Archive for Advocacy & Politics

Morning Links: An interview with yours truly, San Diego gets serious about bicycling, and new bike advocacy jobs

April 17, 2017 / / 5 comments

The first decision I made when I started this site was that it’s not about me.

It’s about bicycling.

Today is the rare exception, as my friend Chris Klibowitz interviewed me for Bicycle Times.

And did a better job of capturing why I do what I do than anyone else has. Myself included.

………

San Diego is getting serious about bicycling, with a 32-point proposal to improve cycling in the city.

The plan includes appointment of a bike czar, creation of bicycle traffic ticket diversion schools, and bike education for all fourth graders. As well as requiring that 6% of all transportation funds be spent on bicycle projects.

All of which would be great ideas for LA. And none of which are currently under consideration.

………

The LACBC is looking for a new Communications Director. Sad to see Carol Feucht leave after doing such a great job in the position for the last several years.

Safe Routes to Schools California is looking for a Senior California Policy Manager.

………

A bike rider in a pedal powered velomobile has to pull the statutes out to school the cops who pulled him over about bike law. And who then decide maybe they have better things to do. Thanks to David Wolfberg for the heads-up.

………

Local

Metro wants your input on where Metro’s bikeshare should go next in LA County.

Help design the Pico Blvd Great Street this coming Sunday.

A graphic from a UCLA student helps show why LA’s Byzantine bureaucracy makes it nearly impossible to take a holistic approach to LA streets.

Santa Monica unveiled its new development plan for a more walkable, bikeable downtown area.

LA Bike Dad considers how to go bicycling with a new baby.

 

State

UC Irvine police bust three bike thieves in less than 24 hours.

A Newport Beach resident calls for Mariner’s Mile to be transformed into a coastal village welcoming bike riders and pedestrians, without sacrificing parking.

The mayor of Palm Springs calls for reducing the city’s share of the planned 50-mile CV Link bikeway circling the Coachella Valley from 16 miles to six. Which would leave a ten mile gap in the bikeway, possibly big enough to ultimately derail it.

After months of delays, Bay Area bicyclists will be able to ride on the Bay Bridge bike path seven days a week. But only half way.

A Marin columnist predicts disaster if a car should happen to break down on the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge once bike lanes are installed.

 

National

BuzzFeed offers a list of eleven towns that are best explored by bicycle, starting with my hometown. Although that’s a false premise — every town is best explored by bike or on foot.

CNN says bad road design helps explain why Florida and Delaware lead the nation in pedestrian fatalities. It’s not so great for bike riders, either.

Venture Capitalists are betting on Chinese-style dockless bikeshare systems as they prepare to invade American cities.

A new kid’s bike promises to solve braking problems with a system similar to anti-lock brakes for cars.

A disabled Washington veteran is planning to ride the 2,700 mile Tour Divide to raise awareness of disabled vets, and regain control of his life after becoming homeless. Meanwhile, another homeless vet is riding with his dog from Los Angeles to Georgia and back to call attention to Veterans and Their Pets.

Make a quick $500 apiece designing bike racks for Carson City NV.

A stoned Utah driver gets just five years for killing a bike rider while high on dope and meth, despite seven previous convictions, most involving drugs.

Call it a six week, 12,000 foot high ciclovía, as Colorado’s Trail Ridge Road opens to bicycles through Rocky Mountain National Park; the road will remain closed to vehicles until the end of May.

For $45 a month, a Texas man will deliver 30 days of fresh, personalized poems to your home by bicycle every morning.

A bill to increase the bike passing distance in Oklahoma from three to five feet and raise the penalty for killing a bicyclist to $10,000 has stalled in the state Senate. Meanwhile, an Iowa bill requiring drivers to change lanes to pass bicyclists didn’t fare any better.

A Minnesota letter writer takes a local paper to task for its bicycle safety suggestions while getting nearly everything wrong; he argues that bike riders are safer on the sidewalk, and that sharrows don’t indicate where people are supposed to ride.

Once again, New York police respond to the death of a bike-riding woman, who was doing nothing wrong, by cracking down on bicyclists.

A Philly horse owner gives chase to a runaway steed across much of the city by bicycle before police finally corralled it.

 

International

A bighearted Calgary woman has turned her kitchen into a bike repair shop, buying and fixing 60 kids bikes to donate to kids in need.

A Toronto website asks how much bike lanes cost. And concludes “not much.”

An 89-year old Brit woman suffers her first bike theft after 85 years of riding. And offers pour in to replace it.

Caught on video: An English bike thief needs less than 60 seconds to make off with a locked bicycle, responding to a challenge from the person recording him by saying it was his bike and telling the man to mind his own business.

It takes a real schmuck to steal a British kid’s bike after he passes out in a diabetic coma while riding in a playground.

An expat describes becoming a ciclista in Florence, Italy.

Following the route taken by Hannibal through Europe by bicycle, instead of elephants.

It’s been almost 99 years since then 18-year old Earnest Hemingway was nearly killed by a mortar round after riding a bicycle to deliver chocolate and cigarettes to the Italian trenches in WWI.

Bike lanes in Johannesburg go largely unused due to lack of an interconnected network and blocked or poorly maintained lanes, as well as safety concerns. The story could be about Los Angeles — including the argument that bike lanes are a benefit for the wealthy, which was one reason given by CD1 Councilmember Gil Cedillo for blocking bike lanes in his largely working class and immigrant district. Never mind that lower income students and workers often rely on their bikes for transportation.

Australia’s Queensland state will spend $162 million over four years to improve bicycling facilities.

A Japanese university has developed an ebike that recharges wirelessly using microwaves. And can make popcorn, too.

A Malaysian news site looks at the reasons people ride bikes, and what needs to be done to keep them safe on the roads.

 

Finally…

Your next bike could be a skateboard. A new video says ride your bike, or we’ll all be extinct in 13 years.

And apparently, riding a time trial is even better than chocolate.

 

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

Morning Links: Calbike hosts bike traffic school webinar, and celebrating history’s first two-wheeled acid trip

April 12, 2017 / / 7 comments

The California Bicycle Coalition will hold a webinar tomorrow morning to discuss how to set up a bike traffic school, similar to the traffic schools that allow drivers to take classes in lieu of paying fines.

While the schools were approved by the state legislature in concept in 2015, they have been slow to catch on with the courts in the state. Hopefully this will help change that.

Sign up here. And maybe you’ll learn how to set up that topless comedy bike traffic school you’ve always dreamed of.

………

It turns out Bicycle Day is less about honoring bicycles than the trips taken on them. Or rather, one in particular, inadvertently taken by LSD inventor Albert Hoffman.

So how are you going to celebrate next Wednesday’s anniversary of the first two-wheeled acid trip?

………

Evidently, it’s been online for awhile. But I just discovered I’m officially part of the history of the LA bike movement.

Albeit a very small part. And appropriately so.

………

Once again, British Cycling postpones release of a report on bullying of the county’s top cyclists — especially women racers — that’s widely expected to paint an extremely unflattering picture of the organization; it’s working on a new code of conduct to avoid future problems.

The new head of the Australian cycling team promises a compassionate approach that puts riders first.

The Outer Line looks at the future of women’s cycling, and says female riders must form their own union and move to take control of the sport.

The Twenty20 bike team lost nine high-end racing bikes valued at a combined $60,000 when someone broke into their storage trailer in Corte Madera; a team sponsor is offering a $10,000 reward.

………

A fellow competitor remembers Mike Hall, the endurance cyclist killed near the finish of Australia’s 3,400-mile Indian Pacific Wheel Race, calling him the man who inspired a world of cyclists.

………

Local

This is how Vision Zero is supposed to work. Roscoe Blvd gets a road diet and LA’s first pavement-embedded crossing lights in West Hills, at an intersection where two women were killed, along with their dog, crossing the street last year. Now if they could just figure out how to do it before someone gets killed.

Riding across the US from Los Angeles to New York on a heavy single speed bike, chained to the frame on a bet by silent film star Fatty Arbuckle. And back. And back again.

An Aussie bike magazine compares a bike coffee shop in Melbourne with our own Arts District favorite The Wheelhouse. Speaking of which, The Wheelhouse will sponsor the LACBC’s next Sunday Funday ride on May 7th.

 

State

A meeting will be held tonight to discuss plans to renovate the Mariner’s Mile along the Coast Highway in Newport Beach, including possible bike lanes.

