BikinginLA

I can’t speak for anyone else, but I’m just glad this damn week is over. 

I mean, it is over, right? Tell me it’s over. 

It’s just been one damn thing after another. And as soon as you think you’ve caught your breath, something even worse happens. 

But on the plus side, Sunday offers one of the best days to ride a bicycle, with virtually traffic-free streets until the game is over. Or gets out of hand, anyway. 

Image by OpenClipart-Vectors from Pixabay.

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This is who we share the road with.

An elderly woman — the media was all over the place reporting her age, throwing out seemingly random numbers from 70 to 87, before apparently settling on 92 — crashed into the 99 Ranch Market on Westwood Blvd early Thursday afternoon.

Three people were killed on the spot — two men, ages 30 and 55, while the other was a 42-year old woman.

She also critically injured two 35-year old men, and two other men suffered minor injuries, one 37 and the other 38.

The horrific incident started when the woman struck a bike rider at Wellworth Ave and Westwood Blvd, then reportedly continued down the sidewalk before crashing through the glass windows into the store’s bakery department.

At least the guy on the bike walked away, as did the woman behind the wheel.

So far, police have termed it a tragic accident.

You know, just another oopsie.

Just a kindly old lady who just got confused, lost control of her car, and didn’t mean to cause any harm.

Not one word, at least to this point, discussing whether someone that old should have even been behind to begin with. Never mind that for most people, cognitive abilities decline with age, eyesight weakens, and reaction times slow.

No one is saying she’s not a nice person, and no one can say whether she was at fault for the initial crash with the bicyclist. Or that she doesn’t need a car in this damnably car-centric city.

But it’s hard to believe that a younger driver wouldn’t have been able to come to a stop before plowing into a building a full block away.

We continue to allow elderly people to continue driving, even as their abilities to do so safely decline. I mean, what’s the worst that could happen?

Four dead people and an unborn baby, the victims of two drivers well over 80 in less than a week.

Just the normal cost of getting from here to there, I guess.

Thanks to Andy for the heads-up. 

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No surprise here.

A new study on the effect of cycling in older adults published in the PLOS One medical journal shows that bicycling improved cognitive function and mental health in the test subjects, whether they rode regular bicycles or ebikes.

According to the abstract,

For executive function, namely inhibition (the Stroop task) and updating (Letter Updating Task), both cycling groups improved in accuracy after the intervention compared to non-cycling control participants. E-bike participants also improved in processing speed (reaction times in go trials of the Stop-It task) after the intervention compared to non-cycling control participants. Finally, e-bike participants improved in their mental health score after the intervention compared to non-cycling controls as measured by the SF-36. This suggests that there may be an impact of exercising in the environment on executive function and mental health.

In fact, the ebike riders actually showed more improvement than the regular bike riders.

Perhaps because ebikes are easier on older bodies, encouraging people to ride both more, and more often.

Just a guess.

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They get it.

In a surprisingly commonsense editorial, the conservative Orange County Register urges Irvine, and by extension other OC cities, to go slow when it comes to regulating ebikes.

We don’t have a problem with cities enforcing some sensible rules and reminding e-bike riders that they have a responsibility to be respectful of pedestrians and those who use traditional bicycles. Still, we worry that in their zeal to regulate, cities are tamping down on the core benefit of these e-bikes: providing people with that wonderful freedom of travel.

Which, at its core, is exactly what ebikes offer. Whether you’re young or old, healthy or otherwise.

It’s not that ebikes are better than regular bikes. They just meet different needs for different people.

And that shouldn’t be taken away just to rein in a relative few out-of-control kids.

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In better news, Gravel Bike California takes in the gravel and wine experience riding around Temecula.

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

Confusion reigns over Ireland’s proposal to require helmets and hi-viz for bike riders, even as a deputy prime minister insists they didn’t mean to include regular bicycles, just ebikes and the ilk.

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Local 

The Los Angeles Daily News profiles the owners of Spoke N’ Wheel, the oldest bike shop in the San Fernando Valley, as it nears the half-century mark. Which is only four years older than my ’81 Trek. 

 

State

The California Transportation Commission continues to flush the overwhelming majority of a newly released $1 billion transportation fund down the highway-expanding induced-demand toilet, while giving a small boost to transit and active transportation.

