Archive for bikinginla

Morning Links: Beverly Hills bike art, new Boddingtons bike ad, and smartphones are killing us. Literally.

October 23, 2017 / / One comment

Note: The weather forecast is calling for excessive heat and high winds for the next several days. If possible, plan your bike rides for early morning or after sunset when it’s a little cooler. If you have to ride your bike during the day, look for cooler, shaded routes, and take plenty of water with you — and drink before you’re thirsty. And watch for signs of heatstroke, in yourself and anyone you may be riding with.

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My wife and I stumbled on this piece by San Francisco artist Tim Weldon at the Beverly Hills Art Walk this past weekend, featuring genuine antique hand-painted tin cyclists on top.

It can be yours for a mere $1,500.

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British TV personality Melanie Sykes reprises her role from a series of classic Boddingtons beer ads from the 1990s, while proving once again that British ads are better than ours.

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We mentioned this story last week, but it’s worth a repeat.

Bloomberg accuses smartphones, and the distracted drivers who use them, of being behind the historic jump in traffic fatalities in the US, even as federal data collection that could identify the problem is getting worse.

Thanks to David Drexler for the reminder.

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Time flies. It’s been five years since Lance was stripped of his yellow jerseys.

E-mountain bike racing is headed to Temecula next month; maybe they’ll be racing on brand new Yamahas.

A Santa Barbara TV station says BMX racing is back, and it’s still rad.

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Local

The Radavist rides a Metro Bike bikeshare bike up the Angeles Crest Highway, and concludes it’s not that bad.

Popular bike riding route Topanga Canyon is now officially designated as a State Scenic Highway for the first three miles up from PCH. It would be more scenic without all those cars, but you can’t have everything.

If anyone happens to have a spare World Series ticket lying around, here’s your chance to uncover the Militant Angeleno’s secret identity.

 

State

Balboa Island gets the first bike corral in Newport Beach.

San Diego police will step up enforcement of trouble spots where bike riders and pedestrians have been injured.

Over 2,000 San Diego bicyclists were expected to raise $3 million to fight multiple sclerosis on Sunday.

The Ventura County Star looks at the Project Hero ride for wounded vets as it made its way through the county on the way to a Saturday finish in Malibu.

A Santa Maria woman was busted for fleeing the scene without stopping after plowing into an elderly man on a bicycle.

A San Luis Obispo bicyclist reminds motorists that the sign says “Share the Road,” not “Bicycles Get Out of My Way.”

No bias here. Bakersfield concludes that bicyclists and pedestrians were at fault in 73% of fatalities involving them in the city. At least some of the blame should go to high speed limits, inadequate bike lanes and a lack of crosswalks. Never mind that it’s highly unlikely that drivers were blameless in nearly three-quarters of all fatal crashes.

San Francisco one-ups LA by removing a new bike lane to restore a parking lane. Because having a free place to store a car is far more important that providing people with a safer place to ride a bike.

A pair of cyclists were seriously injured in Danville after a hit-and-run driver plowed into both of them. It’s bad enough when a heartless coward flees the scene after injuring one person, let alone two.

A San Raphael hiker speaks out about a 2015 altercation with a mountain biker in which she says the rider picked her up and threw her down an embankment, even though local cyclists call it fake news.

 

National

I don’t care if it has pedals. Any ebike that can do 70 mph is motorcycle, not a bicycle.

Outside takes a deep dive into the new Shimano groupo, designed to make your bike as smart as your car. Call me crazy, but I still think the rider should be the smartest part of any bike.

A Hawaii woman says police haven’t done anything yet, even though she can identify the person who reached out of a passing car to grab her bike basket, knocking her off her bike and leaving her with a concussion and afraid to ride again.

Colorado authorities are on the lookout for the Sneaky Cyclist Bandit, who makes his getaway by bicycle after robbing banks.

An estimated 60,000 people took part in San Antonio TX’s twice a year ciclovía; any event that has Corgis in bike baskets can’t be all bad.

There seems to be a growing trend of bike-by shootings; three Houston men were injured when two men on bicycles opened fire on their car.

An Oklahoma woman claims she was illegally detained and searched while riding her bicycle home from work. Just to be clear, police have to ask for permission to search your belongings under most circumstances, and you have a legal right to say no.

A Chicago TV station explains that bicycles aren’t allowed in some cemeteries because bikes are for recreation and are disrespectful to the dead, while cars are perfectly okay regardless of why or how people are driving them. Because no one would ever want to ride a bike to visit a loved one’s grave, apparently.

If you build it, they will come. The expansion of the bike lane network in Minneapolis is leaving some drivers frustrated, even though it resulted in a 66% increase in bike commuting rates in just four years, from three percent to five percent. And no, Minnesota bike riders aren’t required to use bike lanes even when they’re available — or handlebars, for that matter.

 

International

Bike Radar answers the eternal question of what bike lock is best to protect your ride. Thanks to Lester Walters for the heads-up.

Yes, the air is cleaner on separated bike lanes than in lanes right next to the traffic lanes.

The new Audi A8 will automatically lock its doors to keep bicyclists from getting doored. Which means you could theoretically keep someone trapped inside their car for hours just by circling their car.

Industry vets say bike shops should embrace our new dockless bikeshare overlords.

A Vancouver columnist writes a fake press release claiming local bike riders are reaching peak entitlement. A technique I thought was pretty funny when I used it for my junior high school newspaper. Never mind that he comes off like a total jerk.

Another Canadian columnist revives the “I’m okay, you suck” school of journalism, suggesting that he may be one of the few bike commuters who isn’t rude and doesn’t break the law, unlike all those angelic, law-abiding drivers, for instance.

Thirty “weird and wonderful” bicycles were paraded through the streets of Oxford, England in the first ever Great Britain Bike Off festival.

A British woman learns what it’s like to ride a bike for the first time as an adult.

The UK’s transportation minister says his goal is a world where a 12-year old can ride a bike safely, just don’t expect the government to make that happen. Although they may consider providing subsidies for ebikes to get more people riding.

German police say the bike-riding man who stabbed eight people in Munich wasn’t a terrorist, just a local petty criminal with mental problems.

 

Finally…

No, seriously, take a damn shower after you ride. If bicycling is the new golf, ebikes are the new golf carts.

And save those New Year’s noisemakers for the next time you’re attacked by magpies.

 

Category: Morning Links / Tags: , , , , ,

Morning Links: Meetings for 6th Street and new LA General Plan, and Burbank cops don’t care about a close pass

October 20, 2017 / / 6 comments

David Ryu, LA’s 4th district councilmember, is hosting a neighborhood meeting tomorrow to discuss safety improvements to 6th Street between Fairfax and La Brea.

While it seems unlikely that Ryu will approve the road diet local residents have been demanding in the wake of the Playa del Rey fiasco, this is our chance to fight for safety on a street that poses needless risks to bike riders and pedestrians.

And just maybe Ryu might prove me wrong.

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The LA Department of City Planning is hosting a pair of public meetings to gather input for the city’s new General Plan, in South LA tomorrow morning and Hollywood Wednesday evening.

The Have A Go website reports that almost no bicyclists attended an earlier meeting, resulting in virtually no one to give a voice to visions of a more bikeable, walkable city not strangled by motor vehicles.

This is your chance to envision a more livable city, and maybe — just maybe — see it become a reality in your lifetime.

Or you could just sit back and complain about it later, insisting you never had a say in the matter.

Just like all those people who suddenly found themselves shocked to discover LA has a mobility plan, or that Vision Zero calls for safety improvements on the streets they like to zoom along.

You can also give your input in a short survey, instead.

