Today marks the worldwide Ride of Silence to honor fallen bike riders.
Something we’ve seen far too much of here in Southern California.
Then again, one is one too many.
Unfortunately, though, there don’t appear to be any rides planned in the LA area, as the pandemic has taken its toll of group rides.
However, there are rides scheduled tonight in Bakersfield, Thousand Oaks, Riverside and Fullerton.
If you’re planning a ride that’s not listed here, even if you’re just throwing one together at the last minute, let me know and I’ll try to get the word out.
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L39ION of Los Angeles just dropped a new video highlighting the next chapter for the LA cycling team focusing on increasing diversity in the sport.
Bicycling says you need to see it now.
So here it is.
As usual, you can read the article on Yahoo if Bicycling blocks you.
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A video produced by Santa Monica College students examines Streets For All’s proposal to extend the Ballona Creek bike path to the eastern end of the creek.
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If you’ve got a few extra bucks, an armless Portland man is crowdfunding money to fix the custom adaptive bike that allows him to ride, after it was damaged hitting some sort of bump.
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The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.
No bias here. A Vancouver writer asks why city planners insist on putting bicyclists before people. Because evidently, we’re not quite human as far as she’s concerned.
A Boston transit driver makes an illegal turn across one separated bike lane into another, just missing a bike rider in the process.
Sunday, 16 May 2021 at 11:50am. @MBTA ride vehicle right hooks two cyclists while making an illegal turn from Tremont onto Boylston. Continues head on towards cyclist with right of way before speeding away onto Charles Street. pic.twitter.com/dEQUOg86mZ
— Adam Balsam (@balsama) May 18, 2021
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Local
Pasadena police will hold yet another crackdown this Friday on traffic violations that put bike riders and pedestrians at risk, regardless of who commits them. So ride to the letter of the law until you cross the city limit line, so you’re not the one who gets written up. Thanks to Megan Lynch for the heads-up.
Santa Monica says go ride a bike. And offers a free cargo bike loaner to families of local school students.
State
Great idea. Caltrans is funding a $200,000 program to “teach students about safe urban cycling, bike mechanic skills and to encourage ridership through group bike rides” at three Santa Ana schools for the next two years.
Forty-two-year old parolee Jamison Connor went on trial yesterday for the head-on hit-and-run crash that killed 36-year- old Vista resident Kevin Lentz while he was riding in Escondido in 2019.
A Rancho Cucamonga science teacher makes an amazing return engagement to American Ninja Warrior — three years after he was nearly killed in a collision while riding his bike.
Bakersfield could soon get its own bikeshare system. Yes, Bakersfield.
A Santa Cruz website marks Bike Month in one of the state’s most dangerous counties to ride a bike.
SF Gate offers tips on how to carry almost anything on your bike.
A Bay Area writer says it’s time to drop bike licensing requirements, which are too often used as a pretext for police to target Black and brown bike riders.
Sad news from Merced County, where a 67-year old man was killed when his bike was run down from behind by a pickup driver while he was riding in the traffic lane without lights or reflectors long after dark.
Sacramento Magazine recommends a road bike ride on the city’s 23-mile American River Parkway, compete with 23 restrooms along the way.
National
Writing for Outside, a triathlete says killing cyclists is as American as mass shootings.
The Manual considers how much weight you can lose by riding a bicycle. That depends. How much have you got?
Seattle is asking for people to vote on a name for their cute little protect bike lane sweeper. Not surprisingly, Sweepy McSweepface is a popular choice.
A Seattle-area letter writer says signaling a turn can sometimes increase the risk for bike riders, who have to take a hand off their handlebars.
A ghost bike was installed for reigning master’s age group national road champ Gwen Inglis, who was killed on Sunday when she was run down from behind by an allegedly stoned driver while riding in a Lakewood, Colorado bike lane.
Relearning how to ride a bike in bike-unfriendly Wyoming.
A kindhearted Texas high school student crowdfunded money to buy a new bicycle, helmet and water bottle, along with a gift card for bike shoes, for a school bus driver who goes out of her way to help her kids.
An Illinois paper misses the point, saying the bicycling death of famed German architect Helmut Jahn calls attention to “a shared responsibility by all road users…to take some precautions to make safety a priority.” Except only it’s just the people in the big, dangerous machines who pose a risk to everyone else.
International
A London e-scooter user is caught on video crashing head-on into a bike rider. And for once it’s not the person on two wheels who gets the blame.
Life is cheap in the UK, where a truck driver got a lousy eight months behind bars for killing a man who was commuting to work on his bike to get fit for his daughter’s wedding.
Irish food delivery riders complain about the dangerous time pressures they face while working for the equivalent of less that $10 per hour.
A new study says Western Australia’s three foot passing law corresponds to a rise in aggressive behavior towards people on bicycles. However, correlation is not causation; more likely drivers under increased stress are taking it out on bike riders simply because we’re here, and they can.
Competitive Cycling
It’s now okay for Giro cyclists to toss their water bottles to fans, but only in the last 31 miles of each stage.
New Zealand’s George Bennett says his poor performance in the first week of the Giro is one of the biggest disappointments of his professional cycling career.
Twenty-one-year old Belgian cyclist Remco Evenepoel is experiencing just the opposite of Bennett, sitting a mere 14 seconds shy of the pink leader’s jersey in his first race back from his horrific crash in last year’s Tour of Lombardy.
Finally…
Your inner tubes could be reborn as someone’s dress. And whose bloody fingerprints are on the very cold corpse of the racing ‘bent?
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Be safe, and stay healthy. And wear a mask.
And get vaccinated, already.
