BikinginLA

The good news is, I got nine-and-a-half hours of sleep Monday night. The bad news it, my blood sugar was still fucked up yesterday. 

Diabetes sucks. 

And nothing like the feeling that I have the perfect T-shirt to illustrate today’s lead story, only to realize I forgot to do it. 

Oops. 

……….

Um, sure.

A conservative columnist confessed to riding a bike to work. “(Okay, from the railway station to the office. Which is somehow even more stereotypically leftist.)”

But he wishes that “professional activists” would just leave things alone.

It would, frankly, be more pleasant if the professional activists who claim to improve bicycling would stop helping. Because their “help” too often subordinates the interests of the pedal people to the needs of the Everything Leftist Omnicause.

Why, you might ask quizzically?

Because the big, scary liberals in the country’s most liberal city may have gone just a tad too far in suggesting that bike theft victims might want to think twice about calling the police, because interactions with the cops don’t always end well for Black and brown people.

Never mind that a bike thief is just as likely to be white.

Lay aside for the moment the practical impact of a public policy of ignoring bicycle theft on the bicyclists—according to academic research, the often non-white and lower-income bicycle-theft victims—the coalition purports to represent. What is distilled here is the classic Everything Leftist approach to issue analysis. Instead of taking what one might expect to be the single-issue position, even for a largely liberal-to-progressive constituency, that protecting that constituency’s totemic property is important and indeed the core role of a government of laws, the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition takes the Everything Leftist position that the police are bad and therefore it is not appropriate to involve them in dealing with bicycle theft…

This is, for class-dynamics reasons, pretty much what one should expect from a representative nonprofit (the nonprofit industry tends to be left-wing) of a left-wing constituency (the GOP is not looking for high-yield voter registrations among urban bicycle commuters) in a very left-wing city (it is, after all, San Francisco), even if some (or even most) of the ostensible constituents might rather follow a more traditional single-issue line.

It gets worse from there.

Never mind that in more conservative areas, bike advocates tend to be as conservative as those around them. Or that even in liberal San Francisco, the bike coalition continues to fight for the rights and safety of bicyclists.

Frankly, I don’t give a damn about someone’s politics, if they’re willing to fight for my right to ride a bike and get home again in one piece.

So if you disagree with something some bike advocate or organization somewhere has said, then disagree with them. Lord knows, I have. But don’t paint us all with the same brush.

And don’t forget who’s out there fighting for you when you ride your bike to work. Because if you get there safely, it’s probably because someone, somewhere fought for your right to do it.

………

A writer for ebike site Electrek deservedly rips our country’s transportation secretary a new one, for the same reason we mentioned last week about the Highway Administration removing proven safety policies like road diets and bike lanes from their website.

Because they felt like it, evidently. No reason was given, nor did anyone with the government even mention that it had been done.

Writer Jameson Dow‘s takedown is simply a thing of beauty. 

So of course, what is the set of incompetents running the US into the ground to do? Well, ignore the science and try to kill more cyclists.

That’s the move made last week by Sean Duffy, the current squatter at the head of the Department of Transportation. Duffy’s transportation “expertise” comes from being a contestant on Road Rules: All Stars, a reality TV travel game show…

But lower congestion and roads that are safe for cyclists are things that Duffy simply cannot abide. If people ride bikes, they’re not using oil, and then the oil industry which has given Duffy hundreds of thousands of dollars of bribes over his political career might have slightly lower profits. Congestion, too, hurts all drivers and breathers of air (that’s you), but helps the oil industry as people burn gas while they sit still.

And all of this comes on top of the $23 billion in additional fuel costs that Duffy wants to saddle you with, which he announced on his first day. As a reward for this, oil companies paid for a vacation for Duffy’s family.

This isn’t the only indication of Duffy’s hatred of bikes and love of road accidents. Duffy previously pulled funding for bike lanes, calling them “hostile to motor vehicles.” Notably, in conflicts between motor vehicles and bicycles, motor vehicles are typically the more violent participant.

Go ahead and read the whole thing. It’s worth it.

We’ll wait.

………

I could just scream.

Once again, a major hospital has studied ebike crashes, and concluded that things are getting worse.

And once again, without putting the injury rate in context with ebike ridership, and lumping every type of ebike together, as if a Class 1 ped-assist bike is as dangerous as an illegal electric motorbike.

According to public TV station KPBS,

To better understand trends, the researchers analyzed data from the California Highway Patrol’s Statewide Integrated Traffic Records System, examining collisions involving e-bikes and traditional bicycles from 2018 through 2024. The total number of collisions analyzed were 4,035 involving e- bikes and 58,332 on traditional bicycles.

