Clearly, it pays to know the law.
Because once again, a well-informed bike rider knew bike law better than the police officer charged with enforcing it.
This time, it was a BMX rider who schooled a Long Beach cop on the local ordinance he wasn’t breaking.
It shouldn’t be up to us to explain the law to people who should be trained in it. But unfortunately, that’s the world we too often live in.
https://twitter.com/Imposter_Edits/status/1504592199631126530
It’s your responsibility to learn the laws governing bike use where you live. That starts with CVC 2102 for those of us in California, which clearly specifies our right to the road, with a long list of exceptions to the requirement to ride to the right.
Although maybe try to show a little more respect for the cop than this guy did. Regardless of your attitude towards the police, as LAPD officers have explained to me, you never want to count on a cop having a good day.
If you can’t convince them of your rights, don’t push it. Just take the ticket, and take it up with their supervisor.
Image by Alexas_Fotos from Pixabay.
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This is who we share the road with.
The LAPD is looking for the idiot — and I use the term advisedly — who used the steepest street in Los Angeles as a launching pad for a rented Tesla.
Someone decided to jump a Tesla on Baxter St in Echo Park, LA. pic.twitter.com/LS1oMtNEcY
— Benjamin Young Savage (ᐱᓐᒋᐱᓐ) (@benjancewicz) March 20, 2022
Or at least, they were.
We are asking the public to no longer send us any more tips regarding @dominykasor We have reached out to him on his social media account. We are asking any witnesses to also come forward. pic.twitter.com/vFBASt8MQD
— LAPDCTD (@LAPDCTD24) March 21, 2022
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No, Sunset Blvd won’t be getting a protected bike lane, regardless of what the flyer suggests.
Even though it should.
I just talked to street services supervisor James Hawkins. Resurfacing is happening, but the reason it shows the DTLA protected lanes is because the flyer was copied/pasted from that project: "Whatever your bike lane looks like now, it will still look like that when we're done" https://t.co/GMDooLk1Bb
— Alissa Walker (@awalkerinLA) March 18, 2022
………
Erik Griswold calls our attention to Pomona’s parking addiction, combined with Caltrans instance on a minimum of 11-foot traffic lanes, standing in the way of a protected bike lane on Towne.
Towne between Baseline and Foothill. A small strip of it is in Pomona to allow the residents of the apartment complex on the western side to park overnight on the street (overnight parking illegal in Claremont) and Pomona won’t give this up. 10-foot lanes would free up space. pic.twitter.com/vzRSokrS6L
— erikgriswold.bsky.social (@erik_griswold) March 20, 2022
Now free 24/7 on-street parking for the neighboring town is resulting in probable sharrows. This is a street notorious for speeds above the posted 40 mph.
“Complete Streets” is truly horseapples.
And we wonder why nobody takes bicycles seriously?
— erikgriswold.bsky.social (@erik_griswold) March 20, 2022
Here is the full version of the update that photo came with. I’ll post the original project later. pic.twitter.com/nZaCy918vC
— erikgriswold.bsky.social (@erik_griswold) March 20, 2022
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More on the return of 626 Golden Streets to the San Gabriel Valley in May.
https://twitter.com/ActiveSGV/status/1505593307862220804
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Just like last week, someone on a bicycle took it on himself to stage a one-bike protest against the so-called “People’s Convoy” truckers’ protest.
Rolling Stone says DC got the hero it needed.
This is classic. Bicyclist in DC making his own counter-protest to truckers. From @ShutDown_DC pic.twitter.com/dSFFs2sVkR
— Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) March 19, 2022
Thanks to redshift and Megan Lynch for the heads-up.
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The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.
A college cop working for Arizona State University is being sued for running a stop sign while using his cellphone, and slamming into a man on a bicycle.
A Toronto columnist tries to politely explain that standing up for drivers’ rights doesn’t make you anti-bicyclist. It does if your purpose is to remove successful bike lanes just because they inconvenience people in cars a little bit.
