Let’s start with some quick reminders.
The LA City Council Transportation Committee will meet at City Hall at noon tomorrow.
On the agenda are motions regarding implementing the multimodal Sunset4All Complete Streets plan, as well as installing protected bike lanes on Riverside Drive east of Fletcher Drive, and continuing onto Stadium Way in Elysian Park.
The meeting will also consider the city’s Slow Streets Program, as well as a proposal to put cameras on Metro buses to catch driver’s who illegally park in bus lanes.
Sunset4All urges you to call in to make a public comment in support of the plan, or email your support to CD13 Councilmember Mitch O’Farrell’s office.
And don’t forget the return of CicLAvia to the Heart of LA this Sunday; forecasts call for perfect LA weather.
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Metro’s new K Line — not to be confused with Detroit Tigers great Al Kaline — better known as the long-awaited Crenshaw Line, opens on Friday. The LA County transportation agency will celebrate with free bus, train and bikeshare rides all weekend, from Friday through Sunday.
Which will come in very handy for getting to and from Sunday’s CicLAvia, as well as for anyone who wants to use Metro Bike to explore the route.
Metro is also free today to mark California Clean Air Day.
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Take a three minute mountain bike break with French downhill pro Flo Payet.
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The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.
A British man is using a megaphone to warn other bicyclists about sharp blocks next to a bike lane under a dark bridge, where he was injured in a recent fall; the local government responded that there’s no reason for anyone to ride a bike there — despite the bike lane.
Unbelievable. Violent assault, with and without a deadly weapon, is apparently no big deal in the UK. Because the victim was just, you know, a bicyclist.
Jack Rawlins was given a suspended jail sentence for this assault on a cyclist in Bristol. pic.twitter.com/5r5s3rT5YY
— BBC Bristol (@BBCBristol) October 4, 2022
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Local
After getting four bills they sponsored signed into law this year, Streets For All is looking for volunteers, as well as ideas for transportation and safety legislation that can be introduced in the next legislative session.
The LA County Sheriff’s Department is encouraging students and parents to take part in Walk and Roll to School Day next Wednesday.
The daughter of late TV star Michael Landon is demanding answers, after she says her 24-year old son was killed by a hit-and-run Metro bus driver while walking in a Rancho Palos Verdes bike lane nearly two months ago; the driver has escaped charges after claiming he didn’t know he’d hit anyone.
State
Huntington Beach considered a half million dollar plan to build a bicycle boulevard on Utica Ave at last night’s council meeting; no word yet on how the vote went.
Encinitas says it will probably follow Carlsbad’s lead in cracking down on young ebike riders.
An Oakland bike rider was lucky to escape serious injury when he was sideswiped by a driver who managed to evade police in an hours-long high speed pursuit.
National
This is the cost of traffic violence. A bike-riding woman killed in a collision with the driver of a semi-truck in front of a Portland, Oregon high school was identified as a well-known, award-winning local chef.
So many kindhearted people responded to an Arizona mother’s Facebook post about her daughter’s stolen bicycle that it turned into a DIY bike drive, with over 100 bicycles donated so far.
Arizona’s State Bicycle Company is sponsoring three Arizona State University basketball players with new bicycles, under the NCAA’s new name, image and likeness, aka NIL, rules.
In news that shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone, dashcam video shows speeding Minneapolis drivers using a curb-protected bike lane to pass slower traffic. If the design allows drivers to get into a bike lane, they will. Whether they’re in Minneapolis, Los Angeles, or anywhere else.
Just heartbreaking. A Minneapolis man was driving distracted and high on meth when he ran a stop sign and killed an eight-year old girl riding her bike to the market, as her mother watched from her car.
They get it. A Schenectady NY paper says the decade-long delay in passing Complete Streets legislation in the state can be measured in thousands of needless deaths.
A New York jury awarded a man $1.6 million after he was allowed to test ride a bike in a Walmart Garden Center, and was injured when the brakes failed.
The fading coal-mining town of Confluence PA saved itself from near-certain death by embracing bike tourism, while reinventing and reviving itself as a haven for bike riders.
Police in Pennsylvania are looking for a couple who stole a $13,000 Cannondale Super Six by distracting the staff at a local bike shop, and rolling it out the front door.
The DC city council approved a proposal to allow bike riders to treat stop signs as yields, while also banning right turns on red; the law will take effect in two years if it’s signed.
Police in Fort Lauderdale, Florida are looking for whoever approached a woman from behind as she rode her bicycle, and stabbed her in the back for no apparent reason.
International
Cycling News debates whether you really need a bike computer.
Somehow, a Chicago bikeshare bike ended up in Santa Ana Maya, Mexico, over 2,000 miles from where it should be docked.
Blame bad training. A London cop orders a bicyclist not to ride in the middle of the lane, despite the country’s new Highway Code saying that’s exactly where he should be.
Bicycling says there are more bikes than ever in Afghanistan, but women are forbidden from riding them. As usual, read it on Yahoo if the magazine blocks you.
A Kiwi university lecturer looks to Copenhagen to explain the difference a committed mayor can make in transforming a formerly car-centric city.
Tragic news from New Zealand, as a 70-year old man died of a heart attack while attempting to ride his bike the length of the country to raise funds for an endangered native falcon.
A Chinese bike brand found a way to skirt US and European restrictions on ebike speeds with an over-the-air software update that instantly increased speeds more than 50%.
Competitive Cycling
Cyclist examines why Remco Evenepoel quit soccer to focus on cycling, despite serving as captain of Belgium’s under-16 team; the 22-year old clearly made the right choice, after winning both the Vuelta and the Worlds this year.
Finally…
Meet the bike all the fast cool kids are riding. That feeling when you use Strava to spell out the name of Iranian martyr Mahsa Amini — in Persian.
And evidently, being a former mayK-Lor and current city councilor doesn’t mean a thing to a ebike thief.
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Be safe, and stay healthy. And get vaccinated, already.
Oh, and fuck Putin, too.