The results found that injuries on e-bikes occurred on younger riders and on riders more likely to ride at unsafe speeds. They also occurred more frequently in affluent communities.

So, a reasonable conclusion would be that illegal ebikes which allow dangerous speeds are more dangerous than regular bicycles, especially for young children ill-equipped to handle excess speeds.

Not “ebikes are dangerous,” which seems to sum up their report, and every other one I’ve seen.

Even the cops don’t seem to know what they’re talking about. Literally, according to the Los Angeles Times.

The rapid popularity of e-bikes has also made it difficult for law enforcement agencies, regulatory groups and medical officials to quantify what injuries were being caused by e-bikes.

Law enforcement agencies reached by The Times said some local agencies have not collected specific data on e-bike crashes or citations because the problem is so new to many areas and numbers are often difficult to parse, with e-bikes injuries often intermingled with traditional bike injuries.

So they don’t know which injuries are caused by which type of bikes, but they are somehow able to parse out that ebike injuries are worse than regular bikes, whether that ebike is a ped-assist cargo bike or a high speed electric motorbike.

As I’ve said before, any study like this will be worth no more than a few sheets of toilet paper unless, and until, they a) put ebike injuries in context with ebike ridership, and b) clearly define which type of ebike causes the most serious injuries.

It’s a pretty damned easy conclusion to make. Faster and more powerful ebikes tend to result in more serious injuries, on average.

But somehow, all these noted scientists and physicians seem incapable of making that simple observation.

Thanks to Megan for the heads-up.

………

I promised you CicLAvia pictures, and by God, that’s what you’re going to get.

David forwards these photos from Sunday’s event.

His photos belie what appeared to me to be a more sparsely attended event than in year’s past. Although that could have something to do with just sadly passing by on our way to celebrate my wife’s birthday.

Then again, it could also have something to do with simultaneous open streets events in Santa Monica and Long Beach — all sponsored by Metro, as in what the hell were they thinking? — combined with the final of the World Cup.

Meanwhile, Streetsblog’s Joe Linton offers an open thread about Sunday’s CicLAvia, along with his usually great photos, while WeHo Times offers photos and a writeup, as well.

The Long Beach Press Telegram reports on that city’s Beach Streets open streets event. But they don’t want you to know about it, so they hid it behind their draconian paywall.

………

Remembering undoubtedly the funniest bike rider in human history.

Or maybe just the funniest human, period.

Robin Williams doing two of his favorite things: riding a road bike and cracking up everyone around him.Happy #BicycleBirthday, Robin!July 21 (1951-2014)

— Cool Bike Art (@coolbikeart1.bsky.social) 2026-07-21T04:00:51.918Z

………

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

No bias here. The planned World Naked Bike Ride has been cancelled in Buffalo, New York, after organizers received a number of death threats amid “overwhelming disapproval” from the community. Which is kind of the point, that participants strip down knowing many will disapprove, so that people actually see them. But if you’re so offended that you threaten to kill someone, get a good mirror, because you’re the one with the problem. 

Police in West Midlands, England seized and destroyed a perfectly legal e-cargo bike after somehow concluding that it was an illegal electric motorbike — even though they claim they only gave the rider a ticket for not having insurance, which isn’t required under UK law.

No bias here, either. Irish government ministers are once again reviving the eternal question of whether bike riders should be forced to wear high viz,  helmets and license plates, the latter of which would have to be as big as your butt if drivers are expected to read it at a reasonable distance; meanwhile, Road.cc quotes an advocate saying “Fewer people cycling or scooting does not make roads safer.” Then again, why not go the full monty and require us to dress up like clowns with our full names and addresses embossed both front and back?

……….

Local 

The iconic Watts Towers are getting new park space in time for the ’28 Olympics, including walking paths and bike racks.

Time is running out to apply for Metro’s Adopt A Bike Program.

Speaking of Metro, the LA County transportation authority wants to flush another $100 million down the highway widening toilet, as if they’ve never heard of induced demand. Or maybe they’re sure just one more lane will solve the whole thing this time.

On that note, Streets For All wants you to contact the Metro Board before tomorrow’s meeting, and tell them to stop defunding open streets, fund transit instead of highways, and fix their damn board structure.

 

State

No surprise here. California might be in the middle of a heat wave wrapped in a climate emergency, but Californians still want their gas-powered cars.

This is the cost of traffic violence. A 72-year old Seal Beach woman is finally home and talking to the media, following two weeks in the ICU and a month in a rehab facility after she was struck by a teen on an illegal Surron e-motorbike, resulting in a broken leg, hand, nose and jaw. And yet, even knowing what the kid was riding, KTLA-7 still manages to conflate ebikes and e-motorcycles.

