We’re just two days from Friday’s official kickoff of the Ninth Annual BikinginLA Holiday Fund Drive!
Which is a lot better way to use your hard-earned cash than joining in the mad-dash Black Friday consumerist frenzy when you could be riding your bike.
After donating, of course.
But take a little time to visit your favorite local bike shop for Small Business Saturday, and just buy something, anything, to help ensure they’ll still be here when you need them.
Just be careful out there. Ride defensively, and try to avoid the malls and other shopping meccas over the weekend, when frenzied drivers will be focused on everything but you.
Because I don’t want to have to write about you unless you rescue a kitten from a burning building or something.
We’ll see you back here bright and early Monday morning.
And seriously, have a great Thanksgiving.
Photo: State Assemblymember and Congressional candidate Laura Friedman speaks at the recent die-in at LA City Hall.
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It’s a big loss for traffic safety.
In her time as California Assembly Transportation Committee chair, Laura Friedman has been a champion for safety measures that benefit everyone on our streets, not just people on bikes.
But it was probably predictable, as her campaign to replace Adam Schiff in the US Congress will take her away from Sacramento leading up to next year’s election.
Laura Friedman has been removed from CA Assembly Transportation Committee. Lori Wilson has been added and is the new chair. Wilson strongly opposed AB 645, Friedman’s bill for an automated camera-based speeding ticket pilot program. Wilson was only Democrat to vote no. https://t.co/bDZdTRylbU pic.twitter.com/nIgurjAkNW
— numble (@numble) November 22, 2023
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A little kid should never have to see a ghost bike.
https://twitter.com/BikeBoulderBike/status/1727008409013420276
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REI has marked their highly rated e-cargo bike down 40% off the retail price to $899.39, $100 less than their previous lowest price.
Too bad potential California buyers still can’t use their ebike vouchers to take advantage of it.
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‘Tis the season.
EF Pro Cycling is out with their holiday gift guide for bicyclists.
Strider Bikes is donating 645 balance bikes worth more than $100,000 to benefit kids in local charities near their Rapid City, South Dakota HQ.
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Local
No news is good news, right?
State
Santa Barbara’s on again, off again State Street bike lanes are back on again, as the city re-striped the lanes in yellow paint, just one year after removing “garish” green bike lanes just 20 months after they were installed. Let’s hope these ones last a little longer.
Sad news from Salinas, where someone riding a bicycle was killed when they were struck by one driver, then run over by another; no word on whether either driver will face charges.
A Redwood City writer makes the case that authorities should focus on building bike lanes instead of mandating bike helmet use, or whether a victim was wearing one.
A Rohnert Park man was lucky to escape without life-threatening injuries when he was hit by a commuter train after riding through the warning gates. Yet another reminder to never, ever do that.
National
A new study shows ped-assist ebikes can help seniors and people with disabilities — if they can overcome barriers to riding; meanwhile, Electrek says the two biggest problems with ebikes aren’t even about ebikes, but the risk of theft and the dangers of riding on the streets, instead.
A Utah teen is recovering after a speeding, wrong way driver forced his bike off the road.
Property owners shut down an Idaho bike path, after confusing wording on city maps left it unclear whether or not its a public easement.
No surprise here. NBC News reports Dallas, Texas has the most traffic deaths per capita of any American city. And the primary factor causing fatal crashes is speed.
A Mad City group has given away 10,000th refurbished bicycles, with the latest going to a high school wrestler who was forced to walk five miles to school after his bike was stolen.
Officials in New York cut the ribbon on a new project converting a small street into a bike boulevard, despite an angry protester accusing them of selling out the city.
A Florida judge ruled that Jean Macean is mentally competent to stand trial, despite his “mild intellectual disability,” for the stabbing deaths of a Daytona Beach couple as they rode their bicycles home from the motorcycle Bike Week festivities last year.
International
GCN offers tips on how to choose a gravel bike.
Life is cheap in British Columbia, where a 73-year old Vancouver driver walked with a lousy $1,500 fine for killing a 57-year old man riding a bicycle; he saw the victim enter the intersection from the opposite direction, but decided to make a left turn in front of him, anyway.
A blind lawyer has raised concerns over a Toronto bike lane built on the sidewalk, rather than the street, with no clear tactile difference to indicate its presence, which poses significant risks to pedestrians with limited eyesight.
Czech carmaker Škoda’s We Love Cycling website discusses how to prepare your bike for riding on cobbles.
Some bicyclists in South Africa’s Gauteng province are giving up riding due to rising rates of attacks on bike riders, including one fatal shooting and another rider who who survived after being shot twice; even riding in groups of of eight to twelve riders isn’t enough to deter the robbers.
Finally…
That feeling when turn your ebike into a solar power charging station. Or when a deer makes you duck.
And let’s end things with a pre-holiday smile, as a South Africa boy breaks open his piggy bank to buy a new bike for a gas station worker he befriended.
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Be safe, and stay healthy. And get vaccinated, already.
Oh, and fuck Putin
