BikinginLA

Yet another survey ranks the best bike cities in the US, with Minneapolis passing Portland for first place.

San Francisco comes in third, with San Jose seventh, both of which will undoubtedly shock many Bay Area bike riders.

In fact, California placed three cities in the top 15, none of which are Los Angeles — or anywhere else in Southern California, for that matter.

San Diego is the highest ranked SoCal city at 27th among major cities, while Los Angeles checks in at a vastly overrated 29th.

Meanwhile, Riverside barely cracks the top 50 at 48th. But at least they made the list.

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A TikTok video appears to show a San Diego man stealing a bicycle by yanking it out of the hands of a woman who lays sprawled on the street, before walking off with it as she cries for help.

https://www.tiktok.com/@onlyonexbox/video/7263896107984407854?embed_source=121355058%2C121351166%2C121331973%2C120811592%2C120810756%3Bnull%3Bembed_blank&refer=embed&referer_url=www.dailymail.co.uk%2Fnews%2Farticle-12385227%2FSan-Diego-bike-victim-help-cries.html&referer_video_id=7263896107984407854

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Frequent contributor David Drexler woke this morning to the painful death throes of a e-scooter being murdered by a battery thief for its metaphorically still-beating heart yesterday morning.

Here’s how he describes it.

At the VEO scooter corner cross from my place, I heard the sit-down scooter chirping for a long time—went to the window and recorded this video.

He used a crowbar to crack open the battery compartment and removed the battery and then pushed the poor thing to the ground.

To me this was like ripping someone’s heart out and then kicking them to the ground.

He had some remorse and picks the scooter back up, but it’s officially dead as he walks off with the battery!

I have been sad all day about this.

That scooter did not deserve to die like that!

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Comedian Trae Crowder rode his bike to record a podcast at a new studio near his home, and can’t figure out how and where to stay safe on the way. 

Which isn’t the least bit funny, really.

Thanks to Megan Lynch for the link. 

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Active SGV is hosting a South El Monte walking tour on Santa Anita Ave this evening to identify ways to improve safety for all road users, including people on foot or bikes.

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

A Novato man has been arrested for the second time in four days, charged with stalking, making threats, hate crime offenses and committing a crime while on bail, which followed an earlier racially charged incident in which he allegedly tried to ram a man riding a bicycle while shouting racial slurs.

A Toronto driver faces charges after he was caught on dashcam intentionally slamming his car into a bike rider following an argument between the two men; fortunately, the victim escaped without life-threatening injuries.

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

A man riding a bicycle frightened motorists by riding alongside bumper-to-bumper traffic on the 101 Freeway in Hollywood last week, but appears to have survived his risky ride.

Police in Philadelphia are investigating a series of sexual assaults committed by a middle-aged, bald man riding a bicycle.

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Local 

People for Mobility Justice is hosting a 14-mile bike ride this Saturday to gather input for quick build projects to improve several South LA corridors for pedestrians, cyclists, scooters and transit users.

The Burbank Leader says the community is mourning the death of professional trumpet player and bicyclist Roy Wiegand, who was killed in Monterey County while on the final leg of a fundraising ride to bring running water to the Navajo Nation.

 

State

Maybe they get it, after all. Caltrans’ carbon reduction strategy says that switching to electric vehicles may be important and necessary, but it is clearly not enough to achieve carbon neutrality, and that Californians will need to drive less.

The Carlsbad Unified School District describes the new ebike education and permitting process required to ride an ebike to a Carlsbad school and park it on campus. Thanks to Oceanside bike lawyer and BikinginLA sponsor Richard Duquette for the heads-up. 

A 27-year old bike rider suffered serious injuries in a collision on Sycamore Canyon Road in Montecito Tuesday morning.

A San Francisco man got his missing bike back five years after it was stolen from his building’s bike storage room, when a new buyer tried to register it with Bike Index, and spotted the stolen bike listing. Which is yet another reminder to register your bike for free with Bike Index before anything happens to it.

 

National

Bike Magazine offers the “ultimate” guide to choosing the right mountain bike, and says you need your local bike shop for more than you think.

A Montana woman is credited with saving a kid’s summer by confronting a bike thief at a gas station, and stealing back the boy’s stolen bicycle.

A Kansas bike club says parts of a Topeka bike path are unsafe due to an encroaching homeless camp. Something bike riders across the country can relate to these days.

This is who we share the road with. A 33-year old Illinois driver faces hit-and-run and DUI charges for fleeing after he struck a light pole, then veered into the opposite lane and killed a 64-year old man riding a bicycle, while driving with a BAC nearly three times the legal limit.

A writer for Streetsblog responds to the New York Times one-sided, fear mongering series attacking ebikes and their teenaged riders with four guidelines for spotting a bad ebike article, starting with blaming ebikes and/or their riders for the drivers that hit them.

Despite the fears of opponents, the installation of a road diet and buffered bike lanes on a Maryland roadway resulted in virtually no change in driving times, while tripling of bicycle traffic and dramatically reducing traffic deaths. Then again, that’s usually how it works.

Heartbreaking news from Virginia, where a 17-year old boy was killed in a police pursuit while riding his bike home from work, when he was struck with a stolen car driven by a teenage carjacker.

 

International

Windsor, Ontario snatched defeat from the jaws of victory, cancelling plans for a temporary bike lane in favor of a redesign of the street that will take ten years longer and cost over 50 times more.

The manager of the Mercedes-Benz Formula One team is one of us, breaking his arm mountain biking on a family vacation.

 

Competitive Cycling

SoCal native Coryn Labecki approvingly describes the course for Sunday’s world championship women’s road race as a crit on steroids.

Italian cyclist Simone Consonni is out of the remainder of the worlds after colliding with an ebike rider on a Glasgow bike path.

Dutch paracyclist Daniel Abraham Gebru won his first world track title, just hours after taking a secret six-hour training ride without even telling his coach.

Sad news from Toledo, Spain, where the mayor declared two days of mourning for 95-year old Federico Bahamontes; Bahamontes, who died Tuesday, was the first Spaniard to win the Tour de France, as well as the first cyclist to win “King of the Mountains” in all three Grand Tours.

 

Finally…

That feeling when the local paper publishes advance notice of your bike safety event two days after it happened. Or when your bike lane is somehow blocked by a hot grill.

And forget ebikes — your next weird-ass, ultra-futuristic bike could run on hydrogen.

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Thanks to Michael W for an unexpected donation to help keep all the best and brightest bike news and advocacy coming your way every day!

Donations of any amount, and for any reason, are always welcome and deeply appreciated.

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

Oh, and fuck Putin