It’s Day 12 of the 8th Annual BikinginLA Holiday Fund Drive!
Let’s all give a sincere thanks to Elizabeth T, Andrew F, Gold Leaf Films, Terence H, Thuan V and Steve F for their generous support to keep all the best bike news coming your way today, and every day.
So don’t wait. Just take a moment right now to donate via PayPal or Zelle.
It’s okay. We’ll wait.
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Interesting idea.
Streets For All says we could have protected bike lanes all around Silver Lake Reservoir.
https://twitter.com/streetsforall/status/1599980036731322368
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If you live or ride in the South Bay, take a few minutes to share your thoughts on remaking this key corridor.
Project connects the last hill before the beach to Dominguez Channel, past Washington ES, Adams MS (both Title 1 schools), South Bay Galleria (bus transit center), El Camino Comm College. This area is difficult to traverse due to heavy traffic & 405 disrupting the street grid pic.twitter.com/llGuZ3O1ho
— Dr Grace Peng (@gspeng) December 5, 2022
In recent years, they have built 3 multi-story parking garages (yellow) in addition to all the surface parking lots (blue). There are no bike lanes, even unprotected painted ones, on streets/roads near the college. @bikinginla pic.twitter.com/RPTQJxK2vn
— Dr Grace Peng (@gspeng) December 6, 2022
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We’re not the only ones raising funds during the holidays, if you have any extra cash lying around.
We're making progress on meeting our EOY fundraising goal, but we still have a ways to go. Please consider making a donation today!https://t.co/W2ZzPDB7jx pic.twitter.com/QYwQoHdN50
— StreetsblogLA (@StreetsblogLA) December 5, 2022
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Wait, you can do that?
Has anyone told officials here in LA?
Folks, Fifth Ave in Manhattan shut down to traffic for the holidays is *such* a sight. pic.twitter.com/GEMpugEoDT
— John Surico (@JohnSurico) December 4, 2022
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After raising over half a million dollars for Chefs Cycle/No Kid Hungry, LA-based former pro Phil Gaimon switches his attention to raising funds for the Sierra Club, even as he deals with his own crushing medical debt stemming from a semi-insured bike crash.
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The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.
No bias here. A far right DC publication complains about the US being eliminated from the World Cup by a “second-rate bicycle country,” describing it as a “meaningless soccer tournament,” while terming the sport “a fundamentally evil and anti-American enterprise.” Well, okay then.
A British driver decides she’d rather run a red light than have an unpleasant conversation with the bike rider she nearly hit.
Sometimes, it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.
A Florida man faces a well-deserved ten years to life after riding his bike three hours to have sex with what he thought was a 14-year old girl, but was actually an undercover cop.
Tragic news from the UK, where an elderly British woman died two weeks after she struck by a bike rider while walking on a pathway in Oxford. Yet another reminder to always slow down and ride carefully around pedestrians, who can be unpredictable, and are the only people more vulnerable than we are out there.
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Local
Streetsblog offers photos from Sunday’s South LA CicLAvia as part of an open thread.
Metro is working with LADOT to build bus priority lanes throughout the city, which can also be used by people on bicycles.
State
A pair of 12 and 13-year old boys suffered life-threatening injuries when they were struck by a driver in San Diego’s Nestor neighborhood Sunday evening; no word on their current condition.
Temecula bike riders are invited to light up their bikes to tour the holiday lights at the city’s lakefront Harveston neighborhood.
A San Francisco professor explains why the city’s Safe Streets program is a critical link in revitalizing tourism, as the city considers whether to continue it.
San Francisco-based Strava has joined the current round of tech industry layoffs, letting go of around 40 employees, or 15% of its staff.
Longtime Bike East Bay advocacy director Dave Campbell is stepping down after 24-years of fighting for safer streets.
Sacramento votes to extend a trio of protected bike lanes, while adding others to the city’s protected bike lane network.
National
A Utah advocacy group makes the case for why Salt Lake City needs to adopt Vision Zero.
An Arizona man is on trial for killing two women back in the ’90s, including a 22-year old woman who was found beheaded a day after leaving for a bike ride.
Colorado is looking to extend its ebike program into low-income communities, and offering organizations nearly a million dollars in grants for plans to provide ebikes to income-qualified workers.
Massachusetts Streetsblog offers advice on how to bike through a Boston winter. Which is just a tad different from our SoCal winters.
Vox tells the story of a mother who refuses to let the world forget her four-year old daughter, who was killed by a van driver as she rode her bike with her father in a DC crosswalk. And through her, the story behind the rising rate of traffic violence. Thanks to Victor Bale for the heads-up.
A Maryland county is undertaking 27 separate bike projects under its Vision Zero program, as deaths continue to rise.
A Florida bike rider was arrested hiding in a tree with a meth pipe after fleeing from a traffic stop.
International
Your next backpack could hide an inflatable airbag designed to protect your head, spine and chest in the event of a crash — as long as you don’t mind wearing something the size of a parachute.
Life is cheap in Toronto, where an inattentive cement truck driver walked without a day behind bars for fatally right-hooking an experienced bike rider.
A British bicyclist has introduced a fully functional water bottle that doubles as a glowing light to illuminate your legs as you pedal after dark; it’s currently available on Kickstarter for the equivalent of around $32, although it’s not clear if it will ship to the US.
After getting clipped by a trailer when a driver pulled back too soon after a passing, a Dutch writer considers what it took to overcome his anxiety and feel comfortable on a bike again.
Streetsblog says the fact that driver’s licenses are so hard to get is just one reason roads are safer in the Netherlands.
A woman in New Zealand was the victim of a strong arm robbery when a bike thief grabbed her around the neck and threw her violently to the ground before riding off on her bike, then abandoning it when the chain came off. Note to self: Loosen your bike chain to help prevent theft.
Finally…
Seriously, who doesn’t need a $2,000 24-karat gold-plated Campy corkscrew? That feeling when you ride your ebike on the notorious Wall of Death.
And when regular bikes just aren’t weird enough.
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Be safe, and stay healthy. And get vaccinated, already.
Oh, and fuck Putin, too.