Overstating the obvious, the Coronado newspaper says there’s not much chance the $210 million bike and pedestrian tube under the Coronado Bay Bridge will actually be built. Although citing induced demand creating bike and pedestrian congestion as a argument against it seems pretty ridiculous.

A Santa Barbara writer says if you think the proposed Idaho Stop law unfairly favors bicyclists, get out on your bike to add some data points to your thinking.

Around 750 cyclist from 40 different countries turned out on vintage bikes for last weekend’s Eroica in Paso Robles.

A group of up to ten teenagers swarmed and pepper sprayed a San Francisco man as he was unlocking his bicycle, taking it along with his cell phone.

 

National

Bicycling says go ahead and patch that tube again. And again.

Here’s your tutorial on simple mountain bike tricks anyone can do. Assuming you have a mountain bike, that is.

Turn any bicycle into an ebike with a conversion kit.

A bighearted Las Vegas cop buys a new bicycle for an eight-year old boy after his was stolen about six weeks ago; the kid had to get up early to walk to school since he couldn’t ride there anymore after his bike was taken.

BYU students create a special adaptive pedal allowing a boy with one leg longer than the other to ride his bike using both legs for the first time.

Bikeshare is moving into middle America, as Wichita KS votes to install a 20-station system in the downtown area.

Now living in New York, Amsterdam’s bike mayor says the city has possibilities for bicycling if it would build more infrastructure and fix the holes in the street.

A New York ebike shop owner employs the lessons he learned riding a bike towards running his business.

Famke Janssen is one of us, riding in New York with her boyfriend and dog.

An NYC councilmember calls for safety improvements when a bicyclist is critically injured at the same intersection where another rider was killed less than two weeks earlier.

A Virginia man riding his bike to Canada faces a murder charge for allegedly beating a Pennsylvania man to death with a shovel after breaking into his home to steal $8.75 and some canned goods, telling the judge he was starving and just trying to survive. He could get three meals a day now, for the next 40 years to life.

 

International

Vancouver considers investing a quarter of a million dollars to jumpstart a pair of community bike rides expected to draw 10,000 people each.

Royal-in-law Pippa Middleton is still one of us, going shopping in London fashionably dressed on her city bike, complete with wicker basket.

Cambridge, England residents are up in arms over floating bus stops, saying they may protect bike riders but put older people at risk; one person says people who ride a bike on the sidewalk should be fined for possessing an offensive weapon.

I want to be like him when I grow up. The 85-year old head of a British bike club stars in a commercial promoting TV coverage of the Tour of Yorkshire.

A British man was swarmed and attacked by a group of teens who stabbed him in the head with the frame of his own bike.

Two Dutch companies are talking merger to create the world’s largest bicycle company, combining Cervelo, Gazelle, Union, Santa Cruz, Diamondback, Raleigh, Redline, XLC and Lapierre under one roof.

A Ugandan cycling club trains for the Olympics 2020 doing double duty as a Kampala bicycle courier service.

So much for atoning for his sins. The head of an African faith group is asking for his conviction to be overturned for fatally running down a Zimbabwean bike rider while speeding and driving negligently.

If you really want to see Eastern Taiwan, you need to go by bicycle.

 

Finally…

Before you show kids how to ride a bike down a flight of stairs, make sure you can ride a bike down a flight of stairs. Ride 20 miles on Friday, 20 miles on Saturday, and drive a few hundred miles around a big oval on Sunday.

And if you’re going to take an illegal ride in a tunnel to deliver a pizza, at least take the damn lane.

 

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

Morning Links: Trade your bike or bag at Timbuk2, O’Farrell endorses Bray-Ali, and Montana bike tax an unfunny joke

April 7, 2017 / / 2 comments

Here’s your chance to get a new bike or bike bag and support a good cause at the same time, as Timbuk2 and Pure Cycles host a special trade-in event this weekend at the Timbuk2 store on Abbott Kinney in Venice.

During store hours, visitors will have the chance to bring in any worn bag or bike in exchange for a 30% off discount on any Timbuk2 product or Pure Cycles Bike. On top of that, all donated items will go to Bikerowave, a Los Angeles-based non-profit that will be on-site to discuss with donators on how their contributions will help the community of Los Angeles.

………

Big news in the CD1 race, as 13th District Councilmember Mitch O’Farrell has endorsed challenger Joe Bray-Ali over incumbent Gil Cedillo. According to the LA Times,

“Joe Bray-Ali understands the issues facing Los Angeles and demonstrates a sense of urgency in addressing the affordable housing crises, safety in our neighborhoods, and responsiveness to constituent needs,” O’Farrell said in a prepared statement. “His positive grassroots campaign has motivated more people to participate in the democratic process at the local level and become engaged in the pressing issues that affect Angelenos. This city faces daunting challenges and we need someone like Joe to bring a fresh perspective, new ideas, and an open mind to decision making for our city.”

It’s almost unheard of for a sitting councilmember to endorse a challenger, especially one in the adjoining district.

Although, as several people reminded me today, Cedillo endorsed termed-out county Supervisor Gloria Molina over Jose Huizar just two years ago. In other words, LA’s most anti-bike councilmember was opposing one of the city’s best in the district next door.

It will be interesting to see if Huizar returns the favor.

………

The City of Vernon wants your input on filling a major gap in the LA River bike path through the city.

And Metro wants your input on three proposed Long Beach bike paths within the I-710 corridor.

………

It turns out that proposal to charge a $25 fee for out-of-state bike riders using Montana roadways was just a very big, and very bad, April Fools joke.

I’m glad they think it was funny, even though it brought an incredible amount of bad publicity to the state, and caused bike riders around the world to rethink their plans to visit there.

………

More remembrances of the late great Steve Tilford, who was killed in a Utah car crash early Wednesday morning:

Meanwhile, VeloNews offers a guide to the cobbles of this weekend’s Paris – Roubaix. And Cycling Weekly says you don’t need a rule book for cycling, because you should just know all this stuff already.

………

Local

Horrible news from Firestone Park in unincorporated South LA County, where the occupants of a car got out and swarmed a man on a bike before stabbing him several times; he died at a nearby hospital.

Former Glendale state Assembly Member Mike Gatto is one of us, penning a great Op-Ed in the Times about the carfree lifestyle he’s maintained since 2012.

Los Angeles Magazine’s Neal Broverman calls out four LA area streets in desperate need of a pedestrian-friendly makeover. What’s good for pedestrians is usually good for bike riders, too.

Metro is now offering discounted Metro Bike memberships to businesses to encourage their employees to use the bikeshare service, in hopes of doubling its ridership rates by the end of next year.

Bike SGV takes issue with a recent story that blamed a Glendale bike rider for a crash.

We already knew chef Gordon Ramsay was one of us, getting up at 4 am every Sunday to put in 112 miles on his bike.

 

State

Calbike still has concerns following the passage of the state transportation bill that would double spending on active transportation projects, while significantly boosting funding for public transportation.

Streetsblog looks back favorably on last weekend’s successful Garden Grove open streets event.

San Diego’s Campagnolo GranFondo rolls this Sunday.

There’s something seriously wrong when a bike path becomes the most divisive issue in a community, as the proposed and long argued CV Link through the Coachella Valley appears to have become.

A Santa Barbara man is recovering from serious injuries after his bike was hit head-on while descending the famed Gibralter climb.

Bakersfield police recommend DUI and hit-and-run charges against a member of a prominent local family in the death of a bike rider earlier this year, even though he could have been charged with second degree murder due to a pervious DUI conviction.

A San Luis Obispo elementary school has been named the most bike friendly school in the US by the League of American Bicyclists.

 

National

While the rest of the country envies bike friendly Portland, Portland bicyclists push for more safety improvements.

Las Vegas police are looking for a suspect who rode his bicycle up to man outside a liquor store and shot him twice in the chest before riding away.

Colorado becomes the fourth state to pass a law classifying ebikes used on the roadways; California led the way by creating three classes of ebikes, based on their maximum speed, that took effect in 2016.

Family members have filed suit against the Ohio man accused of murdering a 20-year old college student after she went for a bike ride.

Arkansas rejects a bill that would have allowed children to play outside — and ride their bikes — without the supervision of a parent or guardian. Thanks to Ed Ryder for the heads-up.

Shreveport LA promises cyclists they’re getting a real bike plan, but gives them sharrows instead.

