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Yesterday I received a heartbreaking email from CyclingTips founder Wade Wallace, expressing his disappointment at what’s happened to the once great publication since it was acquired by Outside.
Like everyone else, I watched in awe from afar seeing person after person resign from CT after the lay-offs. To my knowledge, there are only a couple of employees left in the business now.
It pains me to see what has become of CyclingTips. The team we so carefully and thoughtfully put together is just a shadow of itself now and the new owners have never understood (nor have they asked) what CT’s mission was, what made us different, and why we all get out of bed each morning. On one hand I’m proud of how I deeply embedded those values are into CT’s culture, but when so many key people are taken out at once I have very little reason to believe it will continue.
All that said, there are still hundreds of good and talented people working at Pinkbike, Velonews, Outside Online, etc who I want to see succeed and I wish them all the best.
He goes on to recommend a podcast, temporarily named The Placeholder, from ex-colleagues Caley Fretz, Dave Rome and Dane Cash, available now on Apple and Spotify.
It’s worth a quick click to read Wallace’s whole letter, which he posted on Substack.
It’s sad to see what’s become of a site I’ve long relied on and enjoyed, though. Let’s hope the other ex-staffers take him up on his suggestion to create something new and beautiful out of the ashes.
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CicLAvia will double the number of its open streets events next year, before going monthly in 2024.
https://twitter.com/CicLAvia/status/1599992051524947968
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The Los Angeles City Council will consider a proposal to allow mid-rise development near transit centers at today’s meeting.
We need your help getting our LCI motion over the finish line! Please call in to the L.A. city council at 10 a.m. Wednesday to urge council members to vote YES on affordable car-light communities near transit. LCI is Item 24. Agenda and instructions here: https://t.co/M89DjAYVoj pic.twitter.com/JQLcLWdESE
— Livable Communities Initiative (@LCI_LA) December 6, 2022
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Nice to know Caltrans refuses to change their destructive climate destroying ways, while the world is literally on fire.
Hi @CaltransD4 @CaltransHQ please tell us you’re not seriously trying to build a new highway in 2022? #destructionfornada https://t.co/TxQq1j5fNE
— Streets For All (@streetsforall) December 7, 2022
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San Francisco votes to make its Slow Streets program permanent, as NPR says some pandemic-era Slow Streets across the US will stay that way. Unlike a certain megalopolis to the south.
BREAKING: Slow Streets is a permanent program in SF! This is a major step in our vision for a fully connected, safe bike network in our city, and we're excited to continue working with the SFMTA and other advocates to ensure every neighborhood is able to benefit from it.
— SF Bicycle Coalition (@sfbike) December 7, 2022
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This is who we share the road with.
A Columbian bike rider and a couple motorcyclists were lucky to escape serious injury when a speeding motorcyclist cut onto the shoulder to pass a large truck and slammed into the bicyclist, before careening into another motorcycle rider.
How a split second of madness can have devastating consequences. Be careful out there..
— CycleNotts² (@CycleNott) December 5, 2022
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A new campaign is raising funds to send used bikes to Ukrainian residents affected by Russia’s brutal invasion.
I just donated to Bikes4Ukraine – Used bikes as lifelines for Ukrainians in a warzone.
Buy fewer stocking fillers and secret santa nonsense this year and send your money to people who need it.#crowdfunding @FundRazr @ColvilleAndersn
Donate here: https://t.co/vunUbrtc3l— Ronald Vallenduuk (@vallenduuk_ie) December 6, 2022
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The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.
Bike Portland’s Jonathan Maus refutes a one-sided, fear-mongering story we mentioned here yesterday, in which a hotel manager blamed a bike lane for problems caused by his customers.
Sometimes, it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.
Six ebike-riding men calling themselves the E-Bike Crew from Oxnard were busted as part of a wildlife poaching ring that operated for several years, with the cooperation of a local market.
Jacksonville, Florida sheriff’s deputies are looking for an armed man who robbed a local business before making his escape on a BMX bike. No word on whether he performed stunts as he made his getaway.
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Local
Streetsblog’s Joe Linton offers a number of actionable transportation ideas for incoming CD5 City Councilmember-elect Katy Young Yaroslavsky, who represents a dramatic bike-friendly shift from outgoing pseudo-environmentalist Paul Koretz.
State
The San Diego Union-Tribune frames the question wrong, asking if electric cars will replace the need for public transit, when the real question is whether transit and bikes can replace the need for electric cars. And that answer is yes.
