Day 311 of LA’s Vision Zero failure to end traffic deaths by 2025.
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It was a quiet bike news day yesterday, so let’s get right to it.
Today’s photo: If they can drive an ambulance on the old beach bike path pre-widening, they can drive a fire truck on or near a bike lane.
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The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.
No bias here. Firefighters in San Antonio, Texas apparently haven’t gotten the memo, trotting out the persistent urban myth that a proposed road diet and two-way cycle track will slow down their trucks and response times, even though that hasn’t happened in other cities. And those bigass trucks with their massive tires could just drive over the little plastic posts they’ll probably use to separate the bike lanes from the traffic lanes, anyway.
But sometimes, it’s people on two wheels behaving badly.
A Singaporean driver was shocked and appalled to see a pair of teens drafting a semi on a bicycle and an ebike without the “proper gear,” as if a few ounces of plastic and foam would somehow offer protection if they went under a multi-ton tractor trailer. Look, we’ve all seen that scene from Breaking Away, but seriously, it’s not a good idea, with or without a helmet.
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Local
Say you’re old without saying you’re old. Former LA City Councilmember Dennis Zine reminisces about “even” riding his bike on city streets delivering the Los Angeles Herald Express and Herald Examiner.
Don’t miss the Octavia’s Pasadena Bike Ride tomorrow, as the Rose City celebrates Pasadena native and noted SciFi author Octavia E. Butler.
State
Encinitas is getting rid of back-in parking, widening lanes and ripping out one of the separated bike lanes on Santa Fe Drive, after drivers couldn’t figure out how to manage them.
A 55-year old man was hospitalized with a compound fracture of his tibia/fibula and a fractured femur after he was struck by a driver while riding his bicycle in Pacific Beach Wednesday night; police said he continued straight at an intersection instead of making the required right turn, riding into the path of a driver on the cross street.
The people of Fallbrook have raised more than $1,000 to replace a 34-year old disabled man’s ebike, after he was the victim of a hit-and-run driver who destroyed his bike.
A Santa Cruz man learned he had multiple myeloma, a difficult to treat form of blood cancer, after suffering an apparent rib fracture on a marathon bike ride; 14-years later, he’s back to riding his bike after a being in remission for three years thanks to a cutting edge therapy.
National
Bike Magazine recommends their picks for the year’s best bike computers. Although the best bike computer is the one you’ve already got — after you throw it as far as you can so you can just enjoy riding without one.
Talk about not getting it. A Newton, Massachusetts resident and self-described bike rider complains that new raised bike lanes around a sharp curve make the road more dangerous, because it narrows the roadway on a dangerous corner. Except that forces drivers to slow down, which is kinda the point.
The kindhearted folks at a sporting goods store in a tiny town in central New York State have given away 7,000 bicycles to kids in need so far this year, just a fraction of the 23,000 bikes they’ve donated since beginning the program.
The bike bus movement has taken over Montclair, New Jersey, with hundreds of kids riding their bikes to school every day.
Drivers who block bike lanes in Montgomery County, Maryland could now be subject to a whopping $60 fine. In other words, a gentle slap in the wallet, if not on the wrist.
International
You’ve got to be kidding. An English man claims he had no idea he struck and killed a man riding a bicycle as he was backing up across the roadway to make a U-turn, insisting he thought he hit a stick — even though he never bothered to stop to see what shattered his rear window before driving away. You know, like any normal person would.
He gets it now, anyway. A UK Member of Parliament accepted a challenge from local bicyclists to ride a “terrifying” stretch of roadway, so he could understand the need for a new greenway. And he did.
Britpop singer Ed Sheeran is one of us, describing how he crashed a borrowed bicycle while riding down a steep hill, then continued riding to a pub — only to wake up in pain the next morning with a broken rib, elbow and wrist.
Life is cheap in Singapore, where a truck driver got eight months behind bars after pleading guilty to driving without due care and attention for killing a woman who was riding an ebike in a crosswalk, after blaming the victim for not looking for traffic first, before crossing. But at least he lost his driver’s license for eight years.
Competitive Cycling
Someone stole the yellow Pinarello bicycle Colombian cyclist Egan Bernal rode on the final stage when he won the 2019 Tour de France.
A bike shop owned by the family of Chilean mountain biking star Martín Vidaurre was also the victim of thieves, who stole bicycles worth the equivalent of $103,000.
If you want to win friends and influence people, don’t suggest privatizing Alpe d’Huez and selling tickets to watch the Tour de France.
Finally…
Your new ebike could look like, well, a bike. Well, who wouldn’t ride a bicycle if you’re hunting vampires?
And more proof Mathieu van der Poel is a wheelie good cyclist.
Sorry.
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Be safe, and stay healthy. And get vaccinated, already.
Oh, and fuck Putin.
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