BikinginLA

The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.

Life is cheap in Hawaii, where a pickup driver walked without a day behind bars for killing a bike-riding man on Christmas Eve three years ago, depriving a family of their husband and father just before the holidays; the 58-year old driver was sentenced to a lousy one year of probation.

They get it. Britain’s Green Party says the ruling Conservative Party’s anti-bicycling rhetoric is putting people on bicycles in danger; the Tories are calling for mandatory liability insurance and license plates for bike riders.

The Chief Scientist for the UK’s Transport Research Laboratory apparently agrees, saying “demonizing cyclists is pointless.”

A caller to a British radio program accuses “arrogant” bike riders of getting out of hand and thinking they rule the road. You mean we don’t?

Sometimes, it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.

Police in New York are looking for an ebike-riding man who has sexually assaulted at least three Manhattan women since May. There’s not a pit in hell deep enough.

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Local

The LA Daily News concurs with yesterday’s story from The Eastsider, which reported the pilot closure of Griffith Park Drive through Griffith Park will be made permanent. KNBC-4 says you won’t be able to drive on it after today, apparently forgetting that it’s already been closed for weeks.

Hermosa Beach police cracked down on ebike riders using ped-assist bikes to exceed the city’s ridiculous 8 mph speed limit on The Strand, where ped-assist bikes are banned. I haven’t even been able to ride that slow on my acoustic roadie, which goes faster that 8 mph even in the lowest gears. And how are people on bikes without speedometers supposed to know how fast they’re going, anyway?

A seventeen-year old kid was critically injured in a collision in Manhattan Beach last Friday, when he allegedly ran a stop sign and clipped a van, then was thrown into the path of an oncoming car. Unfortunately, the story is paywalled, so you may only be able to read the first few paragraphs.

 

State 

The San Diego Bicycle Coalition is calling for people to co-sign a letter to the SANDAG board of directors and city officials demanding safety improvements in the wake of four bike riders killed in the county just last week. Make that five, after a bike rider was killed by a motorcyclist fleeing a state park cop on Monday.

 

National

The Spotify podcast How to Save a Planet considers how to make bicycling cool again. As if it ever wasn’t.

A longtime bike shop owner explains how bike shops can weather the pressures of inflation.

Chicago bike riders are calling for change after a driver was allowed to park in a bike lane for days, receiving numerous tickets, while the failure to tow his car forced riders out into traffic.

An Illinois county will build a new bike trail to honor a fallen bicyclist and county judge, to keep his legacy alive after he was killed by a driver on Father’s Day.

An off-duty Chicago cop faces a pair of felony charges for attacking a 14-year old boy he accused of stealing his son’s bike; he picked out the one kid of Puerto Rican descent to blame, rather than all the white kids he was standing with.

A New York delivery firm has switched to ebikes to make deliveries for retailers like Whole Foods.

Gothamist asks if someone as politically connected as Jersey City’s hit-and-run driving councilwoman can really be held accountable for her crime. It’s not looking good at the moment, as she refuses to relinquish her seat.

A 75-year old Florida driver was arrested for the hit-and-run that left a bike rider with critical injuries; she was driving with a suspended or revoked license.

 

International

Cycling News examines the difference between cheap bike helmets and more expensive models. Other than the obvious impact on your wallet, of course.

A British Columbia website examine’s Vancouver’s secret underground bike economy run by homeless people.

Once again a child has been punctured by his bike handlebars, as an 11-year old boy in the UK had to wait nearly two hours for an ambulance after falling at a skate park, and having one of his handlebars puncture his groin.

She gets it, too. A writer for a Manchester, England paper says giving bike riders a speed limit just takes attention away from the real dangers on our streets.

A new study shows that if everyone bikes like the Danes, it would save an amount of emissions equal to the entire output of the UK.

A writer for Men’s Journal revisits the first three stages of this year’s Tour de France through the Netherlands, a month after the crowds and racers have gone home.

It took a 4,500-mile bike ride for a couple using Strava to draw a 600-mile long bicycle across the face of Europe, accompanied by their dog.

Life is cheap in Singapore, where a 46-year old man got just 12 days for killing a 73-year old man when he crashed his bicycle into him.

 

Competitive Cycling

No surprise here, as a new report shows the air around the Vuelta isn’t always as pristine as they might like.

Nairo Quintana has pulled out of the Vuelta, after allegations of using the banned painkiller tramadol.

Three-time world Madison champ Amy Pieters has been moved to a rehab facility in her native Netherlands; she spent four months in a coma after suffering a massive brain injury in a training crash.

 

Finally…

That feeling when the cops have your stolen bike, but they won’t give it back. Your next e-foldie could be made from flax, or maybe your next bike could be just plain weird.

And Formula 1’s Dutch Grand Prix wants to be more sustainable, and ban cars whenever possible.

Which kind of defeats the whole purpose of a car race.

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Be safe, and stay healthy. And get vaccinated, already.

Oh, and fuck Putin, too.