One quick note before we get started.
It’s my birthday this weekend.
One I’ve tried to put off as long as possible, because it’s one of the big ones — marking the official demarkation between angry young man and crotchety get-off-my-lawn curmudgeon.
So do me a favor.
Ride just a little safer and more defensively for the next few days. Because we don’t want to ruin your weekend, or mine.
And I want to see you back here on Monday.
Even if I will be a crotchety old fart.
Photo by Karolina Grabowska from Pexels.
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Good news from Sacramento, where the man who lost his memory after he was hit by a driver while riding his bike, and had no idea who he is, has finally been identified thanks to tips from the public.
Unfortunately, we may never learn who he is, though, because the hospital won’t identify him, citing patient privacy.
And yes, it’s yet another reminder to always carry some form of ID with you when you ride.
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This pretty much puts it in perspective.
Manhattan Beach commuters insisted on keeping Vista Del Mar a deadly throughway, while following a completely different set of rules in their own community.
Manhattan Beach walk street. For $5M, your kids can play on city streets and even leave their toys out when they come in for lunch. These are the MB to Westside commuters who demanded that traffic calming along Playa be reversed to facilitate their commutes pic.twitter.com/ljnoFQ3XeL
— Dr Grace Peng (@gspeng) September 23, 2021
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This tweet from the UK kind of sums up the current state of bike commuting almost anywhere.
https://twitter.com/TheCycIist/status/1441020478978764809?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1441020478978764809%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Froad.cc%2Fcontent%2Fnews%2Fcycling-live-blog-23-september-2021-286571
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Here’s your chance to be a somewhat different kind of bike messenger.
@bikinginla https://t.co/J7fKHTtsLl pic.twitter.com/ZCEysMo3Q0
— keith johnson (@keith_johnson) September 24, 2021
And you can still use the bike lane.
Another delivery driver in the bike lane! pic.twitter.com/SPCvG3Jery
— Matt Armstrong (@matt_a7) September 23, 2021
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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 Yorkshire, England county councilor insisted that people on bicycles “do drive motorists somewhat insane,” and are “making themselves a great number of potential enemies and therefore dangerous situations.” And as an added bonus, trotted out the old myth that bike riders don’t pay for the roads.
But sometimes, it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.
A 19-year old Missouri man was busted for vandalizing homes by riding a bicycle around his own neighborhood with a backpack full of spray paint, and marking walls with phrases like “Blood Gang” and “Death to America.”
An op-ed writer says the only things keeping Brussels, Belgium from being a pedestrian-friendly city is a long list of problems, from bad drivers to embarrassingly reckless bicycle riders. (Emphasis hers.)
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Local
Long Beach is finally getting around to building the long-delayed Wrigley Greenbelt Project along DeForest Avenue from 26th Way to 34th Street, including what appears to be a meandering bike path.
Residents of remote Del Sur in the Antelope Valley are outraged after their hand-built BMX track was plowed under by the city.
State
Encinitas is the latest California city to adopt Vision Zero. Let’s hope they take it seriously, unlike a certain megalopolis to the north we could name.
San Diego belatedly installs car-tickler bendie posts along the bike lane through Balboa Park, too late to save the lives of a bike-riding woman and a scooter-riding man in recent months. But at least they’re doing something.
A writer for San Francisco Streetsblog says traffic engineers and DMVs need to learn from the aviation industry how to make Vision Zero work.
Life is cheap in Contra Costa County, where prosecutors have apparently concluded that the killing od long-time NFL coach Greg Knapp was no big deal, declining to file criminal charges against the driver who swerved into the San Ramon bike lane Knapp was riding in to run him down from behind; Knapp died five days later. More proof, if we needed it, that a little stripe of white paint doesn’t keep drivers out. And that authorities don’t always care when it doesn’t.
In a case of corporate Biking While Black, a Google product manager says he was stopped by security while biking across the company’s massive Mountain View campus, because they couldn’t believe he worked there.
National
Cycling News explains the difference between a hybrid and a gravel bike.
The Washington Post looks at efforts by Congress to combat climate change by encouraging alternative transportation, including a proposed $750 tax rebate for buying an ebike. Although if they were really serious about fighting climate change, they wouldn’t have reduced the proposed $1,500 rebate down to a paltry $750. Especially when e-car buyers get ten times that amount.
Smart Cities says “we can’t forget public transit, walking and cycling in the push to decarbonize transportation,” adding that preserving private vehicle use won’t move us to a more equitable transportation future.
CleanTechnica wants to know why bikes are booming in the US, while sales of electric motorcycles are stagnant.
A new PeopleForBikes campaign encourages commuters to fight climate change one ride at a time.
A commercial trucker’s website says you can thank bike riders, along with early “automobilists”, for today’s highways.
Newsweek says Vision Zero is gaining speed across the US. Unfortunately, so are most drivers.
Spy considers the best bike gloves for every season.
A pair of kindhearted Massachusetts cops dig into their own pockets to buy a new bike for a six-year old boy after his was stolen for the second time in weeks.
A Cambridge, Massachusetts group has refurbished and given away over 340 bicycles since it was founded last summer.
New York’s bicycle delivery riders won first-of-their-kind protections from the city council, guaranteeing them bathroom breaks, minimum delivery payments and the right to keep whatever tips they earn.
A Savannah, Georgia physician and columnist reflects on life’s priorities, and the “vast amounts of irrelevant garbage that distracts us from the wonder of life’s everyday miracles” after surviving a hit-and-run collision while riding his bike.
International
The Guardian wants to know why other big bike brands aren’t following Trek’s lead by tracking their environmental impact. And then doing something about it.
Tragic news from Ontario, Canada, where a man was found dead in ditch next to his bicycle; he is believed to be the 81-year old man who went missing after leaving home on a bike ride a week ago.
A Canadian op-ed writer pens a loving ode to the amazing bicycle.
He gets it. A UK letter writer says it’s angry and selfish driving that kills people on bicycles, not the actions of the victims.
An Irish woman was convicted of dangerous driving for running over a bike rider following a collision; the woman, who was driving alone despite only having a learner’s permit, said she panicked after the crash and hit the accelerator instead of the brakes.
Belgian ebike maker Cowboy is coming to America, after rapidly becoming one of the most popular brands in Europe, although they’re only making one model available in the US for now, at an early bird price of $1,990.
Here’s another one for your bike bucket list, as the Croatian town of Vodnjan has built walking and bike trails to explore the city’s many churches, some several centuries old, as well as hundred of artworks and holy relics dating back to the fifth century. Okay, maybe just my bucket list. But still.
A man in Bangalore, India is lucky to be alive after he was knocked off an overpass when a motorcyclist sideswiped his bicycle; he survived by hanging onto some loose wires dangling over the side.
Hundreds of Mumbai bike riders took to the streets on two wheels to celebrate World Car Free Day.
Competitive Cycling
Road.cc says no, the pros aren’t switching to disc brakes just to get you to buy a new bike.
Cycling Weekly looks at UCI’s new gravel bike series, as well as a new ‘cross format and the relatively new sport of Snow Bike.
Finally…
That feeling when the nice cops explain you’ve been driving over a mile on walking and biking trails. At last, an ebike with an attached sidecar for your corgi…uh, dog.
And it’s about time Moscow had a bikeshare for circus bears.
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Be safe, and stay healthy. And get vaccinated, already.
