BikinginLA

Just 272 days until Los Angeles fails to meet its Vision Zero pledge to eliminate traffic deaths by 2025.

So stop what you’re doing and sign this petition to demand Mayor Bass hold a public meeting to listen to the dangers we all face on the needlessly mean streets of LA.

Then share it — and keep sharing it — with everyone you know, on every platform you can.

We’re now up to 1,031 signatures, so keep it going! Urge everyone you know to sign the petition, until the mayor agrees to meet with us! 

Photo by Artyom Kulakov from Pexels.

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Let’s start with a little personal news. 

My wife fell and broke her shoulder in two places yesterday. She spent last night in the hospital, but she’ll be coming home today with it in a sling because they need to let the swelling go down before they can operate to reset it. 

Which means I’ll be her full time caregiver for the next few days, unless I can somehow talk the corgi into lending a paw. 

Never mind that this was just her second week at her new job, after finally landing her first permanent position since the pandemic. 

But those are the breaks. 

As a result, I doubt I’ll be able to work the rest of this week. So unless there’s breaking news, I’ll see you bright and early on Monday. 

I hope. 

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It’s now 105 days since the California ebike incentive program’s latest failure to launch, which was promised no later than fall 2023. And 34 months since it was approved by the legislature and signed into law — and counting.

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

A Florida man faces charges for getting out of his car and attacking a 72-year old man riding a bicycle — while holding a small dog, no less — after he stopped short to avoid running a red light, and another bike rider crashed into his car; the driver was arrested after calling 911 to report losing his dog in the melee.

Kiwi bike riders are pushing back against the country’s Transportation Minister’s drastic policy shift to place more emphasis on cars and highways, while reducing funding for walking, bicycling and public transport.

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

Police in Brentwood, California are considering asking city leaders to pass an ordinance allowing them to seize the bikes of kids who flaunt traffic laws or ride through stores, after they were unable to find another city with a similar ordinance. Which somehow hasn’t stopped cops from illegally seizing bikes without legal authority.

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Local 

Streetsblog reports Los Angeles has nearly completed work on a new protected bike lane and walkways along Parthenia Place in the working-class Latino community of North Hills, in the San Fernando Valley.

LA TV station Fox-11 enjoys a good laugh over a bicyclist popping a wheelie next to a police chase, apparently unable to distinguish between a bicycle and what looks like a dirt bike, or maybe a throttle-controlled ebike.

 

State

Oceanside bike lawyer and BikinginLA sponsor Richard Duquette forwards news that the bike industry is mulling a response to Encinitas Assemblymember Tasha Boerner’s proposal to license ebike riders who don’t have a driver’s license, with bikemakers coming down on both sides of the issue.

BMX riders are justifiably upset after Visalia demolished a local DIY bike park without warning last week, with no plans for an official replacement.

 

National

It took a couple years, but a Colorado man is finally back on his bike after he was run down by a hit-and-run driver, suffering over 20 broken bones, with his right femur was shattered into 40 pieces. The driver was eventually charged with careless driving and leaving the scene; no word on whether he was convicted or sentenced. Which kinda puts my wife’s broken shoulder in perspective, I guess. 

Life is really cheap in Colorado, where a woman who killed a 13-year old boy riding his bike to school walked without a day behind bars, after she was sentenced to a lousy two years probation and a $1,000 fine, despite admitting she killed an innocent kid while driving carelessly. Which is clearly just no big deal there. Or in most of the country, for that matter.

Seriously? Colorado has an official day just to celebrate ebikes. Meanwhile, California is trying to restrict their use, and can’t even offer a rebate voucher after three years. 

Consider it a National Park Service open streets event, as Yellowstone once again opens to bicycles in advance of opening the gates to motor vehicles.

New York will mark Earth Day with a series of seven signature car-free streets and 46 community-organized locations throughout the city. Meanwhile, in Los Angeles, drivers will just continue doing what they do every other day. 

 

International

Electrek says there’s “nothing new about major automakers and motorcycle companies trying and failing to build and sell electric bicycles,” dating back to “American automotive visionary Lee Iacocca” in the 1990s.

A new study from the Netherlands shows that 75% of all drivers and bike riders use their cellphones on the road.

They get it. A new Swiss study suggests that cities around the world “need to take into account the rapid growth and the serious potential of electric bikes in moving people away from automobile.”

The Japan Times reports helmet use remains low in the country, despite a new law mandating bike helmets, as a report shows that only 14.7% of bike riders killed or injured in crashes were wearing one. Or it could just show that people wearing helmets weren’t the one getting killed or seriously injured.

Velo says the bike lanes in your city probably aren’t good enough, as yet another new study, this time from Australia, shows painted bike lanes aren’t enough to get most people on their bikes.

 

Competitive Cycling

Belgian cyclist Lars Daniels may have a future as a cowboy when he finally hangs up his saddle — bike saddle, that is — after corralling an escaped horse that tried to join the peloton during stage one of Belgium’s Arden Challenge on Saturday.

 

Finally…

That feeling when your kid’s bicycling instructor is a Grammy winning singer-songwriter-businesswoman-dancer-model-actress. Or when a dead rat represents everything you love about bicycling.

And apparently, not even bison are safe from out-of-control drivers.

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

Oh, and fuck Putin