My wife has been taking care of me for the past few months, despite her own health problems.
Tonight, it was my turn to take care of her.
So I hope you’ll forgive the lack of new Morning Links today. As usual, we’ll be back tomorrow to catch up on anything we’ve missed.
Sadly, the recent rash of bicycling deaths continued over the weekend, with yet another victim lost to our streets.
According to the Santa Clarita Signal, 22-year old Castaic resident Kori Sue Peters was riding on Rye Canyon Road at Beale Court in Valencia just after midnight Sunday when the driver of street sweeper hit her from behind.
She was pronounced dead at a local hospital.
The driver cooperated with investigators, and did not appear to be under the influence drugs or alcohol.
According to Nina Moskol, Chairperson of the Santa Clarita Valley Bicycle Coalition, Rye Canyon is one of just two viable bike routes between Castaic and Valencia.
Sheriff’s investigators determined that she didn’t have lights on her bike, and also blamed her dark clothing for apparently making herself invisible to the driver of the street sweeper.
While bike riders are required to use lights after dark and have reflectors on their bikes, there is no requirement to wear light colored clothing, even though it’s probably a good idea after dark, though not always practical.
And drivers are expected, if not required, to notice whatever or whoever is in the road directly in front of them.
I’m told that Peters leaves behind two children, and may have recently returned home to work on a substance abuse problem without her kids.
In other words, she was trying to turn her life around.
And now she’ll never get the chance.
This is at least the 31st bicycling fatality in Southern California this year, and the 12th that I’m aware of in Los Angeles County.
My deepest sympathy and prayers for Kori Sue Peters and all her family and loved ones.
Thanks to Nina Moskol for the heads-up.
Apparently, memorials for dead bike riders are high fashion now.
In a remarkably tone deaf move, haute couture fashion house Dior is working with French BMX maker Bogarde to co-opt the all-white ghost bike look to further their brand.
And no doubt, rake in big bucks from people with too damn much money and too little taste.
The limited edition BMX is due at the end of the month; the only good news is that only 150 of the utterly tasteless Dior bikes will be built.
Maybe their designers saw a few white bicycles chained to the side of the road, and had no idea why they were there.
Or maybe Dior came up with the idea themselves, and didn’t bother to find out that someone else had the idea first, for an entirely different purpose. And that the all-white paint job actually means something far more important than overpriced fashion.
Though you’d think their bike-making partners could have told them.
Let’s just hope Dior wises up at the last minute, and cancels the sale out of an abundance of caution and taste.
Or at least donates all the proceeds to benefit the families of those who died riding their bikes.
Photo is a screen grab from Hypebae.com.
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Bicyclists in the Malibu Hills are up in arms over plans to reopen the Troutdale bridge on Mulholland Highway this Wednesday.
But only if you’re in a car.
County officials plan to require, or maybe just firmly request, that bike riders dismount and walk across the pedestrian walkway adjacent to the bridge while it is undergoing reconstruction.
Something that would be problematic, to say the least, with the bridge located just beyond a sweeping turn following a steep descent along the popular riding route.
It would also be of questionable legality, since bicyclists are allowed on any road where cars are allowed, with the exception of many limited access highways.
But whether there is an exception for construction zones is unclear at this time.
A lot will depend on just what the traffic signs look like when the bridge reopens.
If they have a yellow background, it’s merely advisory, like the suggested speeds on corners that virtually everyone ignores. But if the signs are white, like a speed limit sign, they carry the force of law, and violators can be ticketed.
Whether those tickets are legal, however, could be up to the courts to decide.
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Los Angeles has scored two state grants totaling $43.6 million for bicycle and street safety.
The city will get $18.8 for a three-mile section of the LA River bike path in the West San Fernando Valley, as part of the mayor’s Twenty-Eight By ’28 program, to complete a pathway along the full 51-mile length of the LA River by 2025.
The other grant provides $24.8 million for improvements along the Broadway/Manchester corridor in South LA, including bike lanes, along with sidewalk and crosswalk enhancements and other safety projects.
Let’s hope that means bicyclists will finally see the long-promised bike lanes along Manchester that might have spared the life of Frederick “Woon” Frazier.
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In a bizarre crash, an Irvine bike rider was injured by a hit-and-run driver Saturday night.
The driver stopped after the collision, and his passenger got out to check on the victim.
Then the driver took off, leaving both the injured bike rider and the person who had been in the car with him on the side of the road.
Something tells me he — or she — will have a lot of explaining to do once they get caught.
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Today’s must-read is a hard-hitting Namibian op-ed that starts out with a clear-eyed look at drivers blaming bicyclists for “minor misdemeanors or violations of road rules to say we ‘asked for’ accidents.”
Then abruptly shifts to an examination of race and privilege, as “black Namibians literally take their lives in their hands every time they head out onto the road.”
It’s more than worth the few minutes it will take to read, if only to get a different perspective from a view most of us seldom see.
Go ahead, I’ll wait.
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A black woman accuses Irish police officers of racism after they tackle her 15-year old brother, apparently for the crime of riding a bicycle.
Look at the disgusting behaviour of the @BalbrigganGardai on my little 15 year old brother. He was only cycling around with my little sister when they pulled up and started to grab his arm and later tackled him. Even had the audacity to tackle me to take my phone. pic.twitter.com/9btmLLcspp
— Ciindy (@Ciindy_Dasilva) May 19, 2019
Thanks to Megan Lynch for the heads-up.