New Orleans delays consideration of an ordinance that would update existing bike laws, some of which haven’t been changed since the 1950s; the delay is so they can add penalties to the prohibition against drivers harassing bicyclists. Most of the changes make sense, except for a requirement that every bike have a bell; apparently there’s a backlog of Angels in need of wings.

The Atlanta Bicycle Coalition offers to help drivers hack their commutes by taking to bicycles following the collapse of the I-85 freeway through the city.

Former NYDOT Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan tells an appreciative Charlotte NC audience it’s time the city stopped focusing on cars.

There’s a new world record for the most miles ridden in a single year, as 24-year old Florida resident Amanda Coker shattered the old record of 76,076 with over five weeks left to go, averaging over 288 miles a day on her bike.

 

International

The Cuban cyclist attempting to build the world’s tallest ridable bike with the help of LA’s Ritchie Trimble, builder of the current record holder, has his attempt halted by the police. Literally.

London’s former cycling commissioner is keeping tabs on his successor, and doesn’t seem too happy about the lack of progress.

It only took a London jury 17 minutes to acquit a driver who killed a 70-year old man on a bicycle in Britain’s first crowdfunded private prosecution. So maybe there was a reason why the police declined to file, after all.

A Malaysian newspaper calls for providing safe places for kids to ride their bikes, and emulating a program from a neighboring state that guided teenagers away from illegally modified bikes and onto regular bicycles, while providing the training to become professional cyclists.

 

Finally…

No, seriously. If you’re riding your bike with an outstanding warrant, don’t ride on the damn sidewalk. Seriously, if you’re going to steal a bike, at least know why you did it.

And apparently, a British driver really didn’t want to know his brake light wasn’t working.

Category: Advocacy & Politics, Bike Access, Bike Events, Morning Links, Streets and Infrastructure / Tags: , , , , , , , ,

Morning Links: CD1 race gets dirtier, bike rider assaulted on LA River path, and fixing streets is Vision Zero, too

April 6, 2017 / / One comment

As predicted, incumbent CD1 Councilmember Gil Cedillo is getting down and dirty as he fights to retain his seat in the face of a strong challenge from outsider Joe Bray-Ali.

Today’s attack from the city’s most anti-bike councilmember comes in the form of repeated accusations that Bray-Ali is just a Republican in Democrat clothing. And that he only switched parties to run for office — fighting words in the strongly Democratic and independent district.

Except he isn’t. And didn’t.

Bray-Ali is the first to admit he was, briefly, registered as a Republican several years ago as he searched for his place in the political landscape, before landing in the Democratic party after equally brief stints as a Green and an independent.

And never mind that Los Angeles local elections are supposed to be non-partisan, so whatever the hell party he belongs to shouldn’t matter in the slightest.

More amusing is Cedillo’s claim that he’s running a grassroots campaign.

Which is absurd coming from a career politician who gets the overwhelming majority of his donations from outside the district. And who has been in bed with mega donors like Chevron and Walmart for years, leading to questions whether their donations have influenced his votes.

After Saturday’s bizarre Lyin’ Joe episode, and today’s overblown tweetstorm attacks, it’s starting to look like Gil has been studying at Trump U.

And learning all the wrong lessons about how to conduct a campaign.

………

A bike rider reports he was the victim of an assault on the LA River bike path at the Los Feliz overpass when he was punched by one of two men partially blocking the pathway.

Fortunately, he was able to maintain control of his bike, and didn’t stick around to find out what they wanted.

While incidents like this are relatively rare, it’s a reminder to always remain alert and aware of your surroundings when you ride, especially on bike paths or anywhere else out of direct public view. He did the smart thing by getting out of harms way as quickly as possible before stopping to call the police.

He doesn’t give the date or time of the attack, but it makes me wonder if that’s why I saw a CHP cruiser turn onto the bike path as I passed by on Los Feliz Monday afternoon.

LA bicyclists have long called for regular police patrols on the bike paths in the city and county, to little effect; incidents like this sometimes result in an increase in patrols, which die down after awhile as other hotspots take precedence.

Thanks to Chris Klibowitz for the heads-up.

………

I may not have made myself clear the other day.

While I am a strong believer in the need to fund Vision Zero projects in Los Angeles, and feel that it should take precedence over repaving streets and filling potholes, that doesn’t mean the latter isn’t important, as well.

As yesterday’s tragic news reminded us, bad roads can be an expensive annoyance to people on four wheels. But they can be deadly to those of us on two.

Vision Zero should not attempt to improve safety at the expense of our streets, but in conjunction with repaving efforts to ensure a safe riding, driving and walking environment for everyone. We have to somehow find room in the budget to pay for both.

Because it doesn’t matter whether our streets are dangerous because of aggressive drivers, bad road design or crumbling street surfaces. The results are the same.

And human lives are at stake.

………

This is seriously one of the scariest close passes I’ve ever seen, as a driver for a British market buzzes within inches of a cyclist. But says it’s okay since he didn’t cross into the extremely narrow bike lane.

Just as scary is the response from the company, which was basically “We didn’t hit him, so who cares?”

Thanks to Jon for the link.

………

I’ve never had a lot of heroes.

Willie Mays when I was younger, Bobby Kennedy and Dr. King as I got older, though both were gone before I reached my teens. But there are a lot of people I’ve admired; a few I’ve tried to emulate.

And one of the best and brightest of those was killed in crash early Wednesday morning.

Steve Tilford was everything I wanted to be as a young rider. A passionate cyclist who was among the first wave of American riders to storm Europe and show that we could compete on equal terms with the best names in the sport, he made it all seem effortless, competing on the road and winning in mountain biking and cyclocross.

According to various press reports, Tilford was driving on I-70 just west of the Colorado – Utah border when his van crashed into an overturned semi. He and his passenger were standing outside of the van, injured but okay, when a second semi plowed into the overturned truck, striking Tilford.

He died a few hours later at a hospital in Grand Junction, Colorado.

His passenger, Vincent Davis, was injured, and the driver of the second truck was killed as well.

VeloNews sums up the reaction in the cycling world, while the BMC Racing Team’s Jim Ochowicz remembers him and offers his condolences to Tilford’s partner Trudi Rebsamen, a soigneur with the team.

And Bicycling revives a 1998 profile of Tilford, saying he is why we ride.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I think I have something in my eye.

 

………

Another of those young riders from the 80s, American cycling great Andy Hampsten, is happy to share his love of cycling with young riders in Sonoma County.

Scientists are trying to take the hell of riding cobbles out of the Hell of the North.

………

Local

The jury’s still out on the 2024 Olympics, but LA will be hosting the 2017 Police & Fire Games.

Sunday marks the return of the Brompton Urban Bike Challenge scavenger hunt in DTLA.

Bike SGV invites you to attend the opening of the Jeff Seymour Family Center on Monday.

Topanga Canyon Blvd will be closed this weekend to repair storm damage and remove that big rock blocking the roadway.

Speaking of big rocks, CiclaValley discovers Big Rock Canyon.

 

State

The OC Breeze estimates that 15,000 people attended Saturday’s Garden Grove open streets event.

San Clemente plans to provide a safer route to an elementary school by improving bike lanes and sidewalks on Avenida del Presidente.

Indio is looking for public input on plans to install sidewalks and bike lanes. That’s easy. Yes. Please.

Sad news from the San Joaquin Valley, as a man was killed riding his bike in Southeast Bakersfield.

A Visalia man is scheduled to spend the next 34 years behind bars for shooting a bike rider from his moving car.

Bay Area bike riders will finally be able to ride halfway across the Bay Bridge on weekdays. Then turn around and ride back, since it will be several years before the bikeway goes all the way across, if then.

A UC Berkeley architecture professor wants you to bike along the big, not-so-beautiful wall already standing on the Mexico border with the US.

Folsom is planning to complete the Johnny Cash Trail near the prison where he recorded the best selling live album of all time.

Chico police bust an ebike thief who broke in from the shop next door to steal a $3,000 bike from a local dealer.

 

National

A writer for City Lab says bike helmet laws do more harm than good, and the idea that they improve overall safety for cyclists isn’t backed up by the evidence.

Someone vandalized over 200 of Portland’s 1,000 bikeshare bikes.

Great read. When a reader asks why bicyclists don’t have to carry insurance, an Oregon columnist responds “don’t be that guy.”

Alaskan fat bike riders are risking their lives by riding through railroad tunnels to get to a near-wilderness area that’s closed for the winter.

Prosecutors offer an undisclosed plea deal to a road raging Arizona driver who allegedly murdered a bike rider earlier this year; he faces up to 25 years if he’s convicted.

