Let’s just call it an early start to the three day weekend.
A number of problems have kept me from being able to write tonight. So rather than keep fighting it, I’m going to throw in the towel and try to get a little rest for a change.
Get out and ride your bike, and enjoy the holiday. Just ride safely.
And I’ll see you back here bright and early Tuesday morning.
My apologies.
Every night is a battle to do my work while managing my diabetes, and fighting off the combined effect of the multiple medications required to control both it and my neuropathy.
And which most nights requires copious quantities of coffee just to function sufficiently to update this site.
And even that doesn’t always help.
Last night I lost that battle, passing out in mid-sentence with my laptop still on my lap.
So please forgive me once again.
I’m working with my doctors to adjust my medications to keep this from happening. Or at least, happening so often.
As usual, I’ll be back tomorrow to catch up on anything we’ve missed.
Now get out and ride your bike.
And I’ll see you at City Hall on the 18th.
My apologies.
My diabetes picked tonight to kick my ass, knocking me out most of the night.
I’ll try to catch up on everything we’ve missed tomorrow.
Tomorrow night we’ll find out how great the Venice Blvd Great Streets project really is.
And how far the traffic safety deniers are willing to go to fight it.
LADOT is holding an open house Wednesday night to discuss the project, which is intended to improve safety and create a small town downtown atmosphere in Mar Vista.
If you live, work or ride in the area, you owe it to yourself to attend, and get the real facts on how the project on Venice Blvd is working.
Because if the past is any indication, the people fighting to keep Venice Blvd an auto-centric nightmare will be quick with their own set of “facts” to deny it’s working. And demand the restoration of the traffic lanes that were removed to improve safety and livability on one of the Westside’s key corridors.
Photo of Venice Blvd protected bike lane by Joni Yung.
………
Evidently, visibility works.
A new study shows that daytime running lights cut your risk of a collision by nearly half, while wearing hi-viz lowers it by more than a third.
Mark Goodley took a deep dive into the question of daytime lights in a series of popular guest posts over the past several years.
………
Neel Sodha reports that buffered bike lanes are now going in on Figueroa next to LA Live as part of the My Figueroa project.
A new bike shop has opened in the North Hollywood Arts District.
The next Metro BEST Ride will visit the Pasadena Arts Center on March 24th.
A state appellate court rules that the new law allowing you to cross the street while the walk signal is counting down applies retroactively, which means you might be able to get a refund if you got a ticket for crossing after the countdown began. Thanks to Henry Fung for the heads-up.
San Francisco is re-envisioning iconic Market Street as a complete street.
Interbike will team with the Northstar California Resort in Truckee for a massive bike festival preceding the annual bike trade show this September.
Apple Maps now shows bike share locations for 179 cities in 36 countries.
Dockless shared e-scooters looks to be the next mobility trend spreading across the US, including scooters from LimeBike and Santa Monica’s Bird scooters.
A new app allows you to find travel options across most cities, including participating bikeshare systems, ride-sharing and transit.
Colorado Public Radio looks at the debate over allowing ebikes on trails.
An Arkansas paper discovers gravel bikes.
After struggling through his first century ride, a Connecticut man decides he’s going to ride his age until he’s 100.
Business Insider looks at the movement to reduce the reliance on cars — or even ban them entirely — in cities around the world. Meanwhile, an Aussie Op-Ed calls for banning car ads, like cigarette ads.
Scandinavian countries are successfully building a bicycling future, despite long distances, cold winters and a lack of infrastructure. And yet, they tell us no one will ever commute by bike in sunny Los Angeles.
A German man is 20,000 miles into an around the world bike tour, after surviving skin cancer and a brain tumor, and realizing he could ride a bike easier than he could walk.
A third person has died during this year’s snake-bit Cape Town Cycle Tour in South Africa, with the death of a ride marshal; two of the deaths, including that one, are being investigated as culpable homicide, similar to a manslaughter charge in the US.
Kiwi bicyclists are planning a protest ride to demand the repeal of the country’s mandatory bike helmet law and allow adult riders to choose whether or not to wear one; clearly, not everyone agrees. A New Zealand mother is credited with the law, after her 12-year old son was paralyzed after being hit by a car.
Adelaide, Australia’s free public bikeshare system could come to an end, the victim of spreading dockless bikeshare systems, despite its remarkably low $60,000 annual cost.
Protected bike lanes have come to the Philippines. If you consider plastic posts protection.
Is it the future of public transportation, or just street litter? And no, those aren’t bicycles those squirrels are riding.
A man has been killed in a collision with a truck while riding his bicycle in Pomona this morning.
Unfortunately, that’s about all we know right now.
According to KCBS-2, the victim, described only as a man in his 40s, was struck and killed by the driver of a semi-truck in the 2800 block of Pomona Boulevard, a block east of the 57 Freeway, at 4:22 am.
The driver reportedly remained at the scene of the crash and was cooperating with investigators.
No other information is available at this time.
A street view shows a wide two lane street with a center turn lane in an industrial area, and a wide parking lane that would probably have been empty at that hour.
Meanwhile, a brief video from KCBS-2 says the victim was thrown a significant distance from the crash site, suggesting that the driver may have been traveling at a relatively high rate of speed.
This is the eighth bicycling fatality in Southern California this year, and the third Los Angeles County.
Update: The victim has been identified as 49-year old Robert Evans; no hometown was given.
My deepest sympathy and prayers for Robert Evans and all his loved ones.
Thanks to Henry Fung for the heads-up.
Update: After spending Friday working with Apple Support, I drew the line when they told me to wipe my hard drive.
As a result, my laptop is now in the shop. Hopefully I’ll know more later today and be back soon.
………
Blame Apple tech support.
I contacted them Wednesday morning to correct a relatively minor problem that kept me from accessing my email, which they promptly fixed.
But in the process, they somehow introduced a handful of other problems that have snowballed to where I can barely use my laptop at all tonight.
The work I did Thursday has been lost, and I’m unable to access my backups to replace it. Let alone most of my other files.
If I sound pissed off, it’s only because I am.
Hopefully we can figure out what the hell is going on, and get it fixed in time to be back next week.
Otherwise, I’d cover your ears, unless you want to hear me teach them some new words.
Unfortunately, after writing about yesterday’s bicycling fatalities in Highland and San Diego, there’s not enough time to write today’s Morning Links. So come back tomorrow, and we’ll catch up on anything you missed.
My apologies once again.
After all the health issues, and computer problems, and my wife’s health issues, now I have jury duty.
I have not yet concluded that there’s a great cosmic conspiracy to keep me from posting, but I’m getting close.
Hopefully we’ll be back tomorrow.
Maybe the 13th day of the BikinginLA Holiday Fund Drive really is bad luck.
It’s been a struggle to keep up with this site while my wife was in the hospital for the last month, then caring for her once she came home this past weekend.
Tonight it all caught up with me, passing out from sheer exhaustion almost as soon as I opened my laptop. I woke up just a few minutes ago, well after midnight, and too late to do anything but apologize once again.
I am truly sorry for today’s failure. I feel a genuine obligation to keep you informed about what’s going on in the world of bicycling, and regret that I haven’t been able to keep up with that lately, regardless of what’s going on in my life.
I’m going to get some more sleep, and be back with a fresh post tomorrow to catch up on what we’ve missed.