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Today’s common theme is generosity.
Hundreds of Renton, Washington kids got new bicycles, helmets and a party courtesy of a local church.
After a Nebraska middle school student was hit by a driver while riding his bike, the local police teamed with a bike shop to give him a new one.
After thieves made off with the motorized bicycle a Detroit-area Air Force vet spent months saving for and building, a stranger saw the story on TV, and convinced his coworkers to pitch in to buy the man a new ebike.
A stranger responds to a social media request to replace the adult tricycle used by a Michigan man with special needs to get to work after his was stolen.
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In a huge victory for advocates of safer streets, LA CD4 Councilmember David Ryu has decided that the road diet and bike lanes on Rowena should stay in place. And recommended that the bike lanes should be extended and converted into protected lanes — an outcome that seemed highly unlikely just a few months ago. You can read Ryu’s full letter here.
A Long Beach bike commuter says the new protected bike lanes on Broadway create more problems than they solve, calling it a horrible experience to ride.
An estimated 2,300 bike riders and support staff will leave San Francisco in two weeks on their way down the coast to Los Angeles for the 2019 AIDS/LifeCycle Ride.
Unbelievable. A $50,000 settlement from the city confirms that a San Diego cop may have overreacted just a tad when he roughed up a 64-year old bike rider and threw him in the psych ward — all because he ran a stop sign.
Victorville will begin construction on a four-mile separated bike path along Bear Valley Road.
A group of four men and two women with ties to Azusa Pacific University will ride across the US to raise funds for clean water.
Sad news from Paso Robles, where a 70-year old homeless man was found lying dead on railroad tracks next to his bicycle, leading to speculation that he fell and hit his head on the tracks. Police says he wasn’t hit by a train, but are treating the death as suspicious pending an autopsy.
Two Palo Alto neighborhoods are finally connected after the city opened a bike and pedestrian bridge over busy Highway 101.
Forget ghost bikes. Oakland is permanently honoring a fallen bicyclist by renaming the street where he was killed in his honor.
The San Francisco Chronicle serves up Marin County’s Mount Tamalpais — aka Mount Tam — two ways. The hard way, and the less hard way.
The Wall Street Journal says Trump’s tariffs will mean more pain for the already struggling bicycle industry. As always with the Journal, the usual paywall issues apply.
NPR tackles the same subject, talking with the owner of American bikemaker Detroit Bikes, who relies on imported parts even though the bikes are built in the US.
Bike Index offers tips on how to help recover stolen bikes with a Facebook page.
Bicycling profiles the bike-riding pianist you’ve seen performing in trouble spots around the world, who tows his piano behind his bicycle.
NACTO is teaming with the Natural Resources Defense Council and Delivery Associates to give Atlanta, Boston, Denver, Minneapolis and Philadelphia a crash course in building out bike infrastructure fast.
Oregon Rep. Earl Blumenauer joins in on Bike to Work Day, proving you can ride a bike in a bow tie.
The Seattle Times takes a look at the city’s deep-rooted bike culture.
Spokane WA gets an unplanned bike and pedestrian bridge after structural engineers ban cars from a 102-year old bridge.
Life is cheap in Montana, where a hit-and-run driver walked with just probation for a crash that paralyzed a bike-riding woman from the waist down; if she fulfills the terms of her probation, the felony conviction will be wiped from her record. Her victim, on the other hand, will serve a life sentence in a wheelchair.
No disconnect here. An Illinois man says a local road is too dangerous for people on bicycles, and it’s not a good idea to ride a bike there. Then adds that drivers pass him way too fast when he does.
No bias here. A Minnesota kid gets right hooked by a school bus turning into a parking lot. So naturally, the kid gets the blame for riding into the bus.
An Indiana triathlete says don’t drive into people on bicycles, after a driver chose to hit him rather than slow down and pass safely.
Nice. Sandusky, Ohio is building a 12-mile bike and pedestrian boardwalk along the city’s waterfront. And yes, with real boards.
DC bike advocates have been fighting for safer streets since Watergate was just a gleam in Richard Nixon’s eye.
Bad enough that a speeding driver killed DC bike advocate David Salovesh a few weeks back; now another speeding driver has murdered the ghost bike put up in his honor.
An Ottawa op-ed says a hit-and-run driver may have struck a bike rider, but it was bad road engineering that killed him.
You could get a free ebike if you promise to ride it in Europe for 300 to 600 miles in six days.
I want to be like him when I grow up. A 96-year old Dutch man rides his ebike up to 22 miles a day — even though he didn’t start riding until he was 65.
The e-scooter invasion of Europe is nearly complete after Germany approves their use on the country’s roads and bike paths, leaving the UK as the continent’s only holdout. Then again, if Britain goes through with Brexit, they’ll sever the ties binding them to Europe anyway.
An Indian city is the latest to get a bicycle mayor to improve it focus on bicycling. Meanwhile Los Angeles still has to make do with the mayor we’ve got.