Someone walked out with $8,000 worth of bike clothes from a trio of Dallas bike shops.

A bike-riding Florida cop struggles to find answers in the wake of a recent tragedy, saying ultimately we must learn to care about others on the road, and encourage them to care about us.

 

International

Caught on video: A Canadian thief demonstrates just how fast a poorly secured bike can be stolen.

Four of London’s most dangerous intersections are scheduled to get bike and pedestrian friendly improvements. Which is exactly how Vision Zero is supposed to work.

The Guardian asks if London’s cycling czar is tough enough to take on critics and bike-haters. On the other hand, at least they have one, unlike some cities I could name.

Sometimes they do come home. Australian police recover an American man’s bicycle two years after it was stolen from a laundromat.

Designer and cyclist Paul Smith is creating cycling jerseys for a bike race to help raise funds to rebuild a Japanese town devastated by the 2011 tsunami.

Abandoned bikeshare bikes are crowding out humans in a Shenzhen, China park.

 

Finally…

No, popsicle bike is not a thing, but it should be. No, throwing your bike at an ex-friend who owes you money is not the correct way to use it.

And which of these things are you doing wrong in your cycling class?

That’s easy. Not riding a real bicycle outside, to start.

 

Category: Advocacy & Politics, Bicycle Safety, Injuries and Fatalities, Morning Links, Violence & Crime, Vision Zero / Tags: , , , , , , ,

Morning Links: Dirty tricks from Cedillo campaign, riding 4,000 miles for love, and 1,800 through the frozen Yukon

April 3, 2017 / / 3 comments

Not surprisingly, things are getting dirty in CD1.

Now that bike shop owner Joe Bray-Ali has forced incumbent Councilmember Gil Cedillo into a runoff, it’s been anticipated that Cedillo would pull out all the stops to hold onto his seat.

Including, apparently, trolling Bray-Ali with a parody Twitter account run directly by Cedillo’s campaign. If not the man himself.

According to a post by Jon Leibowitz, the Lyin’ Joe Twitter account began tweeting early Saturday morning — April Fools Day — and continued throughout the day.

That is, until someone noticed a tweet featuring a screenshot from a Facebook Live post by Bray-Ali, which appears to have been taken from Cedillo’s own Facebook account.

Notice the small avatar photo in the right corner. Screenshot from Jon Leibowitz

A close-up view shows a photo of Gil Cedillo. Screenshot from Jon Leibowitz

That suggests the parody account was either run by Cedillo himself, or by his campaign with his direct involvement. Which would seem to violate all kinds of ethics rules, city and otherwise.

Not to mention devolving into the kind of dirty tricks that would make Nixon proud. Or maybe Donald Trump, given the resemblance between Lyin’ Joe moniker, and Trump’s use of the Lyin’ Ted nickname in reference to Ted Cruz.

Needless to say, once the ruse was exposed, the account was quickly taken down.

But it only makes you wonder what will come next, with a full month to go before the election.

Full disclosure: I was one of the first people followed by the parody account. And quickly blocked it because I just wasn’t in the mood to deal with that kind of crap.

………

This may be the best two stories you read today.

National Geographic talks with Pradyumna Kumar “PK” Mahanandia, the Indian man who rode his bicycle 4,000 miles to be with the woman he loves.

And a British reporter discusses riding 4,000 miles from London through the Middle East to show it’s “…far from the volatile hub of violence and fanaticism people believe. And that a woman could cycle through it safely.”

………

Former women’s world road champ Lizzie Armistead is the latest British woman to complain about sexism in pro cycling; she says she could kick herself for the three missed drug tests that put a cloud over her career. Thanks to George Wolfberg for the heads-up.

Men’s world road champ Peter Sagan says the key to dealing with the pressure of winning a championship is just don’t think about. And that anyone who dopes is stupid.

Spoiler alert: If you still have yesterday’s Tour of Flanders on your playlist, skip to the next section.

………

Local

LA County sheriff’s deputies discover an apparent suicide victim while searching for an injured bike rider; fortunately, the rider was not seriously injured.

Over 3,000 USC students have signed a petition calling for keeping a bike repair shop on campus; Lil Bill’s repair shop is getting the boot due to a non-compete clause with a new bike shop moving into a college-owned building.

The new WeHo sheriff’s captain wants to increase bike and foot patrols.

 

State

Environmentalists oppose the proposed state transportation bill that would raise money to repair roadways and fund active transportation projects while allowing truckers to keep polluting.

The lead engineer behind the transformation of New York’s streets is moving on to become the first head of Oakland’s recently created Department of Transportation. Which means there’s now an opening in New York if you want to get your application in.

Apparently, bike-friendly Davis isn’t so interested in ebikes.

 

National

A veteran of the 82nd Airborne Division is nearing the end of a 2,300 mile ride across the US to call attention to the Mission 22 campaign to end veteran suicide.

That’s more like it. A Wisconsin driver gets 15-years for the heroin-fueled crash that killed an Oregon cyclist.

Apparently, lowrider bicycles are a gateway drug to Hispanic culture for Phoenix kids.

A columnist for the Denver Post says cyclists are collateral damage for careless drivers.

The bike-hating president of the Montana senate has tacked an amendment onto a bill to fight invasive species that would charge out-of-state bicyclists $25 to ride on Montana roadways. Aside from driving a stake through the heart of the state’s thriving bike tourism industry, it’s probably unconstitutional.

NPR goes for a bike ride through a carfree Yellowstone.

An Iowa bill that would require drivers to change lanes to pass a bicyclist stalls after a legislator attached an amendment that would have forced riders to wear neon colors over 50% of their body. Which would prohibit riding in street clothes without a neon jacket; even a hi-viz vest would fail to qualify under that standard.

Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel is accused of caring more about flowers and bike lanes than combating violence in the city.

The mother of one of the victims in the Kalamazoo massacre says the killer’s insanity plea is just a ploy; she now wears a tattoo memorializing all of the victims.

The Village Voice takes a tongue-in-cheek look at NIMBY outrage over the bicycle lobby, as New York’s mayor overrules a local community board to overhaul a street in Queens for Vision Zero.

The head of ad agency J. Walter Thompson is one of us, commuting to her New York office by bicycle.

A South Carolina teacher was successful in her efforts to raise enough money to buy a new bicycle for every student in her school, raising $80,000 for 650 bikes.

A recently returned New Orleans man started riding his bike because of a DUI; now he’s the head of a Black-owned riding club that that draws as many as 500 people.

 

International

A writer for Bike Radar asks why people are afraid of bicycles, noting you’re more likely to be struck by lightening than killed in a crash with a cyclist.

A drunk driver who killed two Canadian cyclists, as well as the passenger in his own car, made a tearful apology in court; he was three times the legal blood alcohol limit hours after the crash. No matter how bad he feels, the friends and relatives of the victims feel a hell of a lot worse.

A new London study shows speed cameras save lives, reducing crashes by 30%. Unfortunately, they’re currently banned under California law, something that will have to change if Vision Zero is to succeed; there aren’t enough cops in the entire state to stop California drivers from speeding.

Caught on video: A Brit bike raider snatches the keys from a distracted motorcyclist who was busy vlogging instead of signaling; needless to say, the motorcycle rider was not pleased.

Police in a British town decide to spend their time fighting actual crimes instead of ticketing people on bicycles, resulting in a drop from 103 cycling tickets in 2014 to just two last year.

The 11-year old son of bike-riding former UK Prime Minister David Cameron was praised for coming to the aid of a bicyclist following a crash, along with three of his schoolmates.

Taking a page from Jules Verne’s playbook, a Scottish man is attempting to bike around the world in just 80 days, which would beat the current record by 43 days.

Pakistani women stage a number of bike races across the country to reclaim their place on the road in response to harassment and abuse.

An online petition apparently derails a parliamentary proposal to ban bicyclists and pedestrians from Indian highways.

A new 1.5 mile elevated bikeway is planned to allow bike commuters to bypass traffic signals and motor vehicles on their way into downtown Melbourne, Australia.

Two men are under arrest in China for scamming bikeshare users out of their money by attaching fake barcodes on the bikes that sent the money to the wrong bank, without unlocking the bikes.

Twenty teenage cyclists were detained by Malaysian police for racing at 3 am in the same location where eight riders were killed during a similar gathering in February.