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Bike SGV hosts their Spooky Night Bike Train tomorrow.

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A cargo bike rider complains to Burbank police officers about just watching while a driver passes within inches of him and his two-year old daughter, directly in front of their squad car.

Naturally, they respond with their best Sgt. Schultz imitation by saying they didn’t see a thing, and asking if he shouldn’t he be riding on the sidewalk, anyway.

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In an update to Sunday’s fatal bike crash on PCH in Santa Monica, a Good Samaritan who stopped to help the victim says the Santa Monica police aren’t being forthcoming with the full details.

And she reports that the driver fled the scene and was chased down by witnesses to the crash, rather than returning on his own as the police had said.

Thanks to Jorge Casuso for the heads-up.

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A new bill signed into law by the governor gives local governments the right to seize cars used by pimps or Johns for prostitution.

However, drivers who flee the scene of crashes or use their cars to deliberately threaten or harm bicyclists or pedestrians are more than welcome to keep theirs.

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The British team doctor who sent the suspicious package that has left a cloud over Bradley Wiggins has walked away from the organization without talking to doping authorities.

The head of the Movistar team says 13.5 miles of Paris – Roubaix cobblestones are too dangerous to include in next year’s Tour de France.

A British writer says we may have entered the age of post-truth, but cycling got there decades earlier.

Doping has reached the dog world, as sled dogs in Alaska’s famed Iditarod test positive for Tramadol, the same painkiller that’s legal for professional athletes under current doping rules, and widely used — or abused — in the pro peloton.

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Local

Another missive from self-proclaimed lawyer Richard Lee Abrams, who accuses the city of placing bike lanes on busy streets where smog harms kids on bicycles, as an excuse to install road diets in an attempt to intentionally turn traffic congestion into an unbearable nightmare and force people to use subways and fixed rail. Which might sort of almost make sense if the recent Playa del Rey road diets were anywhere near rail lines. I’m also told the reason Abrams isn’t listed in the California bar is that while Abrams is his real name, he’s listed in the bar under another name. Sure, let’s go with that.

Police are looking for a possible bike-riding arsonist who may be responsible for setting four separate trees on fire in North Hollywood.

A Playa Vista photographer transforms trash into art, inspired by a garbage bin he discovered on a Chicago bike ride.

Carson is now home to eight Starbucks and a Jersey Mikes, and it’s getting a bike path along the Dominguez Channel. It’s also the home of the new LA Chargers, but nobody’s perfect.

Cycling in the South Bay’s Seth Davidson pens a hard-hitting piece about the failure of the Playa del Rey road diets, and the pain advocates felt when the news broke. However, while his solution to confidently take the lane instead of fighting for bike lanes may work for some of us, it doesn’t address the 8 to 80 problem, or encourage the vast majority of people who might like to ride their bikes if they weren’t so afraid of traffic to get out and try it.

 

State

San Diego’s Bikes for Boobs has raised $23,000 for breast cancer prevention.

No, Bakersfield 23ABC News, bike lights and helmets might make bike riders safer, but they won’t do a damn thing to improve the streets.

A San Luis Obispo County rehabilitation nurse urges bicyclists to stop riding up and down the Nipono Mesa hills in the traffic lanes where they have every right to be, because unsuspecting drivers would never in their wildest dreams imagine that anyone might actually do that. So the problem isn’t clueless and careless drivers, but the people on bikes who might be in their way. Got it.

Speaking of SLO, a letter writer says drivers are fed up with road diets and sacrificing parking spots to make room for all those damn bike lanes, questioning whether that really helps the cause of bicycling.

San Francisco clears away the last of the homeless encampments blocking a popular bikeway, and a TV reporter discovers what may be the city’s most dangerous bike lane.

The Santa Rosa train may have been SMART, but riding in front of it with headphones and talking on a cellphone, not so much.

A bicyclist who lost his sight to diabetes will take part in this weekend’s Shasta Wheelmen Wildcat Granfondo in Redding, despite surviving a pair of double kidney transplants.

 

National

The best technical minds in America are hard at work answering the single most pressing issue regarding driverless cars: Who’s at fault when they crash?

A new device promises to let you carry your bike suspended across your back. Wouldn’t that just make it bang into every branch, bush, rock and signpost along the way? Not to mention any people you happen to pass.

A woman discusses what she learned on a 4,274-mile bike ride across the US from Virginia to Seattle.

A kid riding to school shouldn’t have to jump off his bikes and roll out of the way to avoid getting run over, like this boy in San Antonio TX.

Caught on video: A man steals a laptop from inside an Oklahoma hospital without ever getting off his bicycle.

A 16-year old Minnesota driver is accused of using Snapchat seconds before he plowed into a bike rider.

A Minnesota theater is rumored to be haunted by the ghost of a bike riding actress, who was killed in a crash after the spirit first appeared, making the ID seem unlikely.

A writer in Albany NY explains how he became a bike person, and discovers that how we move around our community matters. And it’s really fun, too.

Former Olympic gold medal track cyclist Marty Nothstein announces his bid for Congress as a Republican in Pennsylvania’s 15th district.

In what sounds like the theater of the absurd, New York’s mayor announces plans to fine the employees of ebike delivery people; for reasons that escape most rational people, it’s illegal to use the nonpolluting bikes on Gotham streets. Better to make delivery people pedal for eight hours a day, or maybe just use a massive SUV like the mayor does.

The parents of a ten-year old New York girl credit her $40 bike helmet with saving her life after a nearly four-ton forklift rolled over her head as she was riding her bicycle.

A doubly bighearted Virginia deputy bought a new bike for a ten-year old boy after his was stolen. Then bought a second bike for another boy who didn’t have one.

 

International

Cycling Weekly lists the eight types of cyclists you see on every winter ride. Seriously, just get out and ride your bike, wherever and however makes you happy. And screw the labels.

A British woman is looking for the apparently drunk or stoned man who crashed his bike into her and her friends, then jumped up and started punching them, breaking her nose and knocking her friend out cold.

Caught on video too: An English bike rider get assaulted by a road raging driver, after flipping him off for a dangerously close pass on a blind curve.

A new Danish ebike is too fast to legally be used on the streets in the European Union.

An Egyptian woman is training to become the first woman to ride solo around the country.

The Lord Mayor of Melbourne, Australia calls Singapore-based dockless bikeshare provider oBike a shadowy organization that has hurt the chances for other bikeshare providers.

 

Finally…

Maybe this explains why a Huffy rides like a sewing machine. Who knew a traffic light was the cure for the bicyclists God complex?

And apparently, it’s bad luck to steal a bicycle from a police station.

 

Category: Advocacy & Politics, Morning Links / Tags: , , , , ,

Morning Links: The death of LA’s Vision Zero, safety improvements in Mar Vista, and more kindhearted people

October 19, 2017 / / 31 comments

Vision Zero, in any meaningful sense, is dead in Los Angeles.

We may see incremental improvements; a new crosswalk here, a bike lane there. But only if they don’t adversely affect anyone on four wheels.

Which is not what Vision Zero is about.

But any meaningful attempt to reduce traffic deaths to anywhere near zero in finished.

That’s because CD11 Councilmember Mike Bonin and LA Mayor Eric Garcetti jointly announced yesterday that they are caving in to the angry NIMBY and driver-led backlash, and ripping out the bike lanes and road diets in Playa del Rey.

Although that’s not the way they put it.

And in the process, throwing bicyclists and anyone else who fought for the changes under the bus. Perhaps literally.

They present it as a compromise, with a long list of pedestrian-focused improvements that won’t do crap to protect people on bikes, slow traffic or prevent crashes between motorists.