It shouldn’t be a spoiler at this point to point out that race leader Tejay Van Garderen cracked on the steep slopes of Mount Baldy, allowing 20-year old WorldTour rookie Tadej Pogačar to vault to the lead. And ultimately, to victory in the Amgen Tour of California, setting a record for the youngest WorldTour winner.
On the women’s side, Dutch cyclist Anna van der Breggen led start to finish to claim victory in the all-too-brief three stage race.
The LA Times offers a behind the scenes look at the Tour of California, from the perspective of a team director racing behind the peloton.
La Cañada residents turned out to cheer the racers as they sped through the city on Saturday.
Is it a spoiler if Geraint Thomas tells us who will win the Giro in another two weeks?
Former world champ Jack Bobridge won’t be doing any partying for awhile, after being convicted of supplying ecstasy to an undercover cop.
Commute by towing your foldie behind your foldie, then put the other foldie in the first foldie. Your best bike hack is a $2 pool noodle.
And evidently, there really is a war on bikes. And they’re calling in the Air Force.
Cars and drivers aren’t the only dangers we face.
Sometimes it’s your own body that lets you down.
That’s what happened yesterday morning on trail above Simi Valley, where a man apparently died of natural causes while riding with a group of friends.
According to the Ventura County Star, the victim was riding on the Undertow Trail, which they describe as a popular mountain bike trail south of Hummingbird Ranch outside Simi Valley, when he began to feel ill around 10:40 am.
His riding companions told him to turn back, and called 911.
The Ventura County Fire Department and a county helicopter crew responded; sadly, the 52-year old Santa Clarita resident died before rescue personnel could arrive.
This is at least the 30th bicycling fatality in Southern California this year, and the second that I’m aware of in Ventura County.
It’s also a reminder to see your doctor on a regular basis — especially if you’re having unexplained chest pains or difficulty breathing, no matter how fit you may feel.
It may not have made a difference in this case.
But it might in yours.
My deepest sympathy and prayers for the victim and all his loved ones.
Earlier today, we reported that the victim in yesterday’s Long Beach crash had died, based on a report on Long Beach Local News.
However, that page has since been taken down with no explanation.
As a result, I have removed my article until we have a further update on the condition of the victim. So let’s all hope they were wrong, and offer her our prayers.
And let’s hope LBLN learns how to run a retraction.
Update: I’ve receive confirmation from someone with the Long Beach Post that the victim of this crash is still alive, and remains in critical condition.
So let’s all keep our fingers crossed.
Thanks to John McBrearty and April Morris for their help with this story.
A woman was critically injured riding her bike in the Belmont Shores neighborhood of Long Beach early yesterday morning, after she allegedly went through a red light and was struck by a driver.
As always, the question is whether there were any independent witnesses who actually saw who had the green light.
Or if Long Beach police relied strictly on the driver’s account, since the victim would have been unable to share her side of the story.
Either way, it’s a reminder to always stop for red lights and observe the right-of-way.
Because the consequences can be life changing. Or ending.
Thanks to John McBrearty for the heads-up.
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At least one rider made it out for yesterday’s soggy Bike to Work Day.
And on a very cool Pedersen bike, no less.
Neither rain nor heat nor cranky drivers prevented engineer and bike enthusiast @NPRPatrick from participating in LA’s Bike to Work Day. @NPR’s #BikeToWorkDay is tomorrow, and he’ll probably be pedaling in then, too! #BikeLA pic.twitter.com/2q2ydp8RdS
— NPR West (@NPRWest) May 16, 2019
And hats off to Michael Fishman and Pure Cycles for saving the day when the unthinkable, but all too common, happened to a rider in DTLA.
Got a tip that @purecycles is the #biketoworkday MVP. The guy pictured with the Pure Cycles Team has his bike stolen while visiting the @lacbc Pit Stop. Thanks to Michael Fishman and Pure Cycles for saving the day by giving him a bike on the spot. pic.twitter.com/3ebnNn8HOA
— Damien Newton (@DamienTypes) May 16, 2019
Meanwhile, LADOT hosted a pair of pop-up traffic safety installations, despite the wet Bike to Work Day weather.
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Lots of news coverage from around the US for Wednesday’s Ride of Silence to honor injured and fallen bike riders.
Including right here in Pasadena, though the LA ride seems to merit nary a whisper.
Like Rides of Silence in Philadelphia, and a small Nebraska town. Lubbock and Houston, Texas. Ridgeland, Mississippi. Lansing, Michigan, where billboards also called out the dangers of distracted driving.
Not to mention San Francisco, where riders confronted winds and rain to go with the usual tears.
Meanwhile, Denver responded to the 88 people killed on the city’s streets last year by putting up signs marking the site of each needless death; the city’s mayor confessed to an inadequate response to the deadly streets.
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Spectrum New 1 catches up with Keith Jackson, the bike rider who was nearly killed when he was run down riding on La Tuna Canyon last year.
Jackson has had to relearn how to walk, eat and talk after spending two months in a coma.
And as happens all too often, the driver who hit him sped off and hasn’t been seen since.
But at least his crash resulted in narrowing the wide traffic lanes on La Tuna and installation of a buffered bike lane. One of the rare instances of city officials responding to a near-tragedy by actually fixing the street where it happened.
Jackson will be at Sunday’s Finish the Ride in Griffith Park to spread the need for safer streets if you want to wish him well in his recovery; registration ends at 6 pm tomorrow.
