Happy International Car Free Day!
Metro Bike is offering a free bikeshare ride today to celebrate, along with steep discounts on 30 day and yearly passes.
And a European website says if there is a war on cars, Car Free Day is winning converts to the anti-car side.
So leave the car at home today.
Or better yet, declare your own personal war on cars, and trade it in for a new bike or ebike, and make it Car Free Day every day.
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A San Diego man faces years, if not decades, behind bars for killing a woman as she rode her bike.
Thirty-eight-year old Pacific Beach resident Adam David Milavetz is charged with murder for running down well-known architect Laura Shinn while high on meth as she rode her bike to work in a Balboa Park bike lane last July.
He faces an additional felony count of vehicular manslaughter while under the influence, giving jurors a choice of charges and potential sentences.
Milavetz, who works as a “420 mobilization tech” and delivery driver for a pair of cannabis dispensaries, entered a plea of not guilty to the charges; he has been held in custody without bail since his arrest.
He was arrested a month earlier for driving while high on meth.
And once again, authorities managed to keep a dangerous driver the road until it was too late.
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Momentum Magazine says there’s still a lot worth fighting for in the $3.5 trillion House infrastructure bill, even if Congress did cut the proposed $1,500 ebike tax credit in half.
The e-bike tax credit and other bicycle programs that make up the massive bill are as follows, and it signifies a welcome change and an indication of just how fast and how large e-bikes sales are growing:
- E-bike tax credit: 15% on the purchase of new e-bikes (the first $5,000), up to $750 benefit value. The credit was originally proposed for 30%.
- Bicycle commuter benefit: Allow use of pre-tax dollars to fund bike purchases and bike-share memberships.
- E-bikes for business tax credit: An incentive of a tax credit of 30% for businesses to install e-bike charging stations
- Funding to reconnect or enhance communities split apart by highway projects.
- Opportunities to build a sustainable and complete bicycle network.
Meanwhile, drivers will continue to get a tax credit ten times that size for buying an electric car, as the government works to maintain the automotive hegemony on our streets.
And never mind that the prospect for the House bill aren’t looking good in the evenly split Senate, where Joe Manchin and Krysten Sinema are insisting on further steep cuts to the bill, even though it has already been reduced $1.5 trillion from the original proposal.
Slate asks what if Congress helped bicyclists instead of drivers for a change?
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Yet another reminder to always carry ID when you ride.
Authorities in Sacramento are trying to identify a Spanish-speaking man who is trapped in a fugue state following a collision with a driver while riding his bicycle, and can’t even remember his own name.
But don’t rely on your wallet or cellphone, or anything else that can be easily stolen if you’re incapacitated in a crash; it may sound ghoulish, but it happens often enough to be a valid concern.
I always wear a Road ID when I ride. Or any other time I leave home.
I also keep emergency contact information written down on a slip of paper in my jersey pocket or seat bag; other people attach information on their shoes or directly to their bikes.
But do something. You don’t want your loved ones frantically searching for you if anything happens.
Thanks to “Zero Carbon” Kevin and Megan Lynch for clarifying where this took place.
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Unless you have to share the road with LA drivers, that is.
New research supports yet another reason to hop on your bike and go for a ride!
Exercise—especially when done outdoors—can lower anxiety levels. https://t.co/jfMj5xin3B via @Yahoo pic.twitter.com/d1vo3UoHxS
— UCLA Transportation (@UCLACommute) September 21, 2021
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If you build it, they will come. Women, too.
https://twitter.com/peterwalker99/status/1440599964900495371
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GCN examines whether we should be afraid of bicycles made by carmakers.
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The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.
Police in the UK criticize the “depressing level of selfish and poor behavior” shown by motorists during a sting operation to catch drivers who pass too close to people on bicycles; a fifth of all drivers were stopped for violations.
Meanwhile, a bike rider in Cornwall, England shares video of repeated bad passes by drivers.
But sometimes, it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.
