A report from the C40 Cities group promotes the new Paris model of putting all necessities within a 15 minute biking or walking distance.
The climate group, currently led by LA Mayor Eric Garcetti, encourages the model as a response to municipal budgets ravaged by Covid-19.
Which makes it worth noting that the “world’s climate mayor” is doing nothing of the sort in his own city, except for encouraging greater density.
Which is problematic in itself, after a number of current and former city officials have been implicated in a bribery scheme to approve building projects.
As we’ve noted before, cities around the world have taken advantage of the lighter traffic brought on by the pandemic to make temporary, and sometimes permanent, changes to encourage more biking and walking.
Los Angeles, on the other hand, has done absolutely nothing outside of the Downtown area, where Councilmember Jose Huizar has been a driving force behind a move to Complete Streets.
He is also charged with being the ringleader behind the bribery scheme.
Which pretty much sums up the current state of the city.
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A bike thief was caught on video ransacking an Anaheim building’s bike room. Which is exactly why I don’t recommend using them.
Bike rooms give the illusion of security while providing an enticing target for thieves. Better to find space in your home to keep your bikes inside.
And register your damn bike already.
https://twitter.com/lemusss29/status/1287897963927281664
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Road ID is offering half off to VIP members starting tomorrow — if you’re willing to sacrifice your privacy to become one by signing up for texts.
I wear mine every time I ride my bike. And any other time I leave home.
But I also prefer to maintain a little privacy, and not get spammed with commercial messages every time I look at my phone.
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Kiss guitarist Paul Stanley is one of us.
Orlando Bloom is one of us, too.
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The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.
No surprise here, as Oregon bike riders report a rising tide of road rage incidents in recent months. Everyone is stressed because of the coronavirus and the resulting restrictions, which means too many drivers will end up taking it out on us.
Seriously? A moonlighting Arizona cop says he felt his life was threatened by a mountain biker who ignored no trespassing signs at a golf course while looking for a formerly accessible trailhead — so he tackled the rider off his bike and pulled a loaded gun on him during the scuffle, while insisting the victim somehow lunged off his bike at him.
But sometimes, it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.
Chicago police appear stumped about why a man on a bike shot and killed a Rastafarian community activist, though conservatives are quick to blame his surprising support for Donald Trump for his murder.
A New York bike rider went on a racist and homophobic obscenity-laced rant after an Asian driver honked at him, then faked an injury claiming the driver hit his “$11,000 bike.”
https://www.instagram.com/tv/CDTvX1UhjFe/?utm_source=ig_embed
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Local
Metro Bike is offering a bikeshare relief program through this month, with discounted passes ranging from a single $1 ride or 24-hour pass, to a $100 pass for a full year.
LA-area streets are being reimagined as outdoor dining spaces; the question is whether it will last post-pandemic. Actually, the real question is why we can find street space for restaurant patrons, but we can’t manage to find any for bike lanes.
KCRW’s Steve Chiotakis talks with Lex Roman, author of a guide to where to vote and how government works, about how you can become a more civically engaged Angeleno. Because most of us need to.
State
Encinitas has finished work on protected bike lanes and other infrastructure improvements, including mosaic art panels designed by local students and artists
Groups of wheelie-popping teens are ignoring the dismount signs on Santa Barbara’s newly pedestrianized State Street.
The Bay Area’s East Bay Times recommends more than a dozen “great, scenic bike trails” crisscrossing the region.
Yreka’s Leslie Burley-Cobb has been nominated for the BMX Hall of Fame; she was one of the first women in the sport in the late ’70s, collecting 268 trophies before she retired in 1985. Raise your hand if you knew there even was a BMX Hall of Fame. And yes, mine are firmly in my pockets.
National
A Harvard professor is nearing the end of his cross-country bike ride to call attention to Black Lives Matter and Black Birders Week.
A writer for Gizmodo says riding an ebike has changed her entire perspective on how we get around.
Yahoo Life! says you don’t need bike shorts or clip-in shoes for these “cute” commuter bikes. Then again, you don’t need them for any other bikes, either.
“Beloved” international security expert and self-defense trainer Dave Acosta was killed in a Utah mountain biking crash last week.
Beloit, Wisconsin’s Bike Elves program has refurbished and given away 5,380 bicycles over the last nine years, after being founded by a man suffering from early onset Alzheimer’s.
An Illinois driver is being held on $1 million bail for reckless homicide after killing one bike rider and critically injuring another while fleeing from police.
Minnesota has found a used for abandoned mine pits by converting them to 30 miles of mountain bike trails.
This is the cost of traffic violence. A well-known Memphis minister died after being taken off life support following a bicycling collision last week.
The worldwide bike boom continues, as Boston bike shops are running out of bicycles.
Now that’s more like it. The New York Times offers tips on how to stay safe on mass transit — and includes bikeshare as a recommended alternative.
Drive-in movies are popping up all over New York; bike-in movies, not so much.
A New York novelist says riding through the pandemic has changed her perspective of the city.
International
Road.cc previews the bike tech trends for next year.
Rapha was justifiably criticized for water bottles printed with a message that could lead to eating disorders if anyone actually followed it.
After a London cabbie posted photos of Dutch parents riding their kids to school on cargo bikes, sarcastically asking if that’s really the kind of morning school run people want to see, the public responded with a resounding “Yes.”
A Croatian expat living in London says helmets, Lycra and flashing lights have become part of his new reality exploring the city by bike in the wake of the coronavirus lockdown.
Five Northern England bicycle trails to add to your bike bucket list. Unless maybe you’d rather combine beer and bikes on five trails surrounding Prague in the Czech Republic. I’ll take both, thank you. And they make some pretty decent beer in the UK, too.
The Irish Times recounts 12 reasons to start riding a bike, almost all of which apply equally well on this side of the Atlantic.
Take a nearly 1,250 mile ride over trees and beneath the water on the trails of the Belgian home of stinky cheese.
Bicyclists have been unofficially banned from the highways of Jalandhar, India, even though it’s legal to ride there; despite the law, riders are being told to stay off the roads following the death of a bike rider.
A Philippines foundation is changing lives one bicycle at a time by donating mountain bikes to people struggling to hold onto their jobs in the face of the pandemic.
Red Bull Australia picks their ten favorite gravel bike shoes, as well as eleven cycling jerseys that apparently don’t care where you wear them.
Competitive Cycling
Dutch cyclist Ellen Van Dijk won the Strade Bianche gravel race on a bike borrowed from a teammate, after her Trek-Segafredo team was struck by thieves the night before the race. Meanwhile, Wout van Aert won on the men’s side.
Former Tour de France winner Vincenzo Nibali suffered an injured hand in the Strade Bianche, just one of the 124 cyclists who abandoned the race in 104° temperatures out of the 166 who started; only 45 cyclists finished the women’s race.
Finally…
High-end bike options for people who have more dollars than sense, and are willing to part with a lot of the former.
And don’t dare ride a whole six miles below the speed limit after lunch with you mom.
Great lunch with my mum but apparently in Sutton you aren't allowed to go at 14mph pic.twitter.com/tTDNErvvSx
— Jeremy Vine (@theJeremyVine) August 2, 2020
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Be safe, and stay healthy. And wear a mask, already.
Here in Munich everyone is required to wear masks on transit.bus and trams and trains. And they do it.