And give him my best wishes while you’re at it.
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It’s not just drivers who give in to road rage.
Police in a Denver suburb are looking for a bike rider who yelled at a woman for blocking a bike lane, after she pulled her car over because her mother, who was in the passenger seat, wasn’t feeling well.
When the driver caught up to him at a red light, he allegedly kicked and punched the car, then reached in to grab her mother, before spitting on both women and riding away.
Let’s hope the woman he was riding with saw all that, and took it as fair warning before he turns that violent temper her way some day.
Although it does make you wonder what the driver said when she caught up to him.
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Today is the last day to submit comments on the shamefully inadequate Beverly Hills Complete Streets plan.
Popular offroad route Sullivan Canyon will close for maintenance for six weeks starting June 3rd. Thanks to Steve Messer for the tip.
Curbed’s Alissa Walker says LA’s future is on foot, even though the city is still designing the streets for cars.
Metro is considering three alternatives for extending the LA River Bike Path.
WeHoVille looks forward to the August CicLAvia connecting Hollywood and West Hollywood. And so an I, since I should finally be back on my bike by then.
KNBC-4 says keep your eyes peeled for Gabe the Sasquatch at Sunday’s Mission to Mission edition of 626 Golden Streets.
The fight over moving a row of palm trees to make room for a Complete Street makeover of Long Beach’s Marina Drive goes on, despite a Coastal Commission ruling giving the okay for the move.
Long Beach will celebrate Bike Month with a three-mile Pedal & Picnic ride for all ages on Saturday.
OCTA has rescheduled the Orange County Bike Rally for next Thursday, following yesterday’s rainout.
Carlsbad pulled the plug on its planned bikeshare system, even though it would have been operated with no risk to the city.
A 63-year old Ramona man took a cross-country bike tour to ride himself into better health, and raise funds for a local museum; so far he’s raised just $640 of the $5,000 goal.
A bighearted high school freshman from Santa Ynez organized her second annual fundraising bike ride to provide bicycles and tools to girls in rural Cambodia, to help ensure they can get to school to receive an education.
A Fresno driver relies on the built-in cameras in his Tesla to prove a hit-and-run bike rider really did run into him, and not the other way around.
Sad news from Oakland, where an 83-year old man was killed attempting to ride his bike across a busy state highway.
Police arrest 30 homeless people in a warrant sweep along a Sacramento bike path.
Bike Snob says ignoring bike riders won’t make us go away.
Now both Uber and Lyft are encouraging their drivers and passenger to look for bicyclists to avoid doorings.
Outside offers advice on how to buy a mountain bike. And says softails are back, except now they’re on high-end roadies and gravel bikes.
That’s more like it. El Paso, Texas authorities say they know they screwed up by striping a bike lane that’s half gutter and so narrow the bike lane symbol won’t even fit in it. And are considering removing a traffic lane to fix it.
A Minneapolis newspaper offers a belated obituary of a longtime local bike advocate, who was found dead in his home last month due to complications from a lifelong struggle with alcohol.
Chicago bike riders are losing access to a popular shared use pathway along the riverfront after reconstruction partially blocked it, and private security guards have begun illegally enforcing a non-existent ban on bikes.
Police in Fort Wayne, Indiana are looking for a bike-riding man who shot an employee of a property management company before riding away in a full-face helmet, presumably to hide his identity.
Vermont ebike buyers can get a $200 rebate from their utility company. Which they’ll probably need once Trump’s tariff’s kick in.
A Massachusetts woman decides to take advantage of a beautiful spring day to ride her bike to the bank, and ends up at a dumpster. And then a dumpster fire of a car-choked intersection.
New York’s Vision Zero is going the wrong way where bikes are concerned, as the ten people killed riding bicycles so far this year already equal the total for all of 2018.
Maybe city leaders will listen to them now. Seventy DC bike riders fanned out across the city to count drivers blocking bike lanes, logging nearly 500 violations by early afternoon.
A DC writer offers advices on how to bike to work while spending as little as possible on it. People for Bikes offers their tips, as well.
A four-man troupe of bike-riding British Shakespearean actors made their US debut in Virginia this week; the performers have ridden their bikes between performances in 12 countries.
This is why people continue to die on our streets. A drunk driver in South Carolina walked with a lousy 24 hours of community service after she was caught on video crashing into a pedicab, then telling police she had no idea she’d hit anything; fortunately, the pedicab driver didn’t appear to have been injured.
The former chief accountant for the SEC won a whopping $41 million judgement against his Florida homeowners association after crashing his bike into a stanchion they erected on a bike trail.
Here’s something to look forward to. A writer for Forbes says distracted driving will increase exponentially on the path to self-driving cars.
Canadian Cycling Magazine offers eight tips to bike commute like a pro.
An Ottawa, Canada traffic safety expert calls a painted bike lane “complete lunacy,” saying bicyclists will never be safe on the street as long as they have to share the same flat surface with cars and trucks.
A British MP says he’s going to keep claiming mileage expenses for riding his bicycle on official business, complaints be damned.
Video from an English bus shows the exact moment the driver swerved directly into a bicyclist, knocking the man off his bike; fortunately, he wasn’t seriously injured.
