Which is exactly what the LA Times gave it Friday, with a deep dive into the world of bicycle collisions using the CHP’s SWITRS data to identify the ten most dangerous streets for bicycling.
Not surprisingly, Figueroa, which has been in the news far too much lately, makes the list, coming in third, behind only Venice and Vermont, which led the way with 230 bicycling collisions over the past five years.
Others included Western and Sunset, along with the parallel east/west boulevards of Pico and Olympic.
Surprising, Van Nuys is the only street in the San Fernando Valley to make the list, followed by Downtown’s Main Street and Wilshire Blvd.
Going back to Vermont, the paper found that when drivers were found at fault, it was mostly for failing to yield, speeding and improper turns, while riding salmon was the main reason cyclists were blamed for collisions.
And they suggest that separating bikes from cars with protected bike lanes, or at the very least, painted lanes, is a good start if the city’s Vision Zero is going to succeed.
Let’s hope LADOT is listening.
Not to mention the mayor and the city council.
………
‘Tis the season.
A Redding group teams with Coke to give 60 bikes to foster kids, as well as recently adopted kids.
When a Pittsburgh PA man wanted to give away a few bikes in honor of his daughter and grandchildren, he went on Facebook asking people to nominate six deserving kids. Instead, contributions poured in to buy more bikes; he’ll now be donating at least 35 bikes to needy kids.
A North Carolina group donates three truckloads of bikes to less fortunate kids. Although the local TV station seems to think it was news from the future.
………
Don’t make her beg. You only have six more days to support the BikinginLA Holiday Fund Drive.
A UCLA public health website says the new Wilshire Blvd bus-only lanes should be called a bus, bike and a**hole lane due to a lack of enforcement against aggressive drivers who use it illegally.
A new video discusses what the future of LA streets could be, including drone footage of the recent CicLAvia in Downtown LA.
As we mentioned yesterday, Redondo Beach’s Harbor Drive separated bikeway made People for Bike’s list of the nation’s top 10 new bike lanes.
A bystander’s video suggests sheriff’s deputies may have killed a Long Beach bike rider after one of them accidently shot his own partner.
State
The Voice of San Diego looks at what stands in the way of a proposed international bike lane across the border with Mexico. Besides Donald Trump, that is.
Nebraska’s Supreme Court bizarrely rules that a railroad may have been at fault for a boy’s death after he rode his bike around the crossing guards; his mother’s lawyer argued that the first train was too loud for him to hear the second train that killed him, while blocking it from view.
Cincinnati considers a 42-mile bikeway circling the city, though a business writer questions whether supporters will actually see it built in their lifetimes.
Streetsblog remembers the man who saved New York cycling by fighting a 1980s Midtown bike ban.
Bikes really do mean business. September’s world championships in Richmond VA brought in $89 million in direct spending, with a total economic reach of $170 million.
Raleigh NC installs bike lanes and sharrows around the town; naturally, drivers are confused and say cars should come first because there’s more of them. By that argument, people should always come before cars.
A Florida man is shot in the legs when he refused to let go of his bike when four men tried to jack it. Rule number one: Never forget your life is worth more than your bike.
Police are looking for a road raging Brit cyclist who reached into a car and rode off with the driver’s keys. Something I have been tempted to do many times, wrong though it may be.
This is the fourth traffic fatality on the street in the last six months, with three pedestrians and a cyclist losing their lives on a street that was supposed to have been made safer by now.
And would have been, if Councilmember Gil Cedillo hadn’t unilaterally killed a fully funded, shovel ready road diet for reasons he has yet to fully explain, instead bizarrely claiming he was halting the safety project in the name of safety. Yet as yesterday’s tragedy clearly shows, his inaction has merely helped keep a dangerous street deadly.
Unfortunately, we live in a city where councilmembers oversee virtual fiefdoms, thanks to the reluctance of their fellow councilmembers or the mayor to challenge them for fear of retaliation against projects in their own districts.
This has to change.
If Cedillo is unwilling to admit his mistake, someone in city leadership or LADOT has to find the courage to stand up to him to protect the lives of our fellow Angelenos.
Otherwise, people will continue to die needlessly.
And our much-vaunted and fought-for Vision Zero will be nothing more than a very unfunny joke.