Police in Regina, Saskatchewan tackled a man off his bicycle as he attempted to flee, booking him on 11 counts including weapons charges, assault and possession of burglary tools.
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Local
A Long Beach couple started a petition demanding safety improvements to Los Coyotes Diagonal after their son was killed by a suspected drunk driver while trying to cross the deadly street earlier this month, where far too many people have been killed in recent years — including a pair of bike riders just two years ago.
State
If you ride in the Santa Barbara area, the CHP will be distributing enough bike lights, reflectors and helmets for one thousand people in Isla Vista this evening.
An Oakland website examines why the area’s roads are among the deadliest in the state, and asks for their readers help in finding out.
Marin County drivers and officials are once again coming for the successful bike lane on the upper deck of the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge, after a study suggested that converting it back to a traffic lane could save drivers a whole eleven minutes, while costing bike commuters hours. Or forcing them back into cars. Sure, let’s just turn all the streets back over to cars. It’s not like there’s a climate or fatality crisis or anything to worry about.
National
National Geographic says there are good reasons to believe America’s pandemic bike boom will become a longterm trend.
A Tesla fan site explains how the carmaker’s Full Self-Driving Beta steers cars around bike riders and pedestrians. The problem is, Tesla is turning all of us into unpaid beta testers just by sharing the road with them, whether we like it or not.
A Streetsblog op-ed says playable streets represent the next frontier in public spaces, with infrastructure and street furniture designed to inspire imagination.
A first-time ebike rider says the new 28 mph Specialized ebike won him over — especially the Garmin sensor feature that displays the position of cars around and behind the bike on a small screen on the handlebars. Although that maximum speed means a helmet is required in California, regardless of age, and it would be banned from separated bike paths.
Bicycling offers tips from the pros for beginning riders. As usual, read it on Yahoo if Bicycling blocks you.
A Nevada couple faces a shitload of charges for killing the wife of a Tesla co-founder as she rode her bike last July, then lying about who was behind the wheel; a TV reporter explains the driver is charged with reckless driving causing death, rather than vehicular manslaughter, because the former is a felony while the latter is just a misdemeanor. Thanks to Al Williams for the tip.
A suspected Arizona bike thief was killed after he dropped the bicycle to flee from police and ran out into traffic — and into the side of a box truck, before getting hit by another driver.
The Sierra Club magazine talks with Detroit bike riders about the difficulty of Biking While Black, even in a city that’s overwhelmingly African American.
Dayton, Ohio wants to destroy the 1892 building that housed the Wright Brothers first bike shop, saying it’s become a nuisance after falling into a state of “extreme disrepair.” Although once a historic site is gone, you can’t get it back.
They get it. A Bangor, Maine newspaper reminds us that pedestrian deaths aren’t statistics, they’re people. That goes for people on bicycles, too. Or anyone else who’s a victim of traffic violence.
Maryland is investing $16.8 million to fund 42 bike projects around the state. Although Amazon donated nearly half that amount to complete two bike trail segments near their Bellevue, Washington HQ2 alone.
International
The Finnish city of Turku is attempting to promote bicycling by experimenting with different types of secure bike parking, including public ebike charging cabinets that can automatically extinguish a battery fire.
If you can live without the extra bells and whistles and Garmins, you can get a new Chinese-made Tenways ebike right now on Indiegogo for less than half the price of the Specialized ebike.
Singapore Facebook users freak out after spotting someone riding a recumbent bike, accusing the low rider of courting death.
Competitive Cycling
Hats off to 23-year old Christopher Blevins, who became the first American to win a Mountain Bike World Cup race in 27 years on Sunday.
Finally…
That feeling when even a nine-foot fence and a pond aren’t enough to deter a bike thief. That feeling when you want an ebike, but secretly wish it was a motorcycle.
And don’t bother showing up for a Covid test if you’re not in a car.
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Be safe, and stay healthy. And get vaccinated, already.