An Iranian prosecutor has decided that it’s sinful for women to ride bicycles and prohibited by Islamic law; police have been told to give women bicyclists a polite reprimand, then impound their bikes if they don’t have ID on them. Or they can use the equivalent of a bike burka so no one can see what they’re riding. No, seriously.
If you still haven’t seen Wednesday’s stage of the Amgen Tour of California, what the hell are you waiting for, already?
But you might want to skip this next section.
American Tejay van Garderen lost his lead in the AToC, and then he didn’t, after race officials decided a massive crash near the end of the race unfairly delayed him and other riders. A writer for VeloNews says the jury made the wrong call.
Meanwhile, NBC catches you up with Thursday’s men’s and women’s races.
Bicycling wants to know who’s the 21-year old American kicking ass in the Tour of California.
A pair of women are fighting for greater equality in the race, instead of the lousy three stages — and no live TV time — women cyclists are now offered.
There was a lead change in the Giro, while much of the peloton went down in a massive crash on wet roads.
Wall Street Journal columnist Jason Gay calls Ben King the humble king of American cycling. Unfortunately, the article is hidden behind the Journal’s paywall, so you may not get past the first few paragraphs.
Texas pro Lawson Craddock discusses his road back after riding the entire Tour de France with a broken collarbone last year, and refusing to give up despite finishing dead last as a result.
And last but not least, bike racing returns to LA — or Carson, anyway — with the newly revived La Grange Grand Prix on June 2nd.
Six times around the world, and his bike its stolen in Californiaon the seventh. We may have to worry about LA drivers crashing into us, but at least we don’t have to worry about crashing into sheep.
And that’s one way to prevent a close pass.
Close pass me now Mr. Driver… pic.twitter.com/CvmTGzkbeW
— Stayin' Alive at 1.5 (@SafeCyclingEire) May 16, 2019
Happy soggy Bike to Work Day!
Hopefully the weather will hold off, so you’ll be able to get out and ride your Bike to Work commute today.
And hopefully the LACBC and LADOT will both keep their promised morning pit stops, despite the forecast.
Especially since both promise fresh donuts and coffee instead of the usual Bike to Work Day energy bar fare.
Reminder. We have an awesome pit stop planned for tomorrow, #BiketoWorkDay on Spring St btwn 6th & 7th, 7AM-10AM. Ride your bike for free donuts, breakfast burritos, & @HighBrewCoffee! (while supplies last) Of course, the 2-way protected bike lane is pretty awesome too. #bikeLA pic.twitter.com/19EbKhV8Vr
— Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition (@lacbc) May 15, 2019
https://twitter.com/zrch4light/status/1128787896897458176
If no one shows up on Bike to Work Day, they can feel free to send any leftover donuts my way, since it looks like at least another month before I can ride my bike anywhere besides my living room.
Meanwhile, another 74 pit stops are promised throughout the LA area, though no telling whether they will still be there if it rains.
If your commute is too wet, you can hop a bus or train; most local transit systems are offering free rides to anyone accompanied by a bike or helmet today, including Metro and Metrolink. And if the rain lets up, the unimaginatively named Metro Bike bikeshare will be free, as well.
On the other hand, Santa Monica has wisely moved their Bike to Work pit stops at City Hall and the Bike Center to tomorrow, when the forecast calls for drier weather.
Photo by rawpixel.com from Pexels.com.
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A Pasadena man is recovering from critical injuries after he was run down by a hit-and-run driver while riding his bike across Orange Grove Blvd.
Police tracked the driver to a nearby apartment, where he was taken into custody on suspicion of being drunk and stoned behind the wheel.
And if the street sounds familiar, it’s the same one where Rose City NIMBYs were driven to a frenzy by a group affiliated with traffic safety deniers Keep LA Moving to demand that the city keep the street dangerous.
Clearly, they succeeded.
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Brayden Dakota captured bike cam video of a close call on a blind intersection near the Canoga Station on the Orange Line Bike Path.
Unfortunately, it’s not the first time I’ve seen video of a similar near-collision at that location. Hopefully someone will finally do something to fix the problem, so it will be the last.
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A new study from a German insurance company ranks Vancouver, British Columbia, as North America’s 2nd best city for bicycling.
The Canadian city was ranked 37th out of the world’s 90 top cities, compared to Montreal at 18th.
San Francisco was the best bike city in the US at 39th, followed by Portland and Seattle.
Not surprisingly, Utrecht in the Netherlands ranked first, followed by Munster, Germany, and Antwerp, Belgium.
Despite its vaunted cycle superhighways, London failed to crack the top 50.
Very surprising, though, was Los Angeles actually making the list at 56th, primarily because we ranked first for the world’s best bicycling weather, though you couldn’t prove it today.
Although we did make another much shorter list awhile back.
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Good long read from Curbed on reclaiming the feminist legacy of bicycling.
Recovering the feminist legacy of cycling requires overcoming the practical obstacles that keep women off bikes, and making sure women’s voices are heard in city planning. But perhaps most importantly, it will mean reclaiming the joy, pleasure, and sense of possibility that those early cyclists felt. Women deserve to reconnect with the idea that by riding our bikes we are creating a better future, for ourselves and for our cities.
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Evidently, it’s open season on bike riders.
A Wisconsin teenager was shot in the head as he was riding a bike, in an apparently random, apparently unintentional shooting.
