Meet CD4 candidate Nithya Raman virtually tonight, as she discusses her race against incumbent Councilmember David Ryu.
And listen to her stances on transportation in the the City of Angels, and the 4th Council District in particular, including bicycles.
As we’ve mentioned before, Raman has earned the endorsement of both Bike the Vote LA and Streets For All. And has my unqualified support, as well.
She’s already made a difference in the district, as Ryu has co-opted many of her urbanist and safe streets policies after opposing them for most of his first term.
RSVP for the Zoom conference here.
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Road closures remain in effect from the weekend’s Ranch 2 Fire.
Roads in #LACounty closed due to the #Ranch2Fire:
1. Route 39: Sierra Madre Ave to E Fork Rd.
2. Glendora Mountain Rd: Big Dalton to E Fork
3. Glendora Ridge Rd: Glendora Mountain Rd to Mt Baldy Rd
4. Santa Anita Canyon Rd: Arno Dr to Chantry Flats Rd#LATraffic pic.twitter.com/mPsg598HPQ— LA County Public Works (@LACoPublicWorks) August 18, 2020
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Gravel Bike California rides through SoCal’s abandoned Cold War-era tunnels to nowhere.
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A Pasadena survey is heavily weighted towards parking. But take a few minute to answer it anyway.
We encourage all #CompleteStreets supporters in Pasadena to do this survey. It's unclear why the survey is being collected now & it seems to be primarily for car parking, but there is a vague reference to bicycling as one of the priority options. We'd like more info @PasadenaDOT https://t.co/wB2v4sn1Jm
— Pasadena Complete Streets Coalition (@PasadenaCSC) August 15, 2020
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How to change an inner tube without tire levers.
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The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.
It takes a major schmuck to destroy an artistic fence made of bicycles surrounding a Dayton, Ohio nonprofit.
But sometimes, it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.
San Diego police arrested a stabbing suspect as he fled by bicycle following a knifing in a Pacific Beach public restroom Sunday night.
A pair of Texas men are under arrest after hitting a passing bike rider with a baseball bat in a failed attempt to steal his bike.
Then there’s this, from mountain bikewear Where The Trail Begins, proving misogyny is alive and well in the bike industry. Even if the company only seems to have two lousy products.
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Local
Great idea. A new petition calls for a protected bike lane on Franklin Ave between Highland and Los Feliz, which would be the first safe east-west bike route across Hollywood. Or any other direction, for that matter. And yes, I signed it.
State
Former Santa Ana Councilmember and SCAG President Michele Martinez is replacing OC real estate developer and sprawl advocate Lucy Dunn on the California Transportation Commission; Martinez is credited as a driving force behind SCAG’s popular Go Human campaign.
A Bakersfield columnist describes how his father-in-law just decided to take up bicycling and bought a new bike — his 92-year old father-in-law.
More tragic news from Northern California, where sheriff’s deputies in Cupertino discovered the body of an apparent hit-and-run victim lying next to his bike early Sunday morning.
Smart idea, as the Silicon Valley Bicycle Coalition teamed with a local water district to document Valley Water signs along roads and trails. Which beats the hell out of sending staffers out in trucks to look for them. Thanks to Robert Leone for the heads-up.
National
Black Girls Do Bike is teaming with USA Cycling to make bicycling more accessible to women of color.
A tech site says the boom, bust and boom cycles resulting from the coronavirus have tossed bikeshare systems proven rebalancing algorithms over the handlebars.
A writer for the Daily Beast says ebikes are wondrous machines that can take you further than you ought to go if anything goes wrong.
A Las Vegas paper gets it, editorializing that higher speeds and heavier vehicles are literally killing us.
Bicycling belatedly catches up with the decision of the Lance Armstrong-founded Mellow Johnny’s bike shop to stop selling bikes to the Austin, Texas police department, in support of the Black Lives Matter protests. Which we mentioned here a couple weeks ago.
A Chicago writer offers a primer on trail riding courtesy.
An op-ed in the New York Daily News calls on the city to recommit to creating streets that benefit all of us.
A bighearted eight-year old Baltimore boy just learned how to ride a bike after the pandemic hit. But he’s already planning a 50-mile ride to raise funds to help pave sections of the C&O Canal Towpath; as of this writing, he was just $124 short of his $2,500 goal.
Police in Virginia are looking for a driver who allegedly smashed into three police bikes while attempting to run down the officers on them.
Now that’s a good kid. When a bighearted 10-year old boy in Monroe, Louisiana learned a handicapped man wished he had a bike after his truck was stolen and his home caught fire, he insisted on giving the man the new bike he had saved up to buy for himself.
International
Cyclist considers the best e-cargo bikes.
London’s conservative Sunday Times says the reason fewer bike riders are getting ticketed in the city is because bicyclists are getting away with breaking the law. Not, say, the well-established principle that better bike infrastructure encourages better behavior.
Surprisingly, there’s no historic marker in the English town where John Kemp Starley developed the Rover Safety bicycle, revolutionizing the world of big wheeled, direct-drive bikes and making it possible for anyone to ride a bicycle.
Heartbreaking story from Rwanda, where a teenage member of the country’s women’s national cycling team says she was raped and impregnated by a team coach; she’s still waiting for justice eight months after the body of her baby was exhumed, after he died under mysterious circumstances just days after birth.
Not even the world’s biggest bike maker in Taiwan can build their way out of the current bike boom-inspired bicycle shortage.
Competitive Cycling
SB Nation posted video of the crash that seriously injured 20-year old Belgian pro Remco Evenepoel, as he went over a bridge while descending in the Il Lombardia stage race; he’ll be off his bike for the next two months. The video is hard to watch, and lingers a little too much on Evenepoel as he writhes in pain at the bottom of a ravine. So be sure that’s something you really want to see before clicking through.
Pot, meet kettle. Former US Postal Service team manager Johan Bruyneel, who headed it when ex-Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong, and most of the other team members, were winning by loading up on EPO, now says UCI isn’t doing anything about doping because all they care about is money.
Finally…
When you’re already wanted for a probation violation, as well as a fugitive from another state, maybe riding erratically all over the highway isn’t the best idea.
And that feeling when you’re about to be attacked by a sea creature on dry land.
"Stop! There's a lobster in the middle of the road!" Not a phrase you hear used very often. Found while on a bike ride around Saint Emilion. "Put me in the water and make it snappy", we thought we heard him say. Think it was probably a crayfish? @roadcc pic.twitter.com/kQ6Wkzk3uO
— Timsbury Cycle Group (@TimsburyCG) August 17, 2020
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Be safe, and stay healthy. And wear a mask, already.
Good tips on the tyre removal and replacement w/o spoons/irons. There are some that I have thought I would have to take to a motorcycle shop to install. Notably Schwalbe Marathon Plus.