It’s Day 6 of the 8th Annual BikinginLA Holiday Fund Drive!
Your support allows me to keep this site going full-time, albeit at far less than full-time wages. And keeps my wife from insisting I go out and get a “real” job.
So take a moment and donate now via PayPal or Zelle to keep SoCal’s best source for bike news and advocacy coming your way every day.
And while we’re at it, let’s thank Stephen T, Lionel M and Sun Y for yesterday’s generous donations on Giving Tuesday.
Seriously, don’t make our intern and chief fundraiser howl. Give now!
………
The Los Angeles City Council approved $5.1 million for Westside transportation projects requested by outgoing Councilmember Mike Bonin, including $1.6 million for construction of the Rose Avenue Pathway and Protected Bike Lane Project.
The council voted to fund the projects over the objections of newly elected Councilmember Traci Park, who asked them to hold off until she takes office in two weeks.
Which could be read as a collective eff you to Parks. A final pat on the back to Bonin. Or simply approving projects that had already been in the pipeline.
Or maybe all of the above.
………
Streetsblog needs your help. And your money.
The nonprofit transportation news site kicked off their annual fund drive, hoping to raise $25,000 by the end of this year.
They currently stand at just 4% of that goal.
………
So how about it, LADOT?
Would be nice to have this at @flyLAXairport @streetsforall @bikinginla @schneider It would be especially good if access came from all sides, grade separated from cars, and could allow me to bike THROUGH LAX without taking a miles long detour to the beach https://t.co/7BW2OyLqLv
— Dr Grace Peng (@gspeng) November 29, 2022
………
Gravel Bike California celebrates an endless gravel summer.
Riding above the ocean in Orange County with Thank Gravel It's Friday's Endless Summer 2.0 Ride@bikinginla @OCbike https://t.co/YvhijielvE
— Gravel Bike California (@GravelBikeCal) November 29, 2022
………
Give the bike rider in your life a little extra warmth this winter.
And yes, I’d be happy to find this under my tree, if anyone has me on their Secret Santa list.
There’s a version for transit fans, too.
………
Stunt-bike master Danny MacAskill’s latest video shows him take on the streets of San Francisco.
And win.
………
The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.
No bias here. Winnipeg bike riders ignored city officials who threatened to fine them for the crime of shoveling snow from bike lanes, after the city failed to do it.
A road raging London, Ontario driver intentionally attempted to run over an 18-year old bike rider when the teen tried to take a photo of the driver’s license plate, after going berserk when the kid rode around his car when he failed to move from a stop sign.
No bias here, either. A Bristol, England city counselor called bike riders the biggest threat to pedestrians, while accusing a local advocacy group of being arrogant and dismissive. Maybe someone should tell him about cars, and the entitled people who drive them.
A sadistic Irish driver recorded himself deliberately ramming a bike rider, apparently just for the hell of it; the victim was lucky to escape with non-life threatening injuries.
https://twitter.com/Curious_Eire/status/1597222384255537152
And Road.cc offers a lengthy list of stupid driver tricks and comments in today’s post.
Sometimes, it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.
An English driver was justifiably outraged at a salmon cyclist riding against traffic on a busy highway after dark, without lights or reflectors. Although if I was out after dark without lights, I suppose I might want to see the cars coming rather than trust that they’d see me.
……..
………
Local
Beverly Press has more on the newly approved plans for protected bike lanes on Fountain Ave through West Hollywood.
Pasadena police are planning a crackdown on traffic violations that endanger bike riders and pedestrians this Friday, along with added patrols to combat DUI driving. So once again, ride to the letter of the law until you cross the city limits, so you’re not the one who gets ticketed.
State
Police in Ojai are looking for witnesses after a boy was struck by hit-and-run driver earlier this month; police somehow say the crash doesn’t appear to be intentional, even though the driver hit the victim a second time as he sped away (scroll down).
San Francisco drivers are ignoring an ostensibly protected bike lane, transforming it into free parking to support their bagel habit.
That’s more like it. San Francisco advocates plan to present a People’s Slow Streets Plan to dramatically transform 100 miles of city streets.
Oakland plans to take advantage of a new state law allowing it to reduce speed limits in major business districts to improve safety.
Tragic news from Rancho Cordova, where police are looking for a 42-year old man who brutally attacked a 60-year old ebike rider with a machete. The victim continued riding roughly 400 feet before he collapsed from his wounds, which police say are not survivable.
National
Bicycling marks yesterday’s Giving Tuesday by calling for donating unloved bicycles to a local bike drive for the holidays. As usual, read it on Yahoo if the magazine blocks you.
This is why people keep dying on our streets. A 70-year old Boulder, Colorado man faces a whole one year behind bars after accepting a plea deal for killing a man riding a bicycle in a left-cross crash last year.
A pair of Chicago writers take an in-depth look at life and death along the city’s most dangerous bike lane.
The Michigan driver who killed two people when she plowed into a group of bike riders participating in a Make-A-Wish fundraising ride was formally arraigned on 15 charges, including 2nd degree murder and DUI.
A Cleveland man was sentenced to a minimum of five years behind bars for the hit-and-run death of a little three-year old girl as she rode her bike last summer; he faces a max of seven and a half years. Which still doesn’t seem like enough.
They get it. A Buffalo NY newspaper says no one should face injury or death just for walking down the street or riding a bicycle.
An NYPD precinct captain defended his officers arrest of a famed New York bike lawyer for the crime of removing an illegal piece of plastic blocking a driver’s license plate from traffic cams and license readers.
Officials in New Jersey backed off promises to include protected bike lanes in a redesign of a major street, presenting a plan that preserved parking spaces instead.
A former US diplomat in Ukraine says his wife and fellow diplomat Sarah Langenkamp loved bicycling, and shouldn’t have had to pay for it with her life after returning to DC.
International
Vancouver plans to rip out a pandemic-era bike lane through a park, and replace the previous traffic lanes and streetside parking before Christmas. Because apparently bike riders don’t celebrate the holidays. Or ride during them, or something.
Former Canadian national champ and current Toronto bike shop owner Eon D’Ornellas was hospitalized with a broken pelvis after he was struck by a driver in Florida.
Copenhagen is responding to citizen complaints by putting more cops on bicycles to patrol bike lanes, after a recent report showed a third of young Danes ride drunk. Although why the story is illustrated with a photo from the Tour de France defies explanation.
More Dutch families are turning to bike banks that provide refurbished bicycles to ensure their kids grow up with bikes in a country where it’s a virtual necessity.
Swedish EV maker Polestar is jumping into the ebike market, becoming just the latest carmaker to assume they can make ebikes better than bikemakers do.
An Indian startup is designing new and better ebikes in an effort to become the two-wheeled Tesla of Hyderabad.
Greenpeace calls for bike-friendly infrastructure in Delhi, in the wake of a rising rate of bicycle fatalities.
An ebike rider in the Philippines was killed when he was sucker punched by a man, who was believed to suffer from mental illness.
Competitive Cycling
Slovenian classics specialist Matej Mohorič plans to take on the legendary Hell of the North after winning this year’s Milan-San Remo.
Finally…
Forget ebikes — your next bike could be hydrogen powered. Your favorite toddler could have his or her very own e-balance bike.
And that feeling when you’re too young to ride to Guatemala to commemorate the 50th anniversary of a priest’s 3,000 mile walk, so you just ride your bike around your home a lot.
………
Be safe, and stay healthy. And get vaccinated, already.
Oh, and fuck Putin, too.