When an Aussie bike rider approached an SUV to complain that someone threw something at him, the passenger got out and pushed him into traffic before punching him and stealing his backpack and cellphone.
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Local
Good question. An LA Times reader wants to know why LA drivers never use their turn signals.
Our old friend Harv forwards word that LA’s longtime Bike Oven co-op is back in business, with a new website.
The Larchmont Buzz reports on the Mid City West Neighborhood Council’s forum for the candidates looking to replace thankfully termed-out Paul Koretz in West LA’s CD5.
A Santa Clarita man was the victim of an attempted bike-jacking, when a man jumped out of a Jeep and threatened him with a semiautomatic handgun.
Kourtney Kardashian’s brother Rob is one of us, after she teamed with fiancé and Blink 182 drummer Travis Barker to give him an $800 BMX.
State
Streetsblog considers Burbank/Glendale state Assemblymember Laura Friedman’s proposed bicycle omnibus bill, which would allow ebikes capable to traveling up to 28 mph on most bikeways, ban mandatory local bike registration laws, require drivers to change lanes to pass, and clarify that bike riders are allows to cross intersections during the leading pedestrian interval.
The LA Times considers why California’s CEQA environmental law is so hard to change, despite being abused for decades to stop everything from bike lanes to transit lines and denser housing.
The rich get richer, as newly bike-friendly San Diego opens a 3.5-mile bike path through the North Park, Normal Heights and University Heights neighborhoods. Which is exactly where I used to live and ride in the city’s notoriously bike unfriendly days, just a few decades too late to do me any good.
A Santa Barbara study considers equity in the bicycling community, where ridership on a local trail was overwhelmingly male and white.
The family of a Bakersfield woman is demanding answers after she was killed riding her bike on a street that’s seen 28 traffic deaths in just two years, while Caltrans belatedly discusses a plan to improve safety by removing a lane and adding cycle tracks.
Sad news from Salinas, where a 54-year old man was killed in a left cross collision while riding against traffic.
A writer from Mountain View questions the safety of drivers turning right while looking left, following the death of a 13-year old boy riding his bike to school last week. An op-ed writer wants to know how long it will take the city to make the intersection safer.
National
Someone please tell Fox News that it’s okay for the president to go for a bike ride, even when bad things are happening on the other side of the world.
Good question. CityLab asks why federal crash test ratings ignore the dangers modern massive trucks and SUVs pose to pedestrians — and bike riders. European standards require carmakers to consider the danger to people outside the vehicle; the rapidly rising death toll on American streets suggests it’s long past time we did here, too.
Recently we linked to a Wall Street Journal article about the lessons a couple in their 60s learned riding a tandem across the US, but noted most of it was hidden behind a paywall. Now they’ve turned it into a slideshow and made it available for free.
Texas police arrested a suspect in the hit-and-run death of a Galveston Doctor as she was riding her bike early Friday morning; the 21-year old driver was arrested before dawn Sunday over 200 miles away in Seguin, Texas.
A bike tour of Houston’s historically Black 5th Ward examines the dangers of gentrification and displacement.
An 81-year old Houston man faces a murder charge after chasing his bike-riding neighbor in circles with his pickup, before intentionally running over the victim.
Once again, bike riders were heroes, as a pair of Pittsburgh men abandoned their afternoon ride along the Allegheny River when they spotted a main flailing in the water, and pulled him to safety.
DC is encouraging teachers and other school employees to leave their cars at home by paying them $200 a month to commute by bike, whether at public, private or charter schools. Now make that benefit available to everyone who chooses not to drive to work.
International
The UN unanimously approved a resolution sponsored by Turkmenistan’s bike-riding president calling for using bicycles as a tool to combat climate change; the non-binding resolution calls on member states to integrate bicycles into public transportation, whether in urban or rural settings, and in both developing and developed countries.