………
Today’s theme is bizarre court cases involving allegedly traffic-blocking bike riders.
A Louisville KY bike and pedestrian advocate rejected a plea deal on charges of blocking traffic and running a red light, insisting that bicyclists aren’t required to use bike lanes. Or stop at red lights, for that matter.
A Pennsylvania bike rider faces charges for repeatedly obstructing traffic by slowly riding his bike in the middle of the road; a prosecutor hints he may be trying to get hit after receiving a settlement from a drunk driver for a 2007 collision. Or he could just be taking the lane on a narrow street, like bike riders are instructed to do.
………
Help keep LA’s best source for bike news and advocacy coming to you every morning.
………
‘Tis the season.
For the seventh year, the Burbank Bike Angels will donate over 120 refurbished bikes to children of local low-income families.
A Rochester NY bike shop donated 20 bikes to an organization serving children and adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities, for the second year in a row.
………
Local
Democratic legislators ask Obama for funding to start planning and design work for the restoration of the LA River, which could include extensions of the LA River bike path.
The family of a Portland driver accused of fleeing the scene after killing a cyclist while driving stoned says it was just an accident and he’s really an awesome person. Except when running down bike riders while too high to drive, evidently.
A New Mexico man is arrested for his seventh DUI, just three months after being released from prison for killing a bike rider in 2005 while driving at three times the legal limit. Yet somehow, despite repeatedly proving he’s incapable of resisting the temptation to drink and drive, he’s still allowed behind the wheel.
Forget skiing. If you’re looking for a little winter adventure, try fat tire cycling through the Minnesota snow.
The Wall Street Journal says New York safety advocates say more needs to be done even though traffic deaths are declining. After all, it’s Vision Zero, not Vision Slightly Better.
A Savannah writer nails it. “A legion of scofflaw cyclists cannot inflict the amount of pain, suffering and death as one young man driving a Dodge Durango.”
International
Unbelievable. A Costa Rican cab driver denies doing anything wrong after pulling out from the curb and hitting three lead riders of a bike race after police had cleared the route; fortunately, no one was badly hurt.
A road raging bus driver deals with a confrontation with a London cyclist by running over his bike.
A candidate for London mayor offers a six-point plan to make the city a “byword for cycling around the world.”
Brisbane, Australia’s Green Party proposes a network of protected bike lanes, which would allow cyclists to ride in safety to within two blocks of any location in the downtown area.
December 15, 2015 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on Morning Links: They Drive Among Us part deux, and Marina del Rey rider stopped for biking while black
How disappointing.
Last week we looked at the angry anti-bike rants of a self-described former Disney executive, as he vented his spleen over the cyclists who ruined his three week motorized trip through the late, great Golden State.
And how what he termed “nasty, radical bike Nazis” and “selfish bicycle jackasses” were ruining it for everyone with their war on cars.
I was actually looking forward to the promised second part of Greg Crosby’s rant, the same way some people used to pay to see train wrecks.
Sadly, though, he reveals himself to be just another conspiracy nut, convinced there’s a secret plot to use bicycles to turn America into a third world country.
As proof, he offers the bios of the staff of the California Bicycle Coalition, who are well respected in Sacramento. But not, sadly, by our esteemed Mr. Crosby, who faults them all as “proud radicals” and “social justice activists.”
And what do those crazed radicals want? To triple the amount of bicycling by building bikeways — paid for, in his estimation, with your hard-earned gas taxes and registration fees.
Never mind that most bicyclists also drive and pay those same taxes and fees. Or that the general public subsidizes the roads he drives, since those fees cover only a fraction of the cost of building and maintaining the roads.
And never mind the free on-street parking that most drivers seem to feel is a God-given right.
He goes on to complain about being unable to pass cyclists with at least three feet distance, as the law now requires, as if the requirement to pass a bike rider safely was something new. Drivers were always expected to pass at a safe distance; the three foot law merely codifies what that distance is, unlike the six inches some motorists seem to find acceptable.
And he closes with a hint at conspiracy, noting that cities like Burbank have been narrowing streets by building center islands and extending sidewalks. Not to improve safety, in his apparent estimation, but just to frustrate drivers like himself by making it impossible to pass a cyclist.
