Safe and beautiful bike lanes are possible, virtual Motherload film fest Saturday, and the war on bikes shows no sign of detent

It’s a relatively light news day, so let’s get right to it.

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Michael Wagner sends a photo of Claremont’s popular Foothill Boulevard separated bike lane in all its spring glory, proving protected bike lanes can be safe and beautiful.

The author of the popular CLR Effect website concludes with this thought.

You know as well as anyone to not hold your breath on any municipal improvements for cycling, but we can hope. Maybe seeing what has been done other places will inspire someone, somewhere.

We can only hope.

Unfortunately, the small photo doesn’t do Wagner’s photo justice. So I’ll include a bigger version down below, just because. 

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Santa Monica Spoke is hosting a virtual screening of the award-winning cargo bike documentary Motherload this Saturday.

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The war on cars is a myth, but the war on bikes goes on.

Police in Illinois busted a 19-year old man for pushing a man off his bicycle and leaving the scene afterwards.

A British mountain biker says he’s lucky to be alive after riding face-first into a barbed wire booby trap strung across a popular trail.

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Local

LA’s proposed new budget includes a $3.4 million cut to Vision Zero, which is already dramatically underfunded; CD4 city council candidate Nithya Ramen points out that two-thirds of the city’s $233 million in Covid-19 induced budget cuts could be avoided if LAPD officers simply agreed to put off a raise they negotiated last year.

Los Angeles Magazine questions whether LA’s e-scooter craze will survive the pandemic, as the wings come off Santa Monica-based Bird.

A new petition is calling for more bike lanes in South Pasadena.

So much for that. Pasadena is now allowing cars back on the popular rose Bowl Loop, after weeks of carfree running, walking and bicycling. Not to mention breathing.

 

State

San Diego’s first Slow Street opened to mixed reviews in Pacific Beach.

A 33-year old homeless man suffered major injuries in a Ventura hit-and-run Sunday night; police are looking for the driver of a black Subaru.

 

National

Electrek recommends the best ebikes you can still get on Amazon, starting at just $529.

CNN explains everything you need to know before you start riding again. As long as all you need to know is where and what to buy.

Boulder CA decides that 20 is plenty when it comes to traffic speeds.

Tragically, there’s still no sign of the Colorado mother who disappeared while riding her bike on Mother’s Day.

A Texas driver was smoking weed just minutes before slamming into a seven-year old boy riding his bike, leaving the kid with serious injuries.

An Oklahoma driver faces a first degree manslaughter charge for killing a bike rider while speeding and driving distracted. The police investigation also concluded that the driver didn’t give the victim the required three-foot passing distance. Which would seem obvious, since he ran into him.

Sad news from New York, where a 79-year old Staten Island grandfather lost his life, not because of the coronavirus pandemic, but because he left his home on his bike to get some lemons.

Vice explains how New York ghost bikes come to be. Although if we could just skip the first step in the process, we wouldn’t need the rest.

The Wall Street Journal says bicycling is proving resilient as New Yorkers flee transit during the coronavirus pandemic. Unfortunately, you probably can’t read it, thanks to the paper’s extreme paywall.

A New Jersey columnist says yes, he’s riding a 40-year old women’s bike, and who cares?

Louisiana’s East Baton Rouge Parish plans to build 100 miles of bike lanes and 250 mile of offroad bike paths. Which only comes a few decades too late to do any good when I lived there.

 

International

A senior writer for Forbes says no matter how you look at it, bicycles are the future of transportation — even if we have to redesign our cities to accommodate them.

Cycling Tips explains how to clean your bike.

Road.cc considers how to pick the best bike cam, and recommends their favorites, though you’ll have to convert the prices into dollars. A bike cam is your best insurance if you get a ticket or hit by a driver. Even if it always seems to be off when anything actually happens.

Cycling News takes a look at several safe and stylish bike helmets designed for city streets.

There’s a special place in hell for the jerk who stole the bike a British man rode to Istanbul with his new wife; his best friend had inherited it following the man’s tragic death in an Egyptian boating accident, after he pushed his wife and several others to safety.

A bike rider in the UK was forced to tread water for over an hour after falling into a canal, before someone finally heard his calls for help.

After being quarantined in an Indian hospital for 55 days, a Hungarian bicyclist attempted to leave town, only to be stopped by police and brought back to the quarantine center.

 

Competitive Cycling

Belize is mourning the death of Glen “The Big Man” Gordon; the 65-year old was one of the country’s leading cyclists in the 1970s.

We mentioned yesterday that a 71-year old Montreal bike rider died when he fell after swerving to avoid a pedestrian; today, we learned Gilbert Bessin was an icon of Canadian masters cycling.

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As promised, here’s that bigger version of the lead photo — and you can click on it to make it bigger still.

Thanks again to Michael Wagner for sharing it. And hats off to that first rider for wearing a mask. 

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Finally…

Don’t use terms like Carmaggedon if you don’t know what it means — or how to spell it. We may have to deal with crappy streets and distracted LA drivers, but at least we don’t have to worry about grizzly bears.

And don’t kick a water buffalo while riding a motorbike.

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Be safe, and stay healthy. And wear a mask, already. 

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