San Diego area bicyclists call for better education and safety improvements on La Jolla’s deadly Torrey Pines Road, in the wake of Wednesday’s crash that took the life of scientist and mother Swati Tyagi.
However, advocates are split on the benefits of installing a protected bike lane on the busy roadway, with some fearing it could do more harm than good on the steep downhill grade.
It’s been too long since I’ve ridden that area to recall specific details of the roadway. However, in many cases, it’s safer to have a separated lane with a wide buffer to give riders room to maneuver if need be, rather than trapping riders in a protected bike lane.
Which is exactly the opposite of what’s called for on the uphill side, or virtually any other situation.
It also doesn’t help that bicyclists haven’t even been consulted about planned improvements to the street.
(La Jolla Traffic & Transportation Board) Chairman Dave Abrams asked (bicyclist Kurt) Hoffman and others to confer with a La Jolla Community Planning Association subcommittee, which LJCPA President Diane Kane said was looking into pedestrian and car access in and out of The Village, including via Torrey Pines Road.
On June 24, Kane told the La Jolla Light that the subcommittee, called the Village Visioning Committee, has “been working diligently on streetscapes in The Village and on entrances into La Jolla,” such as Pearl and Nautilus streets.
She said she hasn’t seen anything yet for Torrey Pines Road. “So far, bicyclists haven’t been part of the committee’s conversation on traffic calming and streetscape enhancements but will be welcome once the initial concepts are melded into a coherent whole,” Kane said.
Unfortunately, that’s how planning too often works.
And why it too often fails us.
Meanwhile, the Salk Institute issued a statement mourning the death of their colleague Swati Tyagi.
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A Redditor catches Sunday’s Culver City Pride Ride on his dashcam, featuring what appears to be hundreds of riders.
Although we could do without the idiotas y pendejos popping wheelies while they play chicken with drivers on the wrong side of the road.
Just saw this huge bicycle group ride through Culver City, where are they from?
byu/MechaHitler_ inBikeLA
Thanks to Keith Johnson for the heads-up.
Correction: That wasn’t the Pride Ride. This is the Pride Ride.
this was us. pic.twitter.com/2wb4Bm9KX5
— joni (@abikeist) June 28, 2021
Thanks to Joni for setting the record straight.
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Alabama Representative Mo Brooks is one of us, unlocking his bicycle from a rack outside the nation’s capitol as the Big Lie backer refuses to talk to a reporter from CNN, saying he doesn’t trust the network to be honest.
Which is a great way to duck the hard questions.
Coming up later this hour… we tried to speak to GOP House members about their bogus January 6th conspiracy theories. Congressman Mo Brooks would not comment and rode off on his bicycle… pic.twitter.com/LMSedEhUDi
— Jim Acosta (@Acosta) June 26, 2021
Meanwhile, Uber’s CEO is one of us, too, spending a day working as one of his own Uber Eats delivery riders in San Francisco, even as Twitter users decry it as a publicity stunt.
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No bias here.
Apparently, in Hamilton, Ontario, you’re supposed to wait patiently at a stop sign until drivers in each direction wave you through the intersection.
Which will never, ever happen in real life.
And never wear headphones on a bike, even though you can usually still hear traffic noise, unless you’ve got the volume cranked up to ridiculous levels.
Unlike, say, drivers in their hermetically sealed vehicles, with the sound up so high they can’t even hear a fire truck bearing down on them.
#HamOnt check out this week’s installment of #ShareTheRoad. Although it’s dedicated to cyclists, we can all learn from it. So let’s watch out for one another and stay tuned for the Pedestrian Edition next week. #TogetherStrongerSafer pic.twitter.com/8huYnOyv7z
— Hamilton Police (@HamiltonPolice) June 18, 2021
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The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.
A man was caught on video leaning far out of a car’s passenger window in an attempt to push a British man off his bicycle. However, the jerk’s failure to succeed in his terroristic attack against an innocent bike rider shouldn’t affect any possible charges one damn whit.
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Local
A preliminary Metro study suggests congestion pricing really would reduce driving in several areas around Los Angeles.
State
The popular Belgian Waffle Ride is back in San Diego’s North County after last year’s cancellation, including a two-day Expo and beer garden. Let’s hope the riders visit the beer garden after the race, though.
Officials in Encinitas are scaling back plans to remake the North Coast Highway 101 corridor, settling for modest re-striping in one section instead of the original plans to change the entire corridor at once.
Sad news from San Luis Obispo, where a 61-year old man was killed by a truck driver in a right hook crash.
A Napa Valley paper calls for repealing California’s jaywalking laws.
