BikinginLA

Day 286 of LA’s Vision Zero failure to end traffic deaths by 2025. 

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It’s happened again.

Police in Lowell, Massachusetts filed charges against a local man for deliberately using his SUV as a weapon to kill another man riding an ebike.

According to The Lowell Sun, the 36-year old suspect was booked after being extradited from Florida for the August crash.

He was allegedly captured on surveillance video swerving his SUV into the 42-year old victim’s bike at a high rate of speed, with no sign of braking. He then drove off, abandoning his vehicle about three minutes later.

Police say he knew the victim, who had texted a woman living with the suspect just minutes before the fatal crash; she also had a bloodied bag the victim was reportedly carrying at the time of the crash.

Adding another twist to the case, a witness reported seeing a gun lying on the ground after the crash, but the weapon was gone when the police arrived.

Just one more reminder that no one needs a gun when you’ve got a motor vehicle. And every driver is at the wheel of multi-ton potential weapon of mass destruction. Fortunately, most people never use their cars that way.

But in the wrong hands, or under the wrong circumstances, they can be.

And too often are.

Image by OpenClipart-Vectors from Pixabay.

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A large group of people joined a British mayor for his annual public bike ride a couple weeks back.

The mayor of Salisbury, England was joined by his wife and several members of the city council for a ride through the city center, highlighting their efforts to promote sustainable and active travel in and around the city.

Which is a reminder that no LA mayor has bothered to host a community bide ride since Richard Riordan back in the ’90s, who was known for leading regular rides to introduce new bicyclists to the city.

And to my knowledge, the last one to even ride with the public was former mayor and current gubernatorial candidate Antonio Villaraigosa at the original CicLAvia 15 years ago.

Our current mayor, Karen Bass, campaigned insisting that she was one of us, and enjoyed riding a bike, though she preferred sticking to paths and trails over fighting it out with drivers on the streets.

But if she still does, I don’t know anyone who has seen her on one since becoming mayor.

Maybe if she did — or even just rode streets instead of trails — she might suddenly grasp the dangers we face out there, just as Villaraigosa did with his Road to Damascus moment.

That was when he was knocked off his bicycle by a cab driver back in 2010, despite being surrounded by police and security personnel, while learning to ride a bike so he could ride with his girlfriend.

That led to LA’s first — and so far only — Bike Summit with city officials, who listened for more than two hours as one person after another told them how desperately we needed change on our streets if bicycling was going to survive in this city.

That let to the almost immediate changes, from bicyclists meeting weekly with the police to advocate for fairer enforcement, to the groundbreaking 2010 bike plan and a short-lived commitment to build a minimum of 80 miles a bike lanes every year.

All of which peaked with former Mayor Eric Garcetti dragging his bigass desk out to Boyle Heights to sign his Vision Zero proclamation. Which, like most of his other visionary proclamations, was never followed up on, as risk-averse city officials watered it all down until the whole damn thing went down the drain.

So maybe if Mayor Bass would ride with us once or twice — or maybe even hold her own bike summit — she might fight a little harder for her self-proclaimed fellow bike riders, rather than just ignoring us.

If not actively fighting against us, as with her ongoing efforts to avoid implementing Measure HLA.

We could hope.

She might even have a shot at regaining our support before next year’s mayoral race, which threatens to turn into a runoff between Rick Caruso and Austin Beutner.

Okay, maybe just a small shot.

But still.

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Thanks to Norm for forwarding a pair of videos

The first punctures the myth of the “Arrogant Cyclist” — the idea that cyclists are selfish, reckless, and entitled — to reveal who’s really acting entitled on our roads.

And it ain’t us.

The second examines a new Dutch-style protected intersection in Montreal, which some local drivers have labelled an “anti-car labyrinth.”

Although, to be honest, I’d be totally down with that.

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

No bias here. Bodycam footage shows a Portland cop blaming the victim of a road rage attack — who happened to be a Licensed Cycling Instructor familiar with the law — for the crime of riding legally in the traffic lane, which apparently enraged a motorist to the point of, yes, using his car as a weapon. Then again, that cop would probably blame a shooting victim for standing in front of the bullet. 

No bias here, either. Reaction to a photo of a woman using hooks to hang her bicycle on the Mumbai Metro drew mixed reactions, ranging from praise to comments that features like that aren’t “meant for a country like India.”