Oh, the humanity!
Just imagine, all those drivers forced to endlessly idle behind slow-moving bikes, unable to ever get home to their families because of a vast leftwing conspiracy to bring America to its knees.
In all, his rumblings were a disappointment.
Just the self-deluded babble of an angry, indignorant* man so desperate to find someone to blame he creates an enemy in his own mind, rather than taking a few moments to try to understand the world from someone else’s perspective.
*Indignorant, an expression coined by my friend Will Campbell to describe someone who is both indignant and ignorant, usually willfully so.
………
A celebrity chef is justifiably outraged after he was pulled over by police — most likely sheriff’s deputies — in Marina del Rey for biking while black.
According to his video statement, he was stopped for “going too fast,” and asked if he was running from something; the officer also implied that his pale blue t-shirt might be some sort of gang attire.
Just to be clear, unless he was riding faster than the posted speed limit, or somehow going too fast for conditions, which was highly unlikely, he wasn’t going to fast.
Period.
We should be long past this sort of harassment. Let’s hope he got a badge number and files a complaint.
And that someone in the department actually cares.
………
Sometimes zoning and planning regulations can seem a little arcane, at best. But this PSA from Ottawa, Canada clearly explains in just 90 seconds the harm minimum parking requirements can do, and how getting rid of them can make room for bike lanes and transit.
The president of the American Public Works Assoc says the new $305 billion federal transportation bill lacks “targeted funding for bike and pedestrian projects that promote physical and social health, decrease emissions, and ease congestion.”
A writer in my hometown offers 10 reasons why cars are in decline. None of which Mr. Crosby would probably agree with.
A writer for the Louisville KY paper calls for a three-foot passing law in the bike-unfriendly state, which is rated 49th out of the 50 states.
The entire bicycle committee of Salem MA resigned at once to protest their concerns being ignored. Good for them; let’s hope the city takes the hint.
Nice gesture, as Buffalo NY police give a new bike to the family of a four-year old boy who survived on milk and maple syrup for two days after his mother died unexpectedly.
Under the first 10 months of New York’s Vision Zero plan, crashes are up 1%, while traffic fatalities are down 12, and injuries have decreased 2.5% — even if some drivers don’t like the new lower speed limits.
International
The Calgary paper says it takes a special kind of creep to steal a bike from a special needs kid. No argument here.
A London cyclist urges people to look out for each other on the roads, after surviving a crash with a stoned driver.
A British driver who deliberately slammed into a cyclist last June has confessed to murder most foul.
A London bike advocate discovers the loudest voices aren’t always the majority, as most local residents support a plan to turn their neighborhood into a bike-friendly Mini Holland.
An Aussie woman’s post went viral after saying she wanted to give a bike to someone whose kids really needed it, not someone “who wastes money on cigarettes;” she finally settled on a family whose daughter spent six weeks in the hospital after nearly drowning.
If you don’t give, the angry anti-bike cranks win.
My apologies for no Morning Links today.
Attending a Wednesday night meeting meant putting off my meds in order to remain at least semi-functional until I got home. Which inevitably means paying the price later.
And I am.
So instead, let me leave you with this piece from the Tolucan Times, in which a self described former Disney Exec takes a break from telling the kids to get off his lawn, and goes on a rather remarkable rant against “nasty, radical bike Nazis.”
No, really.
It’s people like this we share the roads with, in case you wondered what the impatient, angry driver who just buzzed you or laid on his horn was thinking.
Feel free to offer your comments. I’d offer my own thoughts, but the meds are finally kicking in, and I’m going to go curl up in a ball for awhile.
We’ve had the war on poverty, the war on drugs and the war on women. Politicians and their marketing consultants for purely selfish political interests have invented every single one of these “wars.” None of these so-called “wars” can ever be won because they are bogus.
The poverty and drug “wars” have had billions in federal funds poured into slogans, ad campaigns and bureaucratic committees and programs for decades.
The “war on women” is totally made up, invented by the Democrats as a way of rallying their base by vilifying Republicans as the party who hate women and want to keep them down.
But we have a new political “war” quietly going on across our country and this one is for real. I call it the “war on cars.” This war is being waged by a coalition of liberal opportunistic politicians and radical environmentalists. To borrow the Obama phrase, they want to “fundamentally transform the United States” from a car-centric nation to a country dependent on public transportation, bicycles and walking.