And someone shot an Indianapolis man twice in the leg as he was on an early morning bike ride.
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More proof that drivers are the same everywhere.
A British Columbia driver calmly cruises down a bike lane, passing traffic on the right, before eventually turning onto a freeway onramp.
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Watch a hydraulic press destroy an odd assortment of helmets in a fun, but totally meaningless, demonstration.
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KCRW wants to know if Los Angeles can clean its dirty air. Unless the city provides viable safe alternatives to driving, no.
Streetsblog looks at Tuesday’s Blessing of the Bicycles at Good Samaritan Hospital in DTLA; Joni Yung offers photos from the event.
KABC-7 says the bike club at Los Angeles Leadership Academy is helping to keep kids motivated and headed in the right direction.
LADOT says plans are moving forward for safety improvements on Winnetka, including nearly a mile of bike lanes, spurred at least in part by the death of a 72-year old bike rider last September. I’m the first to criticize the city council when it’s called for, so let me thank CD3 Councilmember Bob Blumenfield for responding to this tragedy and helping push this project through.
The Pasadena Star-News previews Sunday’s 626 Golden Streets open streets event, which will see streets closed to motor vehicles through South Pasadena, Alhambra and San Gabriel, predicting a turnout of 20,000 people. With more rain forecast for Sunday, they may be right; turnout on a sunny day could be several times that.
The Downtown Pasadena Neighborhood Association will hold a pot luck meeting Thursday evening; among the items to be discussed are proposed enhancements to Cordova Street, including suggestions for a bike lane extending to Arroyo Parkway.
An internationally renowned Palos Verdes artist is staging his first show since he was nearly killed riding his bike on PCH in Malibu after finishing an organized century ride.
Long Beach votes to make e-scooters a permanent addition to the city, while tripling the number allowed.
Calbike says a pair of bike-friendly bills are making their way through the legislature, including tax vouchers for ebikes, which is scheduled for a vote in the Senate today.
A writer in an Ocean Beach paper says bicycling is great, but he’d rather have parking and his right turn on red back, thank you.
The 13th Annual San Diego Century ride rolls this Saturday, and will be passing through Ramona.
A 10-year old Cambria girl with cerebral palsy can ride a bike for the first time, after a nonprofit and a Texas bikemaker help provide her with an adaptive ebike.
Lyft promises to bring their Jump dockless ebikes back to the Bay Area by June, a full three months before they’ll return to the Big Apple.
Los Angeles should take a clue from Oakland, and add adaptive bikes for people with disabilities to the Metro Bike bikeshare.
There’s a special place in hell for whoever stole a paralyzed Richmond man’s mountain bike handcycle, a crowdfunding page to help pay for a replacement has raised $3,000 of the $10,000 goal.
No surprise here. A Sacramento teenager is suing the police for assault and excessive force, among other allegations, after officers intentionally ran him down on the sidewalk as he tried to flee a traffic stop — for not having a light on his bike.
A new study shows that 37 million Americans think they put themselves in danger from distracted listening while wearing headphones over the past year.
Uber tells its passengers to stop dooring bike riders already.
Let’s face it. What you really need is a good ale trail.
Forget the standard argument over bike lanes versus parking; near Salt Lake City, it’s bikes versus birds.
Denver is planning to add 17 miles of “high comfort” bike lanes this year, a down payment on the 125 miles planned for the next five years.
In yet another example of keeping dangerous drivers on the road until it’s too late, a Chicago-area driver fled the scene after running down a 6-year old girl on her bike, despite having a revoked license; the schmuck abandoned his truck — and his dog — then turned himself in the next day, most likely giving himself plenty of time to sober up.
A Minnesota letter writer says the law should be changed so kids can ride salmon, because her friend hit some bicycling teens 40 years ago.
No, 25News in Fenton MI, you don’t have to be an “avid” bicyclist to celebrate Bike Month.
A Boston bike shop manager and triathlete offers safety tips for riding your bike. And gets them right for a change.
A Syracuse NY public radio station discusses the meaning of Complete Streets.
A Pennsylvania TV station warns about breaking the law by allowing the bike rack on your car to block your license plate. That’s illegal here in California, as well, though it seems to be seldom enforced.
Baltimore’s drunken, killer hit-and-run ex-bishop is officially out of prison after serving just half of her seven year sentence for fatally running down a man riding a bike. Let’s hope she got sober while she was behind bars. And that a condition of her parole is no more driving. Period.
A Baltimore newspaper explains why car ownership continues to climb in the US, despite alternatives.
They get it. A North Carolina TV station says drivers need to do their part to improve safety by not parking in bike lanes and other multi-use lanes.
An Ottawa, Canada man is back in the saddle for the first time in a decade after he was critically injured in a bicycling collision, as he trains for a 2K ride on a walking bike — basically a three-wheeled adult balance bike.
Road.cc offers advice for British bike riders who’ve been in a crash, most of which applies on this side of the Atlantic, as well. We should all be jealous of a country where bicyclists are entitled to free legal advice.
The Department of DIY struck in the UK, where someone anonymously posted warning signs after a bike-riding girl was hit by a bus.
An English man rode his custom bike 9,500 miles across the US. And naturally had it stolen once he made it to California.