Volunteers maintaining the La Jolla Bike Path are calling on the city to post more signs to discourage people from building their own unauthorized bike trails, after discovering a number of such trails carved into the hillside. Because as we all know, posting a sign is almost as effective as a sternly worded letter to the editor in deterring scofflaw behavior. 

The annual Tour of Palm Springs rolls this weekend, resulting in a number of street closures in the area. Or openings, actually, since they’re only closed to cars.

Hats off to Alameda, which was elevated to a Gold-level Bicycle Friendly Community.

There’s a special place in hell for the man who attacked a ten-year old boy in Valley Springs and stole his bicycle, as the kid was riding with friends. Or for anyone else who’d attack or rob a little kid to steal their bike.

 

National

Like Dylan at the Newport Folk Festival, Trek goes electric with a 28 mph “car-replacing” ebike. And yes, I’m going to keep trotting out that reference until I find someone else old enough to remember it.

An opinion columnist for the Seattle Times relates how he took his stolen ebike back from someone who claimed he bought it for 400 bucks, recognizing it as the man rode by and confronting him at a red light.

Well, no shit. The annual Minneapolis Frostbike trade show was cancelled due to ‘current law enforcement activities.’ Apparently, they didn’t want to risk anyone getting inadvertently deported or shot by ICE agents. 

No surprise here. Immigrant advocates and older adults decry New Jersey’s draconian new ebike law as discriminatory; the law requires licensing and registration for every ebike, without distinguishing electric motorbikes and dirt bikes from ped-assist commuter bikes.

The Philadelphia Bicycle Coalition complains about snow removal from bike lanes, saying the city’s winters are comparable to Copenhagen, which does a much better job. Although that’s not a problem Los Angeles riders usually have to deal with. 

I want to be like him when I grow up. A 73-year old Georgia man is planning to ride 950 miles to Washington DC to honor fallen service members and support the families they left behind. As we’ve noted before, however, there’s a big difference between planning to do something and actually doing it. So wake me when it’s over.

A Florida design website profiles local artist JC Franchevich, who paints images of Fort Meyers when he’s not off on long distance bicycle rides, including Bolivia’s famed Death Road.

 

International

Welcome to 1890. A 25-year old London man faces charges of “wanton and furious driving” for killing an ebike rider while driving a horse and cart. Yes, the original one-horsepower vehicle. 

Bicycle production in Spain was off 8.1% last year, while ebike production plummeted by 21.4%, even as the bicycle market in the country booms.

Sun’s out, buns out. An Aussie writer says now that the sun is out Down Under, it’s time to consider how to not feel the burn and stay comfortable while you ride. Which seems to be good winter advice here in sunny California, too.

 

Competitive Cycling…

Hi-viz and a flashing light didn’t seem to help Italian WorldTour cyclist Gianmarco Garofoli, who was run down from behind by a hit-and-run driver doing around 60 mph while on a training ride; fortunately, he wasn’t badly injured, and spotted the car as he returned to his hotel and alerted authorities.

Jens Voigt says we live in a golden era of cycling, adding “Every now and then you have Pogacar or Einstein being born.” Although I’d take Pog over Einstein on a hilly descent any day. 

USA Cycling announced the return of the Collegiate All-Star Program, mentoring colleges stars as they take the step up to elite cycling, and compete as a team in this year’s Redlands Bicycle Classic.

 

Finally…

Who really needs actual, factual bike news, anyway? Now you, too, can visit the world’s first hotel catering strictly to mountain bikers, though you may want to start boning up on your conversational Norwegian.

And you gotta eat sometime.

Let alone catch up on the day’s — hopefully factual — news.

Dutch cyclist Piet Van Kempen having breakfast at a six-day event in 1936📷Derek Berwin

— Cool Bike Art (@coolbikeart1.bsky.social) 2026-02-04T17:48:16.193Z

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Thanks to Jordan for an unexpected donation to help support this site, and keep all the best bike news and advocacy coming your way every day.

And thanks especially for the nice comment that accompanied it.

If you’d like to join him in supporting this site, just click here. Kind words optional.

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

Oh, and fuck Putin.