But let’s be honest.

This is a compromise like Jim Bowie and Davey Crockett compromised at the Alamo.

Those pedestrian improvements were already planned as the next phases of the community-driven process to improve safety in Playa del Rey — after the road diets, not in place of them.

So instead of improving safety and livability in the area, it will go back to being a virtual freeway for pass-through motorists.

Except now the city will be on the hook financially for every death and injury that occurs in the area, after removing the safety improvements designed to prevent them.

It’s a liability lawyer’s dream.

Worse, though, is the potentially fatal damage it’s done to Vision Zero in Los Angeles, as few, if any, councilmembers will be willing to subject themselves to the hate and vitriol Bonin and his staff have faced.

It’s a surprise they held out as long as they did.

Chances are, road diets are now off the table in this city. Perhaps permanently.

The same with installing the bike plan, which is no longer worth the silicon it’s printed on. Or any other substantive street changes that inconvenience motorists in any way, or makes NIMBY home and business owners sharpen their pitchforks and light the Tiki torches.

Even if they’re the ones who’ll benefit from it.

And even though Vision Zero was never about crosswalks or enforcement — or cutsie football videos — but about redesigning the roadways so that when people act like people do, their mistakes won’t be fatal. To them or anyone else.

Which is what these road diets were supposed to do.

But we’ll never know if they would have succeeded or not, because they were never given the chance.

I’ve long questioned whether LA’s leaders had the courage and conviction to make the tough choices Vision Zero would require, and withstand the inevitable criticism that would be directed their way.

They’ve answered with a resounding no.

The odd thing, though, is that Garcetti somehow got his name attached to the plan to restore traffic lanes — and got top billing, no less.

Even though he didn’t do a damn thing to implement or support the road diets. Or any of the other traffic safety improvements that have gone down to defeat under his tenure, from bike lanes on Westwood Blvd to sidewalks on the Hyperion-Glendale bridge.

He hasn’t shown up for a single public safety meeting since announcing Vision Zero to great fanfare two years ago. Or made a single public statement in support of Mike Bonin and the desperately needed safety changes in Playa or Mar Vista.

And yet, he gets full credit — if that’s the word you want to use — for restoring the Playa del Rey streets to their original dangerous condition, and thrusting a dagger through the heart of his own signature safety policy.

It’s been seven years since the late Bill Rosendahl stood before the city council and proclaimed that car culture ends today in the City of Angels.

He was wrong.

It’s clearly just getting started. And we will all pay the price.

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In better news, The Argonaut reports on the figures released last week showing safety improvements and a reduction in speeding on Venice Blvd following the recent lane reductions.

However, traffic truthers refuse to accept the results; the leader of the Bonin recall effort tried to claim the street was actually more dangerous, because injuries went up on a per capita basis since there was a drop in traffic.

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Today’s common theme, kindhearted people — mostly in blue.

An Ohio sheriff held back bicycles from a property auction, insisting that they be given to kids and adults who need them instead.

Tennessee cops pitch in to buy a man a new bicycle, after the one he relied on to get to work was stolen.

A Florida man bought a new bicycle for a boy who was run over by a distracted driver as he was riding to school; unfortunately, he’s too scared to ride it.

But Michigan cops got it backwards, buying a car for a woman who rode her bike or took a bus 13 miles to work for years.

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Women’s racing takes a big step back, as the Tour de France cut’s the women’s La Course back to a single day.

Austrian cyclist Christoph Strasser set a new indoor 24-hour record at 585.25 miles, and vows to never ride on a track again; he’s a four-time winner of the Race Across America.

And SoCalCross offers a video recap of the year’s first cyclocross race at Irvine Lake.

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Local

The city council’s Public Works and Gang Prevention Committee approved a motion to paint LA’s bike lanes a dull, non-reflective green, prioritizing the convenience of the film industry over the safety of bike riders. After all, it’s just so damn hard for film crews to cover-up a bike lane with some sort of mat, let alone fix it in post.

LADOT has installed what appears to be a very problematic bus loading platform in the bike lane on First Street in DTLA, which forces riders up a sharp ramp while creating a crowded conflict point when people board or get off; as passengers adjust to it, they will likely start to wait on the platform, blocking the bike lane.

UCLA parking meister Donald Shoup has been honored with the 2017 Distinguished Educator Award, the highest honor offered by the Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning; Shoup’s work has changed the understanding of the hidden costs of parking around the world.

Musician Andrew Bird used the LA River as his muse, inspired by his bike rides along it.

CiclaValley M.A.S.H.s gears up the Bulldog.

 

State

A 60-year old San Diego man was seriously injured when a woman crashed into his bike in Pacific Beach.

I want to be like him when I grow up. An 81-year old San Diego County man just finished a 4,300-mile ride across Canada.

Construction of a new bike path has Santa Barbara residents on edge, as road surface grinding is keeping them up at night.

If people in San Luis Obispo look depressed, it’s because they’re no longer the happiest city in the US. It’s probably no coincidence that every city in the top five is ranked silver or higher on the Bike League’s list of Bicycle Friendly Communities.

A San Francisco bike cop is in grave condition after he was run down by a suspect, who was arrested several hours after fleeing the scene.

 

National

Bicycle Times offers advice on how to clean your dirty, dirty bike.

Rails-to-Trails recommends some haunted pathways for your pre-Halloween riding pleasure, including one with a ghost bike. No, literally.

No surprise here, as the Washington jerk bicyclist who injured a pedestrian after yelling “hot pizza,” expecting her to jump out of the way, is now facing a lawsuit; he uses the same excuse drivers do, saying 3 mph pedestrians shouldn’t mix with cyclists doing 15 mph.

What’s one way to jeopardize a football scholarship at Texas A&M? Stealing a bait bike is a good start.

Bike PGH meets up with carfree former Trojan and current Pittsburgh Steeler JuJu Smith-Schuster.

Now that’s more like it. A New York man was sentenced to five to 15 years behind bars for the hit-and-run death of a bike rider; more importantly, he received a lifetime revocation of his driver’s license. Which should be automatic for any driver in any hit-and-run.

DC has become a testing ground for dockless e-bikeshare.

 

International

A new documentary takes a look at MAMILs, following four men from the US, the UK and Australia. Which should be required viewing for anyone who makes fun of middle-aged people on bikes, spandexed or otherwise.

Road.cc explains how to stop the dreaded speed wobbles.

Bicycles are making a comeback in Cuba.

A Canadian newspaper talks with Danish bicyclist Ole Kassow, who created the Cycling Without Age program.

Ed Sheeran won’t be one of us for a while, after realizing the next day that he had fractured not one, but both arms when he was hit by driver while riding in London; he had to cancel his upcoming Asian tour.

Motorist and bicycling groups both condemn calls for British bicyclists to be required to carry numbered license plates.

A Turkish librarian operates his own personal book bike, towing books for children from village to village in a bike trailer.

An Aussie newspaper says kneejerk decisions to confine dockless bikeshare bikes to specified parking areas defeats the whole purpose.

 

Finally…

Maybe Bonin should have just used a coloring book. Evidently, we’re just sidewalk speeding cyclos.

And the left lane of the southbound 5 Freeway in Newhall Pass may not be the best place to walk your bike.

Especially before 6 am.

Thanks to kdbhiker for the photo.

Category: Morning Links, Vision Zero / Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Morning Links: Bikeshare in the news, no justice for a fallen Brooklyn rider, and crowdfunding a kids bike book

October 18, 2017 / / One comment

Once again, today’s common theme is bikeshare.

