thrown from her bike.
Competitive Cycling
Congratulations to the US Women’s Pursuit Team on winning the world championships in Berlin last week, making them the favorites for the Tokyo Olympics.
Call her the fastest woman on two wheels. America’s Chloe Dygert broke her own record in the individual pursuit. Then broke it again to take the gold.
Cycling’s governing body announced an investigation into sexual abuse allegations against the Doltcini-Van Eyck Sport women’s cycling team.
The COVID-19 coronavirus hit the cycling world hard on Thursday when the UAE Tour was halted with two stages still to go after two Italians tested positive for the virus; race leader Adam Yates was declared the winner. British Tour de France winners Chris Froome and Mark Cavendish are among those being tested before being allowed to leave the country.
The Wall Street Journal considers the forthcoming effects of the new coronavirus on pro cycling, if you can get past their paywall.
Temper, temper. Italian cyclist Gianni Moscon got the boot from Sunday’s Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne race after throwing a temper tantrum — and a competitors bike — following a mass crash. He followed that by ripping up his number when he was DQ’d. And it was far from his first time.
Moscon werpt boos andermans fiets in de beek na deze valpartij. De gevolgen zijn zwaar: diskwalificatie pic.twitter.com/QHb3L94RHk
— sporza (@sporza) March 1, 2020
Finally…
Who needs a dog sled when you’ve got two fat tires? When you’re riding your bike with four outstanding warrants, maybe try riding with traffic next time.
And maybe there are better hobbies than collecting 5,800 stolen bike seats.
Just saying.
