Back in my blissfully misspent youth, there was a popular cartoon that showed a couple buzzards sitting on a fence.
One turns to the other, and says “Patience my ass. I’m going to kill something.”
It seemed funny at the time.
But that’s kind of where some LA bike advocates are right now.
Rather than wait endlessly for the city to finally get around to improving safety for bike riders and pedestrians on Sunset and Santa Monica Blvds, they’re trying to speed things up by helping pay for it through a private/public sponsorship.
And they need your help.
Here’s how Terence Heuston, the former author of LA Bike Dad, describes it.
Sunset4All, in partnership with the LACBC, is launching a crowdfunding “match” campaign to fund the initial engineering plans for protected bike lanes and pedestrian improvements on Sunset and Santa Monica Boulevards through East Hollywood, Silver Lake, and Echo Park.
If the community reaches our $25,000 goal, angel donors will MATCH THEIR DONATION. Every dollar of their tax-deductible donation will be DOUBLED if we reach our goal! Declare your independence from traffic by donating before 4th of July!
The NUMBER of donors is as important as the number of dollars. The city of LA installs safe street projects where there is broad community support. Every individual donor is an individual VOTE for this project. Even a small donation is tangible PROOF that Angelenos support safer streets and protected bike lanes.
The private/public partnership model has been used successfully in other regions to accelerate the installation of the Arapahoe bike lanes in Denver and the Indianapolis Cultural Trail. We want to transfer this innovative model to Los Angeles and release a flood of protected bike lanes region wide. It all starts with Sunset4All reaching its fundraising goal.
You can learn more — and contribute — here.
And yes, I just opened my wallet and put my money where my mouth is. If every else gives the same amount, we just need another 999 people to follow suit.
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I’m still waiting on official confirmation. But sadly, it looks like another bike rider has been killed in San Diego County.
This comes follows on the heels of another tragic death just a few miles south in La Jolla, where a young mother from India was killed when she was run down by a 74-year old driver while making a lane change on her bike on Tuesday.
Assuming the victim’s death is confirmed, that will mean nine people have been killed riding their bikes on the suddenly mean streets of San Diego County in just the first six months of this year.
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Calbike calls on everyone to write your California state senator to urge their support — or in one case, opposition — for a trio of bills.
AB 371: This measure will place a large and unprecedented insurance requirement on shared mobility systems. It won’t make our streets safer but it will put every bike-share system in California, public and private, out of business. Email your senator to vote NO on AB 371 to save bike-share.
AB 122 (Boerner Horvath): The bicycle safety stop (first introduced in Idaho in 1982) makes biking safer and easier, but some California groups don’t want this commonsense, pro-bike measure to become law. Tell your senator to vote YES on AB 122, the Bicycle Safety Stop Bill.
AB 1238 (Ting): The Freedom to Walk Act puts an end to unjust jaywalking laws advanced by the auto industry a century ago. these laws prevent people from enjoying their streets on foot safely, in the interest of making them the exclusive domain of cars. Today, jaywalking laws serve as a sometimes tragic pretext for biased policing, as a hugely disproportionate share of jaywalking tickets are issued to Black Californians. Tell your senator to support the Freedom to Walk Act, AB 1238.
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After several years covering the transportation beat, the LA Times Laura J. Nelson is taking on a new role as a rapid-response enterprise/investigative reporter.
Over the years, Nelson developed an encyclopedic knowledge of Los Angeles transportation issues, and her insights and in-depth reporting will be missed.
On the other hand, that means that her old job is now available.
https://twitter.com/laura_nelson/status/1408110659166822405
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Ride in solidarity with the Metro Bikeshare and Donut Friend Unions tomorrow.
We're having a solidarity bike ride this Saturday! pic.twitter.com/SjJn9oqAWM
— T.W.U. Local 320 – L.A. Metro Bike Share (@union_bike) June 24, 2021
As the son of a union man, I only wish my slowly healing hands would let me join in on the ride.
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We’ll have to see how it ends up when they flesh out the details. But right now, it looks like active transportation may have lost out in the bipartisan compromise on the transportation bill.
https://twitter.com/KostelecPlan/status/1408264284996571136
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Pink Bike wants to teach you how to actually learn new bike skills.
Evidently, there’s a lot to learn, since this is just episode one of a ten part series.
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This is who we share the road with.
ROAD RAGE INCIDENT: Police say a Hemet man discharged bear spray during a road rage incident in Seal Beach. A child was among those injured, and police say he may have done this before. https://t.co/8QoN6IM0Dc pic.twitter.com/171AzsUaJA
— KCAL News (@kcalnews) June 23, 2021
Apparently, bear spray has become the weapon of choice for aggrieved motorists and insurrectionists.
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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 Laguna Beach paper compares teenage ebike riders to the Lord of the Flies. No, really.
A nine-year old English boy was the victim of anti-bike sabotage, suffering a serious neck injury when he rode his bike into a rope someone had strung across a trail at neck level. Let’s hope whoever did this faces serious charges when they catch the jerk.
But sometimes, it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.
A woman made her escape by bicycle after robbing a San Diego nail salon at gunpoint.
Prosecutors threw the book at the San Francisco thief who was recorded riding his bicycle out of a Walgreens after dumping a pharmacy shelf into a bag, filing 15 charges for robbing the same store four days in a row.
Authorities near my Colorado hometown are looking for a man who apparently took offense when a woman nearly backed over his fellow bike rider, and punched her in the face. Seriously, don’t do that. It’s only natural to feel anger and fear when someone nearly hits you or a riding companion, but violence is never the answer.
A New Jersey man faces weapons charges after he dropped a stolen handgun when he was struck by a driver while riding his bike in Atlantic City.