The difference between those other bogus political wars and this one is that this is one they are winning.
After having returned from a three-week road trip all over California I can honestly say that our highways and streets are being taken over by bicyclists (not sweet little families happily jingling their bicycle bells as they peddle their Schwinns around the Leave It to Beaver neighborhood, I’m talking nasty, radical bike Nazis). These bicyclists with major attitudes and an elite sense of entitlement purposely ride two and three abreast and do anything they can to frustrate motorists, like riding in the middle of a lane on a mountain road where there’s no place to go around them.
Everywhere we drove we encountered these selfish bicycle jackasses in their spandex outfits and European-style alien helmets. They look like giant skinny mantis insects on wheels. We drove on all kinds of roads and it seemed no matter where we went, we would run into them (not literally, but sometimes it came close). They were on country roads, narrow high mountain roads, city streets, and get this—ON STATE HIGHWAYS. That’s right; California Highway 101 is now open to bicyclists.
I’m not taking about some quiet parts of sleepy little coast Highway 1 along the beach, (although the bike people are there too). No, I’m referring to a major four-lane each way, 80 mile an hour, truck route freeway. Highway 101 is a major, congested freeway and now the idiots that run the state of California are allowing bicycles on it.
They are not simply “letting” this happen, they ENCOURAGE it.
The official road signs are posted all along our highways and city streets now: “SHARE THE ROAD.” Some have images of bicycles and pedestrians on them. Other signs demand that autos “SHARE THE LANE” because now bike riders have as much right to use ALL LANES in the streets as do the cars and trucks.
The California Bicycle Coalition website says: “Bicyclists can ride wherever they want if they’re traveling at the speed of traffic. If traveling slower than the speed of traffic, they can still position themselves wherever in the lane is necessary for safety. The law says that people who ride bikes must ride as close to the right side of the road as safely practicable except under the following conditions: when passing, preparing for a left turn, avoiding hazards, if the lane is too narrow to share, or if approaching a place where a right turn is authorized. CVC 21202.”
You can see there is lots of wiggle room for the bike riders. While it is true that the California law states “bicycles may not be ridden on freeways and expressways,” they’ve added a loophole. The law goes on to state, “where doing so is prohibited by the California Department of Transportation and local authorities.” So when the state has posted signs that say, “SHARE THE ROAD” on these busy highways, it sends the message that it’s okay for bikes to use them.
More on this next week.
It gets better.
Greg Crosby is a writer and cartoonist and former executive at the Walt Disney Company.
Sad news from Perris, as a man was killed while trying to cross a busy street.
According to the Press-Enterprise, 60-year old James Pica was riding his bike on Orange Avenue when he attempted to cross Perris Blvd at 6:13 pm, when he was hit by a northbound car. He was pronounced dead sometime later at a local hospital.
The 18-year old driver remained at the scene, and was not suspected of being under the influence.
No other information is available at this time.
A satellite view shows a wide, multilane intersection with traffic signals in every direction; no word on who may have had the right-of-way.
This is 72nd bicycling fatality in Southern California this year, and the 10th in Riverside County. It’s also the third riding death in Perris in the last three years.
My deepest sympathy and prayers for James Pica and all his family.
According to the Union-Tribune, the victim, who has not been publicly identified, was riding east on Friars Road near Rio Bonito Way when he crossed the road diagonally and was hit by a BMW traveling in the same direction.
He died before he could be taken to a hospital. The driver, who remained at the scene, suffered a minor injury in the collision.
A street view shows four lanes of traffic on what appears to be a high speed roadway, narrowing to three near the Rio Bonito Way exit. Meanwhile, a satellite view shows a curving road with an entry lane not far west of Rio Bonito.
There’s nothing on the opposite side of the roadway, which raises the question of why the victim would have been attempting to cross; a more likely explanation is that he may have been moving from the right parking lane into the through lane as the roadway narrowed.
It’s also possible that he may not have been able to see the car coming up behind him, as it could have been hidden by the bend in the road, especially if it was traveling at a high rate of speed. It also would have been out of view if it had entered Friars Road via the ramp at Qualcomm Way, so poor road design may have been a contributing factor.