Dockless bikeshare continues to boom in Seattle, as the city’s two providers increase to 3,000 bikes apiece.

Baltimore’s bikeshare system is sort of back, with just 50 bikes at nine stations; a much larger system was shut down a few months ago due to problems with vandalism and theft.

DC could soon pass Portland as the nation’s bicycling capital, thanks in part to thriving bikeshare, though advocates question whether it has the infrastructure to support it.

Melbourne has new rules for dockless bikeshare to keep bikes from ending up in the river.

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A New York woman concludes her hard-hitting series of articles on the death of her sister in a Brooklyn collision. And the runaround her family received from the NYPD and judicial system in trying to learn what happened and getting any sort of justice.

If you can call a 90-day license suspension justice.

Thanks to J. Patrick Lynch for heads-up.

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You have just 13 days to help fund a new children’s book about bicycles, and the animals that ride them.

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Bicycling says the cobblestoned 2018 Tour de France could be the best in recent history.

The LA Times says Chris Froome could face a challenge from Tom Dumoulin as he goes for a record-tying fifth win in the Tour de France. Could have sworn I once watched some guy win seven consecutive tours, but I must have been on something.

Speaking of Froome, he was awarded the Velo d’Or as the best cyclist of 2017.

A new documentary about pro cyclist Rose Osborne proves it is possible to quit happily.

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Local

Sad news from Boyle Heights, where one bike rider was killed and another injured in a shooting early yesterday morning.

South Pasadena will consider improvements to Monterrey Road at tonight’s council meeting, including bike lanes and better sidewalks. Thanks to Bike SGV for the tip.

West Hollywood’s Community Development Department has created a plan to increase business and livability in the city’s Eastside, including bike and pedestrian improvements. Although proposals to add parking are more likely to induce traffic.

 

State

Garden Grove’s Hazard Ave will get a pop-up separated bike lane this Saturday, along with other activities for adults and kids designed to spark a conversation about how the street can be improved to make walking and biking safer and more fun.

The 450-mile Project Hero Road 2 Recovery Bike Tour stops in Salinas on its way down the coast; the ride raises awareness of PTSD and other mental illnesses faced by veterans.

Former pro Levi Leipheimer is helping send 1,000 kids bikes to Sonoma County to replace bicycles lost in the recent fires — despite losing his own home.

An Op-Ed in the Sacramento Bee says the city must become more pro-bicycle if it’s going to have any chance of landing the new Amazon headquarters. Which is why Los Angeles doesn’t have a prayer.

 

National

Bloomberg says government data is missing the mark when it comes to distracted driving, suggesting it’s the most likely cause of the recent spike in traffic fatalities involving bicyclists, pedestrians and motorcyclists.

Soon your solar powered helmet could call for help when you crash. Or if you throw your helmet at the car that just ran you off the road.

Strava is now turning into even more of a social media, allowing members to post to the site just like the pros do.

Men’s Journal lists the ten best places to ride your bike this fall. None of which are in California.

City Lab says if you drive less than 10,000 miles a year, you’re better off using Uber or Lyft than owning a car. Or you could just, you know, ride a bike, instead.

Chicago is finally completing a bike and pedestrian bridge that had been blocked by long–serving alderman, possibly for racial reasons.

 

International

British Columbia bike advocates propose higher penalties for negligent and aggressive drivers, as well as drivers who door or harass bike riders. Maybe we can copy it here in California.

The CBC profiles a Manitoba maker of custom adaptive bicycles, who changes lives by giving disabled people a chance to ride.

A kindhearted Canadian bike shop owner gives a six-year old girl a new bike and helmet after hers was destroyed in a collision that left her seriously injured.

An American man could face charges for the death of a rising young bike racer in Toronto earlier this month.

A new report says Toronto courier and delivery companies should use more cargo bikes. Thanks to Norm Bradwell for the link.

Britain’s rabid tabloid press is likely to seize on a new survey showing half of all respondents think bicyclists should have to take a proficiency test; 86% want harsher penalties for scofflaw cyclists, and 59% think bikes should have license plates.

Speaking of the British press, the media distorts the risk bike riders pose to pedestrians, while downplaying the risks riders face.

British police are looking for a road raging bicyclist who tried to stop a motorcycle and snatch the keys, then pushed the rider off his bike, breaking both his legs.

A Dutch city opens what may be the world’s first 3D printed bike bridge.

When the new BMW is set in semi-autonomous mode, it’s designed to pass bicyclists at a dangerously close distance unless drivers use their turn signals. Which LA drivers seem to be pathologically incapable of doing.

New research shows that people in Australia’s Victoria state don’t ride bikes for exactly the same reasons people just about anywhere else don’t.

Caught on video: Aussie police are looking for an idiot driver — and I use the term advisedly — who drove up on the sidewalk to pass slower traffic, nearly running down a bike rider in the process.

 

Finally…

Always carry a selfie stick to defend yourself from creepy clowns when riding your bike. Don’t ask drivers to put down their phones; just spray yourself with reflective paint until you glow like a clown, creepy or otherwise, so maybe they’ll see you anyway.

And evidently, cyclocross isn’t just a ride in the park.

 

Category: Bikeshare, Morning Links / Tags: , , , , , ,

Morning Links: Second LA River Valley Bikeway meeting tonight, and protesters go nuts over Nazi bike lanes

October 17, 2017 / / Comments Off on Morning Links: Second LA River Valley Bikeway meeting tonight, and protesters go nuts over Nazi bike lanes

CiclaValley reminds us about tonight’s public meeting to consider the LA River Valley Bikeway and Greenway project.

The project, which will link Universal City to Canoga Park along the LA River channel, is a key step in plans for a continuous bikeway along the entire length of the LA River.

But as he points out, some of the sections are a little problematic, to say the least. And as always, there are those who oppose any sort of bikeway, anywhere.

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In what has to be the most absurd bikelash story of the decade, twenty people and a dog turned out to protest bike lanes in Minneapolis, calling them Nazi lanes and Mafia lanes.

Seriously?

A little white stripe of paint on the side of the roadway is somehow comparable to the hate-based regime that murdered millions of innocent men, women and children?

It makes a little more sense you consider that the protest began as a hoax before sucking in the kind of people who apparently believe everything they read online, including a pair of city council candidates.

Although something tells me the dog wasn’t there by choice.

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After that, let’s take just a moment to regain our sanity and consider the thoughts of a professional truck driver from the UK regarding those of us on two wheels.

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Local

Evidently, once cars can drive themselves, traffic congestion will cease to exist.

LADOT proposes the latest round of speed limit adjustments mandated by the deadly 85th percentile law; surprisingly, there are a number of decreases, as well as the expected increases.

A writer in the LA Times relates the challenges of dating with a carfree lifestyle.

Caltrans and LA County consider reopening Highway 39 through San Gabriel Canyon, which has been closed since it was shut down by a rock slide in 1978.

Santa Monica’s Big Blue Bus system has begun installing sensors to help avoid collisions with bike riders.

Cycling in the South Bay reveals the winners of Saturday’s 2017 South Bay Cycling Awards.

 

State

Transit has languished in San Diego as driving mode share increases; bike commuting has decreased by a third since 1990.

A couple were both stabbed as they searched for a stolen bicycle in Coachella early Saturday; fortunately, they should recover.

Johnny Cash’s daughter Cindy officially opened Folsom’s new Johnny Cash Trail.

A San Francisco columnist goes undercover to discover if cyclists really are jerks like some drivers think we are. And discovers happy, healthy people, without a single jerk in the bunch.

