Welcome to Bike Week 2022!
Metro is marking Bike Week with a 20% discount on the Metro Shop Bike Collection through the end of the month with coupon code BIKE20 at checkout.
The transit agency is also offering a one-year Bike Hub membership for just $1 on Thursday’s Bike to Work Day with promo code: BIKEMONTH22, as well as free Metro Bike bikeshare rides on Bike to Work Day.
Pro tip: You don’t have to only ride to work just because they’re calling it Bike to Work Day, you can actually ride anywhere for any reason. Or no reason at all.
Metrolink is offering free rides all week if you board with a bicycle.
The LACBC is hosting a 30-mile, family friendly ride this Sunday to reconnect with the LA River, or Paayme Paxaayt as it’s know by the Tongva/Kizh/Gabrielino people who originally inhabited the LA area
UC San Diego wants you to celebrate a healthy, environmentally friendly, cost-saving two-wheeled commute. Thanks to Robert Leone for the heads-up.
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It looks like there will be a Los Angeles Ride of Silence on Wednesday, after all.
Wildwolf Cycling Collective forwarded this announcement of the ride to me over the weekend.
CALLING ALL RIDERS! Wednesday May 18th at 7PM we ride in silence in solidarity with riders around the globe for the annual Ride Of Silence.
We will be riding as a community to HONOR those who have been injured or killed on bikes
To RAISE AWARENESS that we are here
To ask that we all SHARE THE ROAD
Please wear white if you can. We will have some sign making materials. Bring your own sign or a light colored or white blank shirt to print on.
The ride will be led out by the Bicicrofono, we ask that everyone respect the 12mph or slower pace and stay behind the bike trailer.
Following the ride there will be a gathering to connect as a community and release our emotions.
Leaving from 3554 W. First St (corner of 1st and Bimini Pl).
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A coalition of LA advocacy groups, including the LACBC, LA Walks, CicLAvia, and Streets For All, have gotten most of the candidates for mayor of Los Angeles on the record for their stands on transportation issues.
While it focuses on transit, some of the candidates also staked out a position on bicycling and safe, livable streets.
Of the top candidates, Karen Bass seems to take the strongest stand in favor of bikes and livability.
Here’s how Streetsblog’s Joe Linton and summed up her responses.
As she had done in previous forums, frontrunner Karen Bass described herself as a bicyclist while also explaining she preferred beach paths over city streets “because we have not created the infrastructure to make biking convenient and safe.” She pledged to transform all major corridors to be “walkable, bikeable, green, and safe,” including expanding dedicated bus lanes, protected bike lanes, and first- and last-mile access to transit. Bass stressed the importance of prioritizing “accessibility for the most vulnerable members of our community” and ensuring that their voices – often not heard during traditional community engagement efforts – were part of the conversation….
And she spoke to the importance of building coalitions to create more dedicated spaces for buses, bicyclists, and pedestrians while also weighing the impacts on local neighbors and businesses – a position that some will read as potentially giving in to NIMBY sentiments but which is likely meant to speak to the way in which wealthier newcomers’ demands for amenities in gentrifying communities, like in her home base in South L.A., often steamroll the long-standing demands, aspirations, needs, and concerns of the stakeholders of color.
Mike Feuer and Kevin de León also called for more protected bike lanes and alternatives to driving.
However, in all likelihood, the race will come down to a contest between Bass and self-financed billionaire Rick Caruso.
While Caruso focused on his call to significantly increase police staffing — although I haven’t hear him explain how he’ll pay for it yet — he also had some good things to say about active transportation and transit.
I believe the potential for Los Angeles to create the same type of walkability and community is untapped and limitless and with the right planning and determination, we can make the city known for sprawl and the automobile, a truly community driven city where owning a car will no longer be a prerequisite for getting around. I also believe that we must elevate biking and transit options to the same level and truly ensure that all forms of transportation are viable, safe, efficient, and accessible…
If we are truly going to get Angelenos out of their cars and onto mass transit and active transportation we have to build a better, more reliable system that touches every inch of this city.
You can download PDFs of all the candidate responses here, including statements by Craig Greiwe, Gina Viola and Mel Wilson, as well as Joe Buscaino, who dropped out of the race last week while throwing his support to Caruso.
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Heartbreaking news from Austin, Texas, where 25-year old cyclist Moriah “Mo” Wilson was shot and killed while visiting a friend.
A top gravel and mountain biking specialist, Wilson had flown to Texas to prepare for the Gravel Locos race in Hico, where she was favored to win, according to VeloNews.
She had won a number of races already this year, including San Diego’s recent Belgian Waffle Ride, and had recently quit her job with Specialized to race full time.
The Austin Statesman-American reports she died of multiple gunshot wounds in what police say was not a random act; police have identified a person of interest.
The editors of FloBikes offer a remembrance.
Thanks to Gravel Bike California for the heads-up.
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This is what the Beach Life Festival looked like in Redondo Beach this past weekend.
And what other LA venues — including, yes, Dodger Stadium — could look like.
Dodger Stadium take note @bikinginla @awalkerinLA https://t.co/Sy2kc3lAtQ
— Dr Grace Peng (@gspeng) May 15, 2022
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This one’s just too beautiful to pass up.