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

An Indian man was beaten to death after he denied borrowing a bicycle from a shopkeeper, leading to political tensions in the West Bengal region since one of the suspects is a member of a local political party.

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Local 

No news is good news, right?

 

State

It was a rough weekend for bike riders in Northern California, with bicyclists suffering serious injuries when they were struck by drivers in Martinez, Fresno and Sacramento County.

Sacramento police have arrested three men on murder charges, three months after a man was reported missing when family members found his bicycle abandoned near a creek trail, not far from from blood stains and spent bullet casings, as officers termed his disappearance “suspicious in nature.” Gee, ya think?

 

National

Thousands of Portlanders turned out in the cold and rain for an emergency edition of the World Naked Bike ride to protest the “militarization” of the city, in the most Portland way possible. Meanwhile, we can’t get even a fraction of that in Los Angeles for a protest ride with their clothes on, let alone off. Which might explain why city leaders ignore us. 

A Wisconsin bike rider asks what can be done about the “goose bombs” in a local park, because he’s tired of getting bird poop on his legs when he rides.

Great idea. Atlanta residents are challenged to get out and explore the city on their bikes this month, with the city’s Biketober Challenge.

 

International

Bike Biz considers whether bikeshare systems help or hurt bike sales, by encouraging more people to ride, or leeching potential customers away.

Who needs track cycling when you can score a tryout for the Canadian bobsled team?

A Scottish curb-level bike path has been branded the worst bike path in the world, because “it zigs and zags all over the place” while pedestrians wander in and out, unaware it’s even there.

Also a great idea. A bicycle advocacy group is hosting more than 40 group rides around the UK to protest the lack of safe bike routes for women, as 58% of women say safety concerns and a lack of suitable infrastructure has limited their ability to ride their bikes.

This is how to stop traffic violence. A driver in the Netherlands was arrested after a crash that killed a 23-year old man riding a bicycle, standard procedure following a deadly traffic collision in the country.

Australia’s shadow foreign affairs minister is one of us, after the high-ranking official with the opposition Liberal Party broke her leg while riding bikes with her husband.

 

Competitive Cycling

Tadej Pogačar capped his dominance of the cycling world by winning Il Lombardia for the fifth time in a row, tying the legendary Fausto Coppi’s record wins for the year’s final Monument, while becoming the first man since Eddy Merckx a full 50 years ago to win three Monuments, the Tour de France and a world title in a single season.

A Belgian cycling commentator says Tadej Pogačar is very beatable, but only on a flat course with limited ascents, because no one in the peloton can match his climbing ability.

Cycling News says goodbye to a raft of riders who called it a career after the year’s final road race.

The Netherland’s Lorena Wiebes held off Marianne Vos to win the World Gravel Championship, going 1-2 with Italy’s Silvia Persico coming in third.

NPR talks with Christopher Blevins, the first American male to win the cross-country mountain biking World Cup in 34 years, in the sport we literally invented. Oh, and he’s Black, too.

Velo considers whether budding French star Kévin Vauquelin can lead Britain’s Ineos Grenadiers back to the Tour de France promised land.

The Times of Israel complains that the Premier Tech cycling team betrayed the country by dropping Israel from its name, even if that meant being met by protests and denied entry to international races.

An Olympics-themed website examines the risk of cycling crashes, as increasing speeds have resulted in too many deaths and serious injuries in recent years, which is driving a number of riders into an early retirement.

New Zealand mountain biker Sammie Maxwell rode into history as the country’s first person to win a UCI World Series title, clinching the mountain bike cross country title despite the resurgence of an eating disorder she thought she’d put behind her.

A writer for Cycling Weekly says UCI’s new rule banning time trial helmets from road racing couldn’t have come soon enough, asking if they ruined cycling photography by making riders look too ridiculous. Short answer, yes. Longer answer, still yes.

 

Finally…

When you’re riding a stolen bicycle with a bag full of guns and illegal weed, maybe make sure it doesn’t have an air tag on it, first. Who needs a bike chain when you can just 3D print a daisy chain of colorful gears — or even a rear triangle, for that matter?

And if you’re not going to do coke off your Olympic cycling gold medal, what good is even having one?

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

Oh, and fuck Putin.