Let’s start by catching up with a few items sent into us by Oceanside bike lawyer and newly renewed BikinginLA sponsor Richard Duquette.
While we away last week, Governor Newsom signed Assemblymember Laura Friedman’s Bicycle Omnibus Bill, which addresses four separate bike safety and bike law issues:
- Requires drivers to change lanes to change lanes to pass someone on a bicycle whenever possible;
- Improves access for ebikes by clarifying where they can and can’t be prohibited;
- Clarifies that bikes are allowed to use leading pedestrian intervals and other walk signals;
- Bans mandatory bike licensing laws, though voluntary bike licensing programs are still allowed
Duquette also sends word that Newsom signed SB 1107, which raises the minimum coverage for auto insurance policies once it takes effect in 2025.
- $30,000 injury or death to one person, up from $15,000
- $60,000 injury or death to more than one person, up from $30,000
- $15,000 property damage, up from $5,000
Those amounts increase to $50,000 / $100,000 / $25,000 in 2035
Finally, he sends word that applications to fill Calbike’s vacant Executive Director position are due before midnight on Sunday, October 16th. So if you know someone who would be a good fit, tell ’em to get on it, already.
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A couple more bill signings of note.
Thanks to Gavin Newsom’s signature, it will now be legal to cross the street, after the new law goes into effect on January 1st.
SIGNED INTO LAW: AB 2147 (by @AsmPhilTing) decriminalizes walking across the street – a law created by car companies and heavily enforced against low income folks and people of color. Thank you @GavinNewsom for righting this historical wrong! pic.twitter.com/rDbmGKKuSe
— Streets For All (@streetsforall) October 1, 2022
And active transportation and transit projects will continue to be exempt from environmental review requirements for the foreseeable future.
SIGNED INTO LAW: SB 922 (by @Scott_Wiener) exempts bike, bus, and transit projects from CEQA indefinitely. Thank you @GavinNewsom for your leadership! pic.twitter.com/CtR7DoplCe
— Streets For All (@streetsforall) October 1, 2022
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The Sunset For All compete streets plan is finally getting a hearing at City Hall this Thursday, if only because CD13 Councilmember Mitch O’Farrell is feeling his opponent breathing down his neck in the lead-up to next month’s general election.
But whatever the reason for his Road to Damascus turn to support the much-needed plan, we’ll take it.
This is what Sunset For All had to say in a recent email.
Great News:
Sunset4All is up for consideration at the City Council Transportation Committee thisThursday at Noon! WE NEED YOU TO SUBMIT YOUR SUPPORT TO THE COUNCIL FILE TODAY!
By clicking on the buttons below you will send a message to the city council that Sunset4All should be one of their top priorities. This is an essential step to achieving a Sunset4All! Don’t wait! Send in your public comment TODAY!
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Megan Lynch did a little research, and came up with the date and location for this race, too.
Which just happens to be exactly 129 years ago today.
Start of a bicycle race https://t.co/kY7kvUhIlN pic.twitter.com/nsWt8oLLBf
— Old L.A. Photos (@OldLAPhotos) October 3, 2022
https://twitter.com/may_gun/status/1576802524111073280
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Seriously? No, I can’t.
@bikinginla – can you imagine #lapd or #lasd even noting the error….? https://t.co/PjXjjMSCZ7
— Jon (@joninsocal) October 2, 2022
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That about sums it up.
Innovation makes useful things smaller and smaller. Overconsumption makes things bigger and bigger. Bigger vehicles and larger homes for fewer people is not progress. HT @fietsprofessor for graphic pic.twitter.com/q8Oas7TUDq
— Brent Toderian (@BrentToderian) October 2, 2022
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Don’t mind me.
I’m just going to sit here and stare at this for awhile.
Click on the image if it doesn’t fully load.
Artist: Dorfi (Albert Dorfinant, 1881-1976) pic.twitter.com/UFkwIQZTqv
— Cool Bike Art (@CoolBikeArt1) October 1, 2022
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The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.
A British nurse was lucky to escape serious injury when she was knocked off her bicycle in a drive-by egging, which she suspects was a social media prank.
Someone in France has definitely had enough of drivers parking in bike lanes.
