BikinginLA

Just 22 short days until Los Angeles fails to meet its Vision Zero pledge to eliminate traffic deaths by 2025. 

But not one LA city leader seems to give a damn about it.

Or if they do, they’re not saying anything. 

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It’s Day 11 of the 10th Annual BikinginLA Holiday Fund Drive!

Thanks to Eric L, Andre V, Mary D, Robert K, Kathleen S, Jordan G, Liam W, James B, Robert L and John G for their generous donations over the weekend to keep SoCal’s best bike news and advocacy coming your way every day.

Now it’s your turn.

So don’t wait. Take a moment, and donate now! 

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Good question.

Momentum wants to know why riding a bicycle in the city is turning into a culture war.

It’s hard to ride a bicycle to work on a regular basis, and not turn into a bike advocate. People want to be safe, and riding a bicycle for transportation currently comes with significant risks. But, years ago, even with critical mass movements, the world naked bike ride, and similar political actions, the bicycle vs. car debate had a tone similar to other civic debates. There were wins, there were losses, and a very slow, glacially slow, movement forward.

Something changed. Maybe there have been too many wins of late for some, but the fight for safe cycling infrastructure to protect bicycles is reaching a fever pitch.

There have been attacks on those campaigning for safe cycling. The rhetoric is unbearably predictable. In Montreal, often see as North America’s most European city with a progressive take on cycling and cycling infrastructure, thumbtacks were thrown onto bike lanes to get a rather stark point across.

Then again, these days it seems like everything is turning into a culture war.

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Los Angeles came in at a surprising 14th on a list of the world’s top 100 cities, based on broad definitions of “livability, lovability, and prosperity.”

After a series of recent centennials, including that of the Hollywood Sign and Warner Bros. Studios, L.A.’s focus is now on its “Decade of Sport.” The Memorial Coliseum and the newly built SoFi Stadium will host a slate of global events, from the 2026 FIFA World Cup to the Olympics and Paralympics in 2028, making L.A. the first U.S. city to host the Olympics three times.

The city of storytelling, already ranking #12 in our Lovability index, will only endear itself even more. Cultural investment is equally ambitious. The Hammer Museum reopened with expanded gallery space, while the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures is captivating visitors with film history. The Los Angeles County Museum of Art is reopening its east campus with 110,000 square feet of new gallery space, and the Natural History Museum’s NHM Commons and the Getty’s PST ART series are also contributing to the booming arts scene (and #10 Culture subcategory ranking).

Transportation efficiency is equally prioritized. The new $1.7-billion Regional Connector Transit Project offers direct rail travel across the county, and LAX’s $30-billion overhaul includes a people mover train and the world’s largest car rental facility. An even bolder move is the high-speed rail project Brightline West, connecting L.A. and Las Vegas by 2028.

Although that comment about transportation efficiency may come as a surprise to anyone who spends more time on our streets than on the rails.

Meanwhile, San Francisco came in at two notches higher than Los Angeles at 12th, while San Diego was 44th, and San Jose 62nd.

London topped the list, while New York was the top American city just one notch lower.

Of course, that high ranking probably came before Los Angeles kicked Gotham’s butt twice in two different sports this fall.

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No surprise here, as funding requests for California’s Active Transportation Program far outstripped available funding.

According to Streetsblog, the state received requests for a total of $2.5 billion worth of projects competing for the relatively paltry $85 million in available funds.

That works out to enough state funds on hand for just 3.4% of the requests. A number that seems especially minuscule when compared to the $15.3 billion Caltrans budget, making it equivalent to a lousy rounding error for highway funding.

But at least LA County received its share of funding, with projects in Pomona, Inglewood and Rancho Dominguez totaling $35.6 million.

On the other hand, the Inland Empire counties of Riverside and San Bernardino received exactly nothing.

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A basketball site reminds us that the late, great NBA star Bill Walton was one of us.

“I love my bike. My bike is everything to me. My bike is my gym, my church, and my wheelchair. My bike is everything that I believe in going on in the Biosphere. It’s science, it’s technology, it’s the future, engineering, metallurgy – you name it, it’s right there in my bike. My bike is the most important and valuable thing that I have,” remarked Wallton, per epicrides.

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‘Tis the season.

The San Diego Padres donated 250 bicycles to 3rd grade students at Rosa Parks Elementary School in the City Heights neighborhood.

A Louisiana personal injury attorney gave away hundreds of matching green bicycles to kids in six cities across the state.

Czech carmaker Škoda’s We Love Cycling website lists the “ultimate” holiday gift guide for women bicyclists.

