A new US study disproves the widespread belief that only wealthy people ride bicycles, observing that lower income people tend to walk and bike more than wealthier Americans.
After controlling for a number of observed and unobserved factors, we find that individuals in low-income, car-owning households are associated with up to 14% more walking trips and 33% more cycling trips in a week compared to higher-income households, on average.
However, the authors note that higher-income households use active travel significantly more than low-income, car-owning households in urban areas, while the opposite holds for suburban and rural areas.
Their conclusion is that active travel is often driven by necessity and lack of other viable options.
We need to flip that script, and move to where people of all income levels choose active transportation because it’s the most convenient option, not because they don’t a choice.
Photo by cottonbro studios from Pexels.
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Streets For All calls attention to measures being considered by LA council committees tomorrow.
The Transportation Committee will consider the installation of speed tables to minimize speeding, and reimagining the intersection of Ventura Blvd & Woodman Ave to improve safety at its 2 pm meeting.
Meanwhile, the Public Works Committee will meet at 3:30 pm to address sidewalk repairs while preserving street trees, among other matters.
The group offers a toolkit to help you call into the meetings, and submit public comments.
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About damn time.
Note the bike on the escalator in the background, too.
Is this the first @metrolosangeles public art to depict the existence of a bicycle and bicyclist? In Union Station concourse now (Maybe I @JoeLinton missed earlier ones) pic.twitter.com/p2MiVMunhg
— StreetsblogLA (@StreetsblogLA) March 6, 2023
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This is what it looks like when an Aussie bicyclist gets left-hooked by a driver who just keeps going without slowing down.
https://twitter.com/Ravener85/status/1632833785321644032
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The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.
No bias here. The chair of a Brooklyn community board endorsed speeding in school zones, and blamed bike riders for “almost” killing someone every minute. Sure, let’s pretend the streets are littered with the bodies of people who were “almost” hit by someone on a bicycle. As opposed to the ones who were “almost” missed by drivers, but weren’t.
No bias here, either. Myrtle Beach, South Carolina says you have to drive to the damn beach, banning bicycles of any kind all summer, from 10 am to 4 pm.
Or here. A British writer, who somehow seems to think it’s her job to enforce bike laws, says the recent conviction of a woman who pushed an elderly rider off her bike and into traffic, where she was killed, gives scofflaw bicyclists permission to illegally ride on sidewalks. And not that pedestrians should be more accepting of people who aren’t willing or able to ride on dangerous streets.
How to write a headline — and news story — through a strictly windshield perspective.
Bicyclist, who was allegedly not wearing helmet, crashes into 2 cars in Mott Haven https://t.co/Rf8p5xgcpd pic.twitter.com/wF8jXeSvkw
— Eyewitness News (@ABC7NY) March 6, 2023
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Local
Longtime SoCal civic leader Rick Cole writes about how to make Pasadena bike-friendly, instead of the state’s fifth most dangerous city its size for people on bicycles.
State
An East Bay Area letter writer argues that ebikes pose a danger to other trail users, while another says blame bad riders, not the bikes.
A newish bike rider celebrates the monthly East Bay Bike Party, which rolls this Friday; last month’s was marred by car occupants who targeted bike riders with intentional doorings.
National
Axios dumbs down the Biden administration’s push to reconnect communities divided by freeway construction in the 50s, 60s and 70s, usually low-income and predominately populated by people of color.
Bloomberg says don’t buy into the popular theory that Gen Z is turning against driving, arguing that generational preferences aren’t enough to overcome decades of auto-centric development.
Jalopnik explains why automakers are suddenly obsessed with making ebikes. That’s easy — money.
The newest iteration of Trek’s Verve+ ebike tops out at 28 mph. Which means it can only be ridden by someone over 16 and requires a helmet in California, and many other states that have adopted a version of the Golden State’s ebike regulations, and is banned from Class I and Class IV bike paths and cycle tracks.
Hundreds of Honolulu bike riders turned out for an annual memorial ride to remember an 18-year old high school student killed by a drunk driver while riding his bike a decade ago.
The Seattle Times says bike helmet use remains high a year after the county repealed its helmet mandate, with 91% of the bike riders they observed donning a skid lid; the law as repealed due to uneven and inequitable enforcement that too often targeted the homeless and people of color.
That’s more like it. A New Mexico bill would require any town with 10,000 or more residents to install protected bike lanes when making other roadway improvements. Yet we can’t even get Los Angeles leaders to commit to installing the painted bike lanes in the already approved mobility plan during planned street work.
Family members say a 65-year old Houston driver who killed a bike rider — and drove home with the victim’s bike still jammed under his car — was partially paralyzed following a recent stroke, and thought he had a flat tire. Although if someone’s health makes them so dysfunctional they don’t even know they hit a grown man on a bicycle, maybe they shouldn’t be driving.
Security footage shows an unattended ebike battery burst into flames, leading to a fire that destroyed a New York grocery store and damaged adjacent buildings, injuring seven people.
The New York death penalty case agains convicted bike path terrorist Sayfullo Saipov is expected to go to the jury after closing arguments today.
International
Bike Radar writes about how to recover from a bicycling injury. Based on my own experience, the key to any recovery is patience.
Momentum jumps on the anti-sharrow bandwagon, writing that the painted chevron symbols made sense in theory, but are now useless and possibly dangerous in practice. You know my take on sharrows. They’re an effort by transportation officials to thin the bike herd, and the arrows are just there to help drivers improve their aim.
A confused British Columbia driver somehow ends up in a two-way curb-protected bike lane, and can’t figure out how to escape.
Havana, Cuba held a well-attended weekend bicycle festival to highlight the benefits of pedal power, including a “friendly and inclusive” Critical Mass ride.
Life is cheap in the UK, where a van driver walked without a single day behind bars for killing a bike rider in a dangerously close pass, after the judge suspended the already too light four-month sentence.
Great idea. A German marketplace provides an opportunity to buy and sell refurbished “used approved” ebikes, bringing them within the reach of more buyers.
An Aussie website marks tomorrow’s International Women’s Day by examining three women who all ride bikes, but for different reasons.
Competitive Cycling
Former Danish world champ Mads Pedersen donned the leader’s yellow jersey by winning a mad bunch sprint in the second stage of the week-long Paris-Nice stage race.
VeloNews says Tom Pidcock’s breakaway victory in the Strade Bianche was won on the descents, where he never looked back until the very end.
Now you, too, could ride in the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, as USA Cycling is holding a series of track cycling tryouts looking for riders with the potential to compete at the highest levels, particularly athletes from diverse and underrepresented backgrounds.
Finally…
You can find a lot of things riding a bike — but hopefully not a murder victim. Even Bing’s AI chatbot says it’s time to go carfree.
And nothing like running a horse in a bike race.
https://twitter.com/ttpdcst/status/1632015952916148230?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1632015952916148230%7Ctwgr%5E9a7b79d1e4ed6c05d802ca07dd757693dacacc0d%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fdefector.com%2Fwannabe-cyclist-horse-steals-the-show-at-a-spicy-strade-bianche
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Be safe, and stay healthy. And get vaccinated, already.
Oh, and fuck Putin, too.