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Local
Los Angeles is finally getting around to connecting the county’s disconnected rail system to the airport, with a new station that also promises to improve bicycling connections to LAX. Meanwhile, bike advocate Michael Schneider says why wait, when you can ride to LAX right now? Thanks to Keith Johnson for the heads-up.
LA County received $32 million in grants from the California Transportation Commission, including $5.6 million for a two way, 1.5-mile protected cycle track on Union Street in Pasadena.
Streets for All is hosting a Culver City Pride Ride this Sunday.
Santa Monica-based Bird is getting into the e-bikeshare business.
California’s Clean Mobility Options program, funded by the state’s cap-and-trade system, will fund a $1 million e-bikeshare system for residents of the Rancho San Pedro affordable housing community, near the Port of Los Angeles; 19 other clean energy projects around the state will receive grants up to $1 million.
State
Enjoy a 10-mile, no one left behind, kickoff ride for the new Over the Hump mountain bike season in Laguna Niguel on July 8th.
The manager of Costa Mesa’s Specialized bike shop shares his favorite Orange County trails.
Despite years of outreach, some businesses and residents in San Diego’s North Park neighborhood still seem to be surprised, if not angry, over the loss of 450 parking spaces to makes room for new protected bike lanes on 30th Street.
Speaking of parking, San Diego is moving forward with a proposal to remove parking minimums for many businesses. Hopefully Los Angeles will follow suit.
San Jose removed traffic lanes on two downtown streets to give bike riders new concrete barrier-protected bike lanes, replacing the previous painted bike lanes.
National
City Lab says open streets aren’t always open to everyone, including people with disabilities, for whom they can be closed.
Gear Junkie offers tips on how to buy a used bicycle.
All seven victims of last weekend’s Show Low AZ vehicular attack remain hospitalized, with six in Arizona and one in New Mexico; the driver who deliberately ran them over with his pickup is also hospitalized in stable condition after being shot by police.
Heartbreaking news from Denver, where an 11-year old boy in suburban Aurora has now undergone five operations in two weeks since he was run down by an alleged drunk driver while riding his bicycle, and dragged 50 feet beneath the driver’s car.
Not all Austin, Texas bike riders are thrilled about sharing their bike lanes with pizza delivery robots.
After an Oklahoma group gave a young man a new bike when they learned he had to walk 17 miles roundtrip to work and back, a crowdfunding campaign raised nearly $50,000 to buy him a new car. Which just goes to show that kind gestures can take an unexpected bad turn.
While Los Angeles continues its over-reliance on motor vehicles, Cleveland — yes, Rest Belt Cleveland — is reimagining itself as a denser, more walkable city effectively served by transit. Although it’s accused of backpedaling on plans for a sidewalk-level, two-way cycle track.
New York mayoral frontrunner Eric Adams promises that if he wins, he’ll ride his bike around town, take the subway and walk through neighborhoods like former Mayor John Lindsey in the ’60s. Which would be a big change from outgoing Mayor de Blasio, who’s infamous for being driven to the gym in a massive SUV.
A Florida man got ten years for stabbing a woman as she rode her bike in West Palm Beach, in an apparently unprovoked attack.
International
Yes, your ebike can get wet. But don’t try riding it through the pool.
Pink Bike questions whether mixed-wheel bikes, aka mullet bikes, with one wheel larger than the other, are here to stay.
Momentum Magazine rolls with Welsh DJ Dom Whiting and his mobile cargo bike party.
Ebikes far outsold electric cars in the UK last year, despite a government subsidy for the latter, as one ebike was sold in the country every three minutes. Meanwhile, British bicycling deaths jumped 40% last year, due at least in part to an increase in dangerous driving during the pandemic.
A stoned English driver got a well-deserved 11 years behind bars for killing two bike-riding men while speeding 30 miles over the speed limit in a stolen car.
An Indian writer says bicycling is back in vogue in the country.
People in Lebanon are taking to their bikes as the country runs out of gas. Literally.
Ebike sales have doubled in Singapore, driven by demand from food delivery workers.
Competitive Cycling
After a near-absence from the Tour de France in recent years, North Americans are making a strong comeback to the peloton, with four riders from the US, along with another three from Canada.
A writer for Bicycling offers a lengthy dissertation on what happens when she meets her idol, Primož Roglič. And yes, you can read it on Yahoo if Bicycling blocks you.
A writer for the AP says the Tour de France could come down to a rematch between fellow Slovenian’s Roglič and Tadej Pogačar.
French cyclist Audrey Cordon-Ragot says it’s about damn time there was a women’s Tour de France once again, as this year’s final La Course becomes the stepping stone to next year’s women’s Tour. Although she may not have put it quite that way.
Thirty-eight-year old Dutch cyclist Koen de Kort may have seen his cycling career come to an end after three fingers on his right hand were amputated following a crash in an off-road vehicle. And fellow Dutch cycling star Maurits Lammertink will miss the Tour de France after he was rushed into surgery for a brain injury caused by a collision with a scooter rider.
The director of the women’s Doltcini-Van Eyck-Proximus cycling team was banned for three-years after several riders accused him of sexual misconduct and harassment.
Dutch cyclist Mathieu van der Poel is proof that sometimes, greatness runs in the family.
https://twitter.com/AlpecinFenix/status/1408123568714665994
Finally…
Your next Mercedes Benz could have just two wheels, and a battery. Proof you can be a billionaire fashion mogul and still bike to work.
And former pro Fabian Cancellara is selling…something.
https://twitter.com/cyclingtips/status/1407734786236375044
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Thanks to David E for an unexpected donation to help support this site, and keep SoCal’s best bike news coming your way every day.
Okay, almost every day.
Donations of any amount, at any time and for any reason, are always appreciated.
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Be safe, and stay healthy. And get vaccinated, already.
