BikinginLA

Day 260 of LA’s Vision Zero failure to end traffic deaths by 2025. 

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No bias here.

A “women’s sports activist” calls it the “most terrifying two minutes” of her life when volunteers at a women’s bike race objected to being harassed.

It all starts when the woman walked up to people working the race, asking if there are any men competing in the women’s race.

When one man says no, to the best of his knowledge, she asks if the competitors have been “sex tested” to ensure they’re really women.

As if.

One of the volunteers takes offense and holds her hand over the woman’s phone, telling her not to record her. She responds as if she’s somehow being violently assaulted, running away and calling out to another woman for help.

The video ends when a man gets in her face and telling her to “get the fuck out of here.” Which, in all honesty, is probably exactly how I would have responded.

In a second video, she accuses the same man of attacking her with an empty Costco pizza box. If by attacking, she means simply holding it up to block her camera, while she demands to know his name “for the police report.”

She also says that someone stole her signs. Although if that happened, it was after I stopped watching because I just didn’t have the stomach for it.

According to Fox News, though, the incident is being investigated by the local police. Because apparently, they don’t have any real crimes to deal with.

To me, she comes off as a Karen who intentionally instigates the entire incident by harassing people just trying to support a local bike race. And this country is divided enough without creating incidents to elicit your own faux outrage.

Let alone a national news network blowing it out of any rational proportion.

But you can watch it and decide for yourself.

Photo shows cyclists from women’s 2019 Amgen Tour of California — which, to the best of my knowledge, also had no men.

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Streets For All’s virtual happy hour featuring San Francisco’s progressive California State Senator Scott Wiener will take place at 5 pm today.

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In a video demonstrating the benefits of ebike incentive programs, a Boston area couple discuss how that city’s program allowed the husband to ride a recumbent ebike, after being housebound for the past 15 years.

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

No bias here, either. Cupertino is weighing a number of proposals to weaken the city’s Bicycle Pedestrian Commission, to “ensure equal representation on large infrastructure projects between drivers and pedestrians.” Because evidently, all those poor, put-upon drivers just don’t have enough of the roadway as it is, and have to risk their safety every day sharing the road with people walking or on bicycles.

An Illinois bike rider told police a road-raging driver threatened him with a gun, after first honking and yelling at him while following his bike, then crashing into him when the bicyclist stopped at a red light.

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

Police in Toledo, Ohio won’t cite a bike rider for blowing through a crosswalk and crashing into the side of a vehicle, even though he was at fault — because he’s only five years old.

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Local 

A Los Angeles man recalls a “glorious” four-mile bike ride with his young son from his in-laws home in Germany to Basel, Switzerland for coffee, and to attend services in a thousand-year old Anglican Church. I’d call that pretty damned glorious, too. 

The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department issued 34 citations during last week’s bicycle and pedestrian safety operation, along with another 19 tickets for distracted driving. And one arrest for riding a stolen motorcycle.

Rides on the Metro Bike bikeshare system will be free this weekend, from Friday through 3 am Monday, along with all rides on Metro buses, trains and Metro Micro.

 

State

Electrek says Irvine-based Rivian keeps dropping “strange, cryptic teasers” about their sort of super secret ebike program.

Sad news from Merced County, where a 60-year old man was killed while riding his bike in Merced County last week. But at least the 16-year old driver had enough sense to stop and call 911, unlike many much older drivers, although 60 mph seems way too fast for a dirt road.

A dog walker, a jogger and a bicyclist became collateral damage when a Berkeley driver rammed another vehicle and jumped the curb, striking them, then unsuccessfully attempted to carjack a woman with a child.

Palo Alto is weighing options for tunnels for pedestrians and bike riders under the local railroad tracks, or possibly a centerline bike lane on a bridge over the tracks. Even though tunnels tend to get filled with trash, and are significantly safety-challenged, especially for women and particularly at night. And just ask San Francisco bike riders whether center-running bike lanes are a good idea, after they were ripped out on Valencia Street because nearly everyone hated them. 

More sad news, this time from Roseville, where a man in his 60s was killed when he was struck by a driver while riding his bike in a crosswalk near a freeway onramp.

 

National

A writer for Men’s Health sets out to settle once and for all whether mountain or gravel bikes are better for adventure bicycling.

An Evergreen, Colorado bike shop will move into a historic, 77-year old building — but only after they move the building, which was slated for destruction.

More proof that bikes are good for business. A new study shows that bicycling is now one of Iowa’s top 50 industries, generating $1.4 billion in economic impact affecting all 99 counties, with the biggest gains in the service and retail sectors, such as restaurants, bars and bike shops.

Kansas City is proposing a five-to-three lane reduction on a downtown thoroughfare, including angled parking and a buffered bike lane to slow traffic and improve safety for bike riders and pedestrians.

Police in Milwaukee may be close to solving the brutal murder of an 18-year old woman who disappeared after going for a bike ride 46 years ago, after DNA testing pointed a finger at a 22-year old man who committed suicide in 1980; investigators got a search warrant to exhume his grave for DNA samples.

A Massachusetts website recommends trails to ride your bike in the coastal Northshore region above Boston.

Philadelphia is getting a speed cam on a second dangerous street, after seeing significant safety improvement following the installation of speed cameras on another deadly street five years ago. To which Los Angeles responded <crickets>.

Nice guy. A suspected hit-and-run driver faces charges for resisting arrest, after police investigating the crash that killed a 19-year old Pennsylvania man riding a bicycle had to force their way into his home, then carry him out when he refused to cooperate.

Tampa, Florida is hosting a big bike ride on September 20th to mark World Car Free Day. Or as it’s called here in Los Angeles, Saturday.

 

International

At least one person was arrested following the hit-and-run crash that killed a bike-riding London woman when a group of mo-ped riders swarmed the bike lane she was riding in, then fled the scene on foot after crashing into her.

A 40-year old Scottish man was sentenced to six years behind bars for the reckless driving crash that killed a 32-year old man riding a bicycle.

Cycling Electric recommends a long list of the best ebikes available in the UK, most of which you can find here. Although you’ll have to convert the prices to dollars, instead of pounds.

French ultra-distance cyclist Sofiane Sehili remains behind bars in Vladivostok, Russia, and will likely be imprisoned for illegally crossing the border while trying to set a new record for the fastest bicycle crossing of Eurasia.

 

Competitive Cycling

Cycling News calls next year’s resumption of the Philadelphia Cycling Classic a “glimmer of hope for US cycling as top-level race returns to major city,” while four-time US national road champ Freddie Rodriguez says “For cyclists, only the Champs Élysées on the last day of the Tour matches the Philly ambiance.”

Former Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter helped bring the race back, arguing that it will be a “force for unity.”

 

Finally…

Forget the energy bars, you need to be doing broccoli shots, evidently. That feeling when a paper ranks the top 11 bicycling cities in Europe — from six years ago.

And when the new mayor of the bike path is into catnip.

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

Oh, and fuck Putin.