 

Finally…

Caught on video: If you’re going to ride home after drinking, make sure you can stay upright on two wheels — or two feet, for that matter. If you’re going to intentionally sideswipe a cyclist, try not to leave your side mirror behind. Or get caught on bike cam.

And nothing like taking a little 1,818 mile ride through the frozen Yukon.

The again, he could have just taken a nice hot bath.

 

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

Morning Links: More on Wednesday Vision Zero win, and LA cops ride from H’wood to DC to honor fallen officers

March 31, 2017 / / 4 comments

More reaction to Wednesday’s meeting of the city council Transportation Committee, which voted to devote 60% of Measure M local return funds to the city’s Vision Zero plan.

According to the LACBC, the remaining funds will be split with 10% going to bike infrastructure, 10% to sidewalk repair and reconstruction, and 20% to median island and curb extension improvements.

A Los Feliz paper looks at Wednesday’s meeting that resulted in prioritizing Vision Zero work over repairing potholes with Measure M return funds.

But evidently, saving human lives is a “pet project,” according to a community activist who spoke to KABC-7.

The anger is understandable. Measure M was pushed in large part with promises that it would fix our crumbling streets. Although I’d like to think we could all agree that improving safety for everyone on the road is more important than patching potholes.

But I could be wrong on that.

The proposal goes before the Public Works and Gang Reduction committee next week.

Whether this comes under the heading of public works or gang reduction remains to be seen.

………

Hats off to a group of LA police officers, who will be riding from Hollywood to DC to honor fallen police officers in the first-ever Hollywood Memorial Ride.

………

World road champ Peter Sagan denies he intentionally hip-checked another rider during Sunday’s Ghent-Wevelgem classic.

An unsupported Aussie ultra-endurance race was cancelled midrace when British ultracyclist Mike Hall was killed in a collision near Canberra; another rider was nearly scalped when he was hit by a car earlier in the 3,400 mile race. The race, which started March 18th, had been expected to finish today.

New Zealand cyclist Keagan Girdlestone completes a near-miraculous recovery after severing his carotid artery and jugular vein when he crashed into a team vehicle during a race last year, as he prepares for his first race since the crash.

Cycling Weekly looks at LA cyclist Phil Gaimon’s series of Worst Retirement Ever videos, as he documents his efforts to claim KOMs throughout California.

………

Local

CiclaValley describes a major bike lane fail on Moorpark Street in Sherman Oaks.

From sponsored BMX racer to SoCal’s in-demand DJ.

A new mixed-use project in Larchmont will offer nearly as many bike parking spaces as spaces for cars.

Model CJ Franco is one of us, as she rides a WeHo Pedals bikeshare bike to Bristol Farms in Beverly Hills for a little shopping. But if the Daily Mail doesn’t stop drooling over her, it’s going to short out my keyboard.

 

State

Streetsblog interviews BikeSD executive director Sam Ollinger, who has risen to become one of the nation’s leading bike advocates.

A San Bernardino cop was cleared in the shooting of an unarmed man after he tried to escape on his bike.

Ventura advocacy groups are working for more and better bikeways to ensure people can ride safely.

A Salinas writer looks at the bipartisan effort to pass the Idaho Stop law.

App-based, dockless bikeshare provider Bluegogo is off to an awkward start in San Francisco, pulling their bikes off the street after several were left on a sidewalk in the Castro district.

 

National

No surprise here, as Trump’s proposed budget would gut funding for transit expansion and TIGER grants.

Outside magazine asks why mountain bikers keep running into bears on the trail. Probably because they’re the ones that live in the wildeness, and we’re trespassing on their territory.

It takes a special kind of jerk to punch a 10-year old Phoenix boy and steal his bicycle.

Sad news from Montana, where the executive editor of Adventure Cyclist magazine died unexpectedly of natural causes.

A Nebraska college student may have a self-described vendetta against cyclists, but at least he gets it, calling for an Idaho Stop law and better bike facilities to improve safety for everyone.

An Austin TX bike advocacy group says two recent bicycling fatalities could have been avoided if the roads were more accommodating for people on bicycles.

A judge rules the driver who killed five Kalamazoo cyclists and injured four more in a drug fueled crash last June will face multiple counts of second degree murder, as well as a DUI charge.

New York plans to install a protected bike lane on the iconic 5th Avenue as part of the city’s Vision Zero plan, removing 38 parking spaces to protect human lives.

The Wall Street Journal says you should trade your regular bike for a gravel bike that can do almost everything, while Road.cc just happens to have a few suggestions for you.

Georgia state police are looking for a road raging driver who deliberately sideswiped a cyclist leading a group ride; police may be aided by bike cam video recorded by the victim. Just one more reminder why it’s so important to put a camera on your bike or helmet. Or both.

Savannah GA rejects plans for a road diet and bikes lanes to calm traffic on two streets leading in and out of downtown.

Miami considers adopting a Vision Zero plan to reduce bicyclist and pedestrian fatalities; the city ranks third in the US for pedestrian deaths, after Los Angeles and New York.

 

International

A new app will identify when you’re riding your bike, so your boss can pay you for riding to work. Because he or she will totally do that, right?

Two months after Ottawa, Canada police said the victim didn’t want to press charges — which he quickly denied — the driver caught on video repeatedly nudging a cyclist blocking his path pled guilty to assault and dangerous operation of a motor vehicle.

A London writer questions whether riding a bicycle through the city makes him a better architect, while looking forward to Rapha’s Unlocking the City program in Los Angeles this July.

Manchester, England is finally beginning to embrace the cycling revolution.

Paris is leading the fight to reclaim our streets from motor vehicles.

Kiwi advocates call for scrapping the country’s mandatory helmet law.

 

Finally…

Rail to trail to roadway. No, bike riders aren’t required to wear stretchy pants, but should be on their best behavior.

And apparently, the all-powerful bike lobby is running a shadow government in NYC.

Category: Advocacy & Politics, Bicycle Safety, Morning Links, Streets and Infrastructure, Vision Zero / Tags: , , , ,

Morning Links: Vision Zero funding carries the day, cyclist-killing pedophile sentenced, and bad bike marketing

March 30, 2017 / / Comments Off on Morning Links: Vision Zero funding carries the day, cyclist-killing pedophile sentenced, and bad bike marketing

Safer streets won the day at yesterday’s meeting of the LA City Council’s Transportation Committee.

According to Curbed LA, a motion passed to allocate 60% of the city’s Measure M local return funds to Vision Zero projects, as opposed to a city plan to allocate two-thirds to fixing the city’s crumbling streets.

The motion sponsored by CD11 Councilmember Mike Bonin passed by a slim 3 – 2 margin, with CD5’s Paul Koretz and CD4’s David Ryu voting to fix potholes while keeping the city’s streets dangerous.

As Bonin put it,

“We can fill a bunch of potholes, or we can save a bunch of lives.”

However, comments from Koretz blamed jaywalking pedestrians and poor pavement quality in bike lanes, not high speeds, poor street design or dangerous drivers, for the city’s unacceptably high rate of fatalities.

Never mind that he’s the one responsible for blocking planned bike lanes on Westwood Blvd and on other streets in his mostly Westside district.

And Ryu is the one standing in the way of a desperately needed road diet on 6th Street that’s overwhelmingly supported by the neighborhood councils in the area.

But sure, let’s go with potholes over human lives.

………

Sometimes, I don’t even know what to say.

An Agoura Hills man was sentenced to the maximum term of nearly six years behind bars for committing lewd acts with a 14-year old boy, 29 years after he was convicted on felony counts of hit-and-run and conspiracy for killing a bike rider in Laguna Hills.

Gary Haw, who owned a string of tanning salons in the early 2000s, is also suspected, but wasn’t charged, with molesting other boys who worked for his company.

He was driving his father’s $80,000 Porsche when he slammed into his 17-year old victim in 1988. Despite throwing the boy’s body the length of a football field, he was somehow acquitted of vehicular manslaughter in the case, and received just two years in prison.

His father was convicted of obstruction and lying to a police officer for attempting to cover for Haw by claiming he was the one driving, even though he was at his Culver City home at the time of the crash.

Haw was also convicted of molesting a child in Santa Monica that same year.

Yet his attorney in the current case argued that Haw was a “pillar of the community” who was unlikely to re-offend.

Which seems highly unlikely, given his track record.

And which makes the five year, eight month sentence seem a few decades too short.

………

Once again, a bicycle company badly misses the mark by assuming their market is made up solely of immature straight males.