We mentioned this one last week, but it’s worth repeating for anyone who missed it, as a Santa Rosa woman escaped the Sonoma County wildfires by bicycle, with her 70-pound dog in a duffel bag. Thanks to Doug Moore for the reminder.

 

National

If you’re in the market for a new job, VeloNews is looking for a pro cycling reporter with limitless energy and an inquisitive mind. Both of which count me out.

Bicycling explores the reasons people started riding their bikes, including thank you letters to Greg LeMond, and Richard Masoner of Cyclelicious.

Oregon’s new distracted driving law comes with a $260 fine for a first offense, rising to $435 for a second offense or one causing a crash, and up to six months in jail for a third. That compares to California, which has a measly $20 fine for the first offense, and $50 for each additional offense, thanks to Jerry Brown’s veto of a bill that would have increased the absurdly low penalties.

Phoenix installs its first protected bike lane. If you consider a few flimsy plastic posts protection.

A Colorado man rode and biked to the summit of each of the state’s 100 highest peaks in just 60 days.

An Idaho baby visited ten states by bike before she’s even a year old.

A Milwaukee writer says his problem with a proposed bike boulevard is that it isn’t about bikes, it’s about a mindset that historically favors people on four wheels.

There’s a special place in hell for anyone who’d intentionally shoot a 12-year old Chicago boy as he was riding his bike.

A Chicago-area writer says bicycling to work in the suburbs requires more risk and effort, but it’s worth it. Meanwhile, the Washington Post says bike commuting means better health and a longer life. But you already knew that, right?

A Michigan man faces up to 15 years behind bars after pleading guilty to the hit-and-run death of a nun riding her bicycle; he claimed he had hit a deer.

A former Tennessee hall of fame basketball player is riding nearly 1,100 miles to honor her late coach, and raise money to fight Alzheimer’s.

Police in a Massachusetts town plan a crackdown on packs of teen bicyclists who swarm cars and block traffic.

Don’t blame a van for trying to strike a South Carolina bike rider twice, it was the effing jerk behind the wheel.

A group of Atlanta lawyers formed an organization called Cycling for Good to deliver food, toiletry and personal items to areas frequented by homeless people.

 

International

You’d think cops would know enough not to door someone, but evidently, you would be mistaken, as Toronto police officers hit a passing bicyclist with the door of their cruiser.

Also in Toronto, the debate over bike lanes goes on, as a writer says we got used to traffic lanes for motor vehicles, and we’ll get used to bike lanes, too. Meanwhile, another writer says enough with the data, we already know bike lanes work. Thanks to Norm Bradwell for the link.

In celebrity news, Ed Sheeran broke his arm when he was hit by a car while riding his bike in London. And Taylor Swift is one of us, riding a bike on London’s Millennium Bridge as she films her latest video.

An Op-Ed in the Guardian says we need fewer cars, not cleaner ones.

Caught on video: A British bike rider learns the dangers of riding salmon around a blind curve the hard way.

A British writer asks why some people hate cyclists, concluding that the solution lies in less pontificating and more mutual understanding.

Killer drivers in England and Wales could face life in prison under a proposed new law, however, it would not apply to Scotland or Northern Ireland.

Copenhagen’s bike boom hits a speed bump, as bike commuting rates have dropped 4% since 2014.

A French website says Lance brought dishonor to the Legion of Honor; he was removed, while Mussolini and Vladimir Putin — and so far, Harvey Weinstein — remain on the list.

In a photo that’s gone viral around the world, the new prime minister of the Netherlands locks his bicycle up on his way to meet the king; a Pakistan website seems to like the idea. Thanks to Tim Rutt for the heads-up.

A South African website asks if violent attacks on bicyclists are increasing in the country.

A change in the law allowing bicyclists to share footpaths in Australia has not resulted in any additional problems, although one paper looks at the same stats and sees a lack of enforcement.

An Aussie pro cyclist tells Viennese border guards to Google him after a visa mix-up leaves him in danger of deportation.

 

Finally…

LA bicyclists hardly ever have to worry about kangaroo crashes. If you’re going to steal a bike, it’s only polite to leave another one in its place.

And if you insist on running down the jerk who stole your bicycle, try not to hit a pedestrian and ruin your own bike in the process.

 

Category: Morning Links / Tags: , , , , ,

Update: Man killed in rear-end collision in Santa Monica while riding on LA County’s killer highway

October 16, 2017 / / 9 comments

Once again, someone has been killed riding a bicycle on PCH.

According to the Daily News, a man in his 20s was riding north on the 200 block of Pacific Coast Highway around 7 pm when he was struck from behind.

A press release from the Santa Monica Police Department places the initial call at 7:03 pm.

The victim died at the scene. He has not been publicly identified pending notification of next of kin.

No word on whether he was using lights at the time of the crash, which came nearly 45 minutes after sunset.

The driver initially fled the scene, but returned shortly later, which should be considered hit-and-run, but probably won’t be. Police are investigating why the driver failed to stop after the crash.

The person driving, who has not been identified in any way, is not currently suspected of being impaired; no word on whether distraction was involved, or why the driver failed to see someone on a bike directly in front of them.

A street view shows a six-lane highway with a center left turn lane, where drivers frequently exceed the 45 mph speed limit.

Anyone with information on the case was urged to call Investigators Pace or Olson at 310/458-8954; or call the SMPD at 310/458-8491.

At least 13 people have been killed riding bicycles on PCH in Los Angeles County since 2005; eight of those have been killed on the deadly northern section of the highway running through Santa Monica, Pacific Palisades and Malibu.

This collision occurred roughly across the street from where Erin Galligan was killed while riding home from work in a 2012 hit-and-run; that driver still hasn’t been caught.

This is the 51st bicycling fatality in Southern California this year, and the 22nd in Los Angeles County; he’s also the first bike rider to be killed in Santa Monica since Galligan’s death.

Update: The victim has been identified as 23-year old Kazumasa Nozaki. 

Still no word on what may have led to the crash.

Update 2: 

I received the following email from Carrie Wick, who was one of the first people on the scene after the crash. She reports the driver did not return of his own accord, as the police suggested, and that the police have not been forthcoming about the crash. 

I am contacting you regarding a fatal hit and run incident my friend Kinya Claiborne and I witnessed on PCH Sundaynight where a 23-year-old pedestrian/ bicyclist named Kazumasa Nozaki was struck from the rear and killed by a driver who fled the scene. Perhaps you’re interested in looking into the incident.

Kinya and I were traveling southbound down PCH on October 15 around 7pm, when we noticed debris and a bike in the roadway along with a pedestrian who was laid flat in the east-northbound lane. The victim had significant head trauma and his body was bleeding and distorted. We were the first responders on the scene to provide aid to the victim, who was non-responsive and we called 911 for assistance.

There were several other witnesses including two men who were driving directly behind the driver who struck the pedestrian. They followed the driver, who fled the scene in a white BMW, for 5-10 minutes down PCH honking their horn in an attempt to get the driver to stop. As they were following the driver the witnesses called 911 to report the hit and run, providing the driver’s license plate number and location of the driver. The witnesses took pictures of the car and returned to the scene to provide their statement and evidence in person directly to the police.

There was also a couple on the scene who were driving northbound on PCH and witnessed the bicycle flying in the air when the pedestrian was struck from behind. They also provided their statement to the police on the scene.

There are a lot of inaccuracies being reported. The LAPD/SMPD statement implies the driver fled the scene and returned on his own vs. a hit and run, where the driver immediately fled the scene of a fatal collision. An officer on the scene announced, “We got him”, from the men tracking down the driver and the reporting of the license plate and location to the police.

