You can forget those plans for a 4th of July ride along the beach this weekend.
LA County officials responded to a dramatic uptick in Covid-19 cases by once again closing beaches within the county, including the iconic beachfront bike path.
Due to rising #COVID19 cases all @CountyofLA beaches will be closing again temporarily this weekend, July 3rd through 6th. We had almost 3,000 reported cases just today. We cannot risk having crowds at the beach this holiday weekend.
— Janice Hahn (@SupJaniceHahn) June 29, 2020
As Hahn’s tweet states, the beach and bike path closures go into effect this Friday, and are scheduled to last through the following Monday, at least for now.
Although the sheriff says he won’t bother to enforce it.
BREAKING: L.A. County Sheriff Alex Villanueva tells me he will NOT enforce the beach closure order for 4th of July weekend. Says LASD was not consulted, and they'll only enforce closing parking lots/traffic on PCH. Says "We are Care First, Jail Last" in shot at county. @FOXLA
— Bill Melugin (@BillMelugin_) June 30, 2020
As you can imagine, though not everyone is pleased. This is what one person, who asked to remain anonymous, had to say.
You don’t see me shoot profanities very often, but a re-closure of the bike path is pure bullshit!
Cyclists on a path are not the cause of increasing virus cases.
It’s bars, restaurant sit-ins, people socializing at people homes without masks, people I saw paying at parks together with no mask, people at the beach I saw often playing volleyball with no mask, it’s just stupid people who think they know better and don’t want to be told what to do along with a President that is not wearing a mask as an example of what everyone should do. Why is the President not on TV everyday with a mask telling people I wear mask and you should too.
We live in a country of A-holes and ignorants and that is why the virus is spreading.
Forgive my outburst — I can’t believe they need to punish cyclists and I needed someone to bitch to
That’s what I’m here for.
But make no mistake. The idea that Covid-19 would go away without severe restrictions has clearly revealed itself as the fairy tale it is.
And we’re likely in for a long, deadly battle that will touch most of us in some way before it’s over.
Photo of recent bike path closure by David Drexler
………
That wasn’t the only email I received from a concerned bike rider yesterday.
Another person who asked to remain anonymous said he was attacked by a stoned homeless man over the weekend.
Just a brief heads up for your readers — watch out at those underpasses on the San Gabriel bike path, especially the one at Imperial Blvd in Norwalk. Regular riders of that bike path know Imperial Blvd because of all of the graffiti.
I was riding early Sunday morning and had a transient try to knock me off my bike as I came up from the underpass (with a kick). Presume they may have been after my bike. Not too smart as they chose someone much larger than they.
I’m fine, no worse for wear, knocked off balance but not off my bike. I reported to 911, so hopefully, the sheriff will keep an eye out, too.
Crazy times.
Attacks like that aren’t common, but they do happen. So just be careful anytime you find yourself isolated and hidden from public view.
………
Thirty-five-year old Chase Edward Richard accepted a plea for the hit-and-run crash that severely injured fellow Ramona resident Michelle Scott as she was riding her bike to work in Poway last October.
Richard pled guilty to felony counts of reckless driving and vandalism in exchange for a three year and eight month sentence, with just two years of that behind bars in county jail.
Meanwhile, his victim remains in a nursing care facility, as she struggles recover from a major brain injury.
………
LA’s Metro Bike bikeshare is free this weekend, with discounts on memberships, as well.
https://twitter.com/BikeMetro/status/1277783961872355329
https://twitter.com/BikeMetro/status/1277785192401448961
………
Riverside’s mayor invites you to join a family friendly, socially distanced 4th of July bike ride.
Hey Riversiders! Dust off those bikes & gear up in your patriotic best for a bike ride on July 4th. This will be a smooth socially distanced ride with a contest for the best decorated bike & most patriotic family.
See you there!
July 4th 10:00 am
Arlington Heights Sports Park pic.twitter.com/SD83icKqe5— Mayor Patricia Lock Dawson (@MayorLockDawson) June 29, 2020
………
LADOT will host a webinar tomorrow to discuss what will be South LA’s first protected bike lane.
Join us for a webinar this Wednesday as we discuss how we're getting to work on Broadway. The Broadway safety project prioritizes human life by implementing improvements that will reduce speed and save lives. Visit the link to register https://t.co/JJVulDQvDa pic.twitter.com/xDr7rJyL5I
— LADOT Livable Streets (@LADOTlivable) June 29, 2020
And speaking of webinars, the Vision Zero Network will host one at 11 am PDT (2 pm EDT) to discuss the myth of distracted pedestrians.
………
They get it.