Um, okay. A Zambian witch-doctor was sentenced to 18 year hard labor for indecent assault against five elderly people that he blamed for using witchcraft to make a boy fall off his bike and die; he took them to a graveyard and made them undress and lie on a grave, then rolled on them to exorcize their powers.
Israeli authorities are charging an ebike rider for the death of a pedestrian after he went through a crowded crosswalk at 15 mph.
Wednesday’s Giro offered a preview of what the Amgen Tour of California riders may have to look forward to today.
French cyclist Remi Cavagna rode an “audacious” solo breakaway to victory in the Amgen Tour of California in Tuesday’s third stage. Although he could stand a few lessons on how to descend.
Evidently, Mark Cavendish is no fan of the AToC, comparing Monday’s second stage to sitting on an indoor trainer for seven hours.
Ventura sisters and pro cyclists Kendall and Alexis Ryan discuss women’s parity in cycling in advance of Thursday’s first stage of the truncated women’s Tour of California.
A sports website predicts misery and pain for the women’s teams in the Tour’s three stages, especially on Mt. Baldy and the final stage from Santa Clarita to Pasadena.
VeloNews calls the women’s race a dynamic route with a competitive lineup.
Don’t just watch Stranger Things, ride it. Seriously, if you’re a known gang member carrying a gun and heroin on your bike, put a damn light on it — the bike, not the gun. Or the heroin.
And why stop for lunch, when you can just have it delivered while you’re stuck in traffic?
Just in time for this year’s Ride of Silence, yet another person has died while riding or walking a bicycle, this time in Redlands.
According to the Redlands Daily Facts, a man was killed when he was struck by a driver while lying in the roadway next to a bicycle.
The 21-year old driver was returning home from work around 2:30 am Tuesday when she spotted the victim lying in the southbound lane of Orange Street north of Pioneer Avenue in Redlands, but was unable to swerve in time to avoid him.
The victim, publicly identified only as a 31-year old transient, was declared dead at the site.
The driver remained at the scene, and was not suspected of being under the influence.
There’s no word on why the victim was in the street, or if he had been riding or walking his bike.
It’s possible that he may have fallen off his bicycle for some reason, or he could have been the victim of a prior hit-and-run.
The speed limit on that section of Orange was either 40 mph or 45 mph, depending on which side of Pioneer the crash was on despite being in a residential neighborhood.
Either way, an impact at those speeds is unlikely to be survivable.
This is at least the 28th bicycling fatality in Southern California this year, and the fourth that I’m aware of in San Bernardino County.
My deepest sympathy and prayers for the victim and all his loved ones.
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Because of tonight’s breaking news stories, there will be no Morning Links today. We’ll be back tomorrow to catch up on anything we’ve missed.
If you’d like to remember the victims of this week’s crashes, or any of the other bike riders so needlessly lost to traffic violence over the past year, there will be Rides of Silence in Redding, Fullerton and Orange, as well as in Los Angeles and at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, and throughout Southern California.
Every traffic death is tragic.
But some are just too hard to take.
According to Mission Viejo Patch, an eight-year old boy was killed when he was struck by a car in Ladera Ranch Monday evening.
Second grader Jaxon Ortiz was riding his BMX bike near his Ladera Ranch home around 6:30 pm when he reportedly entered Orange Blossom Circle from a walkway without stopping for traffic.
He was hit by the car, even though the driver was only traveling at 15 mph, according to the initial investigation.
Ortiz was taken to Mission Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
Unfortunately, no cross street was given, making it impossible to pinpoint just where the crash occurred.
No other details are available at this time. And no explanation why Ortiz’ death hasn’t been reported by the mainstream media.
A crowdfunding page to pay funeral expenses and benefit his family has already exceeded the $50,000 goal, raising nearly $70,000 in just 15 hours.
This is at least the 27th bicycling fatality in Southern California this year, and the fifth that I’m aware of in Orange County.
My deepest sympathy and prayers for Jaxon Ortiz and all his family and loved ones.
Just a quick reminder that Doris Day was one of us, too.
The popular actress and singer who passed away over the weekend was a lifelong bike rider.
And the inspiration for one of the best quotes to ever come out of Hollywood.
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The war on cars is a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps going.
Sometimes literally.
An Oregon bike rider was run down by the driver of a Mercedes convertible after he stopped on the side of a road to check his map. And the driver — who witnesses said had been swerving recklessly all over the road — kept going, giving the victim the finger as he drove away.
Police are looking for a man in his 60s with a baseball cap and a Tom Selleck mustache.
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Speaking of the war on bikes, KCRW’s Press Play talks with the president of Burbank-based Pure Cycles about the effect Trump’s China trade war will have on his business.
Thanks to the increase in tariffs, the duties for Pure’s most recent shipment of bikes jumped from $30,000 to $50,000.
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This is who we share the roads with.
A Chicago driver speeding in reverse ran down a woman who was walking her dog in a crosswalk. And unbelievably, got off with just a pair of traffic tickets.
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Streetsblog talks with John Yi, the new executive director of Los Angeles Walks.
UCLA is considering changes to its bikeshare program, after confronting the same competition from dockless scooters challenging bikeshares throughout the US.
Culver City Walk & Rollers will host a bike themed student art exhibit this Saturday, addressing the question of “Why drive when you can…?”