Also, LAPD/SMPD have not acknowledged any of the witnesses or their statements, including the men who witness the hit and run, tracked down the driver, reported it via 911 and provided a statement to the police on the scene. Authorities are acting like the witnesses and hit and run incident never existed as evident in the press release issued by SMPD on October 16.

It seems as though the LAPD and SMPD have taken a lax approach with completing a thorough investigation and have clearly omitted key facts and witness reports from the fatal hit and run incident. This man does not have a voice any longer and can’t fight for himself, so we will try to on his behalf.

She also reports that the bike was so badly mangled from the impact that it was impossible to tell if he was using lights and reflectors. 

My deepest sympathy and prayers for Kazumasa Nozaki and his loved ones.

Category: Bicycle Safety, Injuries and Fatalities / Tags: , , , , ,

Morning Links: Person behind fake advocacy group outed, and SCAG takes a deep dive into traffic safety data

October 13, 2017 / / One comment

Once again, Peter Flax has written a great piece, as he investigates the fake, Twitter-based advocacy group LA Westside Walkers.

And outs the person behind it as a Playa del Rey music video and documentary director Justin Purser, who lives steps from the initial Vista del Mar road diet.

Purser admits to being the person who started the account, although he bizarrely contends that he handed it off to a group of people he refuses to name after it was mentioned on this site, following his equally bizarre claim to have co-founded BikinginLA.

You can probably count the number of people who actually believe that on a closed fist, however.

Flax digs into the account, which continues its misleading, false-flag form of fake advocacy.

All the while, the barrage of strange tweets from the Westside Walkers account continues, a maddening mélange of dubious facts and falsely earnest advocacy, leveraging a completely faked identity to convince unsuspecting readers that measures meant to save lives are not working. It’s a total cesspool of bullshit distracting people from an actual life-and-death issue.

Meanwhile, someone from Playa del Rey forwarded screenshots in the upper left corner and below, showing comment by Purser from around the time the Westside Walkers account was started.

His point seems to be that the real goal of people who supported the road diets was to make the streets more dangerous, not less.

If that’s supposed to be a joke, it’s in very poor taste.

And says a lot more about the person who made it than it does anyone else.

Let’s hope his attitude really has changed, as Flax’s article suggests.

………

The Southern California Association of Governments, or SCAG, has prepared an in-depth look at traffic safety conditions for the six-county region, as well as each of the individual counties.

Needless to say, it’s not a pretty picture.

A few graphic highlights —

 

………

As we mentioned yesterday, Bike SGV is hosting their BEST Ride: Bike Art Night Pasadena tonight. Thanks to Tim Rutt for the heads-up.

Meetings will be held tonight and tomorrow in La Puente and Montebello, respectively, to provide input on the SGV Regional Pedestrian and Bicycle Master Plan (scroll down).

The October Slow Ride: Revive Gateway Park! will be held tomorrow, hosted by the Elysian Valley Slow Ride.

AIDS/LifeCycle is holding a pair of Kickoff AIDS/LifeCycle 2018 rides beginning at Balboa Park this Saturday to start training for next year’s 545-mile ride down the California Coast.

The South Bay Cycling Awards will be held in Torrance tomorrow; you can see a list of nominees here.

Bike SGV will hold a memorial ride on Sunday to honor staff member Brian Velez, who recently passed away unexpectedly.

Helen’s Cycles will hold a number of rides this weekend, as well as a women’s bike maintenance clinic this coming Thursday.

Also on Thursday, the LACBC will host a City Cycling Class to develop urban riding skills.

Helen’s Cycles in Arcadia is sponsoring a No Drop Group Ride next Saturday, October 21st.

Also on the 21st, CD4 Councilmember David Ryu is hosting an open house to discuss much needed safety improvements to 6th Street between Fairfax and La Brea.

West Hollywood will be holding a WeHo Pedals Bike Share Basics workshop on October 26th.

Santa Monica’s Breeze Bike Share is celebrating its second birthday with a ride with the mayor on November 4th.

CicLAvia will hold their 2nd annual Play Day in LA fundraiser om November 5th.

The very busy Bike SGV will hold their annual “Noche de las Luminarias” awards ceremony on December 2nd.

And CicLAvia returns to iconic Wilshire Blvd on December 10th.

………

Local

Long Beach bike advocates met with former LADOT Bicycle Coordinator Michele Mowery, now the city’s new mobility and healthy living programs officer.

The seven-day Pablove Across American fundraising ride will end in Malibu tomorrow; the ride raises money for pediatric cancer research.

Calabasas unveils a new and improved Las Virgenes Road, complete with two lanes in each direction, bike lanes and continuous sidewalks.

 

State

The bike lanes on El Toro Road will be closed for construction work Monday between Laguna Canyon Road and the 73 tollway.

Joshua Tree residents complain that new bike lanes installed by Caltrans in the downtown area don’t go anywhere.

Half Moon Bay drops plans for a bike bridge and pathways after giving up on funding from Caltrans.

After getting caught in a traffic jam caused by people escaping the Sonoma County wildfires, a Santa Rosa woman went back home and got her bicycle, carrying her 70-pound dog to safety in a duffel bag.

A drunk hit-and-run driver has been sentenced to five years for killing a Suisun City cyclist; he fled the scene on foot, abandoning his car after he crashed again while fleeing the scene.

 

National

Bicycling offers five GoPro hacks to make your videos worth watching. Most important: Install some editing software and learn how to use it. No one wants sit through five minutes of video to get to the 30 seconds where something actually happens.

Caught on video: A Seattle bicyclist was the victim of a punishment pass for having the audacity to ride outside the bike lane to pass another rider; the city’s former mayor calls it assault, even if the police don’t.

A writer for a Colorado company asks if employers should pay workers to leave their cars at home. California has a parking cash-out program designed to compensate employees who give up their parking spaces to bike, walk or take transit to work, but the program is so narrowly drawn it only applies to three percent of the state’s workers.

A Colorado writer says he’s never seen a bicyclist display animosity towards a motorist that wasn’t in response to the driver’s actions. And that drivers need to check their “vehicular privilege” at the door to their vehicle.

A New York man says getting run over by a dump truck while riding his bike was the last straw, and he’s officially done with the city. Getting run over by anything can have that effect on you.

Lobbyists descend on DC to convince lawmakers that bikeshare is bipartisan.

Baltimore’s bikeshare returns with a reduced fleet of bikes, now equipped with GPS, after it was shut down due to excessive thefts and maintenance backups.

 

International

A 72-year old writer says what cyclists over 60 really want is protected bike parking. Oddly, that’s exactly what cyclists under 60 want, too.

Caught on video too: A British driver has been fined the equivalent of $932 and lost his license for six months for forcing a bike rider off the road.

Caught on video three: A Scottish newspaper sees an out-of-control, brakeless bike rider barrel into a toddler; others may see a toddler suddenly dart in front of the bicyclist.

A Scottish writer wonders what can be done to get more women on bicycles, and concludes that better safety matters more than sweaty clothes or helmet hair.

Paris moves to ban all gas and diesel-powered cars and trucks by 2030.

A new Swiss conversion kit promises to turn any bicycle into an ebike.

A Cape Town, South African cyclist was robbed of his bicycle, just days after armed thieves stole three bikes from a group of riders on the same roadway.

A 77-year old Australian man needed over a dozen stiches after he was the victim of a random attack by a man who stepped out from behind a tree, and beat the vicim’s face with a bottle as he was riding with his wife.

 

Finally…

Your next bike could run on strings. Nothing like getting your stolen bike back, and getting it stolen again on the way home.