This is the 71st bicycling fatality in Southern California this year, and the 12th in San Diego County; it’s also the seventh in the city of San Diego. That compares with nine in the county this time last year, and just one in the city.
Update: KUSA-TV reports that it’s unclear if the driver may have been under the influence.
Update 2: Vision Zero San Diego forwards raw video footage from the scene, which shows a green bike lane that was not shown in the satellite view. It also shows extensive damage to both the car and the bike, suggesting the collision occurred at a high rate of speed.
There is a visible debris field in the right lane shortly after the onramp from Qualcomm Way merges into Friars Road; the victim and his bike came to rest shortly after the exit lane to Rio Bonito Way.
Note: This video shows graphic damage from the collision, and may be difficult to watch.
Update 3: Turns out out the real story is a lot different from what was originally reported.
According to a press release from the San Diego Medical Examiner’s Office, the victim was a 65-year old Matthew Driggers, a homeless man who was walking his bike across the street when he was struck.
My deepest sympathy and prayers for Matthew Driggers and his loved ones.
Today is the busiest travel day of the year, and not just in the skies. Starting this afternoon, the streets will be filled with crazed drivers trying to fight their way out of town, or rushing to get the last of their pre-holiday errands out of the way.
So be careful out there.
That doesn’t mean stay home, or bundle yourself in your car and leave your bike behind.
It does mean use extra caution and ride defensively, positioning yourself to be seen yet still assuming that no one will, and preparing yourself to react when some driver does exactly the wrong thing at exactly the wrong time.
LA County has approved a redevelopment of Marina del Rey’s Pier 44 along Admiralty Way, including improvements to the Marina bike path; 18% of the project’s parking spaces will be reserved for bicycles.
A section of Orange County’s Quail Hill Trail has been renamed in honor of Irvine bike advocate Juanita Moe.
An OC bike activist says it’s time to get rolling on safe streets in the aftermath of the county’s recent Active Transportation Forum at UC Irvine.
As long as Caltrans has to replace a couple of Carpinteria overpasses, they plan to widen them to include bike lanes and sidewalks in both directions.
A writer for Wired says San Francisco’s new raised bike lanes won’t keep bicyclists safe, and says what we really need is something like the largely ridiculed British plan to build elevated limited access bikeways over train lines. Never mind that it would force riders into industrial areas, and prevent them from having access to the local market, or anything else anyone would actually want to ride to. But other than that, it’s brilliant, right?
A new bill in Congress would allow bikeshare commuters to use a pre-tax transit benefit to pay for their memberships and user fees.
A Minnesota county plans to install rumble strips on county roads that have significant bike and pedestrian traffic, even though they’re opposed by cyclists and have been removed elsewhere in the state.
Cleveland will be getting a second bikeshare program, provided by the company behind Santa Monica’s Breeze bikeshare, just in time for next year’s Republican National Convention.
A New York councilmember calls for an Idaho stop law in the city, saying it doesn’t make sense to treat vehicles and bikes the same way; needless to say, the Post calls it “extreme,” saying it would allow riders to blow through red lights. They’re right, if coming to a full stop at red lights and proceeding only when it’s safe can be called blowing through.
Former British cycling champ Chris Boardman says the UK’s cycling revolution won’t take off without proper funding. Which goes for this country, as well.
A road raging Brit driver gets a year behind bars for pushing a 74-year old man off his bike, resulting in a broken leg, because he couldn’t tell a wave to go around from an obscene gesture.
A British writer questions why the focus is on what women bike riders wear instead of improving safety and encouraging more women to ride.
Busy night. A teenage Belfast bike rider gets community service after shouting a cheer for the IRA when police try to stop him for reckless riding, then sparks a 50-person fight.
Pro cyclist Guillaume Bonnafond wears a facemask to ride one of cycling’s most famous climbs to call attention to the problems of Chronic Pulmonary Lung Disorder (COPD).
No irony here. A prominent Kiwi architect who designs bikeways somehow avoids prison for dragging a cyclist under his Porsche; he claimed he thought he hit a traffic cone and kept going in an attempt to dislodge it. Because the best way to get anything out from under an expensive sports car is to drag it beneath the undercarriage, rather than stop to see what the hell you hit, right?