As Bicycling points out, the sexist and homophobic ad Wolf Tooth Components and another company shared on social media over the weekend was quickly pulled when wiser heads prevailed following an intense backlash.

The question is why anyone would approve it in the first place. And why does the bike industry just not get it?

………

Patrick Lynch forwards video of an airport bike cop photobombing a Today Show news report on TSA pat-downs.

………

A professional mountain biker describes his addiction to Tramadol, the painkiller used — legally — by many cyclists in the pro peloton.

Women’s races have been added to two of the four stages of the new Colorado Classic bike race, with an unrelated women’s crit the third day.

A German website profiles American cyclist Leah Thorvilson, who went from marathon runner to winning a pro cycling contract at age 38 by coming in first in a Zwift virtual cycling competition.

………

Local

CiclaValley calls tonight’s People For Bikes Draft Meetup at Pure Cycles a must.

LA-based Smart Bikes is accepting pre-order sales for their new Hexagon light, combining a rear-view camera with a taillight, brake light and turn signals, and allowing you to use your smartphone to see what’s coming behind you. But probably not the “ultimate safety device,” as the company describes it.

The LACBC’s annual River Ride will once again feature a Long Beach start, as well as the traditional starting line in Griffith Park; the Long Beach start was discontinued last year due to construction work.

 

State

There seems to be a common theme to our first three stories. I just can’t seem to put my finger on it.

  • Health rankings of California counties indicate where you live has an impact on how healthy you are and how long you’ll live, with Orange County near the top of the list, and Los Angeles, Riverside and San Bernardino Counties not so much. Safe, walkable and bikeable neighborhoods with access to fresh fruits and vegetables made a positive difference.
  • Calbike says a good state transportation bill was poisoned at the last minute by an ill-advised compromise allowing the trucking industry to keep polluting neighborhoods near ports and trucking routes.
  • A white paper from the California Air Resources Board says physical activity is good for you, just try not to breath the air.

Long delayed plans for a bikeway on San Diego’s Coronado bridge could cost as much as $210 million for a 15-foot tube suspended beneath the bridge, and could require a toll to fund it — either on the bicyclists and pedestrians using it, or the drivers on the bridge above them.

A Santa Cruz letter writer says “smug weekend cyclists” should be banned from a large number of mountain roads. Does that mean modest weekday riders are okay?

A Sacramento magazine says it’s time for the city to stop spinning its wheels and build its first protected bike lane, noting that Sacramento and Las Vegas are the only two of America’s 40 largest cities without at least imminent plans for one.

A Folsom newspaper says cyclists and motorists need to work together for safety, and drivers shouldn’t squeeze cyclists off the road.

 

National

A new study questions why girls lose interest in bicycling when they reach their teens; not surprisingly, traffic is a major factor.

A writer for Forbes calls the new $5,000, 33 mph Stromer ebike a people magnet and a thing of sheer beauty. Although here in California, any motorized bicycle that goes that fast requires a helmet and a motorcycle license.

It was a big night out for a Denton TX man, who was arrested after allegedly crashing his car into three separate vehicles before hitting a woman on a bicycle, then running away and attacking a woman getting out of her car, insisting he needed it to get something to drink.

Chicago bike riders are cheering plans for extending a bike trail and building a riverwalk bike path on both sides of the river through a gentrifying industrial corridor.

A Cleveland letter writer says don’t be a jerk by riding in the middle of the lane and slowing down traffic just to prove you have a right to the road. Never mind that riders are taught to take the lane to avoid the door zone, increase visibility and make drivers go around them to pass.

Next City examines how Massachusetts is updating its statewide bike plan to shift focus from recreational riding to riding for transportation.

 

International

The international bicycle industry is finally getting onboard with bike advocacy.

Peru’s Agricultural Minister was fired for sunbathing and riding her bicycle while half the country was being devastated by the worst flooding in two decades.

Plans are underway to install segregated bike lanes on London’s Westminster bridge, site of last week’s terrorist attack. However, work has been postponed for the foreseeable future, as one British lord inexplicably blames the current painted lanes for contributing to the carnage.

A British rider is close to finishing his goal of riding 107 kilometers (66 miles) every day for 107 days, despite working full time, and overcoming food poisoning and a major storm.

The head of Ireland’s Green Party calls for improving safety for cyclists on the country’s roads, comparing riding in Dublin to a Ben-Hur chariot race.

CNN takes a 12-day, 602-mile ride around Taiwan on a route that is rapidly becoming one of Asia’s greatest adventures.

Singapore is trying to encourage bicycling by installing bike racks and bike parking zones throughout the island.

 

Finally…

Caught on video: Going full Superman downhill on a fixie doesn’t look as hard as getting back on the spinning pedals. Evidently, bike racers get fined for riding where bike riders are supposed to.

And nothing like riding your fat bike past a long line of cars stalled in an Alaskan blizzard.

Category: Advocacy & Politics, Bikes & the Law, Legal Cases, Morning Links, Streets and Infrastructure / Tags: , , , , , , , ,

Morning Links: Bike Events: Storm city hall today, Draft Meetup and Finish the Ride poker night tomorrow

March 29, 2017 / / Comments Off on Morning Links: Bike Events: Storm city hall today, Draft Meetup and Finish the Ride poker night tomorrow

Several upcoming items and events need your attention in the next few days.

To wit — 

………

The LACBC is urging you to attend today’s meeting of the City Council Transportation Committee, starting at 12:45 pm, to demand that Measure M return funds be spent to ensure safer and more equitable streets in the City of Angels.

………

People For Bikes is joining with Pure Cycles to host another Draft Meetup in Burbank tomorrow night, complete with beer from Golden Road Brewing.

………

It’s a Golden Road doubleheader on Thursday, as Finish the Ride invites you to join them for a benefit poker tournament at Golden Road Brewing tomorrow night. It will be going late into the evening if you want to stop in on your way home from the Draft Meetup.

………

Santa Monica wants your input on plans to improve the oceanfront bike path north of the pier, including a much needed proposal to separate bicyclists and pedestrians on the often overcrowded pathway.

………

Bike SGV is looking for help with bike park weeding this Sunday.

………

The schedule has been announced for this year’s edition of the Redlands Bicycle Classic; the May stage race is one of just two California stops for the USA Cycling Pro Road Tour this year.

Former Italian cycling great Mario Cipollini disses his fellow countrymen, including Vuelta winner Fabio Aru, calling Tour de France winner Vincenzo Nibali Italy’s only talented rider.

A sidewalk-riding kid does what we’ve all been tempted to do by shadowing pro cyclist Philippe Gilbert, if only for a few moments.

A bike-hating Brit writer gloats over the scandal-plagued British Cycling, while inadvertently making the case for better infrastructure.

………

Local

More great photos and video from Sunday’s CicLAvia.

LA parking meister Donald Shoup says the best way to encourage commuters to use alternative transportation is enforcing the state law requiring employers to offer a parking cash out if they provide their employees with subsidized parking.

The Press-Telegram reports on yesterday’s all-too-brief mini-ciclovía on the course of this weekend’s Long Beach Grand Prix.

Parks and bike paths are included in the mitigation guidelines to offset the environmental damage caused by the Port of Long Beach. Which does not, of course, mean they will actually be built.

 

State

Calbike wants you to nominate someone who has “worked to advance equitable transportation policy or infrastructure changes” for their 2017 Transportation Equity Award; the deadline is this Friday.

California climate officials says state residents will have to reduce driving by 1.6 miles a day to meet the state’s climate goals, through a combination of denser housing and alternative transportation, including bicycling.

A San Diego attorney says his bike-riding client won a nearly $5 million judgment against the city because of its failure to promptly fix damaged sidewalks.

A Stanford golfer withdrew from a tournament after she was hit by a car while riding her bike on campus.

The penalty for riding salmon on an Hanford street while allegedly on meth may have been blindness in one eye. A lawsuit alleges the rider lost his eye when he was cut off, then punched by a cop; needless to say, the officer tells a different story.

 

National

It’s the end of the road for Seattle’s Pronto bikeshare, done in by the city’s hills and mandatory bike helmet law.

Denver residents are using a $75,000 grant from Kaiser Permanente to jumpstart the process to get a new bike lane installed.

Colorado bicyclists rally to support a cyclist who was attacked and strangled by a trail-raging runner.

Wichita KS officials reposition posts to keep drivers from cutting into a bike lane to make right turns; the posts replaced the toilet plungers used by DIY activists to shame the city into action

The homeless Texas man whose bike was stolen just a week after it had been given to him by Lubbock police officers was given a replacement, by a man who could relate to his struggles because he’d also been homeless.