And apparently, Metro really doesn’t want your bike blocking the aisles.

Although I’m still waiting to see a superhero zap the people blocking the bike area so you don’t have to block the aisle with your bike.

 

Category: Advocacy & Politics, Morning Links / Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

Morning Links: Mar Vista Great Streets success, 6th Street safety open house, and road rage around the world

October 12, 2017 / / Comments Off on Morning Links: Mar Vista Great Streets success, 6th Street safety open house, and road rage around the world

My apologies for yesterday’s unexcused absence.

My hard drive cable failed just as I was finishing yesterday’s post. Fortunately, I was able to get it replaced, and recovered most, though not all, of what I had written.

As a result, today’s post includes news from both days. So grab your favorite beverage and settle in; we’ve got a lot of ground to cover.

And come back tomorrow, when we’ll have even more bike and safety news we couldn’t squeeze into today’s post.

………

It’s working.

Despite the claims of road diet opponents, the three-month safety stats show the Venice Great Streets project in Mar Vista is working exactly as promised, with collisions, injuries and speeding down, while resulting in what should be an easily tolerable delay in rush hour traffic.

Which should put the debate to rest, but probably won’t.

Meanwhile, a new Toronto study shows what Mar Vista has to look forward to, as controversial separated bike lanes on a downtown Toronto street have significantly improved safety, while boosting business in the surrounding area.

Like Mar Vista’s Venice Blvd Great Streets Project, Toronto faced near-constant demands from drivers to remove the Bloor Street bike lanes, as well as merchants angry over the loss of parking spaces.

It’s been successful in Toronto.

And it will be in Mar Vista, if local leaders can fight off the demands to remove them.

Thanks to Norm Bradwell for link to the Toronto study.

………

Speaking of traffic safety improvements, CD4 Councilmember David Ryu is hosting an open house on Saturday, October 21st, to discuss the desperately needed changes to 6th Street between Fairfax and La Brea.

As we’ve noted before, even though the Mid City West Community Council has voted unanimously to support lane reductions on 6th, Ryu has dragged his feet on the project, despite his oft-stated promises to listen to the local community.

He has suggested an alternative that would keep two lanes in each direction, while adding left turn bays at several intersections and removing parking spaces near intersections.

This would actually have the opposite effect of the safety improvements the local community has been begging for, speeding the flow of traffic rather than slowing it, while increasing the risk to bicyclists and pedestrians, as well as drivers.

It’s important that everyone who uses the street in any way, or cares about traffic safety, attend to if you can to demand a safer 6th Street.

………

Long Beach bike advocate and Pedal Love founder Melissa Balmer teamed with Minnesota writer and consultant Jay Walljasper to author a new study on the Surprising Promise of Bicycling to be released today.

The study focuses on the “untapped demographic potential, growth of bike share and infrastructure, the deepening influence of grass roots advocacy,” as well as the promise of ebikes.

………

Today’s common theme is road raging drivers.

And bike riders, too.

An Arkansas man faces charges for crashing into a man on a bike — evidently intentionally — then threatening him with a machete, apparently because the rider sprayed a couple dogs with a water bottle when they chased after him.

Witnesses say a driver appeared to intentionally cross over the yellow line to smash into Georgia teenager as the boy signaled for a left turn on his bike.

The Chicago bike rider who was hit with a drum by a road raging driver — after smashing the man’s rear window with his U-lock — has started a crowdfunding campaign to get his damaged teeth fixed.

An Ohio lawyer could face disbarment for brake-checking a bike rider and smashing his cellphone in a road rage incident.

Evidently, there’s no shortage of road rage in Asheville NC. Police are looking for a bicyclist who allegedly hit a driver several times with his helmet, kicked him, and stole his eyeglasses and $80. This comes just two weeks after a driver was caught on dashcam video punching a cyclist.

A London cab driver tells a bike rider to “go back to f***ing Poland” or wherever he’s from after the rider complains about the driver stopping in a bike box.

………

We’ll catch up with a long list of bike events tomorrow, but I want to mention just a couple today due to the tight timelines.

Bike SGV is hosting the BEST Ride: Bike Art Night Pasadena tomorrow night, offering a free two-wheeled tour of the Pasadena art fest with stops at several venues.

And AIDS/LifeCycle is holding a pair of Kickoff AIDS/LifeCycle 2018 rides starting at Balboa Park this Saturday, to officially start training for next year’s 545-mile ride down the California Coast. You can choose from rides of 14 or 43.7 miles, with a free lunch provided for registered participants.

………

Local

In what’s just the latest multimillion dollar settlement due to the city’s dangerous streets, the LA city council voted to pay $15 million to a man who suffered permanent brain damage due to a substandard Hollywood crosswalk. That’s $15 million they could have used to fix several dangerous intersections, instead of paying for not fixing one.

Paramedics at LAX will now make their way through the terminals by bicycle.

Volunteers are needed for the tenth annual Long Beach bike count.

Sports Illustrated reviews the new book Draft Animals from LA’s own former pro Phil Gaimon.

The SGV Connect podcast remembers Bike SGV staff member Brian Velez, who passed away unexpectedly last month. A memorial ride will be held in his honor this Sunday.

 

State

Governor Brown once again pulls out his veto pen to strike down a bike bill, negating a law that would have required the California Department of General Services to expand an employee bikeshare program it currently runs for staffers in Sacramento to other departments, and other areas of the state.

Goleta considers building a separated bike and pedestrian path through the city.

The very cool new Johnny Cash Art Trail officially opens in Folsom this Saturday.

San Francisco is preparing to issue permits to an e-bikeshare operator, portentially violating the non-compete agreement they have with Ford’s GoBike.

Oakland explores a new approach to fixing a dangerous intersection with paint and bollards, by adding bike lanes and a widened median for pedestrians, in just ten weeks for a mere $30,000. The result has been a 7% drop in speeding with no decrease in median speeds, and a whopping 86% increase in drivers stopping for pedestrians in the crosswalk.

A seven-year old Oakland bike shop provides local youth with job training and affordable transportation.

A Marin writer questions the wisdom of reopening a closed-off tunnel for bike and pedestrian use.

A new study from UC Davis shows that many trips that could be made by foot, bike or transit are now being made by Uber and Lyft, adding to the congestion on our streets.

 

National

Doctors call for cities to do more to keep bike riders and pedestrians safe, as the US faces its biggest jump in traffic deaths in 50 years.

If you’ve spent much time walking or riding a bike, you may be surprised to learn that traffic engineers have an ethical duty to protect public safety, which they’ve too often ignored. Okay, maybe shocked is a better word.

Yes, it is possible to ride a bike from the airport in major cities around the US, including Los Angeles.

An article in Bicycle Times calls bicycling the ultimate social sport.

No irony here. A Nebraska bike rider was hit by a car on the way home from a bicycle safety meeting; needless to say, the driver wasn’t ticketed.

A retired Wisconsin legislator says the state’s governor is no friend to bicycling.

A pair of Detroit men have been arrested for at least three separate daylight abductions and sexual assaults of women as they rode their bicycles. Let’s hope they get thrown into a deep pit for a very long time.

An Indianapolis man entertains passing drivers by juggling and riding his bike backwards in a parking lot.

Massachusetts’ abolition-themed 1854 Cycling Company hires recently released inmates, giving them a second chance in life; the owner grew up in South Central LA.

New York police are targeting people on bikes, rather than focusing on the operators of more dangerous vehicles.

Lawyers are challenging a recent New York Vision Zero law making right-of-way violations a misdemeanor offense; three judges have found the law unconstitutional on the grounds that people can’t be held accountable for violations they don’t know they’re committing.