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It’s now 354 days since the California ebike incentive program’s latest failure to launch, which was promised no later than fall 2023. And a full 42 months since it was approved by the legislature and signed into law — and counting.

The program is finally scheduled to launch December 18th, so get your application in.

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

A bike counter shows one of the Toronto bike lanes Ontario premier Doug Ford wants to rip out saw 308 bike riders on Thursday — despite freezing temperatures and snow on the ground. Thanks to Donna Samoyloff for the heads-up. 

A Toronto bike advocate says video of an ambulance driver using one of the city’s bike lanes to get around traffic proves the importance of keeping them, despite the plans of the Ontario provincial leaders

Bicyclists in Bristol, England are being randomly attacked by masked assailants on mopeds who are pushing them off their bicycles, then laughing as they ride off; at least one victim suffered a broken collarbone.

No bias here. A British police commissioner says she’s not anti-bicyclist, just “anti the full-Sky-replica-kit Sunday cyclists who ignore red lights and drive three or four abreast in front of me,” and “don’t contribute in vehicle taxes.” If she’d left it at complaining about riders who ignore red lights, she might have had a point, instead of making it clear she’s just annoyed by riders who inconvenience her personally. 

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Local  

Bike Walk Glendale recommends Option 1 to improve North Brand Blvd, and urges you to contact the city’s councilmembers before tomorrow’s vote.

 

State

Bike riders in San Carlos called for safer streets at a meeting of the San Mateo County Transportation Authority, three weeks after a Stanford data scientist was killed by a driver while riding her bike.

If you were hoping to ride a mountain bike or a ped-assist ebike on Marin County’s Mt. Tamalpais, you may have to make other plans, after a judge extended a temporary injunction preventing the Marin Municipal Water District from opening the gates.

 

National

Electrek recommends the best ebikes at every price point to put under your Christmas tree. Or Chanukah bush. Or whatever.

A banking website offers the reasons you should opt for an ebike over an EV.

Seattle is trying to cut the rise in traffic deaths by teaching bike safety to little kids. Although they could do a lot more just by teaching traffic safety to the people in the big dangerous machines. 

Police in the Las Vegas area reminded drivers to pass safely, three months after bicycling deaths topped last year’s total; cops cited 84 drivers for violating the state’s safe passing law in just three hours on Thursday.

Sixty-seven-year old 1984 Women’s Tour de France champ Marianne Martin, the only American to win the grueling 675-mile race, talked with a Denver TV station about the challenges in recovering from a life-threatening solo bike crash that left her with a collapsed lung, 12 broken ribs, fractured clavicle, broken scapula and road rash, after losing control on a steep descent.

A Pennsylvania newspaper looks back to an internationally known local bicycling champ who won a 1896 six-day bike race on a bike he built himself, then ran a bike shop until he was run by a semi-truck in 1955, when he was 89-years old.

 

International

Cycling Weekly says bicyclists are no longer the cool kids, and the real glory goes to paddle boarders this year.

Momentum lists 20 “under the radar” bicycling routes around the world, from Estonia to Laos; New York’s Empire State Trail is the only US route to make the list.

A British man returned home after completing a nearly 4,000-mile bike tour across Europe, only to have his bike and belongings stolen when he stopped for a bowl of noodles in Brighton.

Irish operatic soprano Claudia Boyle is one of us, saying the cargo bike she bought to avoid congestion taking her kids to school is the best investment she ever made, adding “the chats, giggles and memories on the bike is something you can’t buy.”

A Scottish newspaper takes a two-day, 77-mile ride through the Dolomites to Lake Garda along Italy’s DoGa trail — short for Dolomites and Garda — offering some of the country’s best views.

A Ugandan company has developed a solar-powered ebike conversion kit to address the country’s mobility problem.

 

Competitive Cycling

British Olympic champ Katy Marchant suffered a broken arm when she collided with German cyclist Alessa-Catriona Pröpster at Saturday’s UCI Track Champions League in London, and went over the rail into the stands, injuring four spectators; Pröpster was able to walk away after ten minutes, while Marchant was on the floor for half an hour before she was carried out.

Triple Tour de France champ Tadej Pogačar has joined the UN’s ‘Make a Safety Statement’ campaign, saying he lives “the reality of the danger of cycling in traffic almost every day.” Seriously, don’t we all?

 

Finally…

Anyone who doesn’t believe in Santa, try thousands of them on bicycles. And no, using a bicycle to weight down a body is not among the recommended uses.

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

Oh, and fuck Putin.