BikinginLA

PeopleForBikes is out with its latest ranking of the bikeability of nearly 1,500 American cities.

And needless to say, Southern California has a long, long way to go.

The national bike advocacy group rates cities according to the quality of each city’s bike network, assigning a Bicycle Network Analysis score, or BNA, on a scale of 0 to 100.

The good news, if you can call it that, is that no US city scored lower than a 2.

Provincetown, Massachusetts and Crested Butte, Colorado ranked #1 and #2 overall, respectively, with BNA scores of 88 and 87.

Although I’m sure many LA residents think riding here is #2. And sadly, PeopleForBikes seems to agree.

In fact, you have to scroll past 820 other American cities to find LA in a 39-way tie for 821st, with a pitiful BNA score of 19.

Which puts us in a class with such bicycling nirvanas as Santa Ana, Las Vegas, Laguna Niguel, Raleigh NC, and Krugerville, Texas.

Which probably wasn’t named after Freddy, even if it should be.

Bike-friendly Sacramento suburb Davis ranked #1 among medium-sized cities with a BNA score of 77, while Minneapolis, Minnesota ranked atop the large city listings with a score of 68.

Here in SoCal, Ventura received a BNA of 32, with San Diego 30, Riverside at 21, and San Bernardino an awful 12.

Among other cities in LA County, relatively bike-friendly Santa Monica scored a respectable 52, Burbank checked in at 29, and Pasadena was a sad 16.

Meanwhile, PeopleForBikes highlights Long Beach’s efforts to build a true 15-minute city, with protected bike lanes on every arterial street, and bikeshare docks in every neighborhood. Although the city still has a long way to go, checking in with a BNA score of 37.

But that’s nearly twice as high as its much larger neighbor to the north.

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Sunset For All is teaming with BikeLA — the former Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition — to host an ice cream social starting at 3 pm on July 8th, with a bike ride to follow at 4 pm.

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Outside+ is on sale for $1.99 a month for the next year, including the Outside digital network and the new Velo site. No guarantee what happens to your rate after that, however.

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The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on rolling.

No bias here. A San Diego TV station gets the story backwards in a report on the growing memorial to 15-year old Brodee Champlain-Kingman, who died last weekend after a collision in Encinitas; the station warns about the dangers of ebikes, but neglects to consider the risks posed by people in the big, dangerous machines.

No bias here, either. A Maine letter writer opposes plans for a rail-to-trail conversion, bizarrely arguing that “active transportation” is a vague term at best, and that a trail is likely to be too crowded on weekends.

But sometimes, it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.

Police in New York are looking for an ebike rider who punched a 72-year old Manhattan man in the face after the victim told him to get off the sidewalk.

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Local 

New stories from Urbanize and Streetsblog examine Monday’s opening of the Venice Blvd Safety and Mobility Project, which upgrades 2.5 miles of existing bike lanes and adds 2.1 miles of dedicated busways, while leaving a few notable gaps. Correction: Originally I had written that the project added four miles of protected bike lanes, and 2.5 miles of bus lanes, which was a misstatement. Thanks to Joe Linton for the correction.

 

State

OC Parks will host an intermediate-level bike ride exploring the newest trails in the recently opened Saddleback Wilderness on July 9th.

The Goleta city council approved plans to use eminent domain to acquire the land for a planned multiuse path, as negotiations continue with landowners to buy the necessary easements.

Montecito bike shop Mad Dogs & Englishmen raised funds to donate 75 bicycles to underprivileged kids, after the bicycle they gave to British Prince Archie sparked an unexpected backlash.

A Bay Area TV station discusses how people taking part in the recent AIDS/LifeCycle ride bonded on the 450-mile, seven-day ride from San Francisco to Los Angeles.

Streetsblog says a new physically separated bike lane on the extreme western end of Alameda Island is the first in the Bay Area to get bike lanes right, using a European model.

 

National

An ebike-maker lists ten tips to help you ride your ebike safely. All of which apply to regular bikes, as well. And most of which you probably already know.

A writer for Cycling Weekly says yes, your kid should ride an ebike, saying the right setup can bring joy to your family.

Teams of women participating in the Pedal the Pacific bike rides down the Pacific Coast have raised over $860,000 to fight human trafficking.

The family of a Texas bike rider have filed suit after he was killed by material falling from a construction project while riding in winds up to 40 mph this past March.

Bicycling examines plans to build an advisory lane in Kalamazoo, Michigan, referring to it as an edge lane, which creates a single traffic lane in the center of the street while allowing drivers to move into the bike lanes on either side to pass another vehicle. Read it on AOL if the magazine blocks you. 

New York has cleared the final federal hurdle preventing congestion pricing; the city is now expected to begin charging drivers to enter midtown Manhattan sometime next year. Which should clear the way for Los Angeles to institute its much discussed congestion pricing plan, as well.

Art-pop musician Anohni is one of us, as the 51-year old singer with an eight-octave range rode her bike to talk with a reporter from the New York Times.

Savannah, Georgia multi-disciplined visual artist, jazz vocalist and bassist, full-time professor and elite cyclist Maggie Evans is making a comeback after she was nearly killed last year when a pickup driver slammed into her on a training ride at 64 mph.

 

International

Now you, too, can have your very own solar powered mini-travel trailer designed to be pulled by an ebike, for less than seven grand.

Hundreds of naked and partially clad bike riders rode through the streets of Guadalajara, Mexico to raise awareness of bike safety in the city’s edition of the World Naked Bike Ride.

Saskatoon, Saskatchewan is practicing Vision Zero in reverse, cancelling plans to improve safety at the intersection where a bike-riding woman was killed by the driver of a cement truck nearly a decade ago.

A bike rider in the UK was lucky to escape without serious injuries when he was robbed at knife point and beaten by a passenger who got out of a passing car to attack him.

Britain’s Parliament will once again consider whether bike riders should be required to wear a helmet, after a Member of Parliament from Rugby introduced the latest attempt.

A new Australian report lists 50 distinct contributory factors leading to bike riders being struck by drivers, along with another 50 leading to near misses; the leading factors are drivers pulling out in front of bicyclists, driver non-compliance with road rules, and drivers failing to give way. Note the key word with all of those is “drivers,” not bicyclists. 

Aussie researchers will examine the prevalence and impact of structural damage in carbon fiber bicycles currently in use by the general public.

 

Competitive Cycling

Cyclist talks with James Gay-Rees, producer of the Netflix eight-episode docuseries Tour de France: Unchained.

WaPo asks the burning question of whether Tadej Pogacar can win the Tour de France after training for the race in his kitchen, a result of breaking his hand in the Liege-Bastogne-Liege race.

Five-time Tour de France winner Miguel Induráin says people who think time trials are boring should find another sport to watch.

Australian GQ considers the biggest scandals in Tour de France history, including a certain ex-seven time doper winner who seems to think trans cyclist are cheating.

 

Finally…

That feeling when your new ebike has a built-in chatbot for no discernible reason. If you can’t steal a bike from your own family, who can you steal from?

And who really needs bike wheels, anyway?

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Be safe, and stay healthy. And get vaccinated, already.

Oh, and fuck Putin.