I hope you had a good, environmentally conscious Earth Day yesterday.
I celebrated by spending most of the day on it.
Meanwhile, today’s image is Metro’s new limited-edition Earth Day TAP card; the fully functional bamboo TAP cards are available at any Metro Customer Center until they run out.
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Good news and bad from the state legislature with regard to ebikes.
Let’s start with the good news.
AB 1557, which redefines an ebike as having a motor limited to maximum of 750 watts, and lowers the maximum assisted speed for Class 1 and Class 2 ebikes to 16 mph, passed out of the Assembly Transportation Committee 12-0; the purpose is to clearly distinguish ebikes from e-motos of questionable legality.
AB 2284 passed the committee with 15 votes in favor; it would require the state Attorney General to maintain a public list of electric two-wheeled devices that don’t meet the state’s legal definition of an ebike.
Now for the bad news.
AB 1942 also passed the committee, and would mandate that all Class 2 and Class 3 ebikes have to be registered with the DMV and display license plates, just like cars, trucks and SUVs. It would be one of the most effective ways to put the brakes on ebikes, limit the growth of an otherwise legal alternative to driving, and start us down the slippery slope that could lead to licensing regular bikes and their riders.
Somewhere in between good and bad, and also moving forward, are AB 1569, which requires students from kindergarten up to complete an approved electric bicycle safety training course before they could park an ebike on school grounds, and AB 2595, which creates a pilot program allowing cities in San Mateo County to ban kids under 12 from riding any form of ebike.
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An Orange County mom faces charges after her 14-year old son critically injured an 81-year old Vietnam vet while doing wheelies on his high-powered e-motorcycle.
Fifty-year-old Aliso Viejo resident Tommi Jo Mejer faces six years and eight months behind bars after she was charged with felony child endangerment and felony accessory after the fact, along with several misdemeanor counts.
Mejer had been warned by deputies last year that the Surron Ultra Bee she purchased for her son was an illegal electric motorcycle capable of speeds up to 58 mph, and that her son had been riding it recklessly.
She is accused of lying to investigators about after the crash, claiming neither she nor her son owned a similar e-moto.
Meanwhile, former Marine pilot and substitute teacher Ed Ashman remains hospitalized, facing a long and costly recovery; a crowdfunding page to help pay his medical expenses has raised over $87,000 of the $90,000 goal.
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The Central Hollywood Neighborhood Council is hosting a CD13 City Council candidate forum next Thursday.
My finely honed political instincts tell me incumbent Hugo Soto-Martinez will probably cruise to re-election in the June primary. But I’m often, if not usually, wrong about such things, so take that with a bag of salt.
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The City of LA reminds us about the first West LA CicLAvia this Sunday.
Meanwhile, Oceanside bike lawyer and BikinginLA sponsor Richard Duquette reminds us about June’s Giro di San Diego, aka The Palomar Granfondo, with rides ranging from 20 to 95 miles, and a KOM/QOM purse totaling one grand.
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The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes — and pedestrians — just keeps on going.
County officials in Ireland are urging the country’s government to reconsider a plan for mandatory hi-visibility clothing at night for bicyclists and e-scooter users, even though the initial plan to require hi-viz collapsed within a day from a withering backlash; then again, they’re also calling for pedestrians to wear hi-viz when walking 24/7. Which is about the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard.
But sometimes, it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.
Um, okay. A person was hit on the head with a bicycle on Venice’s Ocean Front Walk yesterday morning, although it’s not clear what sparked the altercation, or if the assailant was actually riding the bicycle or just happened to grab one.
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Local
Santa Monica police announced they’re conducting another bicycle and pedestrian safety operation — yesterday. Maybe they could try letting us know with a tad more than seven-and-a-half hours notice. Just saying.
State
The San Diego Fire-Rescue Department airlifted an injured mountain biker from a remote Carmel Valley trail yesterday morning.
The Victor Valley News reports an ebike rider was hospitalized after being struck by a driver Wednesday evening — although photos of the bike make it look at lot more like a dirt bike or e-moto than anything that could be classified as an electric bicycle under current California law.
An op-ed from a Santa Barbara writer says a “compromise” to bring cars back to State Street is literally a life-or-death decision, because taking cars off the city’s busiest street for bicyclists and pedestrians resulted in an increase in safety.
The San Luis Obispo bikeshare system is kicking off Bike Month a week from Friday, previewing events throughout the month. Meanwhile, LA Metro hasn’t even bothered to update last year’s webpage.
Ars Technica says the best part of Monterey’s recent Sea Otter Classic was the accessories, including a Bluetooth-enabled suction cup roof rack. At least that way you know if your bike falls off.
Even bike riders say $4 million is a lot of money to fix a flooding problem on a Carmel bike path.
National
Great idea. Volunteers with Bellevue, Washington’s Cascade Bicycle Club rode to an Amazon distribution center to collect perishable food for a local food bank, returning with a whopping 372 pounds of food, including a boatload of bananas.
Seattle Bike Blog says a new billionaire-funded bike path is very nice, even if most people will continue to use one that’s closer to the waterfront and easier to get to.
I want to be like him when I grow up. An 80-year old Maine man is planning to bike across the country, because “Why not?”
A Washington website says Trump’s war with DC’s bicyclists is just the first shot in a nationwide car-centric battle against bike infrastructure, while a legal writer says “Apparently, bike lanes and pedestrian trails are woke.”
International
Bicycling deaths now account for ten percent of all traffic deaths in the European Union, after dropping only eight percent over the last decade, just a quarter of the decline for motor vehicle deaths.
A writer for Tour rides from Turin, Italy to Nice, France the hard way, taking an “exhilarating” eight-day trip over five iconic passes.
Competitive Cycling
Speaking of Tour, the German magazine talks with Eritrean pro Biniam Girmay, the first black African cyclist to win three stages of the Tour de France, as well as the green points jersey.
Nineteen-year old French wunderkind Paul Seixas became the youngest-ever winner of the men’s Flèche Wallonne, setting up a showdown with Tadej Pogačar, Remco Evenepoel and Tom Pidcock at Sunday’s Liège–Bastogne–Liège
Demi Vollering barely held off Dutch compatriot Puck Pieterse in the women’s edition of Flèche Wallonne, flipping last year’s finishing order.
Ouch! Eighteen-year old German cyclist Moritz Mauss crashed out of a Madison race in Gent, Belgium, ending up with a nearly 20″ splinter in his leg and hip that had to be surgically removed, after he slid across the wooden track.
Finally…
Who says you can’t carry four children’s bikes and eight helmets on a bicycle? That feeling when ChatGPT’s bicycle diagram isn’t quite ready for prime time.
Or when your cargo bike won’t fit through the gates blocking the bike path.
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Be safe, and stay healthy. And get vaccinated, already.
Oh, and fuck Putin.
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