BikinginLA

Day 167 of LA’s Vision Zero failure to end traffic deaths by 2025. 

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No bias here.

London’s Sunday Times has apparently dropped its paywall once again so more people can read a passive aggressive post on the reputed Parisian bikelash.

Where, by their telling, people on bicycles in Paris are entitled hipsters who endanger old people, while the humble bicycle itself is seen as “a symbol of aggression, every-man-for-himself and urban chaos.”

Of course it is.

And of course, it’s all part of the proverbial war on cars.

But it is the behaviour of the cyclists themselves and their apparent disdain for the code de la route that appears to be provoking many Parisians.

Many drivers, already resentful at losing precious road space to dedicated cycle lanes, dismiss those on two wheels as bobos, a catch-all term for privileged hipsters. Matters have been worsened by the proliferation of delivery riders, usually under time pressure and often astride heavy electric machines that can go at 30 mph or more.

Never mind that the European Union limits ebikes to just 15.5 mph.

Then there’s this.

Nine out of ten cyclists (88 per cent) admitted to having broken traffic rules in a survey in Paris and nine other French cities last October. Some 75 per cent confessed to riding on pavements, 55 per cent to turning without signalling and the same number to running red lights.

Young riders appeared the most reckless: three quarters said they did not wear helmets or reflective clothing, and a quarter admitted pedalling without lights.

Because as everyone knows, French drivers are the most courteous, respectful and law-abiding motorists on the Continent.

Right?

But at least they get this part right.

But is an unequal battle: cars and other motor vehicles were responsible for the overwhelming majority of the 451 pedestrians and 222 cyclists killed in France last year, according to provisional official figures from the French Road Safety Observatory.

By contrast, three pedestrians were killed by bicycles and six by electric scooters. Though tiny in comparison, this was higher than in previous years.

Although maybe the fact that bicycle and e-scooter ridership has boomed in Paris since the mayor began reconstructing the streets to build a bike and pedestrian friendly 15-minute city.

So an increase in injuries and fatalities is to be expected — especially when electric motorbikes continue to be misidentified as bicycles.

But maybe, with traditional British disdain for their Gallic neighbors, the problem isn’t the bicycles.

It’s that the riders on them are, yes, French.

Perhaps, though, it is not the town planning that is the main problem.

Chantal from Nancy said that the cyclists were just as bad in her home city. “They’re all French,” she said. “The French mentality is that even if something is banned, you still do it and it doesn’t matter.”

Then again, it always helps when you get find someone from France to complain about the French.

Kind of like a self-identified cyclist complaining about bicyclists.

Photo from Pexels. 

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San Diego police were quick to blame the victim after a 54-year old woman suffered serious injuries in a collision while riding an ebike early Saturday afternoon.

Investigators said she left a bike lane too soon while on northbound on Fairmount Ave, where it merges with Montezuma Road, and hit the side mirror of a car in the next lane.

Although another way to look at it is the driver was likely passing closer than the three-foot distance required to pass a bike rider under California law, or they probably wouldn’t have made contact.

Chances are, blame could also be placed on a poorly designed roadway that required her to leave the bike lane in the first place.

Maybe someone from San Diego could tell us more. But at first glance, this one doesn’t seem to pass the smell test.

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There’s justice, finally, for Magnus White.

The 24-year old Ukrainian immigrant who killed the 17-year old rising US Cycling Team member on a Colorado roadway after drinking and staying up all night was sentenced to four years in state prison, after she was convicted of felony vehicular homicide – reckless driving.

Yeva Smilianska will be required to spend at least three years of that sentence behind bars.

She could have been sentenced to anywhere from two to six years — or could have walked with probation.

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There’s a new bike path steering bicyclists around the tennis courts at Griffith Park.

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Who needs a tour bus when you’ve got a bicycle?

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

Embattled New York Mayor Eric Adams panders to Brooklyn voters by vowing to remove three blocks of a protected bike lane after local residents raised safety concerns. Although he may find there are more bike lane supporters than critics in the city.

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Local 

Today is the last day to submit comments on the Draft PCH Master Plan Feasibility Study to improve safety on SoCal’s killer highway.

 

State

A writer for the San Francisco Standard reports on what it was like to be a 44-year old, chubby trans woman taking part in the final AIDS/LifeCycle ride, although organizers announced they will hold two three-day rides next year.

 

National

People For Bikes says the 16-year old federal Bicycle Commuter Benefit is on the chopping block, as House Republicans voted to eliminate the meagre $20 a month tax rebate meant to encourage bike commuting.

Five Colorado bicyclists were injured, and three hospitalized, when they crashed while riding in a group of 12 riders outside of Sterling in the northeastern part of the state on Saturday; the good news is there was no car or driver involved.

 

International

Momentum writes in praise of spandex-free slow bicycling.

Tom’s Guide explains six essential checks to get your bike ready for the summer. They pretty much get it right, although most of us here in SoCal probably started months ago — if we ever stopped.

Los Angeles Lakers forward Rui Hachimura shared photos of his visit to Havana, playing basketball with local kids and riding in one of Cuba’s bicitaxis, aka pedicabs.

A CBC reporter explains that Toronto’s bikeshare system has become a victim of its own success, and is looking to New York’s Citi Bike for solutions to meet its high demand.

People in Montreal and Quebec City are being discouraged from riding their bicycles by garbage bins, semis, cars and other obstacles on bike paths. In other words, kind of like pretty much everywhere else. 

Britain’s Aston Martin teamed with titanium hand-built bikemaker J.Laverackit to create “the most bespoke, advanced and meticulously engineered road bicycle ever made,” employing state-of-the-art design processes and manufacturing techniques more commonly found on Formula 1 cars.

Smithsonian examines how Sweden’s 60-year old Vätternrundan became the biggest recreational ride on the planet, offering 196 miles around the country’s Lake Vättern.

A writer for Travel + Leisure recommends a luxury bicycle tour as the best way to see Romania’s medieval villages, castles and vineyards, as well as the ghosts of its communist past.

That’s more like it. After a Singaporean man was killed in a collision after falling off his bicycle, Malaysian officials took responsibility for the poor condition of the roadway, blaming “crocodile cracking” caused by heavy vehicles, and ordered immediate road repairs.

 

Competitive Cycling

No surprise here. Slovenian star Tadej Pogacar dominated the Critérium du Dauphiné, winning nine of the 21 stages — including the Queen stage — even as rival Jonas Vingegaard put up a fight.

Ouch. Legendary cyclist Eddy Merckx chats with his old rival Roger De Vlaeminck, as the two men trash the current generation of riders, arguing that they don’t race often enough or hard enough, and get dropped too easily.

A 50-year old Iowa math teacher is tacking the 2,745-mile, Canada to Mexico Tour Divide for the second time.

French cyclist Romain Bardet called it a career after 14 years, including two podium finishes in the Tour de France, as the pro peloton showed its respect.

 

Finally…

If you’re going to preach the gospel, it might as well be from a bicycle on a cross-country ride. Who needs a touring bike to ride across the country when you’ve got a BMX?

And when life gives you an attempted murder charge, just go for a bike ride.

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

Oh, and fuck Putin.