San Diego is looking for people willing to take part in an ebike pilot program; participants will receive a new ebike in exchange for committing to ride it a minimum of 100 miles a month, with priority given people over 18 with an annual income of $50,000 or less.
Finishing our San Diego trifecta, the city approved plans to makeover the car-centric Mira Mesa neighborhood north of the Miramar Marine air base, including lane reductions and bike lanes, as well as pedestrian bridges over busy roadways. I assume nothing’s gotten better since I lived there a few decades ago, when it was a car-choked hellhole.
Make that four. San Diego approved six legal settlements totaling $2.8 million, half of which will go to a man injured when his bike hit a “significant asphalt defect” near the downtown harbor.
There’s a special place in hell for anyone who could run down an 11-year old boy in an Indio crosswalk and flee the scene, leaving him bruised and bleeding in the street. Thanks to Victor Bale for the heads-up.
A San Jose man suffered life-threatening injuries when he was shot on a local bike trail; no word on whether he was riding a bike or why he was shot.
An unnamed San Diego bike designer lost all of his belongings when his U-Haul truck was stolen in Oakland while he was moving to Portland; the loss includes a pair of handmade bikes worth $17,000 each.
Speaking of a special place in hell, a 15-year old Sacramento boy’s bike was stolen by a man who threatened him with what appeared to be a hidden weapon.
National
Walkable City author and planner Jeff Speck offers instructions on how to tame the multilane arterials known as “stroads,” which he describes as the most dangerous roadways in America.
Seattle-based Rad Power’s newest bike is an e-utility trike.
This is why people keep dying on our streets. A Las Vegas woman faces her fourth DUI charge in 15 years after running down two people on a bicycle, sending both to the hospital — yet she hasn’t spend a day behind bars, despite three previous convictions. Just one more example of our criminal justice system and state officials keeping a dangerous driver on the road until it’s too late.
An Oklahoma man has been formally charged with brutally killing and dismembering four men who disappeared after setting out on a bike ride, then dumping their body parts in a local river, allegedly because they stole from him.
New York bike riders are urging the governor to sign the state’s new Safe Streets Act.
They get it. Hoboken, New Jersey is raising the fine for parking in a bike lane to $150. Now they just have to get someone to actually enforce it.
DC is facing a lawsuit alleging that the city’s bike lanes violate the Americans with Disabilities Act. Even though the lack of bike lanes puts disabled bike riders, and wheelchair and mobility device users, at greater risk, forcing the courts to choose between the differing needs of disabled people.
International
Two of London’s most famous — and dangerous — streets have been transformed through the city’s pedestrianization program.
He gets, too. The UK’s transport minister responds to a question from a Member of Parliament by insisting that forcing bike riders to wear helmets would crush bicycle usage. Now if he’d just tell New Jersey that.
A Facebook post asking for help identifying a young British girl injured in a hit-and-run while riding her bike is fake, just one of thousands of nearly identical posts in the UK and US that use photos from two separate incidents in Australia to drum up sympathy.
France will require shared housing complexes, such as apartment buildings, to provide secure bike parking starting with the new year. Although exemptions might render the law moot.
Competitive Cycling
Two-time Tour de France champ Tadej Pogačar insists he won’t be out for revenge next year, despite finishing second to Jonas Vingegaard this year.
A writer for Cyclist calls UCI’s new WorldTour relegation system a death sentence. On the other hand, it would breathe new life into lower tier teams brought forward to the top level.
Four-time Tour de France champ Chris Froome is concerned about the lingering long-term heart and health effects of Covid, which forced him to drop out of this year’s race.
That feeling when a five-time Tour de France stage winner loses a cyclocross race to a 15-year old kid.
LA-based L39ion of Los Angeles announced their 2023 roster, featuring eleven men and seven women, while adding two national champions and one veteran cyclist.
Finally…
You next bike could be truly Kafkaesque. Your next Lamborghini could have two wheels — and pedals.
And that feeling when the stage for your East LA cumbia band is a bike.
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Be safe, and stay healthy. And get vaccinated, already.
Oh, and fuck Putin, too.
There’s a reason why passing on the right is not a good idea, and illegal on the shoulder. F*cking a$$hole motorcyclists run to help their fallen buddies, no one goes to check on cyclist.
In the video it looks like the rider with the camera did go back.
But a dangerous move by the biker.
The ADA and bike lanes.
It looks like DC isn’t following the most recent Federal guidelines for installing parking separated bike lanes. For sideloading vans it would be easy to have a couple of dedicated spaces as in the diagram and have that section of bike lane raised to curb level.