National
Streetsblog explains why slower speeds are better for “affordable, healthy, equitable, accessible and resource-efficient communities.”
US cities are pushing to make pandemic-era street changes permanent, despite the inevitable auto-centric pushback.
Once again, all it takes to convert a city official to a bike advocate is getting hit by a driver, as a Moline, Illinois alderman becomes a strong voice for better bikeways.
A Nashville bike rider wisely gave up his bicycle when he was threatened by a man with a machete; police later busted the thief, finding meth and drug paraphernalia on him, as well as the hot bike.
A 76-year old New Jersey man faces three counts of hit-and-run for the April crash that left three bike riders seriously injured.
A writer from Lafayette, Louisiana says her bicycle joy went full circle as she rediscovered her love of riding a bike during the pandemic.
A Florida man has just 1,500 miles to go on an 11,500-mile ride crisscrossing the US to raise funds to fight cancer; he’s raised nearly $93,000 of his $100,000 goal for cancer nonprofit Chemo Noir.
The husband of a bike-riding Florida woman who was run down by a hit-and-run driver is worried that the 89-year old woman is still driving while out on bail, even though she somehow couldn’t see two adult people on bicycles directly in front of her. Or cared enough to stick around after getting out of her car to look at the crumpled riders she’d nearly killed. Yet another example of authorities not taking the keys from an elderly driver until it’s too late.
International
A Toronto columnist goes all in on bicycling after buying an ebike.
Nat Geo recommends the five best bike day trips starting from London, for your next trip to the UK.
That’s more like it. Britain’s Bicycle Association issued new standards for bike parking, calling for safe, easy-to-use bike racks accessible by all bike riders, including disabled riders.
A former Scottish cycling champ now spends his days traveling the country to support renal failure patients and their families, five years after receiving a life-saving kidney transplant.
India’s Hero Bicycles takes on Chinese ebike manufacturers by cracking the European market for the first time.
A whopping 1,500 bike riders turned out for a mass bicycle parade in Budapest, after it was delayed a year and a half by the pandemic.
An Indian anthropologist says the answer to the country’s choking smog is to bicycle or perish.
A Philippine columnist says yes, the country’s new bike lanes really work.
Competitive Cycling
Who says women can’t compete with men? A 52-year old woman won the brutal Race Across America, aka RAAM, for the first time, as Leah Goldstein crossed the finish line in 11 days, 3 hours and 3 minutes.
The Dutch dominated the one-day women’s La Course race which preceded the Tour, taking three of the top four spots as Demi Vollering out-sprinted Denmark’s Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig and former champion Marianne Vos.
Eighteen-year old Sebastopol CA resident Luke Lamperti recounts his surprise win in the crash-marred US national road championship.
The big news from the Tour de France is a first stage crash that took out nearly half the peloton in one fell swoop. What appeared to be an over-enthusiastic fan giving a shoutout to her grandparents knocked down Tony Martin with her sign, causing the others to fall like dominoes, although only Germany’s Jasha Sutterlin was knocked out of the race. Thanks to David Drexler for the link.
look at this absolute nightmare that resulted pic.twitter.com/3Nf2QFMqHu
— Timothy Burke (@bubbaprog) June 26, 2021
Tour officials threatened to sue the woman, even though they have no idea who she is after she slipped away during the chaos; French police are looking for her, too. However, the director of the Dutch Jumbo-Visma cycling team blames Tour de France officials for the massive crash.
Unfortunately, it wasn’t the day’s only massive crash, though.
Bodycam video shows a mechanic for Team Jumbo-Visma leap out of the team car and sprint through the peloton with a fresh bike for one of the downed riders.
https://twitter.com/JumboVismaRoad/status/1408897951984979969?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1408897951984979969%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Froad.cc%2Fcontent%2Fnews%2Fteam-mechanic-sprints-through-crash-help-his-team-284443
Since the race is being televised in the US, we’ll go back to our usual mostly spoiler updates for the next three weeks. Hence this blind teaser that the yellow jersey changed hands yesterday; you’ll have to click the link to learn who’s wearing it now. Or why it fulfills his famed grandfather’s dream.
Finally…
Your next bike could be extremely extremely cool looking and made of wood. And here’s your chance to own a DeLorean of your very own.
Flux capacitor optional.
https://twitter.com/dorfman_baruch/status/1409359704271245314
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Be safe, and stay healthy. And get vaccinated, already.
In all fairness to the video of the cyclist being waved through by drivers it is an all-way stop.
Personally, if a driver beats me to the stop I give them right of way. If I am just a bit ahead, or at the same time I wave them through if they are on the right side of the intersection as they will be out of my way before I get across the lane into theirs.