Hermosa Beach shrinks streets for popup bike lanes, search for bike-riding WeHo rapist, and a bike lane trash dump

Looks like the new router is up and working, and so am I.

So let’s get to it. 

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See LA, it can be done.

Hermosa Beach somehow managed to do what Los Angeles can’t, installing a popup bike lane and road diet on Hermosa and Pier Avenues, while providing more space for outdoor dining during the pandemic.

The project is planned to last for six months. But if it proves popular, maybe they’ll make it permanent.

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West Hollywood Sheriff’s deputies are looking for a bike-riding rapist who attacked a woman on Fountain Ave last week.

The suspect is described as a white or Latino male in his early 30s with short black hair and brown eyes. He is 5’7” to 5’11” with a normal build and slight gut. He has a tattoo of some sort on his right arm.

He was wearing black t-shirt and dark blue jeans when last seen.

He left on a black hybrid bike with medium sized tires.

Anyone with information is urged to call sheriff’s deputies at 310/855-8850.

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What’s a bike lane when it’s not a bike lane?

A trash dump.

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Nothing like a painfully close pass in the London snow.

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The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes keeps on going.  

No bias here. Britain’s Daily News complains about “bungling” city councils wasting the equivalent of a relatively paltry $1.4 million dollars installing bike lanes that were later ripped out to appease angry motorists. Evidently forgetting that’s exactly the purpose behind popup bike lanes, allowing cities to install relatively low-cost infrastructure that can be easily removed if it doesn’t work out. Or if entitled drivers scream loud and long enough.

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Local

It took a long time getting here, but the Westwood Neighborhood Greenway is finally finished, even if you can’t get in yet.

 

State

Gary Turner, the GT in BMX brand GT Bicycles, is back in business with his son building trendy limited-edition oversized BMX street cruisers in Orange.

If you lost a bike in Ventura County recently, you may be in luck. Ventura County Sheriff’s deputies busted a pair of men in Fillmore while serving a warrant last week, and discovered several bikes believed to be stolen.

Bakersfield is looking for funding for a number of clean air projects, including separated bike lanes, affordable housing and turning a six lane roadway into a Complete Street.

The Modesto group behind Saturday’s mass ride out say police overreacted in cracking down on hundreds of bike riders flouting traffic laws. Never mind that mass rides are a particularly bad idea during a pandemic.

Palo Alto is continuing efforts to expand the city’s bicycle network.

She gets it. A Sonoma County columnist says you can buy happiness — it’s called a bicycle.

A pair of freeride skiers rode their bikes 1,033 miles from Lake Tahoe through Oregon and Washington to tackle three of North America’s classic ski runs, on Mt. Hood, Mt. Rainer and Eldorado Peak.

 

National

That feeling when Microsoft advertises your bike brand for you.

In a sign of their growing popularity, racks on buses in Anchorage, Alaska will now accommodate fat tire bikes.

Bike Portland’s Jonathan Maus responds to Monday’s 12-block vehicular rampage that left one woman dead and nine others injured, including two bike riders and seven pedestrians, arguing that we can’t ignore it again. Even if there’s still no answer to the vital question of why it happened.

The new Biden administration could reconsider Trump’s ill-conceived decision to truncate Utah’s Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments.

Oh hell no. A proposed Montana law would give bicyclists a three-foot passing law in exchange for requiring hi-viz clothing and front and back lights 24/7, and riding only on the shoulder or far right edge of a roadway, safe or not.

A Minnesota woman embraces her inner Viking, and commits to riding every day this month, including in the snow. Which is seldom a problem here in sunny Southern California, even if it feels like it right now.

Boston rips out a curb-protected bike lane, replacing concrete with flimsy plastic bendy posts. Which will put the city on the hook if anyone is injured or killed there with the now-negligible protection.

The next time someone complains about removing a parking space to improve safety for people on bikes, remind them that 1.6 million New York bike riders have to compete for a lousy 56,000 bike parking spots. And the situation’s probably not much better anywhere else.

A whopping 68% of New Yorkers support building more protected bike lanes in their own neighborhoods, while 56% support swapping parking spaces for protected bus lanes. Someone really needs to conduct a similar survey in Los Angeles, where decisions are usually based on who screams the loudest.

New York considers rule changes that would allow bike riders to make a right on red after coming to a complete stop, as well as ride through red lights and stop signs at the top of T-intersections. Which many bike riders already do anyway, legal or not.

Curbed considers what New York transportation commissioner Polly Trottenberg’s track record suggests she’ll do as deputy transportation secretary under Pete Buttigieg in the Biden Administration.

Life is cheap in Florida, where a drunken Maserati driver got a lousy 18 months for the hit-and-run death of a bike rider.

 

International

Learn to bunny hop like a pro.

A marketing strategist says bike brands have a rare opportunity to shape culture and seize market share by meeting the needs of women who are taking to their bikes during the Covid-19 lockdowns, and working with cities to provide safer places to ride.

Unsurprisingly, a new data analysis shows Vancouver’s hilly terrain is the main reason people don’t use bikeshare there. Which means ebikes could provide an easy solution.

Tragic news from London, where a 15-year old boy was stabbed to death while riding his bike to get fish and chips.

A British forest park is asking bike riders to keep within their limits, stick to areas they know well, and ride within their ability levels to avoid injuries during the pandemic.

I want to be like him when I grow up. A UK paperboy is still riding his bike to deliver the news, regardless of weather, even as he approaches his 80th birthday.

A new fat tired ebike from Sweden’s Cake is part cargo bike, part mobile utility bench. Although as far as I’m concerned, if it doesn’t have pedals, it’s not a bicycle, electric or otherwise.

 

Competitive Cycling

Absolutely disgusting. Dutch pro Dylan Groenewegen received death threats, including a mailed noose with a note threatening his unborn child, following the crash that seriously injured fellow countryman Dutchman Fabio Jakobsen in the Tour of Poland, which required round-the-clock police protection. Seriously, what the hell is wrong with these people?

The crits must go on, as USA Cycling announces a ten race criterium calendar. Although the closest one to Los Angeles will be in Salt Lake City.

Rouleur considers the cyclists who need to mount a comeback to get back to form for this year’s racing season.

Canyon Bicycles is raffling off a complete Ultimate CF SLX bike to benefit the nation’s first Historically Black College or University (HBCU) cycling team, at North Carolina’s St. Augustine’s University.

 

Finally…

Your next bike helmet could adapt to the type of ride you’re doing. Your new bike stem could recharge your lights, phone or bike computer while you ride.

And the Dutch even use bikes to protest. Although burning them seems like a damn waste.

But at least they’re polite about which ones they take.

https://twitter.com/W0lverineupdate/status/1353402351445372929?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1353402351445372929%7Ctwgr%5E&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Froad.cc%2Fcontent%2Fnews%2Fcycling-live-blog-25-january-2021-280329

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

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