There’s a special place in hell for the guys who tried to jack a New York bikeshare bike from a 13-year old Hasidic boy; police are investigating it as a possible hate crime.

Delaware is now officially the second state to authorized the Idaho Stop law, allowing bike riders to treat stop signs as yields on two-lane streets.

Officials say a proposal to build a bikeway alongside a North Carolina freeway could reduce congestion while boosting the local economy.

There is something seriously wrong when a soldier can receive multiple Purple Hearts on four overseas deployments, only to be killed in a collision while riding a bicycle back to his Georgia base; he was an advocate for wounded vets through the Operation Enduring Warrior program.

 

International

This is what happens when people who ride bicycles get involved in the political process, as both major candidates in Montreal’s mayoral election court the bike vote. Unlike, say, Los Angeles, where bicyclists should be a major political block, but aren’t.

A writer for a Canadian university says traffic laws apply to those cocky cyclists too, while apparently confusing the rate of fatalities caused by bicyclists with those caused by motorists.

An independent commission has urged London’s mayor to be bold in reducing congestion and air pollution, and create transportation system centered on walking, bicycling and transit.

A British bike rider has been jailed for three weeks for crashing into a four-year old kid while riding brakeless.

Britain’s Chris Boardman offers a ten-point plan to enjoy bicycling in your middle age. I can shorten that to two points: 1) get on your bike, and 2) ride it.

A councilmember in Bengaluru, India has demanded that the city fix the streets and make it pothole-free within 15 days. Let us know if it works; I know a few other cities that could use it.

A writer for the Nikkei Asian Review says a simple formula can reflect the affluence of a country by measuring those who ride a bike because they choose to, as compared to those who ride because they have no alternative.

 

Finally…

No, attaching a flashing light to your helmet will not ward off magpie attacks. Forget Pinarellas and Conalgos; if you really want to impress the guys on your club ride, show up on a gold-plated Giant.

And your new $4,000 BMW ebike would offer as much torque as a small car.

Okay, a very small car.

………

A special thank you to Linda Campbell for her generous contribution to help support this site. Or maybe to the BikinginLA computer repair fund.

 

Category: Morning Links / Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

Update: Move along, nothing to see here. Again.

October 11, 2017 / / One comment

Update: The good news is, I was right about the problem; a new hard drive cable has me up and working again. 

The bad news is, it’s too late to put up a new post today; we’ll catch up on everything with an epic post tomorrow.

Looks like I’m back in laptop hell.

My computer crashed just as I was finishing today’s post. And once again, I find myself staring at a blinking question mark in the middle of the screen.

We’ll hope it’s just the hard drive cable, since I already spent far more than I could afford on a new solid state drive.

If so, I may still be able to salvage today’s post and get it online later today.

Let’s our fingers crossed.

Category: General /

Morning Links: Worldwide war on bikes, and suicide prevention fundraising team honors SD advocate Bill Davidson

October 10, 2017 / / 2 comments

Let’s start with a few dispatches from the war on bikes raging on our streets.

Streetsblog recaps Sunday’s horrific Petaluma hit-and-run in which a pickup driver apparently rammed four cyclists on purpose before speeding away. As they point out, this case is a reminder why it’s so important to ride with a bike cam if you can afford one.

A road raging British driver is on trial for tackling a female triathlete as she rode her bike; afterwards, he sort of apologized, telling her he thought she was “a bloke.”

After an angry Chicago bicyclist broke the rear window of a van following a dispute, the driver returned the favor by smashing the rider over the head with a drum. Thanks to J. Patrick Lynch for the heads-up.

As the late Rodney King said, can’t we all just get along?

………

Brian Nilsen forwards news of a fundraising walk for suicide prevention, and the Ride on for Bill Team that’s raised over $6,000 in honor of well-known San Diego cyclist and advocate Bill Davidson, who took his own life last year.

If you have a few extra dollars you can spare, I can’t think of a better cause.

………

Reports indicate the man who killed pro cyclist Michele Scarponi last April was watching a video on his smartphone when he ran the Italian rider down.

That didn’t last long. Alberto Contador’s retirement from pro cycling lasted a whole month, as he comes back to compete in a Chinese crit at the end of the month.

LA’s Phil Gaimon answers the nine things you’ve always wanted to ask a pro cyclist, and reflects on why he doesn’t miss the sport; his new book Draft Animals gets released today.

Reverting to form, Lance doesn’t miss a chance to get back at the Irish sports writer who helped uncover his cheating, after the journalist receives a well-deserved backlash for writing a character reference for a friend who had been convicted of sexually abusing a 16-year old girl.

………

Local

A writer in the LA Times complains about all the traffic on Angeles Crest Highway, never seeming to recognize that he’s part of it, despite jamming on the brakes to avoid running over cyclists.

Streetsblog looks at Sunday’s Heart of LA CicLAvia.

A Skid row activist and reformed street robber uses his custom, handmade low-rider bicycles to call attention to his cause.

Important topic from SoCal Cycling, offering advice on what to do if you suffer a head injury while riding.

 

State

While everyone else was struggling to evacuate from a fire in the Anaheim Hills, one man made his escape by ebike, passing out masks and water bottles to stranded residents.

Only one percent of San Diego city employees bike to work on a regular basis; 81% drive.

Streetsblog offers a wrap-up of last week’s Calbike California Bicycle Summit.

 

National

Bicycling is set to get a new parent company.

Dirt Rag talks with mountain biking legend Gary Fisher.

Bike Sob explains how to find cycling bliss, which mostly seems to involve finding excuses to stop for food and drinks along the way.

A Portland driver was still legally drunk 17 hours after he killed a bike rider while street racing, even though he told police he’d only had two drinks.

The Seattle Times offers advice on how to be seen now that the days are getting shorter. Although sometimes it seems like the best way to guarantee that every driver sees you is to ride through a stop sign or commit some other traffic infraction.

An Idaho driver whines about whining, freeloading cyclists. You know, the ones who pay more than their share in taxes to maintain the roads, even though they only get a tiny fraction of dedicated road space and cause virtually no wear and tear on the streets.

Sad news from Colorado, where triathlete Dan Hohs died after he was bitten by a rattlesnake while hiking in the mountains; he had written recently about how he was saved from his bi-polar disorder by endurance sports.

A Detroit woman was abducted while riding her bicycle in broad daylight; it’s the second time a woman has been abducted while riding a bike in the city in just over a week.

Passes for the Pittsburg transit system now include free use of the city’s bikeshare system.

A New Jersey non-profit raised enough funds to give 130 bike and helmets to kids this holiday season.

A Philadelphia paper asks if bicycles parked in handicapped spaces should be towed. It’s pretty damn jerkish behavior to leave a bike or anything else in a handicap space.

Louisiana property owners are blocking access to construction crews hired to build a bike path along the Mississippi River levee.

 

International

Chances are, you will never ride around the world in 78 days. But you can own the bike that did.

Guardian readers offer breathtaking photos of their favorite rides from around the world. Thanks to Jon for the link.

Paris’ famed Velib bikeshare system is getting competition from a home-grown dockless bikeshare system.

Unlike some countries we could name, it’s actually hard to get a driver’s license in France. And not cheap, either. Thanks to Steve Katz for the tip.

After introducing the world to dockless bikeshare, several Chinese cities are putting the brakes on further expansion.

 

Finally…

Don’t ride salmon if you’re carrying crack cocaine on your bike — and put a light on it, already. How to get that healthy glow when you ride.

And if you’re going to make fun of bicyclists while discussing haute couture bike shorts, at least spell pedaller right.

 

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