Just 8 days until Los Angeles fails to meet its Vision Zero pledge to eliminate traffic deaths by 2025, a decade of failure in which deaths have continued to climb.
Yet no city official has mentioned the impending deadline, or the city’s failure to meet it.
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It’s Last Day of the 10th Annual BikinginLA Holiday Fund Drive!
Thanks to William C, Steven F, Lorena C, Justin C and Joel F for their generous support to keep SoCal’s best source for bike news and advocacy coming your way every day!
Seriously, it’s too late to wait! So give now!
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This will be my last regularly scheduled news update this year, as I prepare to embark on my annual post-Christmas mental, physical and emotional breakdown, if I can just make it through tomorrow.
We’ll be back bright and early on January 2nd to catch up on anything important we may have missed over the next week.
And I’ll be around in case any breaking news needs your attention.
So please accept my best wishes for the holidays, however and whatever you celebrate. And may you and yours have a very healthy, happy and prosperous year to come.
Just remember to be careful out there, whether you’re riding, driving or walking. Because I don’t want to write about you or anyone else, unless maybe you interrupt your ride to rescue kittens from a burning building or something.
And a special thank you to everyone who has donated to this year’s fund drive. I can’t begin to tell you just how grateful I am.
Let’s just hope next year isn’t quite as challenging as this one has been.
Speaking of donations, any contributions to CicLAvia will be doubled through the end of the year.
Did you know that CicLAvia is a nonprofit organization, not a city department? We rely on your support to continue bringing our events.
Contributions to CicLAvia comes with our thanks and special gifts! Donations are DOUBLED until 12/31. https://t.co/RtZU1dWVLU#CicLAvia pic.twitter.com/uyB1Tub9b4
— CicLAvia (@CicLAvia) December 24, 2024
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No bias here.
A Georgia cop stopped a 13-year old boy and his 19-year old brother for the heinous crime of riding a bicycle on the sidewalk — without first identifying himself as a cop.
Then he tackled the boy when he got off his bike, telling him to put his hands behind his back. And ended up threatening to tase the kid after he got scared and ran into his garage, while his brother called for their mom.
Yet the local police department insists the cop didn’t do anything wrong, although they did decide they need to rewrite the policy to require officers to identify themselves at the beginning of an encounter.
Gee, ya think?
And maybe teach their cops how not to escalate a situation that begins with a very minor traffic infraction committed by a little kid.
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‘Tis the season.
A Brawley, California restaurant held its annual bike giveaway, handing out 159 bicycles to kids in the Imperial Valley.
A Colorado Springs, Colorado bike shop distributed over 1,000 refurbished bikes to area kids.
New Orleans rapper Rob49 hosted a bicycle giveaway in the Big Easy, passing out hundreds of bikes to the city’s kids.
A Louisiana trash company donated 30 refurbished bicycles to kids in the state’s St. Charles Parish.
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The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.
Seriously? Florida ruined a popular bike route by putting rumble strips in in the bike lane running along a busy stretch of the coast highway.
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Local
LA Metro will offer free rides all day today and New Years Eve on a buses and trains; the Metro Bike bikeshare will also be free from today through January 1st by using the code 010125.
State
Calbike considers the best and worst of 2024, from legislative wins to removal of the MOVE Culver City bike lanes. Although they criticized the short rollout time for the state ebike voucher program, without mentioning the botched launch itself.
Chula Vista’s popular Sweetwater Bicycle Path & Promenade will close down after the first of the year for construction work on the nearby Gaylord Pacific Resort and Convention Center, with a planned February reopening.
Palo Alto is the latest California city to adopt Vision Zero, committing to eliminating traffic deaths within ten years. Let’s just hope they have better luck than some other CA cities I could name — and by “luck” I mean commit the money and resources necessary to actually improve safety, rather than just shove the plan on a shelf and forget about it.
A San Francisco website gives the city a mixed report card for long-promised improvements on a half-dozen corridors, ranging from work-in-progress to not doing a damn thing, as the city, like Los Angeles, completes a decade of Vision Zero with no reduction in traffic deaths.
National
Road Bike Rider considers whether it’s really safer to take the lane, if it means drivers are more likely to get pissed off at you.
Streetsblog recommends three driving turn restrictions that cities really should implement now, from the ever-popular no right on red to banning slip lanes in urban areas.
Outdoor Life recommends the best trail-tested mountain bike shoes, just in time to buy for yourself if you don’t get them for the holidays.
Hundreds of bicyclists turn out each week for a regular Wednesday ride through downtown Las Vegas.
The director of the Iowa Bicycle Coalition is on a mission to ban distracted driving in the state, while making it a world bicycling capital. Seriously, that shouldn’t be legal anywhere. Period.
International
Pink Bike considers whether ceramic coating can protect your bike from the worst a Scottish winter can throw at it.
No bias here, either. A British petition calls for halting a children’s bike park, claiming it would lead to anti-social behaviour, parking issues, and the “disturbance of a tranquil area.”
Your next e-cargo bike could be a double-decker Japanese e-trike.
Competitive Cycling
American ultracyclist Lael Wilcox is taking on the Yukon as her next challenge after shaving more than two weeks off the women’s record for riding around the world, accepting an offer to compete in the 1,000-mile Iditarod Trail Invitational.
Finally…
Yes, you can carry almost anything on a bicycle — including your family Christmas tree. When you’re carrying meth and ‘shrooms and a loaded gun you can’t legally own, while riding one bike and ghost riding another, put some damn lights on them, already.
And that feeling when a viral video of working on your laptop while riding your bike becomes a meme, followed by a movement.
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Be safe, and stay healthy. And get vaccinated, already.
Oh, and fuck Putin.
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