Pasadena announces road closures for Saturday’s final stage of the Amgen Tour of California. Fortunately, the early announcement gives Rose City NIMBYs a full week to fume.
A Pasadena website looks forward to Sunday’s 626 Golden Streets: Mission to Mission. Which, of course, gives gives Rose City NIMBYs another full week to fume. Or make the same week, depending on how you want to look at it.
A bike-riding JPL climate scientist hasn’t flown in seven years to reduce his carbon footprint.
The Pomona Valley Bicycle Coalition will host a pit stop at Claremont Depot on Bike to Work Day, along with a Pomona Color Wheels Ride on Saturday.
An advocacy group passed out free bike lights at an Encinitas farmers market in advance of Bike Week.
San Diego celebrated the completion of a $16 million road reconstruction project to give San Ysidro students a safer route to school, with bike lanes and sidewalks replacing a dirt path.
Robert Leone forwards news on a series of San Diego area bike projects, including the completion of a rail-adjacent coastal bikeway in Encinitas, and updates on additional projects.
Fresno bike lanes get fresh Kermit., while to local police celebrate Bike Week by cracking down on bicyclists and pedestrians.
San Francisco vows to fix its deadly intersections after 13 bike riders and pedestrians have been killed in the city so far this year. Something tells me LA’s total would be a hell of a lot higher; we’ve already seen six bicyclists alone killed on Los Angeles streets.
That’s more like it. Oakland has added adaptive bicycles for people with disabilities to its bikeshare system.
The Sierra Club offers tips to keep your bike from being stolen, saying it may be Bike to Work Week, but it’s steal a bike week for thieves.
USA Today asks if ebikes are the answer to health, traffic and environmental issues. Short answer, yes. But not without safer places to ride them.
A healthy living website gives us five reasons why bicycling is better than driving, while Consumer Reports says bicycling to work can transform your body and your well being.
An Arizona public radio site looks at the controversy over plans to build a bike ranch — think dude ranch, but with bicycles instead of horses — across the street from Saguaro National Park.
Des Moines, Iowa, rips out a parking protected bike lane after drivers couldn’t figure it out and local businesses didn’t back it.
Dallas police bust the hit-and-run driver who ran down a bike cop over the weekend; the Lyft driver turned himself in after seeing the news coverage.
Arkansas continues to make itself a center for mountain biking with new trails at a number of state parks. Meanwhile, tiny Silverton CO vows to get some of that action, as well.
Heartbreaking story from Michigan, where the brother of a fallen bike rider took his own bicycle to the exact spot where his brother was run down, and finished the ride his brother couldn’t.
Ohio bike couriers are still in business, despite the rise of e-filing for court documents.
Columbus, Ohio dockless ebike startup will offer a bizarre looking green fat-tired bike-scooter hybrid.
Evidently, if you want to grind a little gravel, go to Vermont.
Boston considers cutting speed limits to 20 mph to improve safety, while an advocate called for doing something about the city’s stroads — multi-lane thoroughfares that represent a cross between a road and a street.
This is the cost of traffic violence. The victim of a fatal Brooklyn bicycling collision was just biking home to watch Game of Thrones with his dad.
New York’s mayor continues his bizarre opposition to ebikes, while other officials go about the business of legalizing them.
A Gotham letter-writer calls on the city to crack down on bicyclists who ride like many people drive, but cause far less harm.
Half the bicycling deaths in New York this year have occurred in Southern Brooklyn, which lacks the bicycling infrastructure installed in other parts of the city.
A New York bike racing tradition could be over, after a private company jacked up the use fee for a former naval station a whopping 22566%. And no, that’s not a typo.
This is who we share the roads with too. A Florida man was busted for crashing into a police car while drunk as a skunk and high on coke — and driving a riding mower.
An Edmonton, Canada city councilor says bicyclists, pedestrians and motorists are all responsible for road safety. Even though statistics show the people in the big, dangerous machines are responsible for almost all crashes in the city.
Canadian police continue to turn to 529 Garage for bicycle registration to help stolen bikes find their way back home, this time in Ottawa.
A British teenager is called a hero after jumping into the ocean to save the life of a friend who lost control of his bicycle and fell 15 feet into the water.
Add this one to your bike bucket list, mais non? How about a scenic 560 miles bike route through France’s picturesque Loire Valley to celebrate the 500th anniversary of the original Renaissance Faire?
Forty-one-year old former Olympic road cycling champ Samuel Sanchez has received a two-year ban for doping, even though authorities accepted his excuse that it was the inadvertent result of a bad supplement. And backdated the ban to cover the two years he’s already been out of cycling since testing positive in 2017.
VeloNews says America’s wide roads will have an impact on the outcome of this week’s Amgen Tour of California. And catches up with Belgian cycling legend Roger De Vlaeminck, who’s still racing today at 71.
It was a good day for a Danish rider at the Tour of California, and a better one for an American.
Upon further consideration, the winner of Monday’s third stage of the Giro didn’t.
Apparently, fixies serve no purpose and only appeal to rich people, which probably goes double for e-fixies. Los Angeles is bike friendly, or maybe it isn’t.
And ask not for whom the bugle blows.
It blows for thee, if you’re competing in the AToC.