"Cyclists ride over the roof": Vigilante cyclist's graffiti attacks on cars blocking bike lanes and pedestrian crossingshttps://t.co/4g3sZ53vt7 #cycling pic.twitter.com/xQpU53SxhT
— road.cc (@roadcc) September 30, 2022
But sometimes, it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.
A Studio City man suffered a shattered scapula, collapsed lung and three broken ribs when he was attacked with a pipe by a homeless man who was riding a Door Dash bicycle.
An Illinois State University administrator died four days after he was struck by a bicyclist riding on the sidewalk.
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Local
Baldwin Park has broken ground on a new 2.3-mile bike/walk path along Big Dalton Wash and the San Gabriel River.
Not only was Jason Bateman one of us as a kid, he almost ran over Michael Jackson while riding his bike around Universal Studios.
A man is in stable condition after he was shot in the chest while riding his bike on the Los Angeles River bike path near Long Beach Blvd in Long Beach.
State
The Encinitas Advocate looks at the numbers behind Carlsbad’s bicycling state of emergency, with nearly 250 bicycle-involved crashes since 2019, half involving motorists.
Sad news from Fresno County, where a woman in her 50s was killed when the driver of an Acura supercar veered onto the wrong side of the road on a curve, and hit her bicycle head-on.
A San Francisco website looks back on 30 years of Critical Mass, noting that it has never been anti-car, but rather, pro-bicycle.
The UC Davis student newspaper offers advice on how to ride a bike around campus, noting that you’re better off with a secondhand bike because it’s less likely to get stolen.
National
Streetsblog takes a deep dive into roundabouts, explaining that they’re not all the same when it comes to bike safety, with some designs actually increasing the risk to riders.
Forbes talks to “industry experts” to pick the best bicycles for everyone from beginners to pros.
More proof bikes are good for business. Despite fears from business owners that it would kill their businesses, a new protected bike lane on Queens’ Skillman Ave actually resulted in a 12% increase in sales, and a 10% jump in new businesses.
International
Over 100 people lit up downtown Toronto with phones, fairy lights and bike lights to demand better rights and safety for people on bicycles.
Forget corking. Scotland allows leaders of bike buses to control red lights using a military-grade encrypted signal until the last riders have passed.
Three-quarters of Brits don’t expect police to even investigate a stolen bicycle. The sad news is, they’re probably right.
Actor Jared Leto is one of us, taking a purple-haired Parisian bikeshare ride with a woman friend.
A German expat explains how the United Arab Emirates got the bicycling bug, 20 years after he opened a bike shop in Dubai.
A full 44% of Swiss bike riders don’t wear bike helmets, which the country only requires for users of fast ebikes.
The Jerusalem Post says riding a bike with friends or through the desert is the perfect way to contemplate self-improvement in the days leading up to Yom Kippur. It’s also one of the best times to ride a bike in Israel, thanks to nearly empty streets on the holiday.
A Malaysian website offers seven ways bicycling is good for your mental health, including as meditation. I’ve used riding as a moving meditation for years, usually until some jerk in a car pulls me out of it.
Over a thousand Philippine bicyclists turned out in matching purple jerseys to call for a switch to renewable energy.
Competitive Cycling
Spain’s Enric Mas topped Tadej Pogačar to win the Giro dell’Emilia, in a tuneup for the year’s final Monument.
Finally…
Who needs a boat when you can just ride a gigantic water unicycle (thanks to Steven Hallett for the heads-up). Someone tell them you don’t need a massive flatbed tow truck for a single e-scooter.
And we may have to deal with drivers in massive SUVs, but at least we don’t have to cope with mountain goats on steroids.
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Be safe, and stay healthy. And get vaccinated, already.
Oh, and fuck Putin, too.
Too small a hike in insurance totals to help people who get injured in collisions. Two years before it happens the ten more for the next step. I guess it is something. Here rates aren’t bad and insurance per accident, collision, covers a much higher amount. The cost for the first amount of coverage is fairly high while the coverage for the top amount is cheap. So a 3 million dollar policy doesn’t cost much more than a 500 thousand one. And means the people damaged don’t need a go fund me account.