The Chicago Tribune calls for equal enforcement the laws in every section of the city, after a recent report showed that bike riders in minority districts were far more likely to be ticketed than riders in mostly white neighborhoods.

A Cleveland website examines the state’s laws governing bicycling, including the right to take the full lane.

Don’t swing bikes, dude. The Philadelphia bike cop who was filmed swinging his bicycle at an anti-Trump protester is now being investigated by Internal Affairs.

In a truly bizarre case from Virginia, police shoot a suspected bike thief who suddenly lunged at an officer with a knife, even though the suspect was the one who called police to report the theft.

A Savannah GA writer says bike lanes are not just about cyclists, but form a vital link for people “who use wheelchairs, scooters, walkers, and other mobility aids.” Although judging from the picture, that one looks woefully substandard.

Cape Coral FL is considering a $63 million plan to add 200 miles of bike paths and sidewalks, after recently being named the most dangerous city for pedestrians in the US.

 

International

A cyclist in the UK accuses his town council of waiting until someone gets killed before fixing a dangerous junction. Which is exactly what happened in Atlanta, where a father says a road diet could have saved his daughter’s life. Sadly, that seems to be what it takes before things get fixed, just about anywhere. And sometimes, not even then.

Police are looking for a road raging British driver who followed a driver home after a dispute, and threw a brick through the car’s window.

It’s been a rough year for Irish bicyclists, and it’s only getting started.

The Guardian says bikes are good for more than moving people, suggesting that carrying freight by bicycle could free up roads and transform cities and towns. Although Dutch bicyclists are complaining that the boom in cargo bikes is crowding them out of the bike lanes.

An Indian driver claims his brakes failed when he crashed into two cyclists, a cycle van, a motorcyclist, a pair of pedestrians, a car and a bus, injuring ten people in the process, including the passengers in his car. And swears he only fled the scene because he was afraid of being lynched by angry bystanders. Which could be true, given the county’s track record.

A Canadian cyclist riding through India is being held by Maoist soldiers.

 

Finally…

Nothing like riding nearly 2,000 miles in just five days without leaving the house. If you’re going to ride your bike with heroin in your pocket, put a damn light on it — and try not to hit the curb when you try to ditch the smack.

And seriously, don’t ride your bike in the supermarket.

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

Morning Links: Bike lane advice for the mayor, dueling Idaho Stop Op-Eds, and a Cannibal-themed beer in DTLA

March 23, 2017 / / Comments Off on Morning Links: Bike lane advice for the mayor, dueling Idaho Stop Op-Eds, and a Cannibal-themed beer in DTLA

So far, Mayor Eric Garcetti has talked a good game when it comes to bicycling.

But as a recent Op-Ed by Bike the Vote LA’s Michael MacDonald made clear, he’s failed to translate that talk into paint on the street.

Let alone protected bike lanes.

In fact, implementation of the city’s hard-fought bike plan has fallen precipitously since former mayor Antonio Villaraigosa left office four years ago, from a high of 251 lane miles — a single side of a roadway — to just 17 lane miles in the last fiscal year.

Although it should be pointed out that sharrows were included in Villaraigosa’s total.

Now Streetsblog’s Joe Linton is offering advice on what Garcetti can do to make LA bike friendly, with nearly 23 miles of bike lanes and road diets that could be implemented right away, along with another 30.8 miles that could be easily converted from bike lanes to protected lanes.

That’s if Garcetti is serious, of course.

I would have included Hollywood Blvd in that list, which desperately needs safety improvements to protect the millions of tourists who visit the Walk of Fame every year, as well as providing a much needed east-west route for local bike riders.

In fact, there’s not currently a single safe route in or out of Hollywood in any direction. A situation that will only get worse when the Metro Bike bikeshare arrives within a few years.

LA cyclists have long supported Eric Garcetti, both during his time on council, and in his run for mayor four years ago.

It’s time he returned the favor.

………

While the LA Times has virtually ignored the subject, the Times-owned San Diego Union-Tribune has taken the lead on covering California’s consideration of the proposed Idaho Stop Law.

Today, they offer a pair of dueling Op-Eds on the matter.

The executive director of the San Diego Bicycle Coalition says it’s smart policy for California to adopt an Idaho Stop Law.

Meanwhile, a former Oceanside councilmember says it would be bad for kids who lack the judgment to make those quick decisions — and says it’s really about Strava users not wanting to stop, anyway.

She makes a valid point about kids. Although there’s nothing that says you can’t come to a full stop if you want, which might be a better option for kids under driving age.

But let’s be honest.

This law isn’t so much about the spandex-clad than it is the everyday riders who are faced with the prospect of choosing between dangerous traffic-clogged streets on their commutes or recreational rides, or taking side streets where they’re forced to stop every block or two.

And while riders would be allowed to treat stop signs as yields, they would still be required to slow down and observe the right of way, and yield to opposing traffic when appropriate.

In other words, pretty much what most drivers already do.

………

DTLA’s Mumford Brewing now has a barrel-aged brew named after the legendary Eddy Merckx. Just because.

………

Talk about a great looking poster. This is for Scotland’s Pedal on Parliament campaign, something we might want to seriously consider replicating here.

………

Belgian’s one-day Dwars Door Vlaanderen cobble classic made its first appearance in the UCI WorldTour on Wednesday; American rider Kiel Reijnen appeared to avoid serious injury when the peloton squeezed him off the road and into a ditch.

A 55-year old British amateur cyclist was banned for doping, but at least he had an excuse.

Former pro Phil Gaimon suggests that podium girls be replaced with podium puppies. Now there’s an idea we can all get behind. And clean up after.

………

Local

How to get your bike, or other possessions, back if you leave it on a Metro bus or train. Not that you would ever do that, of course.

The Argonaut says the future has two wheels, as it looks forward to Sunday’s Culver City to Venice CicLAvia, as well as efforts to make Mar Vista safer and more inviting to people walking and on bikes.

Pasadena will hold a meeting tonight to discuss the city’s proposed Climate Action Plan. Which should include a heavy reliance on walking and bicycling to help get people out of their cars.

 

State

An OC supervisor has a massive homeless camp along the Santa Ana River Trail removed. And judging by the riprap installed in its place, doesn’t want it to return, either.

An Arizona couple describe what its like to watch their cell phones, IDs, credit cards and cash go up in smoke when a newly purchased ebike caught fire on the sand in Newport Beach.

Carpenteria will host its first Open Streets festival on April Fools Day, closing over a mile of downtown streets to motor vehicles.

Santa Barbara is already getting started implementing their 2016 bike plan, with three new projects set to open by this summer. Unlike, say, a certain city to the south.

Still more bad news from up north. Fresno police are investigating Tuesday’s hit-and-run death of a bike rider as a homicide instead of a traffic collision, suggesting they have reason to believe the death may have been intentional.

The Mercury News looks at why people in San Jose are reluctant to bike to work. Spoiler alert: They’re afraid of cars.

An El Cerrito couple got more than they bargained for when they left a bike in their yard with a “free” sign, and retuned home to find the bike gone, a man in their backyard, and their home burglarized.

San Francisco moves to regulate app-based, Chinese-style bikeshare systems.

Oakland city commissioners are angry that bikeshare plans didn’t include bikes for people with disabilities.

A Napa Valley letter writer asks why the woman who right hooked him in a rush to get to church didn’t care enough to stop or find out if he was okay.

 

National

Now you, too, can ride dressed like the Simpsons.

Bicycling wants to help you master the art of the paceline. Which will undoubtedly come in handy for your next bike train commute.

Now that’s more like it. A Nevada man faces up to 40 years in prison following his conviction for fleeing the scene after crashing into an 11-year old girl who was riding her bike in a Reno trailer park; he was twice the legal limit when he was arrested. The same crime in California probably wouldn’t result in more than a few years, if that.

A bike-riding Denver letter writer reminds drivers that you’ll get home a lot later if you hit someone.

The University of Iowa profiles a bicycle-riding associate who’s using her fellowship to learn how bike safety research can influence public policy and improve rider safety.

Houston approves a new bike plan calling for nearly 1,800 miles of bikeways, adding to the current 500 miles of lanes and trails, half of which are separated from traffic in some way.

Grieving family members release balloons to honor a Little Rock AK man killed by a wrong way driver as he rode his bike last week. Nice gesture, but never release balloons — especially Mylar ones; stick with a ghost bike instead.