No bias here, either. A San Diego TV station reports a 53-year-old man riding a bicycle was seriously injured in the city’s Grantville neighborhood Monday night, by a driver who “swerved to miss him…but the bicycle collided with the front right of the vehicle.” So, the driver didn’t hit the person on the bike, because the bike hit the car, and the driver did everything he could to avoid that two-wheeled kamikaze hellbent on getting his blood all over that poor, innocent grill. 

No, an ebike takeover did not paralyze El Cajon traffic, with “Some cars…completely surrounded by bicycles.” Because there is not a single bicycle shown in the video of around 50 teens on electric motorbikes.

Tres shock! A survey of bike riders in Santa Cruz County finds that a majority of bicyclists don’t feel safe on the roads. Kind of like bicyclists everywhere else in the US. 

This is who we share the road with. Eighty-six-year old Paul Pelosi, husband of former US House Speaker Nancy and survivor of a rightwing hammer attack, has been charged with hit-and-run for driving away after hitting a parked Tesla in Napa County.

 

National

Velo says blame UCI rules for why you can’t find a 25 mm rim anymore, even if you pinky swear that you don’t intend to ever race your bike.

Tragic news from Milwaukee, where an 84-year old man riding a bike was killed when he was hit by a public bus, on a street scheduled to get curb-protected bike lanes sometime this year. But whenever it happens, it will be too late.

This is the cost of traffic violence, part two. An Ohio congregation is mourning, after the church’s pastor was killed when he was struck by a truck driver while riding his bike on a shared-use path, and attempted to cross the roadway. However, the driver won’t be charged, because it’s apparently open-season on bike-riding pastors in Ohio.

In a paywalled story, a 39-year old New Orleans woman was convicted of a) killing a 62-year old man riding a bicycle in a hit-and-run, then b) fatally strangling her finance’ just over a year later, while out on bond for the hit-and-run.

The Savanah, Georgia police department is hosting a community bike ride, which is a damn good idea everywhere.

 

International

Momentum looks at the world’s most innovative bicycling infrastructure, but doesn’t seem to have added anything from the last time they repeated this story.

Good point. Alberta bike riders make the case for why the province’s new portal to complain about bike lanes and everything bicycle-related that might conceivably inconvenience drivers even a tad bit has to be open for people expressing the other side of the question, too.

This is the cost of traffic violence, part three. A 71-year old Engineering professor in Halifax, Nova Scotia was remembered as a mentor and father figure, and a leader in the local Islamic community, after he was killed by a careless motorist in a dooring while riding his bike. But hey, at least the driver got a ticket, right? 

A British woman asks for drivers to pay more attention, after she suffered a fractured skull and TBI in a hit-and-run dooring, but doesn’t remember a thing.

Dublin officials are removing chicanes from a local street that had been installed to slow ebike riders after just ten days, because they forced bike riders and pedestrians to swerve onto the sidewalks. I mean, who could have possibly foreseen that placing awkward obstacles in the middle of the street might cause just the teensiest bit of a problem?

A 27-year old driver in Kyiv, Ukraine faces up to ten years behind bars for attempting to pass another vehicle on the right while driving drunk at a high rate of speed, and slamming into a 17-year old boy and his father riding their bikes on the shoulder, killing the younger man instantly and seriously injuring his dad.

 

Competitive Cycling

Another day, another broken collarbone at the Tour de France. This time, it was German rider Florian Lipowitz who crashed at high speed in the final kilometers of Tuesday’s time trial; he was running 5th overall, and had the second-fastest time at the third time check.

World champion Remco Evenepoel won his second straight stage after destroying the field in the time trial, but only made a 28-second dent in Tadej Pogačar’s five-minute lead in yellow. And Lipowitz had been a key consigliere for Pogačar’s team.

Not even the Tour de France is safe from road raging drivers, as American cyclist Brandon McNulty was brake-checked by an angry driver while on his way to the start of Tuesday’s time trial; he was knocked off his bike, but “relatively unscathed.” How do you say schmuck in French? Oh yeah, it’s “schmuck.”

Velo examines why this year’s Tour de France is faster than ever. Which could have something to do with all those broken collarbones. Or maybe they’re because UCI keeps waking cyclists up in the middle of the night for a drug test.

 

Finally…

Maybe if you pedal hard enough, your bike will fly, too. We still don’t know what Einstein’s bike saddle is worth, because it’s relative.

And this is what happens when the headline writer doesn’t bother to read the story.

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin.