Sometimes, a crash can cause a heart to stop. And sometimes, a heart stopping can cause a crash.
This time, it looks like it may have been the latter case.
The Ventura County Star is reporting that a man died after suffering cardiac arrest following an ebike in Point Mugu State Park on Saturday, although the story is hidden behind a paywall.
The victim, identified only as a 68-year old man, was riding with a group of people in Sycamore Canyon when he crashed near Big Sycamore Canyon and Ranch Center roads sometime before 1 pm on April 11th.
His fellow riders tried to resuscitate him before county fire personnel and state park rangers arrived and took over; unfortunately, he died at the scene.
Sheriff’s investigators concluded he probably crashed because of a medical problem, although the exact cause will likely be determined by the Ventura County medical examiner.
A street view appears to show the location is a pair of fire roads in hilly terrain. Even on an ebike, the exertion could have brought on something that caused his heart to stop.
This the 25th bicycling fatality that I’m aware of in Southern California this year, and the third in Ventura County.
This tragedy once again raised the inevitable question of how old is too old to drive. And how can were identify drivers who can no longer operate their vehicles safely before something like this happens, rather than responding after it’s too late.
Streets Are For Everyone will host a Ghost Tire Memorial, similar to a ghost bike, but for other victims of traffic violence, at the site of the crash tomorrow to commemorate the people who were killed.
SAFE will be hosting a Press Conference and Ghost Tire Memorial on April 11, 2026 to honor the victims of the mass traffic fatality at 99 Ranch Market and call on our local government to take immediate action to prevent tragedies like this…
The Ghost Tire Memorial uses white-painted tires placed at fatal crash sites to honor victims of traffic violence and raise awareness about road safety.
Event Details:
Ghost Tire Memorial & Press Conference
Date: April 11th, 2026
Time: 10:00 am to 11:20 am
Location: 1360 Westwood Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90024
Event Timeline
10:00 am – Event begins
10:05 am – Ghost tires decorated
10:20 am – Carry ghost tires to the location
10:21 am – Moment of silence
10:22 am – SAFE founder Damian Kevitt introduces family members of victims
10:25 am – Family members of victims Speak
10:45 am – Family members of victims Conclude Speaking
10:46 am – Damian speaks, drops open letter & introduces coalition partners
Forget trying to find parking at the beach this summer.
Let alone high gas prices.
Metro Bike has opened a new bikeshare dock right on the sand in Venice Beach. So all you have to do is check out a bike somewhere, ride it to the beach, then just dock it and walk away.
Something tells me this is going to be the busiest bikeshare dock in the city. Never mind the opportunity to admire all the native art.
Sad news from Vermont, where longtime bike journalist, and former International Mountain Bicycling Association and BikesBelong/PeopleForBikes chief executive Tim Blumenthal has passed away after a two-year battle with cancer; he was 70 years old. I was flattered when Blumenthal reached out to me personally shortly after PeopleForBikes founded, that the head of the nation’s largest bike advocacy organization would even think a small-time bike blogger like me was worth his time.
Once again, a bike theft victim spotted his bicycle for sale on Facebook, this time in a Florida city, where the thief was met by cops when he arranged a meeting with what he thought was a potential buyer for the $1,200 ebike. That’s the right way to handle it, even though the cops aren’t always so willing to get involved.
Forget doping. New Zealand cyclist Kiaan Watts accepted a 25-day ban for punching another rider in the head during last month’s one-day Salverda Bouw Ster van Zwolle in the Netherlands; he was also fined the equivalent of $253 and had 25 UCI points deducted. Which means he’ll have to work that much harder to get enough points for a free Jumbo Jack.
Hyperion Avenue – As part of installing speed tables, LADOT reconfigured striping making Hyperion Avenue. This moved cars a couple feet further to the right, where cyclists ride, making the street even less safe for bicycling. I content that this reconfiguration triggers bike lanes and accessibility improvements approved in the city’s 2015 Mobility Plan. The city contends [staff report] that the reconfiguration was “restriping without other improvements” and therefore did not trigger HLA.
Vernon Avenue – As part of a peak-hour lane removal project (my reporting on similar projects), the city added more than a mile of new parking on Vernon Avenue. I contend that this project triggered HLA bus/walk/access upgrades. The city contends [staff report] the reconfiguration was “restriping without other improvements” and therefore did not trigger HLA.
Terra Bella Street – As part of a Metro-L.A. City light rail project, the city is working with Metro to remove Van Nuys Boulevard bike lanes and add partial bike lanes on Terra Bella Street as a replacement. The city plans omit the block of bike lanes closest to the new light rail station. I contend that the Terra Bella bike lanes trigger HLA, and that the city should proceed with the full planned extent, not dropping the bike lanes next to the station. The city contends [staff report] that the Terra Bella bike lanes do not trigger HLA because the city plans to slurry seal the street before making modifications.
The denial of the appeals means Linton can, at his discretion, file a lawsuit to force the city to comply.
He has already filed one lawsuit against Metro for failing to include the bike lanes required by HLA in the Vermont Avenue Bus Lane project; HLA requires the city to build out projects included in the city’s mobility plan whenever significant road work takes place.
And reworking the entire Vermont corridor would seem to be significant.
This time he’s going after the city for using numerous loopholes to avoid complying with the requirements of HLA — including LA Street Services ridiculous invention of the term “Large Asphalt Repair.”
That’s the city’s term for avoiding repaving projects that would trigger HLA, as well as requiring the installation of curb cuts to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act.
To the best of my knowledge, no other city in the world uses the term Large Asphalt Repair. Or would have the temerity to.
The new lawsuit alleges a number of violations, including, according to Linton,
Cesar Chavez Avenue/Sunset Boulevard (Figueroa Street to Alameda Street): Announced city project would follow a community plan updated after HLA cut-off; the announced version includes unprotected bike lanes, but the project triggers protected bike lanes.
Eagle Rock Boulevard (Avenue 32 to York Boulevard) – Late 2025 “large asphalt repair” projects over 660 feet long trigger protected bike lanes and pedestrian enhancements.
The fact that city leaders are going so far out of its way just to avoid building the mobility plan they already approved demonstrates why we need new leadership, in my relatively humble opinion.
Mayor Bass, and the majority of the city council, seem to be doing anything and everything they can not to make the streets of this city any safer, or any more welcoming to anyone not encased in a couple tons of steel and glass.
Bass frequently ties herself in knots patting herself on the back for how much crime has dropped, while failing to mention that crime has dropped nationwide, in cities she’s never been to, let alone led.
But it has not gotten any safer on city streets for bike riders and pedestrians, who continue to die at record rates.
In fact, the city has gone out of its way to hide the effects of traffic violence, no longer updating Vision Zero maps or releasing information about traffic deaths and injuries.
I don’t know who would make a better mayor for this city at this point.
Streets For All has endorsed Nithya Raman. And while I trust their judgement, I want her to show commitment to safer streets, and finding the funding to implement them.
But in the meantime, count me in the Anyone But Bass camp. And Linton’s lawsuits just scratch the surface of why I’m pitching my tent there.
Apropos of nothing, today’s photo is a corgi celebrating her 6th birthday by barely fitting into a Metro Bike basket.
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Speaking of Joe Linton, while his lawsuits and appeals have been filed in his personal capacity, here he takes a tour of the coming curb-protected bike lane on Colorado and Broadway in Santa Monica in his role as editor of Streetsblog LA.
And frankly, I had no idea he could ride that fast.
New curb-protected bike lanes under construction in #SantaMonica – on Colorado and Broadway
When someone is killed in a collision, the death certificate typically lists cause of death as “accident.” But SB 1071 would allow the cause of death to be amended to “homicide” if the driver is convicted of felony DUI, hit-and-run, or other felony charges.
However, in this case, homicide isn’t synonymous with murder. It simply means that the death was directly caused by the actions of another person, without implying intent.
But it does make clear that a death resulting from a traffic crime isn’t an accident.
And that after he was already stopped by police while driving her car two other times. The only reason she wasn’t charged with manslaughter prosecutors couldn’t prove she knew the boy was under the influence.
Although you’d think authorities might have done something the first time the kid was stopped by the cops, instead of waiting until he actually killed someone.
That was originally part of former Mayor Eric Garcetti’s Twenty-eight by ’28 list of transportation projects that were to be finished before the Games, until Los Angeles and Metro moved the goalposts by taking out the projects that were just too hard.
Because evidently, trying harder to accomplish the hard things just isn’t in our playbook.
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They’ve got a point.
Those little white car-tickler plastic bendy posts just ain’t gonna protect anyone from anything.
Public radio’s Marketplace visits LA’s Bike Oven co-op, calling it bike repair shop dedicated to giving you everything you need to learn how to fix your bike yourself.
A bill from Encinitas State Senator Catherine Blakespear to redefine ebikes and create a new class of electric motorbikes unanimously passed the Senate Transportation Committee; SB 1167 would require that ebikes have operable pedals and a maximum engine output of 750 watts or less, the same limit required under European Union rules.
Huntsville, Alabama is preparing to host its 17th annual Mayor’s Bike Ride, led by the city’s sitting mayor. Los Angeles hasn’t had a bike ride led by the mayor since Richard Riordan was mayor back in the ’90s. Which is also the last time a Republican held the office.
Ultra cyclist Justyna Jarczok somehow got her stolen bike back, albeit looking somewhat worse for wear, days after it was stolen with all of her belongings from a British gas station; her other things were found later in a nearby park.
An addendum to yesterday’s mention of the new DuoBell bike bell from Czech carmaker Škoda, which is actually just vaporware at the moment; designed to defeat noise cancelling headphones, the bell is a prototype, and may or may not make it into actual production.
Sixteen years in, about two-thirds of Hoboken’s intersections are now furnished with physical deterrents, and the city has hundreds of high-visibility crosswalks and dozens of curb extensions.
After especially extensive road upgrades in 2022, Hoboken saw 18% fewer injury crashes and a 62% reduction in serious injuries from 2022 to 2023.
The key, according to outgoing Hoboken Mayor Ravi Bhalla, who oversaw the project for the past eight years,
Bhalla successfully rallied support from within and outside of government, launching Hoboken’s Vision Zero Task Force in 2019. Public engagement, Francese says, was and is core to this. Community surveys and meetings allowed leaders to hear from multiple voices, “not just the loudest,” he says, and piloting changes at one or two intersections first allowed people time to test and assess new infrastructure before commitments were made on a larger scale…
Not only did community members come to better understand the reasons for certain changes, but many also got on board once they saw the changes in action. Community members now play a role themselves, flagging when infrastructure needs fixing and asking for specific upgrades at intersections that don’t have them. Public reporting of “near-miss” data also supplements close calls caught by city cameras that are being piloted around the city.
No one said it’s easy, or cheap.
Vision Zero failed in Los Angeles because the city failed to adequately fund it. And the first time there was significant pushback, city officials ran scared, cancelling fully funded and shovel ready projects in multiple council districts, including dangerous and deadly streets like North Figueroa and Temple Street.
Now there’s a campaign urging Mayor Bass and the City Council to declare a state of emergency regarding traffic violence — although that may fall to her successor, whoever that may be, after June’s election.
You’ll find my name on the petition calling for it.
The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.
No bias here. A San Diego writer says recent news that ridership on the city’s 30th Street bike lanes has risen to record levels is absurd, because she and her friends hardly ever see someone using it from their comfy seats at a local cafe, bike counters be damned. And the bike lanes aren’t accepted by the local community, and never will be. So there.
San Francisco police staged a ticket crackdown blitz on bicyclists and other micromobility users at the intersection of Powell and Market, following the release of the city’s latest High Injury Network map. Never mind that the real danger comes from motorists, it’s also illegal selective enforcement to focus on one group of road users at the exclusion of another. So unless they also ticketed drivers during that enforcement operation, all of those tickets can and should be dismissed.
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Local
A Los Angeles woman tallies up the cost of giving up her previous carfree lifestyle nine months ago. But you’ll have to find a way around Business Insider’s paywall, or sign up for a free trial that will automatically renew at 13 bucks a month unless you cancel it.
Honolulu’s bikeshare system is given only a 50/50 chance of survival after a series of setbacks left it with just half the number of bikes it needs to operate sustainably. Funny how many cities refuse to adequately subsidize bikeshare, active transportation and transit, but have no problem pumping hundreds of millions into subsiding the motor vehicle network.
A couple students from a Parisian political science institute learn the hard way that just because Manilla, Philippines is considered an “emerging cycling city” that doesn’t mean it’s going to be a smooth ride.
Competitive Cycling
Peoplepicks up the tragic story of Masters cyclist Colin “Creepy” Wilson, whose wife Tricia Jeffers was watching live online when he swerved to avoid a fallen cyclist during a race in Trinidad and Tobago, and severed his neck on the fence circling the course; his final words as he left for the race were “Tricia I going, I going to put us on the map.” Which he did, though not in the way either expected.
She argues that the opposition campaign is “both amazing and shocking. Also, laughable.”
The slogans on these signs are not just false, they are complete reversals of truth. That is organized disinformation.
So, first of all, there is no plan to remove all the parking from Overland Ave. Making this the top slogan shows that the people leading this campaign are consciously using a bait-and-switch approach to getting your attention.
She goes on to make the case that the project has been thoroughly vetted, and if people didn’t know about it, it’s only because they weren’t paying attention.
Actual, verifiable facts: The Better Overland project has been in process since May of 2024, and has been approved twice by the Culver City Council. Twice.
City staff held eight public meetings for the community, in addition to multiple private meetings with smaller organizations that were stakeholders in the process.
There were QR codes posted along the entire length of Overland Avenue so that everyone using the street could post their thoughts and ideas regarding Overland directly to the project portal. They received more than a thousand public comments, the vast majority in favor of the project.
It’s typical whenever a project like this goes in that some people will somehow insist there wasn’t enough public outreach, no matter how many times they were given an opportunity to provide their input.
Or that they were never informed, despite repeated efforts to do just that.
That was what happened in Playa del Rey, when opponents said they were never informed about the road diets to Vista del Mar, Pershing Drive and Manchester Ave, or given a chance to voice their objections.
Even though the project was designed by local residents, part of a multi-year public process that included several meetings at a local school, as well as outreach efforts to contact local residents.
So if anyone didn’t know about it, it was because they had their heads firmly buried in the sand at Dockweiler Beach.
Never mind that any increased congestion usually goes away as motorists find other routes, or other ways to get around, like walking or riding a bicycle.
Then there’s the ultimate trump card for the driving public, which seems to be in play with Better Overland, that officials are coming for your parking spaces.
Even though most homes have driveways, and the curb space along the street belongs to the city, not local homeowners. And any actual loss of parking is usually mitigated nearby.
It’s inevitable that no matter what a city does to prepare residents for road changes, some people will always complain. It’s human nature to resist change.
But as former New York DOT director Janette Sadik-Khan put it, people always fight to prevent changes. Then once they get used to it, they’ll fight to keep it.
LADOT is looking for input on creating a low-stress bikeway along Marmion Way and Monte Vista Street, rather than implementing the road diet long planned for the deadly, high-speed North Figueroa corridor.
Help us shape a safer Marmion Way! We’re working with @cd1losangeles to create a low-stress bicycle corridor and safer streets along Marmion Way & Monte Vista St. If you haven’t taken our survey yet, there’s still time to share your priorities! https://t.co/CKtSuPf8xipic.twitter.com/s435JuuhLS
The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.
Sad news from Tulare County, where the CHP was quick to blame the victim when someone riding a bicycle was killed after allegedly veering left in front of an SUV driver — which a local paper TV station reported by saying “it” veered in front of the SUV. Talk about a great job of dehumanizing someone. Never mind that what actually happened depends entirely on whether there were any independent witnesses, or if the CHP relied entirely on the driver’s perspective.
But sometimes, it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.
Portland, Oregon is launching a $20 million ebike rebate program to help pay for more than 6,000 ebikes over the next three years. Which compares favorably to Los Angeles, which has invested exactly $0 in ebike rebates to help improve traffic congestion and air quality by getting cars off the road.
Washington State is rolling out another round of ebike rebates up to $1200 for a Class 1, 2 or 3 bike, with recipients chosen by lottery. That compares favorably to California’s ebike rebate program, which now only pays for electric cars after the funding was stolen by the California Air Resources Board, aka CARB. Thanks to Megan for the heads-up.
You’ve got to be kidding. A 52-year old Arizona man died in police custody after he was repeatedly struck and tased by cops for fleeing a traffic stop — because he didn’t have a damn headlight on his bicycle.
There’s a special place in hell for whoever stole the bike and belongings of Polish endurance cyclist Justyna Jarczok, which she described as everything she owns, including her house keys, when she stopped at a gas station after winning one of the UK’s toughest bikepacking events; her belongings were found at a local park, but her rare Kona mountain bike is still missing.
Despite taking Friday’s post off, I still don’t have my taxes done.
I got up early Friday and got straight to work on them, only to run into a software problem that required nearly an hour trying to get past the company’s uncomprehending AI-based help line to actually speak to a human, who solved the problem in about five minutes.
Which left me wanting to punch the first robot I saw rolling down the sidewalk.
As a result, I didn’t actually get started on my taxes until Friday night, when I ran into a question with my wife’s forms that couldn’t be answered until the office in question opened Monday morning.
Good times.
And in my tax-driven stress Thursday night, I forgot to wish a happy Easter to all those who marked the day yesterday, so please accept my best wishes and apologies a day late.
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This is who we share the road with.
Fifteen people were injured, several seriously, when an alleged drunk driver plowed into a Loa New Year parade just outside of Broussard, Louisiana.
Todd Landry, 57, of Jeanerette, faces 18 counts of first-degree negligent injuring, driving while impaired and careless operation of a vehicle, among other charges, police said. Police do not believe the incident was an intentional act based on a preliminary investigation, officials said.
That’s good to know.
So it was just plain old-fashioned intoxication and stupidity, not terrorism. Which somehow doesn’t seem to make it better.
The movie tells the story of Kaitlin Armstrong’s 2022 murder of rising gravel pro Anna Moriah “Mo” Wilson in Austin, Texas, as well as Armstrong’s escape from custody to flee the country and avoid prosecution.
Armstrong was convicted a year later, after she was caught living in Costa Rica with a new face and identity.
He says now he just works alone in his repair garage, and regrets everything he’s ever done, wishing he’d never started racing so he would have never met Armstrong or Wilson, and she’d still be alive today.
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If anyone wants to get me an Easter/Passover gift, I’m registered here.
A 46-year old Colorado man is finally in custody, nearly a year after he used his car as a weapon to run down and seriously a man he knew while the other man was riding his bicycle; he was tracked down with the help of the FBI.
A Chicago bike rider was killed and two other people injured when an SUV driver blew through a red light and plowed through an intersection at 1:30 am Sunday, slamming into the bicyclist before continuing on to hit a car; the driver then abandoned his vehicle and literally ran away.
A 62-year old woman was killed riding her bike in New Orleans Sunday morning, in a tragic reminder to never trust other drivers to stop when someone stops to let you cross a street; the victim waited for traffic to clear, and started across when a driver in the right lane stopped for her, but an oncoming driver in the left lane didn’t.
London plans to provide two new east-west bike routes, after riders are banned from Oxford Street once it becomes pedestrianized. Hard to imagine a carfree Oxford Street, which was one of the busiest car sewers I’ve ever seen, second only to the Champs-Élysées in Paris.
I want to be like him when I grow up. After Chinese man lost his entire family over a period of two years in his 60s, he started bicycling, spending the next three decades criss-crossing the country, eventually switching to a tricycle as he continues riding at 90 years old. I mean, not about the bad stuff, but still.
Two Colorado bike races were named among the top ten in the US by USA Today, including the iconic Tour of the Moon featured in American Flyers, staring some guy named Kevin Costner; the Hotter’N Hell Hundred in Wichita Falls, Texas topped the list.
Even if I included everything I found, it would amount to what you could find on the back of an average breakfast cereal.
And I’m up against an immutable deadline to get our taxes done. No, not from the IRS; they only want it by 15th.
I’ve been buried up to my neck in tax prep all week because my wife insists it has to be done by this weekend. And she scares me a lot more than the feds do.
So I’m tossing in the towel tonight, and I’ll see you on Monday, when hopefully we’ll have enough news to make it worthwhile, and I’ll have about 1040 pounds off my shoulders and a small woman off my back.
AB 1740 (Zbur) makes it easier to build bike lanes, bus improvements, infill housing, and other multimodal projects in urban coastal communities. Right now, even straightforward street safety projects can get bogged down in the coastal permitting process. This bill would let qualifying urban communities move more quickly on projects that improve safety and reduce emissions, while still preserving coastal access and protections.
AB 1837 (Mark González) extends transit lane and bus stop camera enforcement and makes that authority permanent statewide. Illegal parking in bus lanes and at bus stops slows buses, creates unsafe boarding conditions, and makes transit less reliable. This bill would help keep transit moving and make bus service faster and safer for riders.
AB 1976 (Wicks), the Safe Streets Streamlining Act, tackles the process barriers that delay or kill good street safety projects. It changes local input requirements, ends unreasonable petition requirements for traffic calming, updates the pedestrian mall law, and creates a clearer path for cities to actually deliver the bike, pedestrian, and transit projects they have already said they want. California cannot keep saying yes to safe streets in theory while allowing them to be endlessly blocked in practice.
SB 1167 (Blakespear) cracks down on high-powered “e-motos” being sold as e-bikes. It tightens definitions, changes labeling rules, and requires sellers to clearly disclose when a device is actually a motor vehicle and not a legal e-bike. Real e-bikes are an important transportation tool. But that only works if the category remains clear and trustworthy.
AB 2015 (Wicks) helps cities keep slow streets actually slow by stopping navigation apps from routing cut-through traffic onto neighborhood streets that have been intentionally designed for local access, walking, and biking. If a city has decided that a street should function as a calm neighborhood street, app-based routing should not undermine that decision.
AB 1599 (Ahrens) creates a centralized California Transit Stop Registry. Transit stop data is often fragmented, inconsistent, and confusing across agencies. A statewide registry would make transit data more accurate and useful, improve coordination, and help create a better rider experience. The bill will also help us get more data on what amenities are at transit stops.
SB 1292 (Richardson) gives cities stronger curb management tools to enforce parking violations in places like loading zones, bike lanes, and crosswalks. Curb space matters, and mismanaged curb space creates safety problems, transit delays, and chaos on the street. This bill gives local governments more tools to manage that space better.
AB 2284 (Dixon) requires CHP to publish a list of devices that are being marketed as e-bikes but are not actually legal e-bikes. That kind of transparency would help consumers, schools, local governments, and law enforcement better understand what devices comply with California law and which ones do not.
AB 1833 (McKinnor), the Consumer Driving Data Protection Act of 2026,allows drivers to voluntarily opt into insurance telematics systems, with privacy protections, to better align insurance rates with actual driving behavior. This bill is about allowing safer driving to be reflected more fairly, while preserving strong guardrails around consent, data use, and consumer protection.
SB 1423 (Stern) would steer half of one of California’s biggest transportation funding sources toward projects that actually make streets safer. The bill would dedicate half of STIP funds, one of the state’s largest transportation pots of money, to projects that improve safety for people walking, biking, and taking transit. It would also simplify the application process for the state’s top safe streets grant program and elevate its identity as California’s flagship source of funding for street safety.
Budget Ask: A $200 million annual addition to the Active Transportation Program (ATP), which is our state’s premier pot of street safety funding. Last year, ATP only funded about 30 of the 350 projects that applied.
Meanwhile, Road.cc wrote that BP — the former British Petroleum — is encouraging drivers to deal with rising gas prices by skipping the pump and riding a bike instead. Which actually had me fooled at first.
No bias here. A San Diego letter writer says if you really want to help kids, skip the bike lanes and use the money for libraries, instead. Which sets up a false dichotomy between libraries, which should get better funding, and bike lanes, which improve safety for everyone on the streets, not just kids. Although you’ll have to find a way around the paper’s paywall to read it.
But sometimes, it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.
Great use of police resources. The Macomb, Georgia Police Department put their new drone to use in less than 24 hours by capturing a 14-year old kid speeding on his ebike. Next they’ll use it to bring in other dangerous desperados, like maybe a bunch of littering nuns.
Bodycam video is raising questions about a Texas cop’s takedown of a 16-year old kid, who make the simple mistake of trying to call his dad when the cop stopped a group of teens for rolling a stop sign; after taking the kid down, the cop then seized and searched the boy’s phone without a warrant.
A British bike rider is suing three police departments for the equivalent of $6.35 million, alleging they covered it up when a driver knocked him off his bike; the cops said he just fell off his bike, even though a witness said she saw the driver clip him. Which sounds a lot like when I was run down by a road-raging driver, and the LAPD concluded I somehow defied the laws of physics by falling to the left while making a right turn, but it never occurred to me to sue them.
China’s longtime bikemaker Flying Pigeon is shedding its traditional image as a self-destructing bicycle-shaped object, and using combination of flexible sensors, artificial intelligence algorithms and the internet of things to redefine the bikes from a simple form of transport into an “intelligent health management terminal.” Unless China Daily is pulling an April Fool’s joke, in which case they got me.
A 17-year British amateur, part of the country’s development team, was left brokenhearted when an insurance company refused to pay for three stolen Pinarello Dogma bikes worth a total of $20,000 because the thieves weren’t violent enough, and just walked away with the bikes instead of breaking in or causing major damage.
One that he says is repeatedly voted as one of the best places to live, as well as a great place to ride a bike.
The cycling here is also amazing. You can find miles of quiet country roads, there’s plenty of mountain biking trails around, and there’s even a disused railway nearby where hundreds of children learn to ride every week.
But it only took the death of someone riding a bicycle to “reveal how sickeningly awful some people in your local community can be.”
Regardless of circumstances and fault, the overwhelming feeling I have is of sadness and loss – somebody lost their life while out on their bike. There is never a reasonable explanation for this, it’s always a tragedy.
However, when I look at the local Facebook group, you wouldn’t think somebody had died, because on posts about it people are instead focused on the person being a cyclist, so it was probably their fault…
It shows how publications like the Daily Mail, Daily Express, and the Telegraph have done their job. Cyclists are dehumanised, and the people in my community demonstrate this better than any study or focus group ever could. If you’re killed on a bike, you deserve it.
Looking at the comments section, there are 19 direct comments at the time of writing. 15 of them are the standard bingo card comments about cyclists’ behaviour with no sympathy for somebody being killed. It’s sickening.
It’s a phenomenon I’ve encountered hundreds of times in writing this site, as has anyone else who has dared venture into the comment section following a news story that even mentions someone on a bicycle. Or who has had the temerity to venture into social media.
If the victim of a crash was on a bicycle, it had to be their fault, because the commenter once saw someone run a stop sign or a red light. Or maybe it’s everyone on two wheels, because none of us ever obey the law.
It’s an automatic case of collective guilt, painting us with the same broad brush used to disparage any group somehow considered “other.”
Even when it comes to people who simply disagree about some simple civic or political matter.
I’ve had my stomach turned by what I’ve seen, heard and read so many times it feels like a washing machine on spin cycle, discovering once again just how truly awful people can be.
Just as it has when I’ve heard hateful comments from people who seemed decent enough until they opened their mouths, apparently assuming that their distasteful opinion is so obvious everyone must share it.
Too often I’ve just kept my mouth shut and turned away to avoid an ugly fight.
I wish I had an answer, some sort of magical solution that would show them just how wrong they are, and shame them for their lack of compassion.
The research, recently published in Brain Communications, was conducted on a much smaller test group, but the people involved all had a specific disorder, drug-resistant epilepsy, that the scientists were examining when they made their discovery.
The study builds upon the already well-proven assertion that ‘physical exercise improves memory and learning in rodents and humans’. During the research period, however, the scientists found that participating in a pedalling exercise for 20 minutes caused ‘ripples’ to occur in a part of the human brain called the hippocampus, which where memories are formed and learning happens. These ripples directly led to an improvement in the subject’s performance in tests.
Those ripples also increased as the subject’s heart rate went up.
So go out and ride hard.
And maybe someday you, too, can pass a whole bunch of cognitive tests just like our president.
A writer for Czech carmaker Škoda’s We Love Cycling website examines how to make bikeshare even better, starting with connected, physically separated bike lanes and more stations in under-served areas.
Nothing like bad bike news to bring out the worst in people, bicycling makes your brain ripple, and add iron to make your bike go
He gets it.
A writer for Road.cc lives in rural Warwickshire, England, just outside of Stratford-upon-Avon, which he calls a beautiful part of the world.
One that he says is repeatedly voted as one of the best places to live, as well as a great place to ride a bike.
But it only took the death of someone riding a bicycle to “reveal how sickeningly awful some people in your local community can be.”
It’s a phenomenon I’ve encountered hundreds of times in writing this site, as has anyone else who has dared venture into the comment section following a news story that even mentions someone on a bicycle. Or who has had the temerity to venture into social media.
If the victim of a crash was on a bicycle, it had to be their fault, because the commenter once saw someone run a stop sign or a red light. Or maybe it’s everyone on two wheels, because none of us ever obey the law.
It’s an automatic case of collective guilt, painting us with the same broad brush used to disparage any group somehow considered “other.”
Even when it comes to people who simply disagree about some simple civic or political matter.
I’ve had my stomach turned by what I’ve seen, heard and read so many times it feels like a washing machine on spin cycle, discovering once again just how truly awful people can be.
Just as it has when I’ve heard hateful comments from people who seemed decent enough until they opened their mouths, apparently assuming that their distasteful opinion is so obvious everyone must share it.
Too often I’ve just kept my mouth shut and turned away to avoid an ugly fight.
I wish I had an answer, some sort of magical solution that would show them just how wrong they are, and shame them for their lack of compassion.
But that seldom seems to work in the real world.
And almost never in the virtual one.
………
Bicycling makes your brain grow.
And ripple, apparently.
A new study published in the journal Brain Communications builds on a Chinese study release last year that showed even brief periods of bicycling can cause growth in the hippocampus.
Those ripples also increased as the subject’s heart rate went up.
So go out and ride hard.
And maybe someday you, too, can pass a whole bunch of cognitive tests just like our president.
………
Staying on the subject of health, a medical specialist in iron deficiency and anemia suggests that an iron deficiency could affect your performance long before you actually develop anemia.
So stop by your neighborhood bar and toss back a few rusty nails every now and then.
It’s for your health, after all.
………
Local
Santa Monica is building a new curb-protected bike lane on Colorado Ave.
State
Streetsblog’s Damien Newton says the recent road rage incident in Newport Beach demonstrates the limits of painted bike lanes.
Irvine-based Rivian makes the obvious transition from electric truck builder to ebike maker to autonomous DoorDash delivery bot.
National
Surprisingly, the US Department of Transportation is making $1 billion available through the Safe Streets and Roads for All program, despite recent government cutbacks in active transportation funding.
There’s a special place in hell for whoever stole an adaptive ebike from a Las Vegas teenager with cystic fibrosis.
The traffic “expert” for a Denver TV station just can’t seem to figure out what the lines marking buffered bike lane are for — especially since he didn’t see anyone using it at the exact time he happened to be watching.
International
Cyclist looks at the year’s best insulated bicycling water bottles.
Bike Radar says anti-lock brakes could revolutionize mountain biking, even if they’re not quite ready for mass consumption.
It’s time to don your best tweed and hie thee to Saville Row for London’s most stylish bike ride.
A British bikeshare company is being investigated for false advertising for claiming to give you ten minutes free — but only after you pay to unlock their bikes.
A writer for Czech carmaker Škoda’s We Love Cycling website examines how to make bikeshare even better, starting with connected, physically separated bike lanes and more stations in under-served areas.
A 72-year old man was killed when he hit a low tree branch over an Australian bike path, even though officials had been warned about it a week earlier.
Competitive Cycling
IDL Pro Cycling says British cyclist Lorena Wiebes can still be beaten, despite achieving “Pogačar-like status in the women’s peloton.”
Finally…
If you left your bike on a US military base, get it from the MPs. Who needs a living room when you can have a fully equipped bike workshop?
And now you, too, can have your very own Cookie Monster bike. As long as you don’t need a seat, or pedals or anything.
………
Be safe, and stay healthy. And get vaccinated, already.
Oh, and fuck Putin.
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