Two years after Memphis yanked bike lanes off the city’s Riverside Drive due to complaints from motorists, they’re planning to try again.

Pittsburgh bicyclists would rather share the road with a robot than with a human being behind the wheel. And who can blame them?

Ten young cyclists have been chosen to follow the infamous 950-mile Trail of Tears from Georgia to Oklahoma.

Mississippi’s 444-mile Natchez Trace Parkway will soon be getting Bikes May Use Full Lane signs, as well as signs telling drivers to change lanes to pass bike riders.

 

International

Tern isn’t just about foldies anymore.

A bike industry news site looks at ten cities around the world that are building bicycling into everyday life. None of which are Los Angeles. Or in North America, for that matter.

Nice gesture from the builder of LA’s StoopidTall Bike, who’s in Cuba with 30 pounds of bike parts to help a man’s quest to set a new record for the world’s tallest bicycle.

Don’t ride your bike in an anti-social manner in the UK.

Former Brit heavyweight champ Tyson Fury is one of us, riding a bike with his daughter in a child seat as he talks about making a comeback, after losing his titles following a failed drug test.

A British bike rider gets six years, eight months behind bars for slashing a man across the face with a box cutter when the victim asked him for a cigarette.

Chinese bikeshare is booming, and it’s headed your way. And so are efforts to scam users out of their money.

India and Bangladesh attempt to build peace through bicycles, with an 11 day joint military ride through both countries.

A San Francisco writer goes on a bicycle tour of New Zealand looking for an actual kiwi, and comes up empty. But discovers the journey was really the whole point.

Aussie riders call for new laws protecting bicyclists from having items thrown at them from passing cars, as well as prohibiting tacks and other items left on bikeways; as it is now, someone who leaves tacks on a bike path usually faces nothing more than a littering charge.

 

Finally…

Chances are, you can’t afford a two-wheeled Bugatti, either — or ride it around the block, for that matter. Who needs a bike lock when you’ve got a rattlesnake?

And if you’re going to steal a bicycle from a former Marine, don’t leave yours behind. And if you do, don’t come back for it.

 

Category: Advocacy & Politics, Morning Links, Streets and Infrastructure / Tags: , , , , , , ,

Morning Links: Bike-friendly council candidates still in running, and DSS poster makes biking look dangerous

March 21, 2017 / / One comment

It looks like three of the four remaining city council candidates could be good for bicycling.

And you can guess who the other one is.

Monica Rodriguez and Karo Torossian will be in a runoff for the CD7 council seat. Rodriguez was one of the three candidates who got the nod from Bike the Vote LA before this month’s primary election. I’m told Torossian would have received strong consideration if he had gotten his response in before the deadline.

Meanwhile, the results in CD1 are expected to be certified today, with long-time bike and community advocate Joe Bray-Ali taking on the extremely bike unfriendly Gil Cedillo. As you’ll recall, it was Cedillo who singlehandedly blocked the desperately needed road diet on North Figueroa, and attempted to have all the proposed bike lanes in CD1 removed from the Mobility Plan, earning him the moniker “Roadkill Gil” from some in the district.

The Times sums it up nicely, calling Bray-Ali’s forcing the runoff a victory for a new vision of a sustainable LA.

Although it’s not a victory yet.

Think of it as the game going into overtime. Both candidate start out on even footing, and who wins will depend on what happens in the coming weeks.

It will take the support of the entire bicycling community, and everyone who wants a better LA, to overcome the massive amounts of special interest money that will inevitably flow in from outside the district to help keep a career politician in office.

………

Streetblog’s Joe Linton takes the L.A. County Department of Social Services to task for making bicycling look dangerous.

The ad depicts a fallen spandex cyclist. The text reads “When life gets rough.” The ad falls into the all–too–common grim bicycling-equals-danger trope which shames cyclists and reinforces misperceptions about cycling safety.

To be honest, it really doesn’t bother me.

Given the unpaved surface, I read the image in the ad as a face plant by a mountain biker, which is just part of the sport.

But maybe that’s just me. What do you think?

………

Former Stallone stunt double Eric Barone beat his own record with a 141 mph downhill on a snowy French ski slope. Which is just a tad faster than most of us have done on dry land.

………

Sad news from South Africa, where an Egyptian cyclist died of a heart attack while competing in the African track cycling championships.

Cycling News offers five things they learned from last weekend’s Milan – San Remo, including that Peter Sagan is no Cannibal as he slips to the 78th second place finish of his career, compared to 92 wins.

………

Local

The LA Times says Los Angeles needs to become a more walkable, bikeable and transit-oriented city, and the city needs to channel Angelenos’ desire for a more urban city into more effective new planning guidelines.

Los Angeles Magazine calls Sunday’s CicLAvia your next chance to experience LA free from the tyranny of the automobile.

Take a great rear-facing bike cam view of this past Sunday’s Marathon Crash Ride. CiclaValley also joined in on the ride.

Pasadena Now looks at the recently approved state grant to build a two-way protected cycle track on Union Street.

 

State

Back east, they have to plow bike paths. Out here, we mow them.

After missing last year, Garden Grove will host its third almost-annual Open Streets event on April Fools Day. Let’s hope they don’t say that when we all show up.

Bay Area bicyclists ride to consider what can be done to fix the Hairball, a maze of intersecting highways where a bike path that runs underneath has turned into a de facto homeless camp.

A pair of bike-riding UC Berkeley researchers take a deep dive into the physics of why bike riders hate stop signs. Speaking of which, Calbike wants your support for AB1103, which would legalize the Idaho stop in California. Thanks to Cyclist’s Rights for the heads-up.

 

National

NACTO says Trump’s budget would be a disaster for cities and their transportation systems. No shit.

Performance Bike is using the world’s most famous computer to get inside your head, or at least your browsing history, to target their marketing at you.

Outside recommends an e-fat bike to power your way over backcountry terrain. Because don’t we all want to rip up endangered terrain by riding off trail, while annoying the crap out of everyone else on trail? Or is that just me?

The heartbreak of people who can’t ride bikes.

The Mayor of Maui tells bicyclists to ride in the door zone to avoid salmon cyclists in the bike lane, and misreads the law to suggest that’s required anyway. There is no law, anywhere in the US, that requires people to ride to the right in a bike lane. And it’s usually safer to ride in the center to left third, depending on the width of the lane, to ensure you’re outside the door zone.

Idaho police shoot and kill a rampaging armed man on a mountain bike who was threating dog owners on a popular trail, and killed one dog.

Au contraire, Findley, Ohio’s The Courier; the city is not proposing a ban on bicycling in the downtown area, just against riding on the sidewalk. Big difference, mais non?

A road raging Ohio driver faces a minimum of two and a half years in prison for a screaming punishment pass and brake check that left a bike rider injured. Meanwhile, Ohio becomes the latest state to adopt a three-foot passing law; 28 states now require drivers to give at least three feet while passing someone on a bike.

The Village Voice asks if racism will derail plans for bike lanes and other safety improvements on 111th Street in Queens; one opponent insists the lanes won’t be necessary once Trump deports all the illegals, since there won’t be anyone left to ride a bike. Maybe someone should explain to her that lots of people who ride bikes were born in this country, including the many of the ones she assumes don’t belong here.

They’re onto us, comrade. A North Carolina letter writer insists a group of new hotels under construction are a plot to make driving so impossible everyone would be forced to bike or walk.

 

International

The premier of Manitoba plans to ride 100 miles this June to honor indigenous peoples in the province.

London is about to get protected bike lanes on the Westminster Bridge, providing safer access to Parliament and the palace.

A new British report says new roadways damage the countryside, quickly get jammed due to induced demand, and discourage alternative forms of transportation like biking and walking.

Something happened between a bicyclist and a pedestrian in a British town. No, really, that’s all the story says.

A new French law requires kids under 12 to wear a bike helmet when they ride. And they want kids to nag their parents to wear one, as well.

An Aussie man got a $1,000 fine for biking under the influence, adding to his 17-page rap sheet.

 

Finally…

Evidently, the way to clear a crowded bike path is to raise your voice in song; thanks to Scott Larsen for the heads-up. Yes, bicycling can be boring, but only if you are.

And nothing like snuggling up around an ebike fire on the beach.

 

Category: Advocacy & Politics, Bicycle Safety, Morning Links / Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,
« Older Entries   Recent Entries »
Wordpress Theme by ThemeZee