Streetsblog honors BikinginLA sponsor; cars get bigger, stronger & deadlier; and Paris to eliminate half of parking spaces

Streetsblog LA is planning a week of virtual celebrations to honor this year’s Streetsie winners, including BikinginLA sponsors Jim Pocrass of Pocrass & De Los Reyes and Josh Cohen of Cohen Law Partners.

The festivities kick off this evening with a free Game Show on Zoom hosted by Streetsblog LA founder Damien Newton and Jim Pocrass, who is being honored with the 2020 Streetsie Patron’s Award.

That’s followed on Saturday with Ask Me Anything with LA County Supervisor Sheila Kuehl; Streetsblog wants to know what you’d like to ask her when she appears on the website’s Zoom party.

It all culminates next Tuesday with the 2020 Streetsie Award Dinner on Zoom.

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This is who we share the road with.

The next driver to run you off the road could be doing a whopping 316.11 miles per hour.

And this is what you have to look forward to in the not-too-distant future.

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SoCal drivers go ballistic if anyone suggests removing a handful of parking spaces.

Yet Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo is moving forward with plans to remove half the city’s parking spaces to reduce vehicular traffic and create more space for bike riders and pedestrians.

Maybe someone should tell LA Mayor Eric Garcetti that this is what real climate mayors do.

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This is the cost of traffic violence.

John Clary forwards news that popular NHRA drag racing crew chief Eric Lane was killed in a collision while walking back from a Texas restaurant Monday night.

He was reportedly lying in the roadway when he was struck, which suggests that the driver who killed him may not have been the first one to hit him.

Just the first one to stick around afterwards.

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Nothing like going for a little bike ride in San Diego.

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Local

Kindhearted members of the Santa Clarita Rotary Club teamed with two other organizations to buy or refurbish nearly two dozen bicycles for five local veterans and their families.

A suspected drunk driver fled the scene after crashing into a Long Beach bike rider. And was arrested for DUI after returning to the crash site.

 

State

Santa Barbara approves plans for an e-bikeshare system on the city’s State Street.

A former Vallejo police officer describes the shooting that killed bike rider Ronell Foster two years ago, and the seemingly lax investigation that followed.

Carmel sportscaster Jeff Rickard is finally back on his bike, a year after coding twice following a massive heart attack.

A San Jose mother pens a powerful op-ed calling for better safety for bike riders and pedestrians, four years after her teenage son was killed by a driver while walking.

A Gold Country bike rider says sometimes the people on two wheels are the problem.

 

National

Business Insider explains how the bike industry kept up with a 121% jump in bicycle sales during the pandemic lockdown. Hint: they didn’t.

It’s not your imagination. Bike theft is up across the US, as much as 68% according to Bike Index. Yet another reminder to register your bike for free before anything happens.

VeloNews talks with ultra-cyclist Jack Thomson, who set a world record earlier this month by riding over 2,100 miles in just seven days.

Fashion and lifestyle magazine Flux considers five things drivers do that can cause a bike crash, along with one bike riders are famous for — even though drivers do it, too.

Bike and running clubs are going to court to force an Iowa city to reopen a gate blocking access between two bike paths.

A massive fire destroyed a nearly 70-year old bike shop in the Bronx, leaving rows of melted bicycles.

A Georgia nonprofit is hoping to launch a mountain bike program for people with disabilities to get them out of their wheelchairs and onto trails using adaptive bicycles.

Life is cheap in Florida, where a Pinellas County sheriff’s deputy walked with a less than three-week suspension for colliding with a bike rider while on duty, despite violating “multiple rules, regulations and operating policies.”

 

International

Road.cc explains how to make your bike new again, and lists twelve of the newest ped-assist ebikes. Meanwhile, a writer for the magazine celebrates the joys of weird bike tech.

An Ontario, Canada city has ripped out a riverfront bike path with no word on when they’ll replace it. Or if.

Nothing like walking out after a 28-hour shift as a frontline Toronto hospital worker only to find someone stole your bike.

Apparently, Halifax, Nova Scotia residents are all for bicycling, as long as it doesn’t mean sacrificing trees or parking.

Britain’s Parliament will hear a bizarrely skewed windshield perspective on traffic safety from a climate science-denying driver’s group that calls for higher speed limits and ripping out bike lanes.

 

Competitive Cycling

The Giro limps to a finish as Colombian sprinter Fernando Gaviria becomes the latest cyclist to test positive for coronavirus.

The Giro and Vuelta overlap in this pandemic-shortened year, with former Tour de France winner Chris Froome falling a whopping eleven minutes behind in the opening stage.

British Olympic track cycling hero Sir Chris Hoy insists he didn’t have any natural ability as a cyclist.

Women’s cycling seems to be an afterthought this year, as the Women’s WorldTour continues with the Three Days Brugge De Panne. Sort of like every other year, unfortunately.

 

Finally…

That feeling when a bike thief returns your bike with an apology. We may have to cope with angry LA drivers, but at least we don’t have to deal with aggressive turkeys.

And seriously, who hasn’t ridden a bicycle dressed as a guitar-playing headless horseman?

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

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