Once again, repeat after me: If you’re carrying meth on your bike, put a damn light on it — and don’t tell the cops to meet you at a someone’s apartment when they try to stop you.
A satellite view shows a residential neighborhood with four lane divided roadway in each direction, with a bike lane on Roosevelt and three parks within a four block radius.
Anyone with information is urged to contact IPD Traffic Sergeant Matt August at 949/724-7023.
This is the 70th bicycling fatality in Southern California this year, and the 17th in Orange County this year.
Update: The Orange County Coroner has identified the victim as Keven Jiang, who lived in Irvine.
My deepest sympathy and prayers for the Keven Jiang and all his loved ones.
No word on what might have caused him to fall, or if there were independent witnesses who saw it happen.
Unlike the replacement Gerald Desmond Bridge, which will have both bike and pedestrian paths when it opens, the Vincent Thomas Bridge has neither, forcing bicyclists to ride in heavy industrial traffic coming to and from the ports in Long Beach and San Pedro. And for some riders, especially those who work at the ports, there is no other viable route.
This is the 69th bicycling fatality in Southern California, and the 28th in Los Angeles County.
My deepest sympathy and prayers Sergio Tapia and his family.
That’s the sentence given to Teresa Owens in San Diego on Thursday, for the meth-fueled wrong way collision that injured a dozen cyclists on Fiesta Island last year, leaving one paralyzed from the chest down.
Owens, 50, was at Fiesta Island to try to catch her boyfriend cheating on her. She admitted doing “a small line of methamphetamine” 12 hours beforehand. She was also driving on a suspended license, and she was fresh off a previous DUI arrest.
She drove the wrong way on the one-way road around the island and slammed into a group of cyclists on a training ride coming around a corner. Several flew onto her car or smashed into her windshield.
While making a legal left turn on the yellow, bike rider Wes High was nearly hit by a Santa Monica driver who swerved into the bike lane to get around a stopped car and blow through the light long after it had turned red.
………
A new study is quick to blame the victims after 40% of teenagers report being hit or nearly hit by cars while walking. Never mind that careless or distracted drivers may have had something to do with it. And no, walking after dark is not an unsafe habit; that’s what human beings have done since we first stood upright.
………
Nice project from CicLAvia, as they want to give back to the community — as if they don’t already give enough — by donating 30 new bikes, helmets and lights to LA County kids who can’t afford them. They want your help to nominate a kid who deserves one; nominations close on December 2nd.
………
We’ve got a long list of bike events coming up in the next few weeks.
Today: Walk Bike Burbank will offer free bike valet at the annual Holiday in the Park festival sponsored by the Magnolia Park Merchants Association.
Saturday: The LACBC will participate in Path Hack at the Spoke Café on the Elysian Valley Pedestrian and Bike Path, a series of free art workshops designed to create a slow zone on the pathway.
Saturday: Join CICLE and Equitas Academy for a family friendly Bikes and Batidos Ride around the MacArthur Park neighborhood, sponsored by Metro’s Safe Routes to Schools Pilot Program.
Saturday & Sunday: Professional cyclocross comes to El Dorado Park in Long Beach this Saturday and Sunday with the UCI CXLA Weekend.
Sunday: Celebrate the UCI CXLA cyclocross race by joining the Palms to Pines Ride along the San Gabriel River Trail, or take a shorter ride along the beach; proceeds benefit the LACBC and Bike SGV.
Some of the biggest names in international, national, and local cyclocross racing are coming to Long Beach’s El Dorado Park on November 21st and 22nd. As part of this weekend of racing, SoCalCross is offering a Palms to Pines community ride (Ride with GPS route is can be found here.) The ride, along the San Gabriel River Trail, will take riders from the palm trees and sand in Seal Beach all the way north to the pine trees at Azusa River Wilderness Park at the start of the San Gabriel Mountains, before returning to El Dorado Park in plenty of time to watch an afternoon of exciting racing action, enjoy food and beverages at the races, and visit the event’s sponsor Expo. The ride is 77 miles long, but you can ride as much or as little as you like. A shorter Ocean Breeze ride goes to the beach and back. Both are 100 percent on protected bike paths with no car traffic (only 3 street crossings). Registration is $45 ($55 day-of), less for the short ride, and includes an event t-shirt, lunch, pit stops, and a donation to LACBC and other local bicycle advocacy groups.
