BikinginLA

Just 200 days left until Los Angeles fails to meet its Vision Zero pledge to eliminate traffic deaths by 2025.

Stop what you’re doing and sign this petition demanding Mayor Bass hold a public meeting to listen to the dangers we all face on the city’s mean streets.

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

We finally made it up to 1,204 signatures! I’ll send this to the mayor’s office on Monday, so there’s still time to sign it!

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Please forgive the recent unexcused absences, caused by my site crashing one night, and me the other, as caring for my wife’s and my unrelated injuries is still taking a toll on me. 

The good news is, my ribs are almost healed, and I’m getting PT for my back. The bad news, my shoulder is screwed. I’ll find out just how bad, and what that means going forward, next week. 

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San Pedro residents — and CD15 Councilmember Tim McOsker — got out the torches and pitchforks for Caltrans, and the state transportation agency’s efforts to build a much-needed Complete Street on Western Ave.

The project, scheduled to get underway in 2026, is slated to included bus lanes and bike lanes, as well as other traffic safety and streetscape improvements.

After all, who cares about saving lives and increasing livability on Western Ave if it inconveniences some people even a little bit?

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A Redondo Beach man faces charges for assaulting a group pf teenage ebike riders, after claiming they assaulted him first.

However, prosecutors say video evidence contradicts his comments, while also showing his girlfriend took a mighty swing at them with her purse.

Never mind that the “ebikes” in the photo accompanying the story are actually electric motorbikes.

Sort of like in the picture below.

L: This is an e-bike. R: This is what lazy media, anti-cycling activists, and uninformed policy-makers are calling “e-bikes”. They’re not. They’re electric motorcycles. Not even close. Lack of clarity on this basic distinction is really fucking things up for getting good policy. https://t.co/SktmCOr7Le pic.twitter.com/JNohsUA5Yr

— Martyn Schmoll (@martynschmoll) June 12, 2024

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The state Assembly has voted to proclaim this month California Mountain Biking Month.

The bipartisan and bicameral ACR 152 now moves on to the state Senate for final approval, then onto the governor’s desk for his signature. And while Newsom has been hard to predict when it comes to bike bills, there shouldn’t be any reason why he’d say no to this one.

In the meantime, you’ll find mountain biking events throughout the state at the California Mountain Biking Coalition website.

So get out there and shred a few trails for me.

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Congratulations to San Diego bike advocates for successfully pressuring the city to add funding to fix the “Fatal 15” worst intersections.

Big win tonight for safe streets and saving lives.

It's a validation of our team's efforts this past year, and of our advocacy strategy.

We identify a problem, and remind the public over and over again who can solve it, through press & more. That's what we did, and it worked. https://t.co/rczmywmPIq

— Colin Parent (@ColinParent) June 12, 2024

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Active SGV is hosting an easy 17-mile ride tomorrow to explore the Emerald Necklace & Whittier Narrows.

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Sad news from San Francisco, where a 70-year old man died earlier this week after getting doored on his bike last month.

We were heartbroken to hear that a 70-year-old man died last night from injuries resulting from being doored while riding his bike on May 30 in the Bayview, on Fairfax St near Newhall. Though his identity is not yet known, our hearts are with his family and friends today.

— SF Bicycle Coalition (@sfbike) June 12, 2024

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Think you’re fast? Brazil’s Evandro Portela set a new assisted cycling record of 124 mph for riding on a public road behind a pace car

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It’s now 176 days since the California ebike incentive program’s latest failure to launch, which was promised no later than fall 2023. And three full years 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.

Twice in the past week, road raging drivers have endangered riders taking part in Portland’s annual Bike Summer, aka Pedalpalooza, by speeding through group rides.

No bias here. Washington and Oregon GOP legislators suggest charging tolls to bicyclists on a new Interstate Bridge Replacement project, or banning bikes from the new span entirely, arguing that the project is too focused on non-drivers. Because evidently, only cars should have a right to cross it, and everyone else should just stay on their own damn side.

No bias here, either. After a local British politician tried to explain why getting more people on bicycles is a win for everyone, he had to turn off the comments within minutes to halt the bikelash.

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

A British woman has been sentenced to a very lenient eight months behind bars for plowing into a 64-year old woman, causing catastrophic injuries, after “flying” around a blind corner on her brakeless bicycle while riding drunk and highly impaired, with a bag of dog food in one hand and a broken wrist on the other — and was somehow still on the street despite a whopping 137 prior offenses.

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Local 

In a hard-hitting piece, Streetsblog’s Joe Linton argues that cities have no problem blocking off streets for rich residents, so “they shouldn’t be shy about using diverters/closures for prioritizing the safety and convenience of people getting around on foot and on bike.”