Happy #bicyclebirthday, Richard Avedon!
In 1958 photographer Richard Avedon did a series of photographs for Life magazine of Marilyn Monroe posing as several early silver screen starlets. Here she is as Lillian Russell.#BOTD pic.twitter.com/QGzu7qS5tf— Cool Bike Art (@CoolBikeArt1) May 15, 2022
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There’s something you won’t see from a car.
On my bike ride this morning, saw a delivery robot lost in the woods pic.twitter.com/ygiH4Gyrl3
— Matthew McCormack (@historymatt) May 15, 2022
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NFL great Tom Brady is one of us, as he takes a bikeshare tour of New York, while casting a critical eye on scofflaw riders.
BEST MORNING EVER. pic.twitter.com/TcqZmLoJaQ
— Tom Brady (@TomBrady) May 14, 2022
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This is who we share the road with.
https://twitter.com/Imposter_Edits/status/1525896971583733762
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The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.
A road raging motorist sucker punched a 60-year old Trinidad, California bike rider after subjecting him to a punishment pass, for the crime of legally riding a bike in the traffic lane.
New York’s bike-hating columnist demands that ebikes be banned from the city, calling them a menace. Just wait until someone tells him about cars.
Good damn question. British bike scribe and historian Carlton Reid asks why so many motorists feel persecuted when in reality, they rule the world.
But sometimes it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.
At last report, police were responding to a man on a bicycle chasing people with a machete in DTLA. Thanks to Meagan Lynch for forwarding the link.
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Local
Super Domestic Coffee, a combination bike shop and coffee shop with locations in Los Angeles and Culver City, will open a third location in Venice.
State
California Streetsblog explains why congestion decreases when cities remove traffic lanes — regardless of what Elon Musk says.
San Diego hospital workers report an anecdotal uptick in ebike injuries, with the typical victim being a tourist under the influence.
Police have arrested a pair of men who robbed the Berkeley High School mountain bike team at gunpoint last month. There’s not a pit in hell deep enough.
National
A new study shows American cities are drowning in parking, which could probably be put to better use.
Wired has tips on how to join the e-cargo bike boom with your kids.
Electrek suggests the US Postal Service should invest in four-wheeled e-cargo bikes instead of gas-guzzling delivery trucks.
A group of Denver-area men sprang into action when they saw someone trying to steal a bicycle, and ended up detaining a man suspected of stealing over 100 bikes.
Kindhearted Omaha firefighters donated around 100 bikes to kids in need for the 10th consecutive year.
Boston area police conclude an ebike rider simply lost control of his bike, rather than being the victim of a hit-and-run, as originally thought — although it’s clear they haven’t bothered to talk with the victim. Never mind that it’s entirely possible that a driver can cause a crash, without actually hitting someone.
Tragic news from Miami, where a man and woman were killed by a hit-and-run driver on the Rickenbacker Causeway between the city and key Biscayne; witnesses said they were riding a pair of “mom and pop” bikes when they were run down in the green bike lane.
International
Cycling Tips says pressure washing your bike may not be the best way to do it, regardless of what Peter Sagan does.
Bikeshare use is plummeting in Cork, Ireland with a drop of over 75% since 2019, even as businesses have reopened post-pandemic. Although it’s likely the pandemic is far from over.
Hundreds of Edinburgh families turned out for the city’s Kidical Mass ride to demand child-friendly bicycling; Swiss families took to the roads to call for kid-friendly roads, too.
No bias here. A Welsh paper says a local town has had to live with chaos, congestion and abuse, with drivers sitting for hours with their heads in their hands — all because it reduced the speed limit to 20 mph. Sure, that’s credible.
What do you do after hosting the British equivalent of the Emmys? Ride your Brompton back home, of course. Thanks again to Megan Lynch.
A local website profiles a Ghanian bikemaker who uses wood to craft his frames.
The ghost bike movement has made it to Singapore, with eight all-white bikes to mark the eight people killed on the city-state’s roads last year.
Competitive Cycling
Sunday’s stage nine of the Giro shook up the standings, as Aussie pro Jai Hindley won a mountaintop sprint to claim the stage, while Simon Yates and Wilco Kelderman rode themselves out of competition; Spain’s Juan Pedro López held onto the pink leader’s jersey by a slim 12-second thread.
It took Hindley 570 days to get back on the podium after finishing second in the 2020 Giro, followed by a year of mental and physical setbacks in 2021.
Former German pro Danilo Hondo got less than a slap on the wrist for his involvement in the Operation Aderlass blood doping ring, with a backdated two and a half year ban that’s already expired, and another five and a half year ban suspended because of his confession and cooperation with authorities. But that means the era of doping is really over now, right?
VeloNews considers how coverage of bike racing can be modernized to make it more engaging, after 50 years of the status quo.
Finally…
Vroom, vroom! Your next ebike could be the two-wheeled equivalent of a Shelby Cobra. Sometimes you just have to ride your bike handsfree so you can play your ukulele and harmonica.
And that feeling when you become your own dog’s domestique.
Although sometimes, riding slow can be just as good.
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Be safe, and stay healthy. And get vaccinated, already.
Oh, and fuck Putin, too.