For more information and to register, go to SoCalCross.com
December 3rd: The LACBC hosts their annual open house, with drinks from Angel City Brewery; admission is free for LACBC members, so consider joining at the door.
December 3rd: Stan’s Bike Shop invites you to dress up in a holiday theme and join them as they ride in the Monrovia Christmas Parade.
December 3rd – 15th: Metro will be holding a second round of workshops to discuss their Active Transportation Strategic Plan, starting with North Hollywood and ending in Santa Clarita.
December 4th: The highly praised documentary Bikes vs Cars opens at the Laemmle NoHo 7.
December 5th: Ride your bike down to Long Beach for the Belmont Shore Christmas Parade, featuring hundreds of festively dressed marching Corgis.
December 12th: Calbike is hosting a special Bikeways to Everywhere donor party in Los Angeles.
December 27th: Finish the Ride comes to the San Fernando Valley for the first time to combat hit-and-run and help create safer streets for everyone.
………
Local
A USC student marketing group conducts guerilla marketing campaigns to promote bike safety and security, along with alcohol awareness and combating sexual assault.
The Eastsider reports a one-mile stretch of the LA River bike path along Griffith Park has temporarily reopened after being closed for three days in advance of a projected year-long closure; Zoo Drive and Western Heritage Way are reportedly being “enhanced” in anticipation of the detour.
A Saratoga driver is being sought by police for intentionally swerving into a bike lane in an attempt to hit a bicyclist. Somehow, that doesn’t merit more than a couple lines in the police blotter, though.
Menlo Park plans to add buffers to an existing bike lane, along with pedestrian-activated crossing lights, to improve safety along a preferred school route.
Napa police arrest a man claiming to be a wolf who speaks 13 languages for stealing a bike at knifepoint. No word on whether one of the languages is Lupine.
There’s a special place in hell for someone who would steal a custom–made bike from a Texas girl with cerebral palsy; fortunately, a kindhearted stranger has offered to replace it.
The Guardian looks at how Oklahoma City has overturned car culture and what can happen when cities kick the car habit.
A South Dakota business owner and bike advocate says forcing everyone into cars isn’t the solution to bike safety.
A New York radio station explores six things they’ve learned about biking in the city by studying over 3,000 photos of blocked bike lanes.
Forget all those cars, evidently the greatest danger New york bicyclists face comes from other riders. Seriously, that’s what she said; you can stop laughing now.
Not only is Pennsylvania’s Genesis Bicycles planning to close for Black Friday, the shop’s employees will donate that day’s salaries to a local charity.
Evidently, it’s legal to kill a cyclist in your sleep in Maryland, as a dozing Bethesda driver got off with just $690 in fines for negligent driving.
Caught on video: London’s mayor Boris is greeted with angry words and gestures as he opens the city’s first segregated cycle superhighway. The best part is his friendly wave in response to a one-fingered salute from a bike rider. Thanks to Sam Kurutz for the tip.
A London exhibition will display nine of the Cannibal’s racing jerseys; the jerseys, worn by five-time Tour de France winner and multiple world champion Eddy Merckx, are worth an estimated $304,000.
A coldhearted Brit writer says he only feels sympathy for the “poor car driver who will have the death of the blithering idiot on their conscience” if a ninja cyclist is killed.
Caught on video: A British bike rider stands his ground while demanding that a driver who violated his right-of-way back up instead of going around him.
A new UK company has developed a circular bike parking garage that stores bikes vertically, above or below ground. Can we have a few of those here? Or maybe a few dozen?
Emirates and Dubai royalty join in the mourning the death of a champion cyclist and triathlete just a week before his wedding.
Islamic State, the group behind last week’s Paris terrorist attacks, has claimed responsibility for shooting a bike-riding Italian priest in Bangladesh.
An Aussie driver with a provisional license apologizes on social media after the cyclist she nearly killed leaves a very polite note saying she looks too nice for prison.
And caught on video: Chinese cyclists crash head-on at the end of a Gran Fondo when the lead group somehow takes a wrong turn and sprints to the finish from the wrong direction.
