Before we get going, remember to clear your schedule for today’s Transportation Committee meeting at 3 pm.
As we discussed yesterday, the LA City Council committee will consider several bike-related issues, including:
- Sunset4All’s efforts to build a 2-way protected bike lane on Sunset Blvd;
- A protected bike lane on Riverside Drive and Stadium Way;
- Encouraging the newly-legal installation of cameras on Metro buses;
- Expanding LADOT’s budget and staffing for the Slow Streets program.
You’ll find the full agenda here, along with a link to listen live online and instructions on how to comment.
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No surprise here.
The Eastsider reports a lawsuit has been filed over the recently approved Complete Streets makeover of Colorado Blvd in Eagle Rock to accommodate the planned NoHo to Pasadena bus rapid transit line.
The complaint says, among other things, that the Metro Board of directors violated the state’s open meeting law by failing to follow proper procedures before holding a public meeting on April 28 by teleconference instead of in person. At that meeting, the transit agency’s board approved the rapid-transit bus line between North Hollywood and Pasadena, which would pass through Eagle Rock.
The lead petitioner also accuses Metro of failing to notify him of the meeting. Because apparently, the transportation agency is required to reach out to every single person in the county who might somehow miss the public meeting notice the rest of us seem somehow seemed to find.
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Oh, nothing.
Just a rush hour race between a bike rider on a foldie and a dinosaur on a monorail.
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The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.
A Toronto driver was caught on video nearly causing a crash after driving several blocks along a curb-protected bike lane.
Caught on CP24 chopper this morning. Adelaide Construction. Car driver thinks the bike lane is a car lane and almost causes accident
byu/iamoutside1 intorontobiking
A British woman says she nearly fell off her bike after a taxi driver ignored No Stopping signs to cut her off pulling into a bike lane.
But sometimes, it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.
If you’re going to ride your bike pulling a freshly burgled safe on a trailer, maybe try to disguise it just a little.
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Local
Caltrans is finally getting around to protecting the bike lanes on the east side of the recently rebuilt Burbank Blvd Bridge. Yet oddly thinks it’s okay to make pedestrians cross ten lanes of traffic, after removing the sidewalk on the north side of the bridge.
Streets For All lists a number of volunteer opportunities to support candidates endorsed by the LA transportation PAC in the last week before Election Day.
State
A new three-quarter million, 3.7-mile protected bike lane will extend along El Camino Real from San Bruno to Burlingame in the Bay Area’s San Mateo County.
National
Treehugger considers how drivers can be allies to people on bikes and other nonmotorized traffic.
Bicycling says bike libraries are growing in popularity, with at least 35 current operating across the US. As usual, read it on Yahoo if the magazine blocks you.
After the overwhelming success of Denver’s ebike rebate program, Colorado will introduce a statewide rebate program based on the city’s. Meanwhile, California’s ebike rebate system still hasn’t gotten its shit together.
In a story that could come from any city, a Houston paper examines the dangers bike riders face from a disconnected bike network, which forces bicyclists into actions that anger drivers for their own safety. And gives motorists permission to take that anger out on them.
Market Watch says South Dakota is the perfect place to use as a home base if you’re planning to ride your bikes all over after you retire. Because you wouldn’t have to, you know, actually live there if you’re always on the road, evidently.
A writer for Streets MN says Minnesota drivers are usually happy to share the road, unless you want to turn left.
More heartbreaking and horrifying details about the Ohio woman who lost a leg when she was attacked by dogs; she fought the dogs off alone for 20 minutes after she was separated from her group and got a flat on her bike, before succumbing to the attack. Sadly, it’s the dogs who are likely to be punished, rather than the owner who let them run loose in the first place.
Momentum says New York’s plan to offer a bounty on drivers blocking bike lanes could be a lifesaver. And help put bike riders’ kids through college.
Heather Graham is one of us, as the actress takes a romantic cruiser bike ride through New York with her boyfriend.
Cycling Weekly revisits the recent Philly Bike Expo, with its focus on diverse bike builders and their bikes.
International
Planetizen goes back to the basics to define bike infrastructure, and how to overcome objections to it.
The Guardian offers tips on buying an ebike, as two-thirds of Brits consider biking to work to cut transportation costs.
It takes a major schmuck to steal a bike from an English park ranger after he stopped to help an injured mountain biker.
The head of British Cycling was forced to step down, three weeks after announcing a misguided greenwashing sponsorship by Shell Oil, as well as advising people not ride a bike during the queen’s funeral, which was later rescinded.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz urged climate activists to be more creative and avoid endangering others after a recent protest delayed first responders from getting to a bike rider stuck under a cement mixer.
They get it. A physician in Nepal says the future belongs to bikes — if we can make it safer and more user-adaptable.
Tokyo police are stepping up their crackdown on scofflaw bicyclists.
Competitive Cycling
The Gravel Cycling Hall of Fame is accepting nominations for their second class of inductees. Which doesn’t mean they’ll accept second-class inductees.
Finally…
Evidently, knighthood is no protection from bike thieves. That feeling when the caste system applies to bikes, too.
And the road to hell may be paved with good intentions, but at least you can ride there (click for the full image).
#BicycleHalloween pic.twitter.com/hCbWXiwvcv
— Cool Bike Art (@CoolBikeArt1) October 31, 2022
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Be safe, and stay healthy. And get vaccinated, already.
Oh, and fuck Putin, too.
What is that on the top tube of the bike in the illustration? I can read the downtube “Satanized”, but not the top tube.
It looks like RCTID to me, or Rose City ‘Til I Die.