After four years of talking about it, Los Angeles finally decides to do something about having someone other than armed cops enforce traffic laws — study it. Which is what the city seems to do best; acting on those studies, not so much.

Metro will host an actual in-person meeting on Thursday to discuss active transportation proposals surrounding the LAX/Aviation Station Area on the C Line, nee Green Line.

Burbank is upgrading a mile of bike lanes along Front Street, to connect to the new Downtown Burbank Metrolink Station.

Long Beach Watchdog says the early support for a bike lane along PCH in the city is leaning towards the $47 million raised bike lane option. Which would be the first one I’m aware of in the Los Angeles area. 

E-scooters could return to Long Beach bike paths for the first time in being banned six years ago. Which is likely the trajectory we’ll see with the current ebike bans. 

 

State

Carlsbad State Assemblymember Tasha Boerner’s bill to regulate unlicensed ebike riders over the age of 12 is moving forward in the state legislature.

Cycling Weekly visits Strava’s ‘gothic leisure center’ headquarters in San Francisco.

The Bay Area’s Mt. Diablo is getting 22 new bicycle turnouts allowing bike riders to avoid drivers on blind curves, adding to the 17 already built, with another 28 still to come.

A Sacramento driver faces DUI and drug possession charges for allegedly killing a 36-year old bike rider while driving stoned.

Sad news from Stanislaus County, where an 11-year old boy was killed when he reportedly turned directly in front of an oncoming car.

 

National

Outside rates the best skid lids for road, gravel and mountain biking.

Politico says if you’re in the market for a new bike, you’d better act fast before Biden’s new China tariffs kick in.

A Portland photographer captures the city’s vibrant bike scene. Meanwhile, Portland bike riders will have to keep their pants on for another year, after organizers canceled this year’s ride.

Just hours after announcing an expanded schedule for Seattle’s carfree Bicycle Weekend program, it was pared back on orders from the Mayor’s office.

The New York City comptroller may team with other stakeholders to file suit to fight the governor’s attempt to block the congestion pricing plan that was supposed to go into effect at the end of the month.

This is the cost of traffic violence. Longtime DC-area bicycle and LGBTQ+ activist Scott Binde was killed when he was struck by a driver while riding his bike near Frederick MD; he was 64. Note to Alexandria Times — There’s a good chance there may have been a driver in that Toyota 4Runner that ran him down. 

 

International

Momentum celebrates the beauty and utility of upright bikes.

Electrek highlights the best finds from the recent Micromobility Europe 2024, including a hydrogen-powered ebike.

Bike Index co-founder Bryan Hance has tracked many of the West Coast’s high-end stolen bikes to a bicycle theft pipeline leading directly to one man in Jalisco, Mexico.

Vancouver custom bikemaker Paul Brodie displays some of his unique new designs in a show that’s part bike show and part art gallery.

London’s war on cars is heating up, as the city’s mayor vows to ticket one million speeding drivers by the end of the year, interfering with their God-given right to go “zoom zoom” to their hearts content, speed laws be damned.

No surprise here, as the wife of a US spy who fled the UK under diplomatic cover after the wrong-way, hit-and-run death of a 19-year old London motorcyclist failed to show up for a four-day inquest into his death; she has refused to return to the country, despite receiving an eight-month suspended sentence in exchange for pleading guilty over video.

A British police inquest can’t figure out whether a driver’s failure to look, or the victim’s lack of a helmet and hi-viz are to blame for an “unavoidable” collision that killed a popular bike club member. Although it sounds like they think that unavoidable crash could have been avoided.

A Singapore ebike delivery rider was spotted riding without the required helmet and license number, and with a sticker reading “Fuck LTA,” an abbreviation for the island city/state’s Land Transit Authority — which could allow other road users to file a police report for harassment for “potentially offensive content.”

 

Competitive Cycling

Britain’s Royal Parks Service cancelled a pair of time trials scheduled for London’s Richmond Park next month over fears competitors would break the park’s 20 mph speed limit; this comes after an elderly woman was killed by a speeding bicyclist while crossing a park street.

Jennifer Valente and Chloé Dygert will anchor the US track cycling team at next month’s Paris Olympic Games.

The women’s Tour de France, aka Le Tour de France Femmes, will expand from eight to nine stages next year, with a grand depart in Brittany.

Um, okay. UCI, cycling’s governing body, will try giving out yellow cards to offending riders to improve safety; no action will be taken against recipients now, but riders could face a seven-day suspension after the first of the year. Because that works so well in soccer, evidently.

 

Finally…

When you’re freelancing as a hit man, always ride an ebike. That feeling when you get an Olympic medal, after just 124 years.

And this, sadly, is who we share the road with.

We share the roads with them @bikinginla https://t.co/THnVsOzOHI

— erikgriswold.bsky.social (@erik_griswold) June 13, 2024

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

Oh, and fuck Putin