Unbelievable. Police in Oxford, England arrest a man on charges of receiving stolen goods and possession of criminal property after finding him with as many as 1,000 bicycles in and around his home; he may be the same man who was found with 164 purloined bikes just five years earlier. Meanwhile, a UK bike thief avoided jail after getting caught with a nine-year old boy’s stolen BMX, despite 64 previous theft convictions.
Road.cc looks at the best bike brands from the north of England from the past century.
Remember this the next time someone insists disabled people can’t ride bikes. A 26-year old wheelchair-bound British man with cerebral palsy gained new freedom, and new joy in life, when he discovered handcycling, and now finds himself riding alongside able-bodied people.
Now you, too, can own your very own Mercedes Benz ebike, as long as you have an extra $4,500 laying around.
Alt Tour cyclist Lachlan Morton is back to doing good deeds, planning a 660-mile nonstop ride from Munich to the Polish-Ukrainian border to raise money for the Ukrainian people. The 30-year old pro cyclist raised around $700,000 last year by riding the entire Tour de France route solo, and still getting to Paris five days before the peloton.
An Indian man was killed in a bizarre chain-reaction crash, when a group of kids threw water balloons at a truck carrying wood for a bonfire, but missed the mark and hit a man riding a motor scooter, who crashed into a bike rider, killing him.
Climbing gas prices are driving some people to consider ebikes as a cost-saving alternative in New Zealand, too.
Competitive Cycling
Yet another Slovenian cyclist made his mark over the weekend, as Matej Mohorič surprised everyone by winning the one-day Milan-San Remo Monument Classic race; Mohorič credited his victory to using a dropper post on the final steep descent.
Meanwhile, Road Bike Action offers highlights of the race, while UCI gives drop posts their blessing.
Bicycling profiles 15-year old Maize Wimbush, who recently became the first Black woman to win a US national championship, after taking the title in the 15 to 16-year old junior women’s road race. As usual, read it on Yahoo if the magazine blocks you.
Finally…
If you’re riding your bike under the influence while carrying meth and weed, put some damn lights on it and don’t ride salmon. Or if you’re riding with meth and suboxone, maybe don’t carry a rifle in plain sight with a hatchet shoved down your pants.
And not many people can solve a Rubic’s Cube while riding a bike. Let alone in under 15 seconds.
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Be safe, and stay healthy. And get vaccinated, already.
Oh, and fuck Putin, too.
Re schooling the cop…the law was a bit more complex and of course no one bother to look the law up and read it. Typical. the cop was right (unless the riders were under 3 mph..looks like it was daylight hrs from the video..after 10 am?)
§ 16.08.502. Bicycles on Rainbow Harbor Esplanade.
Latest version.
Bicycle riding on the Rainbow Harbor Esplanade is prohibited in excess of three (3) miles per hour between the hours of ten o’clock (10:00) a.m. and ten o’clock (10:00) p.m., except City employees in the performance of their duties.
(ORD-08-0014 § 31, 2008)
Adds a new twist to the story, doesn’t it?
The International Energy Agency put out a 10 point recommendation to reduce energy use last week. It might be interesting to look into what they are recommending. They definitely recommend more bicycle use.
Isn’t there a way to file suit for failing to complete Sunset? Especially since the Complete Streets law is like 2 or 3 years old now?
hahaha Nope sorry. The govt does what it wants when it wants. No suit options
Apparently not, under California law. The only time the city can be sued for failing to build something is after someone is seriously injured or killed. Which is bound to happen sooner or later.
Metro San Diego making strides with traffic-calming measures and bike lanes in the dtown, Golden Hill, South Park, North Park, Mission Hills, University Heights, Normal Heights, Kensington and Talmadge areas in the last decade. A few, watch-out streets )notably University from Park east to 54th St. but overall, cycling is much better/easier/safer than it was a decade ago in those named areas.
Oops! Forgot about Hillcrest and Banker’s Hill/Balboa Park areas being vastly improved as well.