Thanks @OneTrafford and @OfficialTfGM pic.twitter.com/RyLHTJdiOT
— Deborah (@UrmstonDeb) June 29, 2020
………
Nice piece, as the director of a Canadian mountain bike camp wants to make riding easier for the kids in his charge.
………
The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.
There’s a special place in hell for whoever hurled a racial slur at a 14-year old New Mexico, then followed up by hurling a rock at his head.
No bias here. The British lawyer who calls himself Mr. Loophole for his ability to get dangerous drivers off the hook is back with yet another anti-bike rant. (Scroll down to second item)
But sometimes, it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.
British Columbia police are looking for a road-raging bicyclist who whacked a bystander with his U-lock after the man complained when he ran a stop sign. As we’ve said many times, violence is never the answer; just take a breath and ride away.
………
Local
Advocacy group Streets For All needs your help to make LA’s Slow Streets permanent, and ensure the city follows its own mobility plan when it repaves city streets.
Isla Fisher is on of us, as a British tabloid swears that’s really her under that mask riding her bike.
State
The San Diego Bike Coalition is hiring a part-time Outreach Coordinator.
National
A new guardrail along an Oregon highway may improve safety for people in cars, but it makes the road more dangerous for people on bikes.
A pair of pro cyclists from my bike-friendly hometown offer unusually practical tips for riding a bike, including practice etiquette and find a local bike shop you love.
Sad news from Minneapolis, where a motorcycle rider was killed in a collision with a bicyclist; police say speeding and alcohol use appeared to be factors in the crash.
Up to 1,000 people rode through Manhattan in support of Black Lives Matter over the weekend.
Former New York transportation commissioner “Gridlock” Sam Schwartz, who popularized the term, is proposing a carfree bike/ped bridge connecting Queens and Manhattan to avoid exactly that.
The New York Daily News says its time to finally bring an e-scooter pilot program to the streets of Gotham, nearly three years after they swept the rest of the world.
A US Army Band member rode his bike 500 miles in 33 hours to raise funds for a startup organization to mentor high school students to get into college; it took 250 laps around a two-mile Baltimore circuit to complete the ride.
International
Cyclist tells you how to check your chain for wear and tear.
A man in Canada’s Prince Edward Island is giving free ice cream coupons to people wearing bike helmets, 50 years after he suffered a brain injury while riding his bike.
Edinburg and Glasgow, Scotland, are offering free bikeshare rides to encourage bike riding as the UK starts to come out of lockdown.
Once again, an English pedestrian has died in a collision with a bike rider as he was crossing a bike lane. This time, the man on the bike stayed at the scene, but probably doesn’t know the 51-year old victim died later; police were never called to the scene, so they want to talk with him.
A British paper shows how it’s done, mentioning a hit-and-run driver in the headline and again in the first line of the story, rather than just blaming a driverless van.
An Irish chef taught her kids how to ride their bikes, even though she didn’t know how to ride one herself; she used the country’s lockdown to correct that situation.
Megan Lynch forwards news that Geneva, Switzerland’s temporary popup bike lanes will get a reprieve through September; they had been scheduled to be removed next month.
Competitive Cycling
A sports website says WorldTour cyclists make a minimum of $2.35 million, which could come as a surprise to most of them.
CyclingTips examines what it takes to ride 174 miles a day competing in this year’s virtual Race Across America without ever leaving an Aussie car showroom.
Finally…
Your next bike helmet could be a 3D-printed honeycomb dome made from caster bean oil.
And am I the only one who sees a problem here?
Minnesota relief groups are fighting soaring food insecurity with pop-up distribution sites to make access easier for those in need.
https://t.co/EkpT6wXTSy— U.S. News & World Report (@usnews) June 30, 2020
………
Be safe, and stay healthy. And wear a mask, already.
Re: closure of bike trail for July 4th. I feel like I’m back in school where the bad behaviors of a few idiots resulted in fun events being cancelled for everyone. This is going on across the country, led by a president who is wink-wink telling his followers to not wear masks during a pandemic to preserve their “liberty” and “1st Amendment rights.” The Marvin Braude (LA) bike trail would’ve been packed with cyclists, joggers and walkers over the weekend, and with so many people not willing to wear masks and a surge in cases locally it does create a hazard, vs. uncrowded bike trails elsewhere, where a few cyclists rushing by is a minimal hazard even without masks.
If the bike paths were only used by people actively riding bikes, it would be no problem. But as anyone who has ever been on these bike paths can attest, the number of wanderers, people lingering, and just standing around, is excessive and are likely the issue. Keeping these people away is, in a practical sense, unenforceable.
I can understand why they’re closing the beach path, too. In my many years of living near the strand in the South Bay, the July 4th crowds made the path difficult to navigate in many spots, especially near the piers and other popular areas. The congestion has always been an issue.