LACBC virtual holiday celebration, Calbike agenda reveal, and this is who we share the road — and the bike path — with

You’re invited to the LACBC’s virtual holiday celebration and potluck dinner next month.

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Think of it as a legislative baby reveal, when Calbike officially unveils their 2021 agenda next month.

Speaking of Calbike, you have until midnight tonight to enter to win one of 21 bike-related prizes.

https://twitter.com/CalBike/status/1329500074825687045

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This is who we share the road with.

The LAPD is looking for a woman who abandoned her vehicle after slamming into another car in a fiery crash while participating in a speed contest, as well as a second driver who helped her flee.

And an Oregon Tesla driver crashed while doing a whopping 100 mph, sending the car’s batteries flying through the windows of a nearby apartment building.

Bicycles hardly ever spew batteries into buildings when they crash. Especially the regular kind.

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This is who we share the bike path with.

A Colorado driver somehow managed to get stuck on a bike/ped bridge on a Denver offroad bike path.

Far offroad.

Which leads to today’s entry in the Annals of Bad Headlines, which somehow manages to blame the car instead of the driver.

SUV on Denver Bike Path

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Gravel Bike California wants you to get your Whoops in.

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An Oakland bike rider gets his five seconds of fame, popping a wheelie on his scraper bike in the background of a live news report.

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I like him already.

Ashtyn Davis, a rookie safety with the New York Jets, lives a carfree lifestyle, riding his bike to practice every day.

The Jets, on the other hand, totally suck this year.

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An Ottawa city counselor politely reminds drivers to use their turn signals after he’s right hooked by a truck driver turning across a protected bike lane.

A reminder to check their damn mirrors wouldn’t hurt, either.

https://twitter.com/JLeiper/status/1329455739174318088?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1329455739174318088%7Ctwgr%5E&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fottawa.ctvnews.ca%2Fcouncillor-reminds-drivers-to-use-turn-signals-after-close-call-on-bicycle-1.5196009

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GCN’s latest video considers whether a used bike being sold by a pro cycling team is worth buying, even at a big discount.

Which kind of depends on whether you even want a high-end racing bike to begin with.

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Now that’s how to do a baby reveal.

Real Housewives of the Potomac star Ashley Darby surprises her husband with the sex of their coming baby in the middle of his bike ride.

At least they didn’t set the woods on fire.

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Local

A bike-riding man was killed in yet another hit-and-run in South LA on Wednesday; nearly half of the bicycling fatalities in LA County this year have been hit-and-runs.

The Eastsider talks with the owner of Echo Park bike shop Revenge Fantasy Cycles, who recovered from Covid-19 only to run head-first into the bike boom and resulting bicycle shortage.

Streetsblog looks at LA Councilmember Paul Krekorian’s decision to cancel plans to widen Magnolia Blvd in North Hollywood, and proceed with safety improvements including better sidewalks. Although no bike lanes, protected or otherwise, unfortunately.

 

State

No news is good news, right?

 

National

Bicycling gives you the run down on the hybrid bikes the future first couple were riding last weekend. Meanwhile, Carlton Reid says the new Biden administration will boost transit and bicycling, but won’t do anything about car dependency.

No surprise here. The annual Bike Shop Day falls victim to Covid-19.

Bike-friendly US cities are scrambling to combat a rapid rise in bike thefts, which are up 68% since March, according to Bike Index. Which explains why Los Angeles isn’t doing much about it — although the LAPD is now partnering with Bike Index to offer free bike registration.

Riding a bike helped a New Mexico nurse lose 35 pounds and recover from knee surgery — and discover he had the same heart problem that nearly killed my wife. As usual, you can read the story on Yahoo if Bicycling’s site blocks you.

Denver residents are pushing for the city’s Shared Streets, aka Slow Streets, to be made permanent.

An Ohio man explains how to build a lightweight cross-country bike on a budget.

The executive director of Bike Pittsburgh makes the case that bike lanes benefit everyone, not just the people on two wheels.

After a bike commuter was injured in a hit-and-run outside her apartment, a kindhearted South Carolina woman arranged to get him a new bike, then tracked down the total stranger to give it to him.

South Carolina’s Workman Cycles continues to fill orders in workman-like fashion to ensure people get their bikes for the holidays; the 122-year old company claims to be America’s oldest bikemaker.

A professional golfer living in Florida is lucky to come back after suffering serious injuries when she ran her 30 mph ebike into a curb.

 

International

A writer for Bike Radar argues what mountain bike standard should be standard, and that standards should exist to make your life easier.

Merchants in a British Columbia city attempt to shoot themselves in the foot by opposing a plan to replace 90 parking spaces with a two-way cycle track, apparently unaware that bike riders spend more money than drivers do. A city counselor wisely notes that “There’s not a bike path in the world that didn’t start off with some kind of controversy.”

An Ontario, Canada newspaper makes the case for why people in colder climes should keep riding through the winter.

Princess Diana was one of us, spending the night before her wedding to Prince Charles riding through the halls of London’s Clarence House.

Bicycling deaths in Scotland have jumped to their highest level since 2013. Meanwhile, 90% of drivers in the Scottish Borders region say they will simply ignore the new 20 mph speed limit. Those things couldn’t possibly be related, could they?

Proposed British ebike subsidies could cut prices by as much as a third.

A public health professor in the UK calls on the country to close roads over the holidays to give pedestrians and bicyclists room to exercise and allow people to spend as much time outdoors as possible.

The BBC says bike-friendly Slow Streets are changing cities for the better.

The president of the Philippines decrees that the 4th Sunday of every November will henceforth be National Bicycle Day.

 

Finally…

Dunkin’s new donut tandem appears to have failed basic geometry. Keeping up the grand tradition of cheating in bike racing, even virtual kind.

And that feeling when a company claims their reflective bike stickers could potentially save thousands of lives.

Unlike, say, all the other reflective bike stickers out there.

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

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