BikinginLA

Just 243 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 mean streets of LA.

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

We’re up to 1,129 signatures, so keep it going! Urge everyone you know to sign the petition, until she meets with us! 

………

More on this month’s Bike Month.

Metro is marking Bike Month with discounts on Metro Bike memberships — including free rides on Bike Anywhere Day May 16th — along with community bike rides throughout the month. But once again, there’s no mention of actually doing anything to encourage bike commuting on what was formerly known as Bike to Work Day. 

Pasadena posted their schedule for Bike Month activities, starting with next week’s National Bike to School Day. Or as Metro calls it, Wednesday.

New York is marking Bike Month with a new “my bike, my city” campaign to encourage bicycling by “women, girls, transgender and gender-expansive” residents.

May is also National Bike Safety Month, which includes motor bikes as well as bicycles.

………

A new short film from The Radavist urges everyone to “shred lightly” through the desert biocrust.

………

It’s now 134 days since the California ebike incentive program’s latest failure to launch, which was promised no later than fall 2023. And 35 months since it was approved by the legislature and signed into law — and counting.

………

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

A Louisiana couple faces attempted murder charges for running down a bike rider with their car, then getting out and brutally assaulting the victim, who suffered significant injuries and severe facial trauma; no word on whether this was a road rage incident or they knew the victim.

No bias here. A Philadelphia man has posted a sign reading “My neighbor is a Karen,” in response to complaints about his 11-year old “bike life” influencer son riding his through the neighborhood popping wheelies and zipping around on the sidewalks.

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

A 24-year old shooting suspect led LAPD officers on a bizarre chase, weaving his bicycle through traffic on the 5 Freeway, before exiting onto surface streets where he tumbled to the ground after being cut off, or possibly struck, with a patrol car.

………

Local 

Pasadena cops will conduct yet another bicycle and pedestrian safety enforcement operation on Friday, ticketing any traffic violations that could put either group at risk, regardless of who commits it. As usual, ride to the letter of the law until you cross the city limits, so you’re not the one who gets written up.

 

State

The South Coast Highway 101 will go carfree for four hours on May 19th, when Encinitas hosts the city’s Cyclovia open streets event.

The City College of San Francisco is going to the mattresses to fight a planned bike lane in hopes of saving a whole 29 parking spaces, along with another nine motorcycle spots. But the city’s transportation agency intends to build it anyway.

Bike East Bay and the Marin County Bicycle Coalition are calling for Bay Area bike riders to turn out to the Bay Conservation and Development Commission board meeting today to save the endangered bike lane on the Richmond-San Raphael Bridge.

A Bay Area TV station profiles Rich City Rides founder and Richmond community advocate Najari Smith.

 

National

CNN lists the best bike accessories, as chosen by “actual cyclists.” Although they don’t clarify what kind of certification process you need to go through to be an actual cyclist, as opposed to someone who just rides a bicycle.

Outside ranks the best road bikes for racing and endurance, selected by a team of experts.

Bike Magazine remembers all the Konas they’ve loved before, as the popular mountain bike maker could be going belly up.

Life is cheap in Las Vegas, where an unlicensed, unregistered and uninsured driver who killed a bike rider last fall could be back out on the streets after just 28 months behind bars, despite the judge saying he “shouldn’t have been on the road” after getting 19 traffic tickets over the past 14 years.

Once again, someone riding a bicycle has been injured in a collision with a cop, this time a Tomball, Texas man in his 70s.

A New Jersey op-ed says proposed legislation requiring even low-speed ebikes to be registered and insured, just like motor vehicles, would unfairly target delivery riders.

Police in Florida arrested an 84-year old hit-and-run driver who fled the scene after killing a 28-year old bike rider. And adding still more evidence to the case against elderly drivers.

 

International

Momentum says you have to see these “stunning and unique bicycle routes” to believe them, ranging from Vietnam’s Ho Chi Minh Trail to Europe’s nearly 1,900-mile Danube Cycle Path; the only one in North America is the The Great Divide Mountain Bike Route through the US and Canada.

A 39-year old Toronto bike rider was killed by the driver of a flatbed truck, in an area where the city has long been sitting on calls for safety improvements.

This is why people keep dying on the streets. Over 25% of Scottish drivers have no idea that driving dangerously around bicyclists could result in losing their licenses, or even prison terms.

No bias here, either. A new protected bike lane in the UK is being attacked by motorists as “an accident waiting to happen for pedestrians” — even though it creates a protective barrier between cars and people walking. Then again, it’s in the same city where a woman was fined for riding her bike on a multi-use path.

GCN takes a tour of Ghent, Belgium, to discover how the city cut motor vehicle use in half in just seven years.

 

Competitive Cycling

NBC looks forward to the Paris Olympics with a page of Olympic cycling history, records and results.

 

Finally…

Evidently, having a bike lock makes you a professional protester. Turn your favorite shoes into clipless bike shoes.

And when a high-end Italian bikemaker shows you just how sexist they really are, believe them.

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin